Nguyen (communication arts, Univ. of Waterloo; editor,
Rhetoric in Neoliberalism) deftly delves into the damage white women feminists do when they uphold racist structures that benefit them, refuse to acknowledge their privilege, serve as gatekeepers, utilize patriarchal tactics to maintain power, or remain complicit in ongoing oppression. Building on the work of Rachel Cargle, Laila Sayad, Rafia Zakaria, and others, Nguyen offers a roadmap of what it would take to abolish “mean girl feminism.” To define that term and to describe the four types of people it involves, Nguyen uses examples that range from post–civil rights movement discourse, novels, and political theories to
Gossip Girl episodes and
Saturday Night Live sketches. Nguyen expertly and engagingly explains what performative activism is and analyzes how it shows up in popular culture and harms others.
VERDICT A sweeping, smart manifesto that’s crucial for white feminists to read in order to acknowledge, mitigate, and correct microaggressions and challenge oppressive systems.
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