The Female Thing is Laura Kipnis' exploration of the duality and contradictions of feminism and femininity in the 21st century. She breaks the book into four sections, Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability, examining the role of feminism, often intertwined with its own contradictions, along with the reality of how women live their modern lives. Using the same humor and wit that worked so well for her in her polemic,
Against Love, she exposes these contradictions, often turning them on their head, to reveal insights into the lives of women. Along the way, she's sure to tread on sacred toes.
The Female Thing has received mixed reviews with Salon.com saying, "You've encountered most of the ideas in
The Female Thing before, but Kipnis has a way of distilling them down to a well-turned sentence or two that's very pleasing. Hers isn't a gift to be taken lightly, since in the process she makes it clear how untenable many of those ideas are."
