Book Review : Bygone Badass Broads

★★★★★

I want to thank Abrams & Chronicle Books for sending me this review copy, this hadn’t influenced in any way my review or rating.

I really loved this book, I especially adored how inclusive it was. If you’re worried that this book might have white feminism plastered all over it, I’m here to ease your worries, it’s very intersectional.

The illustrations were breath-taking and the stories were funny, very girl-power-y and at the end, you really wanted to discover more about those women who had been forgotten.

I think Mackenzi Lee did a great job with the research for this book, her stories for each woman were detailed enough to give you a clear image of her life, even when there weren’t enough information, Lee gave us her own hypothesises and it was really well done.

 

 

This book also made me interested in making my own research about so many interesting historical figures, that I had no idea about prior to reading it.

It had a lot of sexism included since these women that were discussed had been smashing the patriarchy left and right. So, be careful at that, you’re going to be frustrated a lot at all these ladies having their authorities undermined again and again because they were born with a vagina.

There were also some bookish ladies that were mentioned, which made me incredibly happy because who doesn’t love to read about fellow bookworms that changed the world???

What I loved the most about this book was how it really made you beam at all those women who accomplished so many things and then also be so angry at our society for forgetting them, for letting men claim their accomplishments instead or minimize their importance in history.

It also made you feel like you could one day become a badass broad yourself. Because us, girls, we have so much potential, we’re so damn powerful and this book really inspired this feeling in me.

I think you all need to read this book because it’s absolutely lovely with all these stories of women who lead their countries to war, who created art, who were brave and inventive and dared to change the world.

I’ve read similar books before and I would say that if you want a fast read about feminism, with illustrations and strong women who kick ass, you should choose this one because it’s witty, the stories are not too short to make you feel like you’re not getting all the information needed, nor too long if you’re an impatient person who doesn’t read a lot of nonfiction.

Some Of My Favourite Badass Broads

• Hatshepsut, who was Egypt’s First Femal Pharaoh – wanna thank Abrams for sending me a pin that represents her because she was one of my favourites. She was so powerful and it was so heartbreaking that her stepson took all credit for everything she did.
• Queen Arawelo, her story is full of changing everything about the patriarchy. Under her dominion, women took charge of Somalia and men stayed home, cleaned and took care of the children. Hail Queen smashing the ‘tradition roles’ (yikes). 
• Khutulun – this girl promised to marry the person who won a wrestling match against her (spoiler : no one won because she was super BADASS, I want to be her).
• Sayyida Al-Hurra – PIRATE QUEEN, THAT’S ALL I HAVE TO SAY.
• Julie D’Aubigny – La Maupin – my bisexual queen who had too many hobbies to mention, but she is absolutely amazing (she was a swordswoman, a opera singer)
• and more, really I just selected some from the first 50 pages. this whole book is full of amazing women. just go and read it.

Have you ever read a non-fiction book on feminism? Maybe you have read this one? If you did, what did you think about it?