Description
The League of Super Feminists by Mirion Malle HC (Drawn & Quarterly)
THIS PRIMER ON FEMINISM AND MEDIA LITERACY TEACHES YOUNG READERS WHY IT MATTERS
TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH BY ALESHIA JENSEN
The League of Super Feminists is an energetic and fierce comic for tweens and younger teens. Cartoonist Mirion Malle guides readers through some of the central tenets of feminism and media literacy including consent, intersectionality, privilege, body image, inclusivity and more; all demystified in the form of a witty, down-to-earth dialogue that encourages questioning the stories we’re told about identity. Malle’s insightful and humorous comics transport lofty concepts from the ivory tower to the eternally safer space of open discussion. Making reference to the Bechdel test in film and Peggy McIntosh’s dissection of white privilege through the metaphor of the “invisible knapsack,” The League of Super Feminists is an asset to the classroom, library, and household alike.
Knights and princesses present problems associated with consent; superheroes reveal problematic stereotypes associated with gender; and grumpy onlookers show just how insidious cat-calling culture can be. No matter how women dress, Malle explains, there seems to always be someone ready to call it out. The League of Super Feminists articulates with both poise and clarity how unconscious biases and problematic thought processes can have tragic results.
Why does feminism matter? Are feminists man-haters? How do race and feminism intersect? Malle answers these questions for young readers, in a comic that is as playful and hilarious as it is necessary.
Aleshia Jensen is a French-to-English translator and former bookseller who lives in Montreal. Her translations include the novels Explosions by Mathieu Poulin and Prague by Maude Veilleux, as well as comics by Julie Delporte, Max de Radiguès, Catherine Ocelot and Axelle Lenoir.
Praise for The League of Super Feminists
What I appreciate most is that the way Mirion explains feminism is that it’s like being a good friend and a kind member of society; that feminism is respect for women.
Youth Services Book Review
I picture particularly earnest young people curling up with this book and enjoying the humor while reveling in all that they’re learning, because the learning is evident, even though it’s couched in fun drawings and clever jokes.
Women’s Review of Books…
There is a lot included in this slim volume, which would make an excellent classroom tool; each section builds on the previous one as dialogues set up between characters push readers to examine their own biases and expand their critical thinking skills… Packed with tools to understand feminism and its surrounding concepts, her league of super feminists is one that all readers are welcome to join.
Winnipeg Free Press
A well-paced feminism 101 primer that touches on representation, privilege, gender roles, capitalism, vulvae, invisible knapsacks—you know, all the stuff you’re tired of having to explain.
The Stranger
Using a Socratic question-and-answer format, women dressed as superheroes speak, informally, with wit and brevity, to a young audience about consent, different forms of privilege and misogyny. It arms readers with tools to analyze culture…
The Globe and Mail
A clear, smart, and direct effort to talk about what feminism is in a way that even small folks can understand.
The Comics Journal
The League of Super Feminists is the sort of book one wishes could be put in every reader’s hands. After all, we could all use refreshers on a lot of this stuff, and Malle argues in such a straightforward, commonsensical manner that when you read about the importance of using inclusive language or representation in media, for example, it makes one wonder how anyone can fight against such feminist ideas in the first place, given that they seem less “feminist” than simply “right”…
School Library Journal
Malle distills complicated feminist theory into easy-to-understand explanations without ever talking down to readers.
Quill and Quire
This short, spirited primer on feminism presents playfully illustrated breakdowns of a wide range of feminist topics, from media stereotypes to intersectionality… Without pulling punches, these illustrated mini essays take readers beyond ‘girl power’ and into the true meaning of intersectional feminism.
Publishers Weekly
Change is coming. And a lot of people in our society may feel that it’s flipping their world upside down but this change is necessary and Mirion Malle has captured just the right balance in her fun and highly informative new book.
Popzara
As well as answering questions, the engaging and dynamic dialogue (translated from the original French by Aleshia Jensen) not only answers certain questions, but encourages young people to ask more of their own about the ideas we’re all fed around identity and gender.
People of Print
In The League of Super Feminists, Mirioin Malle discusses representation in media in regards to what woman are seeing about themselves, breaking down the potential harm of seeing the same stories over and over.
Newmarket Today
Written like a conversation between the friends, the book is fun, upbeat, and playful, but always self-aware and smart. Mirion Malle never talks down to readers; it’s straight talk that lets everyone know that feminism is good for all, leads to healthy thinking and self-image. A great beginning to an ongoing conversation.
Mom Read It
The year’s most important child-friendly comic about feminist theory… The League Of Super Feminists is a sharp, smart and funny tour through the ideas that underpin feminism… [that] makes decades of sociological theory not merely accessible, but compelling, which Malle ascribes to her desire to get around the loftier language of university departments, and convey instead the simple truths of lived experience.
The Irish Times
Malle does an exemplary job encouraging readers to question norms and consider what society would look like if everyone, regardless of gender, race, and ability, were treated equally… Readers of The League of Super Feminists will be well-armed with the questions and tools necessary to challenge and change the world for the better!
Canadian Review of Materials
Malle gets the conversation started and guides readers through some of the central tenets of feminism in a clear, engaging way that gives readers the tools needed to do their own critical thinking.
Books 4 Your Kids
The League of Super Feminists serves as a veritable primer on feminism itself… [It] does well as an introduction for anyone onto the many topics discussed or even a textbook in a course on understanding.
BlogCritics
