Worth Books - Summary and Analysis of Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman: Based on the Book by Lindy West

Summary and Analysis of

Shrill

Notes from a Loud Woman

Based on the Book by Lindy West

Contents

Context

Hailed for its witty, raucous, and unapologetic views on abortion, feminism, and body image, Shrill: Notes From a Loud Woman contains essays of keen observation and analysis drawn from the authors own personal life. Colliding with history, Shrill was published in 2016 during a presidential campaign that saw Hillary Clinton, a qualified and experienced candidate, lose to Donald Trump, who had been recorded openly talking about sexually assaulting women. The results of the election lent further credence to the books premise that our culture doesnt believe, trust, take seriously, or even much like women.

Using her pen like a bullhorn, West points to hot-button issues such as body shaming, male supremacy in standup comedy, and the slow mainstreaming of rape culture that buried the sexual assault allegations against Bill Cosby for decades. A contemporary anthem for anyone whos been silenced for being opinionated, ambitious, and/or a woman (especially a fat, funny one), Shrill is teeming with wit and charm, but its also a cold slap in the facea call to action against misogyny, rape injustice, abortion stigmatization, and fat discrimination.

Overview

Growing up shy and pudgy, Lindy West had few positive role models (but several negative ones, including Ursula the Sea Witch and the Queen of Hearts). Living in a culture that rewards slinky, demure girls and silences ones with big bodies and the personalities to match, Lindy makes herself small and undetectable. The message is loud and clear: fat is ugly.

Puberty is particularly awkward, especially since Lindys friends are growing tall and slender while she remains squat and hefty. If that wasnt enough, her menstrual cycle thrusts her into a state of social anxiety. Soon Lindy learns to cope with her humiliations using humor, compassion, and practical wisdom.

Lindys college roommate is a beauty with superhuman sex appeal. Lindy begins looking at overweight bodies on the computer until she feels comfortable with them, leading to acceptance of her own self. She comes to see her body as a tool for political change.

After graduation, Lindy lands a job at Seattles alternative weekly newspaper The Stranger . She develops a voice and style all her own, but its a public feud with her boss that garners national attention. Hello, I Am Fat outs her as fat, opening a floodgate of Internet troll attacks. She attributes her activism to her idealistic father and her grit to her mothers Nordic practicality.

Lindys blog posts for sites such as Jezebel spotlight abortion rights, fat shaming, and misogyny in pop culture. She exposes standup comedya world she loved since her high school daysfor its male-privilege and anti-feminist atmosphere. Who says feminism cant be funny? Apparently, a bunch of male comedians. After Lindy spars with a shock comic on TV, more online vitriol is unleashed, and the standup community ostracizes her.

Lindy and her best friend, Aham, become romantically involved and decide to move to Los Angeles together. The relationship deteriorates at the same time that Lindys father is dying from cancer. She returns to Seattle and, following her dads death, Aham and Lindy reunite. A public marriage proposal is followed by wedding plans that dont include weight loss. On her wedding day Lindy stands fat and proud.

In 2013, a Tweet from a troll impersonating Lindys dead father nearly devastates her. Refusing to back down, she confronts the troll and receives a heartfelt apology from him. He even agrees to record an episode for the incredibly popular podcast and radio show This American Life , helping her shine a light on cyber-bullying. The CEO of Twitter stands publically with Lindy.

Speaking for diverse voices since her days at The Stranger , this period marks the beginning of many more victories in Lindys fight for equality and acceptance.

Summary

Lady Kluck

As a fat, young girl, Lindy West doesnt know what she wants to be when she grows up, but she knows she isnt the stuff of princesses and astronauts. The only people who look like her on TV are Lady Kluck (the fat chicken from Disneys Robin Hood ), a cross-dressing Baloo from The Jungle Book , Miss Piggy (powerful, but a little rape-y), and the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (mean and murderous). Lindy relates to Marla Hooch (A League of Their Own) because she is the epitome of competence and unfuckableness. The shortlist also includes Ursula the Sea Witch (The Little Mermaid), Mrs. Potts (Beauty and The Beast), and an elderly woman with dangling arm fat ( The Adventures of Pete & Pete ).

Need to Know: The world isnt kind to ugly, fat, and aggressive women. Mothers or monstersboth with no sex appealare their limited professional choices.

Bones

Society casts fat people as unappealing moral failures, teaching Lindy to shrink (socially, if not physically). The term big is exchanged with fat to spare her feelings, though strangers feel no compunction about telling her shes way too large. Lindy starts to avoid certain activities, places with narrow aisles, and rickety chairs. As her friends lose their baby fat and grow into adults they become tall and graceful (some to their detriment), while she remains stumplike. She feels cheateduntil she realizes that the perfect body is a lie. Who gets to decide what a womans body should look like? Men? Makeup and clothing companies? There is no perfect body, there is only what a lot of people have agreed upon. When most of the worlds population doesnt fall into that category, why does society still compare themselves to it?

Need to Know: Calling adults fat infantilizes and desexualizes them. Its a feminist issue because it shackles women in shame and hunger. Women have been taught that unless they conform to a certain idealskinnythey are unfeminine and unworthy of love and success.

Are You There, Margaret? Its Me, a Person Who Is Not a Complete Freak

Childhood suits Lindy, but pubertywith menstruation, hormonal flux, and acneis unbearable. Lindy is horrified by the blood that appears monthlyits gross, its dirty, and its something to be kept hidden. Period anxiety is the result of a taboo that turns a natural bodily function into a disgusting process. Why is a womans blood gross, but the blood from a skinned knee is not? Its called misogyny. Its the belief that womens bodies are mysterious and unclean, and are therefore not worth providing health care for. But half of the population gets periods, and periods are no grosser than other bodily fluids. So, why, in a country where half of the population has periods and uteruses, do women have to fight so hard for healthcare? Women need to be proud of their bodies, speak up, and ditch the shame.

Need to Know: Most women, to some extent, absorb societys pervasive negative views of their own bodies. There is a taboo that womens bodies are defective male bodies, and that having outie genitals instead of innie genitals makes you a more rational human being.

How to Stop Being Shy in Eighteen Easy Steps

Todays self-help economy offers no magic bullets; change is slow and hard. Lindy, incredibly shy as a child and overly aware of her size and weight, lists the 18 stepping stones that got her from quiet to loud. She lists a string of embarrassmentsfrom peeing in her pants in third grade, to flipping over a picnic table while eating pizza in front of the band YACHT, to getting called out for loud sex by her handsome apartment manager, to neglecting to tell the man she lost her virginity to that it was her first time and then bleeding all over his bed, to watching Trainspotting with her parentsthat didnt kill her. Life goes on, people forget, and you should just pick yourself up and go live.