'The Burning' burned me. Quite literally as I was burning with anger, rage, horror, and tearful devastation at the events which take place in it. Events which are absolutely real and are happening to this day. To say I am appalled would be the understatement of the millennium.
Laura Bates' 'The Burning' burned and broke me. And I couldn't be happier that it exists.
Because the issues it raises - to do with social media, revenge porn, rampant and undying misogyny, mob mentality, sexist school dress codes, taking care of loved ones, disabilities, mother and daughter relationships, abortion, and toxic masculinity - are real. The story of Anna, a fifteen-year-old British girl who moves to Scotland with her mum to escape her destroyed life, is fictional, but the abuse isn't.
Laura Bates, the feminist pioneer, journalist and founder of Everyday Sexism, had talked to schoolgirls of today and what they face (and continues to do so), and researched about them when writing her novel debut. She also did her research on the epidemic of witch burnings and hangings in the 17th century (as well as the instruments of torture used back then), and how misogyny still exists; only different methods are used to kill women and girls. Methods like social media.
Revenge porn, porn in general, slut shaming, shaming in general just for existing, humiliation, victim blaming, peer pressure - social media is a tool that has made these so powerful, so prevalent, so easy. Misogyny - linking to homophobia, male privilege and fragility, etc. - is like pollution; like a second layer of the oxygen that we breathe. It is yet another tool for oppression and abuse.
And it spreads, and kills, like a fire.
There are no words: Being a teenage girl at school nowadays must be a nightmare.
They just cannot win. The patriarchy has deliberately calculated it so that they can't.
Really, after reading 'The Burning', it seems to me that the only reason why not all women were murdered during the witch hunt craze of centuries past is because there were women who joined in on the accusations, the taunting and the shaming, as a survival tactic. They were "the good girls", according to the men in charge; no voice, no fuss, no annoyances (seriously, men could have their wives convicted of witchcraft just for being "nags"), no breaking from convention, and therefore they were worthy of living. Internalized misogyny and men's misogyny go hand in hand to ensure the survival of the human race, in a sick, twisted catch-22 situation.
It also seems to me that most males hate females so much it kills them inside. There have always been boys and men who would masturbate constantly over pictures of nude girls (including underage girls) - which says a lot about their own nonexistent sex lives - and at the same time would tell these girls to go kill themselves for being deemed sluts. Replace "slut" and "slag" and "whore" and "bitch" with the word "witch", and see how scarily little things have changed for females in our so-called progressive times. Women are not and have never been witches or sluts or bitches or even rebels; they just exist.
They are girls, and that alone is a punishable offense.
The public shaming and humiliation techniques for oppressing girls - any excuse to oppress, control and even kill girls - are there. Same house, same system, different tools.
Misogyny = girl has body, she deserves ridicule, torment and death; girl has voice, she deserves ridicule, torment and death. It's to keep her down, to keep her small, to make her appear unseen yet seen; for convenient hetero male consumption and perversion (which the men will then blame the women for). It's to make women deemed no longer human in society, and so deserving of literally every horrifying and purely evil thing to happen to her.
For the initiators of revenge porn and other online and public misogynistic abuse practices, there is no line they will not cross. They have no decency, no conscience, no heart, no soul. They are evil, they are monsters, they are criminals, and there is no excusing their actions. They are predators: dead set, determined, and unwavering and relentless in harassing and destroying their prey by any inhumane means. They feed off of their victim's misery and despair. They simply do not care, because they know they can get away with it. That no one can successfully stop them. Because when has anybody ever? If their female prey do end up killing themselves to escape it all, then the misogynists win, and they will positively revel in it, and will consider it a victory. Another slut dead, who cares? and now to find a new target.
Misogyny and sociopathy - I honestly cannot think of a more dangerous and terrifying combination.
(And I've yet to see any evidence which suggests that most misogynists are not sociopaths.)
For all the good that the internet and social media has done for us humans, it has made this possible as well.
Misogyny - the almost universal, irrational, violent, sadistic, perverse, lustful, tormenting and all-consuming hatred of all women - the "lesser" humans - for existing - is a disease, and we must work on curing it for good. We can't keep living like this. It needs to stop, for literally everyone's sake.
In 'The Burning', everything that happens, every issue it presents, is there for a reason. It is very well written for a debut novel. Similar to all good suspense thrillers it starts out calm and slow, but like any fire spark to a gas leak it can explode in a hot, burning devastation when you least expect it; when you are at your most comfortable and vulnerable, unaware of your impending victimhood. All of the characters except for the evil, monstrous schoolboy bullies are well defined and developed. There is female friendship (and moving on from bad friends), rocky, multidimensional and positive mother and daughter bonding (more YA needs this, I swear), grief and dealing with the loss of a parent, befriending a genuinely nice boy (a bookworm, so you know he's good), befriending a nice elderly man and local author in a wheelchair, making lists as a coping mechanism, swimming, and a cat.
As for the reviewers who criticise the supernatural element to the book, involving a four-hundred-year-old necklace that can pass on the previous wearer's memories to its current possessor, and possible real witchcraft? Come on - as if cultural misogyny, slut shaming and victim blaming are any less ludicrous and illogical. It didn't pull me out of the story at all, in fact I found it to be mysterious, thrilling and exciting. And the book makes it clear that the women in it are not witches - they are only called that by the people who hate them and want them dead. The simultaneity of the words "witch" and "slut" is deliberate.
Women, whatever the time period, are just their own full, rich, complex selves. They are human, and that's that: there is no debating it. Why are there so many people who can't seem to comprehend this?
Oh right, the wicked spell of misogyny cast by the patriarchy which is as yet unbroken.
'The Burning' - just read it, even if it will destroy you. Even if it will make you bemoan humanity throughout. That's a good thing. Every issue in it needs to be made aware to everybody, because it speaks the truth. It's YA about rape culture that doesn't end on a downer, nor leave you cold, hollow and hopeless like Louise O'Neill's 'Asking for It'. It is 'Speak' for the 2010s, and a worthy follow up to Courtney Summers' 'All the Rage'.
Anger can be a useful tool for ending the patriarchy, rather than feeding it. Be brave, be resolute. Fuck knows it's not easy, but try. Try not to give up, otherwise they win.
Remember: love - and support - will always be far more powerful, impactful and longer lasting than hate.
Final Score: 4.5/5
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