Nonfiction November: Worldview Shapers

 

One of the greatest things about reading nonfiction is learning all kinds of things about our world which you never would have known without it. There’s the intriguing, the beautiful, the appalling, and the profound. What nonfiction book or books have impacted the way you see the world in a powerful way? Is there one book that made you rethink everything? Do you think there is a book that should be required reading for everyone?

I very rarely read a book, nonfiction or fiction, without learning something new. Such knowledge may not always be profound but nonetheless it all contributes something to my world view. As I browsed the list of nonfiction books I’ve read in the past few years considering this week’s question, I cam across one I think deserves to be recognised.

Though I gave Fixed It: Violence and the Representation of Women in the Media by Jane Gilmore five stars, I never wrote a review for it, I’m not sure why except it likely had something to do with the time of year, however this book has had a lasting influence on me, especially in the way in which I engage in my daily perusal of news sites.

Jane Gilmore is an Australian author, journalist, feminist, and consent educator. In 2014 she started the FixedIt campaign, pushing for change in the way media reports on men’s violence against women. It was born of her frustration with the then constant victim-blaming and erasure of perpetrators from media headlines about men’s violence against women. Media headlines were full of  “scorned lovers” who raped women they claimed to love, “good fathers” who killed their children, and adults who had “sexual relationships” with children they were abusing. You may have seen her posts on Twitter/X, or Instagram, with news media headlines edited with red pen, correcting the misleading impressions they give.

 

After reading Fixed It, I immediately became very aware of the way in which news headlines, not only in Australia but across the world, report on violence against women. Somehow I just hadn’t noticed how often headlines minimised, offered excuses, or completely erased, the role of men in violent incidents, or how inappropriately the word sex was used referred to cases involving sexual assault and rape, especially against children, but once it was pointed out, I couldn’t unsee it. In Fixed It, Gilmore discusses how this affects our perception of crimes against women, as well as about violence in general, supported with statistics and examples.

 

While Jane’s campaign, and events like #MeToo, have since resulted in some changes to reporting from many reputable news outlets, four years on from the publication of Fixed It, headlines and reportage still has a tendency to be problematic, but now I notice it every time, and join the voices demanding the media do better.