Breaking Free

I must admit that when I first saw the title of this book my kneejerk reaction was “GTFO of my face with that nonsense” because I fully expected it to be some kind of reactionary manifesto, I'm glad I did a double take because that's really not what it is. It's really an invitation to rethink not just the language of your feminism but also its very goals and battles to depart from the sameness-based notion of equality (this is absolutely an oversimplification of the ideas that are put forward in the book).

Bianco draws from the work of many illustrious feminist thinkers and makes a really rather brilliant (in my opinion) case for shifting our focus away from equality under a system which by its very nature absolutely requires a hierarchical situation and can therefore only yield temporary wins both socially and legally (see the cooption of equality/freedom language by the far right).

While this is a book which would speak more to people who are already somewhat familiar with thinking about not just feminism but also about its language it's not entirely unapproachable for someone who is new to reading theory. Indeed, Bianco writes in a most charming and often humoristic manner which makes for a very engaging read.

I received a review copy of this book and this is my honest opinion.