Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Feminist literature... get me started!

12 replies

WomanInBoots · 11/07/2018 13:19

Hello. Have been lurking for a while... got drawn here after someone on another forum I'm on started a thread about whether men have periods... so you can guess the Google search that hooked me in.

I've always thought that I'm lovely and liberal and inclusive. But now I'm not so sure! Right now I desperately want to educate myself more about feminism. I've always said I'm a feminist and rejected being put in a gender box as much as I could. Being able to do lots of things that "girls can't " better than the boys could as a kid means I've always thought that stuff was bull. But I'm not sure it has gone further than that in my head and I want to educate myself now.

My DH also says he's a feminist and usually we discuss issues together and it's great. But I tried to talk about the trans thing with him and he just shut me down. He's staunchly liberal you see so any hint of bigotry or perceived bigotry is quickly stamped on... so I'm conflicted because I don't want to be a bigot but I also don't believe in the gender distinctions that the trans narrative seems to rely on.

And, the short story is, I just want to read as much useful feminist stuff as I possibly can so I can start to give words to the shapes of ideas forming in my mind. Mumsnet has been an education and I feel like my strength as a woman is being awakened from dwelling here for a while.

So yeah, recommended reading please? Preferably stuff I can get on kindle! TIA lovely mumsnet feminists.

OP posts:
UpstartCrow · 11/07/2018 13:32

Backlash by Susan Faludi
oceanofpdf.com/pdf-backlash-the-undeclared-war-against-american-women-download/

Feminism and Its Discontents: A Century of Struggle with Psychoanalysis by Mari Jo Buhle
oceanofpdf.com/pdf-feminism-and-its-discontents-a-century-of-struggle-with-psychoanalysis-download/

You Don’t Have to Like Me: Essays on Growing Up, Speaking Out, and Finding Feminism by Alida Nugent
oceanofpdf.com/pdf-epub-you-dont-have-to-like-me-essays-on-growing-up-speaking-out-and-finding-feminism-download/

Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism by Nancy Bauer
oceanofpdf.com/pdf-epub-simone-de-beauvoir-philosophy-and-feminism-download/

The War against Women by Marilyn French is depressing but an eye opener.

DancelikeEmmaGoldman · 11/07/2018 13:34

Kate Millett - Sexual Politics

boldlygoingsomewhere · 11/07/2018 13:40

Of Woman Born - Adrienne Rich

Pornland - Gail Dines

Women and Power - Mary Beard

Delusions of Gender - Cordelia Fine

Dottierichardson · 11/07/2018 13:59

Everyday Sexism
Girl Up
Misogynation all by Laura Bates

Delusions of Gender
Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine

We should all be Feminsts

Dear Ijeawele, or a feminist manifesto in 15 suggestions both by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie

Self-Made Man: My Year Disguised as a Man by Norah Vincent

Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter

Women and Power by Mary Beard

The War on Women by Sue Lloyd-Roberts

DJLippy · 11/07/2018 14:26

Great on-line archive here of radical feminist literature
radfem.org/

hackmum · 11/07/2018 14:43

I'd second Sexual Politics and The Female Eunuch.

A book that had a really big influence on me at the time it was published but which a lot of people seem to have forgotten about is Man Made Language by Dale Spender. It is one of those books that changes the way you think - once she's pointed out how language is biased towards the male experience, you notice it everywhere, all the time.

Writersblock2 · 11/07/2018 18:12

Anything Greer. Your mileage may vary on way more modern feminist texts. Though Gail Diane’s, Julie Bindel and Robert Jensen are always worth a punt!

WomanInBoots · 11/07/2018 21:41

Amusingly or not the radfem.org page is blocked by parental controls on my phone... now I'm pretty sure we haven't got any deliberate parental controls set up, not being parents so there must be some standard setting thing going on. Clearly a dangerous website.

Thank you all for the suggestions. gets stuck in

OP posts:
Synecdoche · 11/07/2018 21:43

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler And Vagina: A Biography by Naomi Wolf.

WomanInBoots · 11/07/2018 21:45

Oh and I've just read We should all be feminists So I have already started somewhere. Have downloaded Women and Power and one from Andrea Dworkin will get some Greer read as well to start with. Smile

OP posts:
HelenDenver · 12/07/2018 08:34

Also some good suggestions and discussions here:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/feminist_book_club

New posts on this thread. Refresh page