Books on Feminism

Intriguingly, “she who walks on water” was one of the names used to describe the mother-deity who was worshipped by the people who wrote the Old Testament, before she was erased. I do wonder whether the cult that became Christianity was, in its earliest form, a revival of old forms of mother-worship. There’s so much in there about looking after the vulnerable. Quite a lot of the macho stuff was added on later, by Paul.

Not sure who cooked the Last Supper (good guess, the women who were also at the table since a Passover meal is not male only) but Mary Magdalen and Mary Salome probably paid for it. Quite likely a room in a house they owned, too.

The value of her points is that they are a bait-and-switch for some really, really nasty stuff about ethno-supremacy. Have you even seen her Twitter?

I'm fascinated by the idea that someone can actually read the book and not recognise there is some value in the nuanced points she raises.

Seriously? The woman who thinks contraception ruins sex? I hope she has the cure for HIV, syphilis and herpes tucked away somewhere.

Every woman should read 'The Female Eunuch'.
Very easy reading (unlike some of the more academic suggestions above, which I well remember starting and abandoning in my youth).

And there's this resource on second wave feminism too.
Frauenkultur

Yes, that very dissapointing Helena Kennedy. The cases still happened and the women involved are women, rather than men larping as women. I think the evidence and discussion of misogyny in our legal system is important. If there is an equivalent replacement book I would recommend that instead, but I don’t know of one. Very open to suggestions.

Mary Harringtons Feminism Against Progress is excellent for where we are right now and where we are going

This Helena Kennedy? https://www.theguardian.com/law/2021/feb/22/ill-set-no-limits-on-which-women-to-protect-from-hate-says-helena-kennedy the "all women" meaning men too Helena Kennedy?

Just took a look at http://www.troubleandstrife.org/

it is so awesome! Just the first page sets my brain off.

is there anything equivalent now? Things are more disaggregated across platforms like Medium and Substack I guess and the style/quality of the writing is so different.

That's a point - there was a lot of very good feminist writing in magazines. I've got a pile of vintage Spare Ribs from the 80s and 90s upstairs somewhere, which have stood the test of time very well.

I just mentioned Backlash when I was teaching yesterday! It's a good one.

Lots of the Trouble and Strifes (all of them maybe?) are online. I have the reader though - it's fab.

1980s!

Two more that don't get mentioned v often but were formative for me:

Backlash by Susan Faludi

The Trouble & Strife Reader ed. by Deborah Cameron. - fantastic essays from the magazine which ran from 1880s I think.

Just coming back to Dale Spender, mentioned by a PP - she is a very accessible writer, and I think is sometimes overlooked today. 'Woman of Ideas - and what men have done to them' is a great read. The book that really switched me on to feminism was The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer.

I've read both Pornography and Right-Wing Women, and they are both very good but also incredibly depressing to read, particularly Pornography.

Oh, and Sheila Jeffreys's 'Anticlimax'.

I remember my joy at discovering Andrea Dworkin in my early 20s. She was never on the curriculum of anythign I studied, so she was a kind of guilty pleasure. Of the various books, I'd particularly recommend 'Our Blood' as this is not only a collection of very readable pieces that have stood the test of time but it serves as a kind of key to the rest of her work - she explains what she's trying to do, why she makes the arguments she does and so on.

Audre Lorde - anything by her really

When I studied Feminist political theory at Uni (back in the days before it was renamed Women or Gender Studies) we had a great textbook that was really accessible and that dealt with all the major schools of thought. I found it very interesting to read.

There's an edition available to read at the Internet Archive:

https://archive.org/details/FeministThoughtAMoreComprehensiveIntroduction

If you’re near Manchester there’s a fringe book festival this coming Saturday with speakers like Susannah Ruskin, Victoria Smith, Joan Smith etc

Recently White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
Book by Ruby Hamad

You have reminded me, I wanted to read Mother of Invention by Katrine Marcal- might ask for it for Christmas

Fiction that springs to mind
A Family Matter by Claire Lynch
Neon Roses by Rachel Dawson
Have The Men Had Enough? by Margaret Forster

Filia have an online bookshop you might want to browse
https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/filia