Brev till Mannen review

Comedian, actress, and author Bianca Kronlöf’s successful book Brev till Mannen (translated by Karin Filipsson as Letters to Men) became the talk of the town in the fall of 2021, when her success landed her appearances on talk shows, on the news, and on magazine covers. Her feminist satire/pedagogical/manifesto was a breath of fresh air and came after a time of backlash after the MeToo movement and in a political landscape colored by Trump’s America and its effect on the conversation between men and women. In her book, she speaks to men in her own peer group, friends and lovers, as well as relatives, older men, younger men, and she asks for their loyalty, help and commitment to the feminist struggle for gender equality. By doing so, she responds to some of the most commonly heard statements and questions which she, like many of us, often hear in response to feminism, such as ‘but my Mom was the stronger one in my family’, ‘but I have always loved having a female boss’, ‘well, I have never seen any unfair treatment of women in my friend group/work place’ or ‘but isn’t it much better now than in the 1950s?’

I ask: How will you show me that you ‘stand behind’ me if you can’t do it publicly? How will you show me that you think this is ‘important’ if you refuse to speak about it? How can society change if you are not being open about what you disapprove of? How will things change if you continue to keep your mouth shut?

Letters to Men is a call for action to men, because, as Kronlöf argues, women need them as allies in the fight for equality and against violence and injustice towards women, and she is tired of answering the same questions over and over, and she is tired of the silence, the silence from men.