3 Reasons to Read Boring Girls by Sara Taylor

METAL. MAYHEM. MURDER.
A visceral story of friendship, music, and bloody revenge 

Rachel feels like she doesn’t fit in - until she finds heavy metal and meets Fern, a kindred spirit. The two form their own band, but the metal scene turns out to be no different than the misogynist world they want to change. Violent encounters escalate, and the friends decide there’s only one way forward . . .

A bloodstained journey into the dark heart of the music industry, Boring Girls traces Rachel’s deadly coming of age, Fern at her side. As the madness deepens, their band’s success heightens, and their taste for revenge grows ravenous. (From ECW Press website) 

For anyone who knows me, you might be thinking, after reading that description of Boring Girls, "wait, she picked up that book and she liked it?" (You might also be thinking, wait, she picked up this book and wasn't scared by it? The answer to which is yes, of course I was.) But yes, I did like it, and here are some reasons why I think you should read it too!

1. THE PACKAGING To start with, the tagline, the cover, and the summary are great, and are all things that made me want to pick up the book in the first place. It just sounded really intense and interesting, never mind that I don't think I could ever bring myself to listen to heavy metal, and I'm not a huge fan of violence in the media I consume. But trust me, Boring Girls lives up to its packaging.

2. GIRLS! I know it's in the title, but this book is about girls - girls friendships, problems, issues, and challenges they face in a predominantly male industry. There wasn't a weird forced romance in it or anything. Actually, one of the reasons I liked this book was how authentic it felt to the real teenage girl experience - or at least my experience as a teenager. I mean, minus the metal and murder. Rachel was more concerned in high school with being taken seriously and finding a bond with other girls than dating, and I feel like that experience is often missing from the books I read, especially YA (although I wouldn't characterize Boring Girls as YA, even if the characters are teenagers). I honestly don't think it's realistic or constructive to have every female protagonist's story centered on getting a guy over everything else, especially female friendships. Anyway.

3. THE INTENSITY I was definitely never bored while reading it. While you know that Rachel and her friend are murderers from the beginning, that doesn't spoil the intensity or the anticipation leading up to the actual event. It was written well, and while there were a lot of descriptions of Rachel's band getting big rather than an actual build-up to the end, it was still interesting and a fascinating look at the life of musicians, female musicians in particular. And Sara Taylor definitely accomplishes the feat of making you sympathize with a murderer. By the end, you kind of feel like Rachel did the right thing.

Boring Girls is anything but boring, and I highly recommend you check it out! 

Boring Girls on ECW Press
Boring Girls on Amazon.ca
Boring Girls on Amazon.com
Boring Girls on Goodreads

My Journey to Feminism

Not that long ago, I was one of those people who said that I wasn't feminist. I thought that feminists were crazy people who hated men and wanted them to crawl in a hole and die. At the same time, I thought that to be a proper feminist, or even a good woman, you had to like sports, be physically strong, and be able to impress all the boys with your wit and kick-ass moves. I remember in around grade seven, I think, being jealous of this girl in my class because she was an awesome soccer player and really liked sports. I thought, why couldn't I like sports better? Or be amazingly good at them? If I was awesome at sports, I thought, I could prove to the world that girls were worth something. I could prove that I was worth something.

“Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Achide, We Should All Be Feminists

It turns out, I had no idea what feminism even was. Feminism isn't about hating men or adopting masculine traits in order to be accepted. It's about women being viewed and treated as equal with men, exactly the way they are. Of course, there's a lot more to it than that, but I'm still learning.

I'm not really sure how I came about to the realization of what feminism really was, but I think it was definitely from reading - articles, tweets, books, and things for my classes. I think one of the first articles that I read was about the idea of "strong female characters" in movies. It talked about how often a female character was labeled as "strong" (and therefore good and acceptable) if she could fight like a master, kick butt and be basically like one of the guys. 

The article (and many other articles, including posts like this interview with Melina Marchetta about heroines) have talked about how "strong female character" shouldn't mean actually physically strong, but incredibly complex and diverse, like, oh, a real human. Women should be represented just as diversely and interestingly as men, but so often in film and other media they are pushed to the background as props for men or for looks.

Learning that feminism meant that women could be themselves in all their flabby muscled glory was so freeing to me. Now I didn't have to like sports, I didn't have to be able to take out three bad guys at once while wearing a skin-hugging suit, and I could like girly stuff like dresses and high-heels without feeling bad about it. I could just be myself, and that's enough to be worthy as a girl; society is wrong in saying otherwise.

“Gender matters everywhere in the world. And I would like today to ask that we begin to dream about and plan for a different world. A fairer world. A world of happier men and happier women who are truer to themselves. And this is how to start: We must raise our daughters differently. We must also raise our sons differently.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Achide, We Should All Be Feminists

I used to think that certain things were just the way things are. Guys taunt girls for attention and dominance because that's the way things are. Guys get away with more than girls do, from their actions to how they dress because that's the way things are. There are more men in movies than women because that's just how things are. Women have to act and be a certain way that's expected of them because that's the way things are. Women think that they have to look a certain way because that's the way things are.Women have to be unhappy with their bodies because that's the way things are supposed to be.

The realization that these are actually problems with our society actually gives me hope, because then I know it doesn't have to be this way. Hopefully, we can work towards a better society where women are accepted just as they are, in all their diverseness, complexity, and variety, liking whatever they please and not being judged or abused for it. 

I'm still learning, and I would encourage you to learn along with me. A great introduction book to feminism is We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Achide. It's also a TED Talk which you can find here. Emma Watson's speech at the UN is also great, her ideas are articulated well and inspiring.

What are your favourite feminist books, fiction or non-fiction? Give me recs!!