Review: You're Doing it Wrong by Kaz Cooke

Every heading in this book is a lie ... begins You're Doing It Wrong, a hilarious history of all of the terrible advice that women have been told for centuries. Cooke examines advice about health, sex, marriage, housework, work, motherhood, beauty, so-called ideal body shapes and clothing and gives it, well the answer it deserves, and the no-nonsense advice that everyone needed all along. There is also a lot of acknowledgement to have Indigenous Australian women have been treated since 1788--if white women were the victims of ridiculous advice, there was a whole other race whose lives were made a lot tougher based on truly ridiculous medial, patriarchal and truly racist ideas. Each section begins with a heading that is, as the opening line tells us, a lie. And some of those headings are truly hilarious. (Fantasise about men who order you around, for example. I truly love Cookes examination of modern erotic novels. She nails it.)

This was an excellent read that had me laughing out loud in some places, and cheering in others. Cooke's advice is spot on as she offers readers a common sense alternative to the awful advice that is churned out on a regular basis, more often than not so that savvy marketers can sell things to women by convincing them that there is something wrong that must be 'fixed' before they can be truly be feel happy and confident. It also looks at how bad advice has been used as a weapon to keep people in their 'place.'

Overall, a worthy and entertaining read.

Highly recommended.

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