Fight Like A Girl

“What I liked about Ford’s writing is that she is ready to question herself as well as others. She clearly acknowledges her white-passing and straight-passing privilege, and that she is striving to learn more and better understand how to elevate those even more marginalised than herself. Too many white feminists have excluded women of colour and transwomen in their conversations and compound the issue by refusing to be questioned about their exclusionary role in the movement.... Fight Like A Girl is not a diatribe but a declaration. Ford isn’t simply outlining the wrongs in the world and the men that compound it; she is declaring that these wrongs can and will be righted. The marginalised have been told to keep quiet, to let things slide, to let the people in power fix the problems. Ford is having none of it. She believes that to change the world the marginalised need to speak louder, push harder, be selfish, do what they tell you not to do because that is how you win like a girl.” ―Women Who Write Comics “An intimate, though universal, call to arms... Ford’s book is a galvanizing tour de force, begging women to never give up on the most radical act of all: loving themselves wholly and completely in a world that doesn’t love them back.” ―Booklist “With just the right balance of sarcasm and straightforward, informational content, writer and broadcaster Ford’s first book is one people need to read in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The author defines systemic misogyny and how we internalize it, then breaks down topics such as abortion, eating disorders, mental illness, rape culture and the enduring sterotyping of feminism as a movement based on manhating, which delegitimizes the real anger we can and should feel toward those who violate women’s and girls’ rights. VERDICT: Ford’s quick, provocative read will appeal to anyone who desires a better understanding of the complex, intersectional issues so often lumped into phrases such as rape culture. Read alongside Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women and Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards’s Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism and the Future.” STARRED Library Journal Review "[FIGHT LIKE A GIRL] is wonderful book that I advise every woman, and especially young women, to read." ― Kate Beckinsdale "An inspiring, unapologetic, feminist manifesto that highlights with great clarity and dispassion the global socio-economic disparities that continue to exist between men and women and suggests how we can set about changing the patriarchal status quo in order to build a fairer, more egalitarian society in which women can also flourish. It’s time to change the way we all think about gender. And by doing so, create a brighter future for all humans." (Shirley Manson from Garbage )"The book I’ve been waiting for: an impassioned call to arms for girls of all ages." (Anne Summers) "With wit, insight and glorious, righteous rage, Clementine Ford lays out all the ways in which girls and women are hurt and held back, and unapologetically demands that the world do better. A passionate and urgently needed call to arms, Fight Like A Girl insists on our right to be angry, to be heard and to fight. It'll change lives." (Emily Maguire, author of An Isolated) CLEMENTINE FORD is a writer, broadcaster and troll agitator based in Melbourne, Australia. Regularly described as a 'flamethrower', she is part of the new wave of feminists unapologetically igniting the conversation around gender equality in the southern hemisphere. Clementine is a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, and has written about feminism and equality for The Guardian, Cosmopolitan, The Telegraph, The Sunday Mail, The Big Issue and ABC's The Drum. Her TEDx talk on rape culture ('Your Vagina is Not a Car') has received almost 1,000,000 views. Fight Like A Girl is her first book. Read more