100 Times

Starred review from June 1, 2019
Woods' (Things to Do When You're Goth in the Country, 2017) unshakable memoir is a list of 100 incidents of sexism that she's experienced in her three decades of life. The chronologically arranged accounts are plain and profound, allowing the actions to speak for themselves, and range in length from a paragraph to a few pages. In her introduction, Woods explains that this is just one woman's collection of indignities, and reminds readers that all the trans, queer, and cis/straight women they know have hundreds of their own to share. Between the covers are violent little boys on the playground, predatory high-school teachers, ex-boyfriends who resort to stalking, grown men masturbating at public beaches, and repugnant male roommates who refuse to wear pants. Incredibly, a rich portrait of Woods' life as an artist and a lover prevails through all of the horror. Even focusing on sexism, she claims her identity as so much more than a survivor. In the haunting conclusion, Woods reminds readers that there is no such thing as reverse sexism in a world where women are so systematically oppressed, citing gender comparison statistics about rape and homicide. Brilliant and simple, this is sure to advance understanding of a topic of intense national reckoning.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)