Strength and Wit
What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal by E. Jean Carroll
A Review by Shawn Audrey Vanness
In What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, author E. Jean Carroll uses humor to delve into the difficult topics of sexual assault and sexual harassment. The title - a reference to Jonathan Swift’s essay about eating children to solve the problem of poverty - is our first clue that Carroll is taking an unconventional tone in addressing the concerns of the #MeToo era. Framing the novel around a road trip, Carroll oscillates between a narrative account of random strangers answers to the big question (“What do we need men for?”) and describing her lifetime journey through sexual assault.
Previous to the release of this book I had never heard of the author, but I came to find out she was a famed advice columnist whose career had her cross paths with the likes of Hunter S. Thompson, Roger Ailes, and Donald Trump. It wasn’t until she described her friendship with Hunter S. Thompson that I recognized the book’s literary style. A style that calls to mind Ralph Steadman's illustration of Thompon’s book, Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, a feeling of being being swept up by a racing car. As I reflect on her long list I see how humor and the abruptness of the stories saves us the emotional toil of living too long in each memory.
Each time a walk through the author’s history threatens to become “too heavy,” Carroll sweeps us back to the present moment and asks stranger, what do we need men for? And we are given common answers, often non-answers. A group of men counter with an age-old, “So our wives will have somebody to boss around”.
The book was highly publicized as a book containing an accusation of rape from President Donald Trump. Carroll has a unique historical role, having meet two of America’s most hideous men, Ailes and Trump, but the telling of her rape by the later in her humorous way gives her the final editorial on the the publication of her story. This is what makes this piece part of the large idea of womanhood in the modern age- the idea that we are in control of the narrative. That even though the act took a great deal from Carroll she is able break her attacker down with her strength and professional wit. I am tempted to write that Carroll stands in contrast to Aziz Ansari accuser “Grace” but a more inclusive way of thinking is how the #MeToo movement can make room for both experiences and all those in between.
Shawn Audrey Vanness earned her BA in English Literature from Miami University in 2009. After which, she taught English in China and Thailand. From 2015 to 2017 and served as a youth development adviser with the Peace Corps Morocco in Zaouia Ben Hmida, a town of 500. Her onsite work included establishing cross-cultural programs, developing a school library, serving on the Gender and Development Committee (GAD), and conducting community outreach in Moroccan Arabic. She currently serves as the Communications Specialist in the Library at her Alma mater, Miami University.