You’re Doing it Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women

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Published: 2 November 2021
ISBN: 9781760896973
Imprint: Viking
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 352
RRP: $34.99

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You’re Doing it Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women

Kaz Cooke On tour

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You’re Doing it Wrong is an outrageous tour through the centuries of bonkers and bad advice handed down and foisted upon women, told as only Kaz Cooke can – with humour and rage, intelligence and wit.

Come with Kaz on a laugh-out-loud frolic through centuries of terrible advice, from 14th-century clergy to the Kardashians (wear a dress made of arsenic, do some day-drinking, have sex with a billionaire biker, worry about your vagina wrinkles). It’s also a roar against injustice, a rallying cry for sisterhood and a way to free ourselves from ludicrous expectations and imposed perfectionism.

Kaz’s own 30-year history of interest and experience in advice – from her newspaper etiquette column to best-selling books, including Up the Duff and the Girl Stuff series – and years of archives and research have culminated in a full-colour, exuberant shout of a book with hundreds of wacky and sobering historical photos of objects and instructions.

You’re Doing It Wrong examines what we’re told to do (change shape, shoosh, do all the housework), and what we’re not supposed to do (frown, have pockets, lead a country). It covers sex & romance, paid work, fashion & beauty, health advice, housework, and a motherlode of mad parenting instructions – from witchcraft to beauty pageants, with a side of aviatrixes. Put the kettle on and settle in.

Published: 2 November 2021
ISBN: 9781760896973
Imprint: Viking
Format: Trade Paperback
Pages: 352
RRP: $34.99

Categories:

Share…

About the author

Kaz Cooke

For more than 30 years, award-winning, best-selling author Kaz Cooke has been helping generations of girls and women with her practical, reassuring and fun guides to life stages.

Kaz began her career at The Age newspaper as a teenage reporter. It published her famous satirical etiquette column, 'Keep Yourself Nice', and her legendary cartoon strip 'Hermoine the Modern Girl', which also appeared in The Sydney Morning Herald. Readers have enjoyed her work in Dolly magazine, The Australian, The Canberra Times, the Australian Women’s Weekly, and the Cane Toad Times (RIP), and many are familiar with her from all sorts of commercial and community radio shows.

Kaz’s book Real Gorgeous was a blockbuster in the 1990s, tackling the high-pressure ideas of body and beauty on girls and women; her collection of columns 'Living With Crazy Buttocks' won the international prize for oddest title. The original Girl Stuff book scooped the pool for its first edition, winning Australian Book Industry general non-fiction book of the year and the Australian Bookseller's Choice award.

Her other books include the meticulously researched, photo-illustrated book, You’re Doing It Wrong: A History of Bad & Bonkers Advice to Women; the historical novel based on real vaudevillians, Ada; and picture books for children, The Terrible Underpants and Wanda Linda Goes Berserk.

Up The Duff: The Real Guide to Pregnancy, Babies & Toddlers (formerly Kidwrangling), Girl Stuff 8-12 and Girl Stuff 13+ have been updated often and are regularly still on genre best-seller lists: trusted, word-of-mouth-classics bought and gifted between generations.

Kaz lives in Melbourne where she drinks tea, talks on the phone, and can’t find her keys.

kazcooke.com.au