The Pocket Guide To Feminism

Bel Olid, translated from the Catalan by Laura McGloughlin

(Polity, 2024)

Review by Suzanne Harrington

Bel Olid, born in 1977, is a Catalan writer, translator, campaigner for Catalan independence, and non-binary feminist. They are a mother, author, activist, and someone who lived as a woman for the first 40 years of their life until they grew tired of the required role-playing.  

‘I refuse,’ they write in their latest book The Pocket Guide To Feminism. ‘I won’t participate. I declare myself out of the box. I declare myself out of the game.’  They’ve had enough of ‘the mirage of binarism.’

Olid’s book is, like its author, straight talking and punchy, and tackles huge, difficult subjects in a series of concise chapters examining androcentrism, violence against women, rape, gender disparity present everywhere from the television panel to the kitchen sink, systemic sexism in schools and workplaces, misogyny (both external and internalised), and the endless blueing and pinking of human beings from the moment of conception.   

They approach these topics with a wry wit, continually asking us to question ourselves, question our realities, question everything, without ever haranguing us. Their tone is one of exasperation, bemusement, occasional flashes of (justifiable) fury. And humour – in a mini lexicon at the back of the book, sandwiched between male gaze and patriarchy, is their definition of misandry: ‘don’t worry, it doesn’t exist.’   

Writing about sexual assault, Olid notes: ‘If there was a report every time a man touches a woman’s behind on the Underground, the police force would collapse.’  Also, these groped women would ‘be late for school or work, [and] don’t have time to raise hell.’ Rape involves ‘being judged for a crime someone else has committed.’

They haven’t much patience for the ‘not all men’ argument either, ‘as if one case – or even a thousand – wipes out the global statistics.’  While a man who cites his own lived experience of doing an equal share of childcare or housework ‘is completely valid’, it’s ‘irrelevant’ in terms of structural discrimination. For every man who cleans a toilet, there are thousands who do not.

Olid is compassionate and humane in their exploration of how we internalise these structures: ‘We don’t replicate sexist attitudes because we’re bad people, but because we find them normal. We’ve normalised inequality.’ Men, they add, stand to gain much from feminism, yet can often take it as ‘a personal affront’ when challenged about inequalities. This small but powerful book could make a great birthday present for the affronted.

Talking about gender inequality in 2024 might sound a bit retro, until they remind us that the pay gap remains at around 24% and the UN tells us how 55% of all female murders are committed by intimate partners or family members.   Yet women are socialised to think of romantic love as something that is ‘predestined, exclusive, all-powerful and the most important thing in life.’  Instead of deifying romantic love, Olid advocates teaching girls three phrases: ‘I already said that. Don’t interrupt me. No need to explain it to me.’  

Olid longs for a world where we can all be ourselves, and foster authentic loving relationships. ‘The traditional family [a heterosexual couple with children] ….is a swindle for women,’ they argue. ‘More and more, we stop pretending.’