Nicole Tersigni - Men to Avoid in Art and Life

For Rob, who is the best kind of man. For Zoe, who is already funnier than I am. And for anyone who could use a laugh. Copyright 2020 by Nicole Tersigni All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. | Man-woman relationships--Humor. | Art--Humor.
Classification: LCC PN6231.M45 T47 2020 | DDC 817/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009294 Designed by Maggie Edelman. | Art--Humor.
Classification: LCC PN6231.M45 T47 2020 | DDC 817/.6--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020009294 Designed by Maggie Edelman.

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This is Jen Kirkman writing. Im a comedian who is writing this part of the book called the Foreword. (See how annoying it is to be splained?) I spend my days online having my jokes explained back to me or, if I ask a rhetorical question, its actually answered by men who explain something that I couldnt have even sarcastically asked if I didnt already know the answer to. It sounds like minutia, and it is, but its maddening nonetheless. There are subtle ways that women are still micro-aggressed even by the coolest I think that America is ready for a woman president dudes out there. Twitter is a daily reminder that Im a woman.

Twitter is trash. Let me be more descriptive, after all, this is a book and technically anyone contributing to a book should show that they have some writing skills. Twitter is a vintage store: It seems cool when you look in from the outside, but if you enter, youll leave smelling like moth balls. Yet every once in a while, you find a gem amongst the heaps of discarded outdated things that make your skin itch, and this book is that. When I saw Nicoles Twitter thread showing examples of mansplaining in great art, I was able to laugh at this phenom that normally makes me want to jam a used tampon in my eye. If youre holding this book because youre deciding whether or not to buy itgo ahead and buy it.

Every sale brings a woman closer to her goal of dominating the publishing world; and if enough women do that, we could dominate the world. And once we do, we can explain things to men who didnt need things explained to them, and someday a man can write a book like this about women. Until then... laugh so hard reading this book that you get the attention of the guy in the cubicle next to you, or on the train next to you, and he can lean over and explain why this book is so goddamn funny. And never forget that the great George Bernard Shaw once said, If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise theyll kill you. The truth of what its like to be a woman IRL and online is in this book.

Love, Jen Kirkman