GN— spending time reading the new edition of essays (On Women) by Susan Sontag tonight.

“Sontag’s beauty and celebrity were, in the minds of her detractors, proof that her feminism was flawed, since it made her unable to relate to the woman on the street. Edited by Sontag’s son, David Rieff, with an introduction by the author and literary critic Merve Emre, On Women highlights Sontag’s thoughts on womanhood and feminist discourse by gathering her journalism and interviews on the subject in one place.

All seven pieces here were published in the 70s, when second-wave feminism was at its height in the US. The feminist poet Adrienne Rich said Sontag’s writings on women were “more of an intellectual exercise than the expression of a felt reality”, yet, as this collection illustrates, Sontag’s frustration at female oppression was real and her privilege was no impediment to her ability to empathise with, and rage at, the broader experience of women.” https://inews.co.uk/culture/books/on-women-by-susan-sontag-review-boldly-provocative-feminist-essays-2379188