Wetlands

This book is garnering a lot of attention. Based upon the scatological component, it is of no great surprise that Germans* have become fascinated by it. In any event, for some odd reason, it’s being billed as a seminal literary moment for modern feminism. In Monday’s NYT, the book and its author, Charlotte Roche, received front page billing, calling Wetlands a “cri de coeur against the oppression of a waxed, shaved, douched and otherwise sanitized women’s world.”

Perhaps the most striking notion about the book and its candid detail of the 18 year-old heroine’s sexuality, is that the graphic discussion of overt - and apparently, in this case, unhygienic sex practices - is being incorporated into the modern playbook of feminist principles. (A comparable example of this "frankness" being the box office success of Sex in the City.) Apparently Feuchtgebiete includes discussions of douching - or not - hemorrhoids, anal sex, and avocado pits as a tool of female gratification.

It's troubling, the lack of consideration of the largely vacuous nature of these pieces being sold as empowering to women -- and the potential consequence of such characterizations. But at least The Times article looks to German writer and feminist Ingrid Kolb to sum up the intense interest in the book: “When a woman breaks a taboo, it is automatically incorporated into the feminism debate, whether it really belongs there or not.” Touché.

*Don’t blame me for that stereotype; blame that late, great Alan Dundes, or at least thank him for documenting it.