Loud by Drew Afualo and What It Means to Be a Feminist

Loud by Drew Afualo and What It Means to Be a Feminist

I grew (or am growing up) in a mainly liberal town in Massachusetts. You may know this, you may not, but Hingham, Massachusetts voted blue in the most recent election, and nearly everyone I know supports Harris, or is too afraid of the social isolation that would come with outwardly supporting Trump. Although Plymouth County voted red in 2016, we are an extremely liberal area, similar to the rest of Massachusetts. 

I go to a school with 90% white students, 8% asian students, 1% black, and 1% other, meaning that diversity is rarer than hair on a 70 year old man. Contrarily, we have many transgender and queer students, myself included, and although we may not be the majority, at least 15 of the 200-something people in my grade are queer, which feels larger than the rest of America. It is an interesting situation, because despite the large percentage of Roman Catholics (I know exactly 3 people of another religion), the gaping margin of white people, 150k+ median income, and the overall lack of diversity or individualism, the town is still extremely progressive, which I am abundantly grateful for.

Similar to a lot of other parts of Massachusetts, we are a bit of fake liberals due to this lack of diversity. We will be Ron Desantis' worst nightmare teaching critical race theory to sixteen year olds and then turn around and say that black people should not be able to vote if it means restoring relations post Civil-War (real anecdotes from my AP Lang and Honors US History classes). Safe to say, I have grown up in a lot of ideologically progressive spaces, yet as Elon Musk would word it, many of them fiscally conservative. 

In an attempt to read more of these ideologically progressive works, and ideally combat these toxic, hateful words of my peers (and occasionally myself, I never said I was perfect), I read Loud by Drew Afualo. I have followed Drew for years now. How many? I couldn't tell you, but trust me when I say I am acutely aware of her humor, her beliefs, and her personality. I knew what I was getting into, and yet I still enjoyed it. 

I did not, however, enjoy the first 60% as much as I enjoyed the last 40%. The first chunk of the book sought to "introduce" the reader to the inequalities of the patriarchy, which to many people it may have succeeded, but it did not for me. It felt repetitive, and as if it were common sense, and I understand why she felt the need to state such obvious facts like "working in sports is hard as a woman" or "people typically restrict women to the domestic sphere", but I thought it went on for a very long time. At points the book felt preachy about these common inequalities as well. Although Drew shed light on them with personal anecdotes and her takeaways, a large sum of the first part of the book did not feel very innovative, and I did not think it captured a lot of the more nuanced inequalities or the effects of them in our societies. 

Much of the first part of the book felt unnecessary and obvious, but what wasn't obvious was her family dynamic. The way that Afualo incorporates her culture into this story kept the first chunk strong for me. Although much of it felt repetitive and uninventive, she still managed to add originality to some aspects of the story. Explaining the mistreatment of women in the sports industry is not novel, but explaining how the importance of sports to a culture is undervalued by the gender of the person speaking is. Intersectionality in feminism is not a new concept, in fact it is likely that idea that has drawn out the fourth wave of feminism, but Afualo's distinctly Samoan ancestry refracts the typical "men are evil" point and adds complexity to her experiences. 

The second half of the book was my favorite. Do I remember much of it? Of course not it's been a week. But I remember that I liked it! I particularly liked the body neutrality sentiment. I have always been on the smaller side (god that sounds insufferable), but pressure not even from social media but my own friends and family members has demonized people who gain weight, and have glorified my body as ideal despite my doctor criticizing me for being very underweight. I struggled a lot with this when I was younger, as in 6th grade my doctor told me I had gained a lot of weight, and was on track to becoming a normal weight. I'm not sure what kind of eating-disorder based stigma invaded my mind that normal weight was irregular, but I entered a dark time where I would weigh myself multiple times a day and rarely eat meals in their entirety. Instead of understanding that my body may grow and change as I grow and change, toxic standards of how a body is "supposed to look" altered my mindset in a way I am still attempting to deconstruct. I really appreciated how she emphasized the insignificance of one's body, because I really do think that body neutrality is the only way to be comfortable with one's outward appearance. 

Afualo's decision to write and publish this book in 2024 also felt very important. In such a polarized world, where people can nearly never see eye to eye on issues like the ones mentioned in this book, I found it incredibly impactful that Afualo decided to share her story with her false positive pregnancy test. There is a whole lot of stigma surrounding abortion and what mothers decide to do with their bodies, that I appreciated that Afualo had the courage to share this very traumatizing experience in this book. I am a queer woman, so I am not very fond of pregnancy, but I really did feel connected to Afualo, as her description of every single detail that persuaded her to act the way she did resonated with me, and likely resonated with hundreds of women across the globe. With an impactful story such as this, it was also very interesting to see it so far at the end of the book, but it makes sense. Afualo did not want to open with such an emotionally dense story, but at the end of the book it truly hammered home to overarching argument that Afualo intended. 

This book was well worth the $30. In fact, it might be worth more, because although many of the chapters in this book felt obvious to me, a leftist girl from Massachusetts, it may not feel obvious to another woman, and if this book could help even one woman realize all of the aspects of her life that have been influenced and molded by the patriarchy, I think that was Drew Afualo's purpose. Furthermore, if anything I discussed sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend checking out this book. I too, don't read nonfiction very often, but this book might just persuade me to read it more.