Rebecca Solnit’s “Men Explain Things to Me” (Reflection Two)
Solnit, R. (2014). Men explain things to me. Haymarket Books.
Summary
In nine concise essays, Rebecca Solnit explores the slippery slope between casual misogyny (in the form of mansplaining or talking over women) and the prevalence of rape, gender violence, and femicide (the killing of women). Despite the somber subject, there is a welcome amount of humor in the book, as well as a strong thread that reminds readers again and again of the importance of language – the power of naming things we are uncomfortable to talk about or don’t fully understand.
Though Solnit hones in on several prominent rape, assault, or harassment cases (such as the rape and murder of Jyoti Singh in 2012 in Delhi, or the testimony of Anita Hill during the confirmation hearings for Clarence Thomas), she circles back to the central argument of the book, that these cases are never isolated. Instead, as Solnit demonstrates, women’s fear of – and experience of – violence, rape, and humiliation is a driving cultural force in American society (among others).
The book ends on a hopeful note, using Pandora’s box as a metaphor for the power of language and ideas to cause irrevocable shifts in imagination and thinking. Once the box has been opened to reveal the misogyny in our society, in other words, it cannot be closed, even when powerful legal and cultural forces try to do so. Solnit chronicles the progress that has been made and asserts that having more to do (always) does not mean the cause is doomed to fail. In another of Solnit’s metaphors, the fight for women’s safety and rights is “the longest war.”
Pedagogical Use
As a female writing instructor, I’ve tried in the past to use similar essays by women (not Solnit’s in particular) and experienced quite a lot of backlash from students (often white, male students). I have some hesitation as a result of these experiences to use Men Explain Things to Me in the language classroom, but I believe it is worth continuing to try, especially with single essays that students could break down and discuss.
What I love about Solnit’s book is the emphasis on language being powerful – on the process of naming being powerful – and this seems like a great entry point for language learners. To this end, essays like “Woolf’s Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable,” “#YesAllWomen: Feminists Rewrite the Story,” and “Pandora’s Box and the Volunteer Police Force” would be great candidates for English language learners. The last two essays in this list give examples of language change (the coining of terms like sexual harassment, mansplaining, rape culture), and the first essay discusses the failure of language to adequately capture experience. All of these seem like points that could generate rich discussion and encourage critical self-reflection and critical thinking from learners.
Discussion Points for Students
- Are the rape and femicide cases we read about in the news isolated events or do they represent a pattern? What does Solnit say? What do you say? Why?
- What is the significance of a new word? How does naming a phenomenon or pattern make a difference in how we think about that phenomenon or pattern? What are some examples of newer words in your L1? Why are they used now? How do language and culture interact?
- “Despair is a form of certainty, certainty that the future will be a lot like the present or will decline from it; despair is a confident memory of the future… Optimism is similarly confident about what will happen. Both are grounds for not acting. Hope can be the knowledge that we don’t have that memory and that reality doesn’t necessarily match our plans” (p. 88, “Woolf’s Darkness”). What do you make of this quote? How are despair and optimism “grounds for not acting”? Why is it important to act?
- “Homophobia, like misogyny, is still terrible; just not as terrible as it was in, say, 1970. Finding ways to appreciate advances without embracing complacency is a delicate task. It involves being hopeful and motivated and keeping eyes on the prize ahead. Saying that everything is fine or that it will never get any better are ways of going nowhere or making it impossible to go anywhere. Either approach implies that there is no road out or that, if there is, you don’t need to or can’t go down it. You can. We have” (p. 144, “Pandora’s Box”). Give an example of another social issue that you are personally invested in. What progress has been made? What is still to be done? How do you/can you play a part?
- Another writer, Margaret Atwood, famously wrote that “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them; women are afraid that men will kill them.” What in Solnit’s essay(s) would support this statement?
Intersectionality
I’ve read other books by Solnit before and loved how comfortable she is as a writer and thinker with wandering. Men Explain Things to Me is no exception; she wanders between issues of human rights and environmental destruction, between colonization and misogyny, between misogyny and homophobia and anti-LGBTQ sentiments. She even, in one essay, takes on capitalism. Take, for example, the opening fable in “Worlds Collide in a Luxury Suite: Some Thoughts on the IMF, Global Injustice, and a Stranger on a Train”:
“How can I tell a story we already know too well? Her name was Africa. His was France. He colonized her, exploited her, silenced her, and even decades after it was supposed to have ended, still acted with a high hand in resolving her affairs in places like Côte D’Ivoire, a name she had been given because of her export products, not her own identity.
“Her name was Asia. His was Europe. Her name was silence. His was power. Her name was poverty. His was wealth. Her name was Her, but what was hers? His name was His, and he presumed everything was his, including her, and he thought he could take her without asking and without consequences. It was a very old story, though its outcome had been changing a little in recent decades. And this time around the consequences are shaking a lot of foundations, all of which clearly needed shaking.” (p. 39-40)
Many of the events and issues that Solnit discusses in this book align with the idea of intersectionality, as coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw. Throughout this course and our discussions of social class, race, gender, sexuality, and environmentalism, we’ve often landed on how different aspects of our multiple identities impact how we experience the world and how our experiences are perceived by others. I appreciate that Solnit’s take on feminism tries to pull in many of the other forces at play in society. That said, one criticism I would offer of Solnit’s book is that it doesn’t address the intersection of racism and feminism in as much depth as it could. Since Men Explain Things to Me was published in 2014 – but also before – there has been a lot of work done to bring this particular intersection to light. Any curriculum developed around this book could supplement with additional resources to strengthen that connection for students.
Hi Mollie,
Thanks for sharing your reflection. Reading your reflection, there seems to be a lot of themes that intersect. This reminds me of the importance of intersectionality and how our identities are connected and not a single unit. I like how you brought up a criticism to this book. I hadn’t thought about including one in my own reflection. I also appreciate how you continue to use essays by women in your classes, even though you experienced some backlash. I think your discussion points will produce a rich discussion among students as they could draw on various perspectives or sources such as personal experiences or the media.
I did have two question for you. The first question is if you used this book for one of your lessons, what proficiency level do you think it would best fit? The second question is out of the nine essays, which one was your favorite?
Hi Mollie, thanks for sharing this amazing reflection on the book “Men Explain Things To Me” by Rebecca Solnit. I have already added it to my reading list and there’s a 2 week wait at the library. I actually just started reading “Women and Power: A Manifesto” by Mary Beard. Both of these books seem like they have a lot of the same themes and I am finding similarities between the two. In the first part of the book, titled the public voice of women, she talks about how women’s voices are silenced when in public, especially when accusing men of rape or torture. She actually starts by discussing Homer from the book, Homers Odyssey and how the book started the culture of silencing women and goes on to discuss other classical literature pieces that do the same.
Like Sharon said, it’s unfortunate that you experienced that type of backlash, when you tried to use these types of essays in the classroom. However, I am not surprised. Something I read in the Women and Power book, was that when a woman ventures into a traditionally led male space, abuse will come with. We see this in literature, society, politics, business, CEO’s, etc. women’s voices are often muted and or take a backseat, so when we try to challenge that some men just can’t handle it. Like you said, I think this would be a great topic to discuss in a language class. Asking learners to use their language skills to critically engage with authentic texts and maybe challenge some of their own biases as well. As always thanks for inspiring all of us to be better teachers!
Thanks, Sharon and Yanci! Yanci, I am going to look up the Mary Beard book you mentioned – thanks! And Sharon, thanks for your questions. I think this book would be best suited to high intermediate or advanced ELLs, because there are a lot of abstract concepts. Even then, I think lots of scaffolding would be helpful for students. My favorite essay was “Woolf’s Darkness: Embracing the Inexplicable” for many reasons. I love the way Solnit embraces uncertainty as a way forward into action (as in, we don’t know how the future will go, so it is definitely worth making an effort to make change), and I also love the Virginia Woolf references and Solnit’s longstanding obsession/connection with her. I think if I had to pick just one essay to teach, though, I would probably go with the last essay, “Pandora’s Box,” because it has such a powerful (and hopeful) message, or possibly the first essay (same as book title) because it really lays out the main issues in terms of women’s experiences.
Mollie, thank you for this reflection! It definitely makes me want to read this work now!
I’m glad to hear that Solnit makes so many connections between struggles and forms of oppression–albeit with a less than stellar analysis of the intersection of race and gender.
Given that Solnit seems to use a lot of allegory, metaphor, and allusion in this work, which proficiency level(s) do you think this would be best suited for?
I really like your discussion questions about new word formation and drawing students’s attention to how that happens in every language, and the potentially different ways in which it happens depending upon the language and context (e.g., organically in many languages, through a specialized language committee like in Iceland or France, or the borrowing of a word from another language unchanged like “computer” or “OK”).
Hi Mollie, thank you so much for this wonderful reflection! It was a pleasure to read. I thought your discussion questions for students were particularly excellent, and I love the way you bring a meta-focus on language into them by asking students about the significance of new words and examples of new words in their L1. I will definitely be using questions like this in my own lessons. I’m reminded of a quote from Kimberle Crenshaw’s TED talk that we watched recently, during her discussion of the importance of “naming” the issues in our world. Roughly paraphrasing, she says that if there’s no name for a problem, you can’t see it, and if you can’t see it, you can’t solve it. I think this could be an interesting quote to discuss with students regarding the extent to which they agree/disagree and their experiences with problem-solving on personal, professional, or whatever level. Thanks again!
I might have mentioned this book before in the class Mollie but this is a great book on the intersection of racism and feminism: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53260224-white-tears-brown-scars
Also, Kate actually had read this book the first time I offered the course, and that’s how the book made it to my list. If you are interested, here is her reflection: https://teachforsocialjustice.middcreate.net/gender-reflection/men-explain-things-to-me-rebecca-solnit/