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Daddy Issues:Love and Hate in the Time of Patriarchy
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A searching essay on the fraught bonds between daughters and their fathers, from one of our most perceptive feminist writers.
In this searching, elegant essay, critically acclaimed writer Katherine Angel examines the place of fathers in contemporary culture with her characteristic mix of boldness and nuance, asking how the mixture of love and hatred we feel towards our fathers—and patriarchal father figures—can be turned into a relationship that is generative rather than destructive.
Moving deftly between psychoanalysis from Freud to Winnicott, cultural visions of fathering from King Lear to Ivanka Trump, and issues from incest to #MeToo, Angel probes the fraught bond of daughters and fathers, women and the patriarchal regime. What, she asks, is this discomfiting space of love and hate—and how are we to reckon with both fealty and rebellion?
As in her earlier Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again, Angel proves herself yet again to be one of the most perceptive feminist writers at work today.
Reviews
This is a brave and brilliant book by one of the most insightful and articulate writers at work today. Katherine Angel is unafraid to look head on at the forgotten figure in feminism’s critique of patriarchy: the father. All of us, daughters and sons, mothers and fathers, are enriched by confronting these libidinal energies, these daddy issues at the centre of all of our lives.
In this impressive and intelligent examination of the father figure, Angel expertly intersects the subject with feminism, mythology, Donald Winnicott, Brett Kavanaugh and more. Her unstinting eye and intellectual vigour make Daddy Issues an engaging interrogation. It feels utterly vital in the context of #MeToo and the political flux the world currently finds itself in.
Effortlessly moving from the novels of Virginia Woolf to the theories of psychoanalyst Donald Winnicott, Angel demonstrates a sharp intellectual acuity in her elucidation of the cultural mythos surrounding "daddies." The result is a valuable contribution to the feminist understanding of fatherhood.
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In this cheekily titled feminist analysis, author Katherine Angel dissects the patriarchy with a sharp combination of individual psychology and cultural critique. An exciting follow-up to Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again.
, AV Club -
Katherine Angel’s astute observations on the impact of the #MeToo movement, the retrenchment of feminism by younger women, and our current state of gender relations is compelling.
, New York Journal of Books -
An examination of our often prurient fascination with the dynamic, and that fascination’s inherent misogyny. [Angel’s] thought-provoking approach is to argue that our society has overlooked the place of daddies in ‘daddy issues.’ To prove the point, she dexterously analyzes a variety of literary works, historical figures like Virginia Woolf’s father, Leslie Stephen, and contemporary tabloid examples, like Meghan Markle and Ivanka Trump.
, New York Times Book Review