Shrill

About this book

Coming of age in a culture that demands women be as small, quiet, and compliant as possible--like a porcelain dove that will also have sex with you--writer and humorist Lindy West quickly discovered that she was anything but.

From a painfully shy childhood in which she tried, unsuccessfully, to hide her big body and even bigger opinions; to her public war with stand-up comedians over rape jokes; to her struggle to convince herself, and then the world, that fat people have value; to her accidental activism and never-ending battle royale with Internet trolls, Lindy narrates her life with a blend of humor and pathos that manages to make a trip to the abortion clinic funny and wring tears out of a story about diarrhea. With inimitable good humor, vulnerability, and boundless charm, Lindy boldly shares how to survive in a world where not all stories are created equal and not all bodies are treated with equal respect, and how to weather hatred, loneliness, harassment, and loss--and walk away laughing.

Shrill provocatively dissects what it means to become self-aware the hard way, to go from wanting to be silent and invisible to earning a living defending the silenced in all caps.

Subjects

  • biography
  • biography & autobiography
  • conduct of life
  • conduct of life -- humor
  • editors, journalists, publishers
  • feminism
  • feminists
  • feminists -- united states -- biography
  • humor
  • humor, form, essays
  • journalists, biography
  • new york times bestseller
  • nyt:culture=2016-06-12
  • united states
  • west, lindy
  • women
  • women -- humor
  • women journalists
  • women journalists -- united states -- biography
  • women, united states, biography