“Up for smashing the patriarchy?”
“Yes!”
“Yeah!”
“But… What is the patriarchy, exactly?”

So goes the opening dialogue in Smash the Patriarchy, a fabulous graphic novel for upper YA readers. The much-deserving winner of this year’s GLLI Translated YA Book Prize, it describes and defines terms such as “the male gaze,” “slut-shaming,” and, yes, “the patriarchy” with snarky vignettes and pointed quotes from history. Although Hatshetpsut and Thutmose III of Egypt and Tertullian of Tunisia make cameo appearances, the book focuses primarily on Western civilization.

The many apt quotations include:

“An evil principle created chaos, darkness, and woman (Pythagoras, Greece (CA 570-500 BCE);”

“Women ought to stay at home. Their shape indicates this, for they have broad hips and a wide fundament to sit upon (Martin Luther, Germany (1483-1546);”

“A woman’s education comes at the cost of her charm and attraction (Immanuel Kant, Germany (1724-1804);”

“Woman is useful only as ovary… and womb. (Pierre-Auguste Renoir, France (1814-1919);”

And, of course, the classic, “Thank you, God, for not creating me as a woman,” attributed to a nameless Orthodox rabbinical figure.

Smash the Patriarchy lauds the many women who have struggled against their subservient status quo. It talks about the efforts and achievements of women such as Germaine de StaëI, Charlotte Corday, Emily Dickinson, and Mary Wollstonecraft. It also lightheartedly castigates the numerous male philosophers, scientists, artists, religious leaders, and political figures who have oppressed the female sex. Yet, if all this sounds heavy and dreary, it is not, thanks in large part to the graphic novel format and also to the creators’ witty touch and their quick-witted pointillistic approach to world history.

As you read, you will laugh out loud, and you may well cry. But in all likelihood, this excellent graphic novel will also convince you that it is, indeed, long past time to smash the patriarchy.

Smash the Patriarchy
Written by Marta Breen; illustrated by Jenny Jordahl
Translated from the Norwegian by Siân Mackie
ISBN: 978-3039640188
2023, Helvetiq

Awards: 2024 GLLI Translated YA Book Prize

Reviews: Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal Starred Review

You can buy a copy here* or find it at a library.

*Book purchases made via our affiliate link may earn GLLI a small commission at no cost to you.

Award-winning opera singer Nanette McGuinness is the translator of over 100 books and graphic novels for children and adults from French, Italian, German and Spanish into English, including the much-loved Geronimo Stilton Graphic Novels, as well as Tiki: A Very Ruff Year (nominated for the 2023 Eisner and Harvey Awards) and Alice on the Run: One Child’s Journey Through the Rwandan Civil War (2023 GLLI YA Translated Book Prize Honor Book, 2023 Mosaic Prize winner, 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalist and 2023 Harvey Award nominee). Accolades have also gone to her translations of Magical History Tour: Vikings and of Magical History Tour: Gandhi (both 2023 Excellence in Graphic Literature Finalists), Luisa: Now and Then (2019 Stonewall Honor Book; 2020 GLLI YA Translated Honor Book; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2019) and California Dreamin’: Cass Elliot Before the Mamas & the Papas (2018 Harvey Award; YALSA’s Great Graphic Novels for Teens in 2018).