Setting up book club / discussion group re. Radical Feminism

[LoveCompost]

Hi, our local library appears to have been ‘captured’ by Stonewall allies . Drag Queen Story Time , Pride flags flying for weeks , LGBTIQ reading group .. I’m wondering if a good way to balance this out is to start a book group focussing on feminist issues ? The proper kind ! I’d be grateful for any advice here as I haven’t a clue and I’m a new feminist too so am unsure as to whether I’d have the confidence to actually be the lead but I don’t mind being the name .

Great help, thank you . Ideas for books please ?

I recommend Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez and May I also recommend News from Nowhere, a feminist collective who deliver, based in Liverpool, as an alternative to Amazon.

If you are planning on asking your local library to let you host your RadFem book club, please be aware that you will have to accept all members of the community as readers and contributors.

You may choose only RadFem texts but you will not be able to dictate who joins your group or how the discussion flows if you choose a public library as your base.

Limited public funding also means that more "eclectic" texts will not be approved for branch purchase. (Although you can, of course, supply your own texts for your own group at your own cost.)

So books are you suggesting that one shouldn't try to do anything feminist because it will suffer the IRL equivalent of derailing?

Aren't we lucky the suffragettes didn't worry about that.

I was not suggesting anything of the sort, just that a public library is just that: a place for all members of the community. If you want to host a group in a public library, you have to accept that you will not be able to exclude anyone from joining your group.

If you want to dictate who can join, then a public library is not a suitable location. You'll need to consider using a cafe/pub/ other non-publicly funded location.

Nor can expect public libraries with limited tax- funded budgets to buy texts that will have a very limited use. Not every requested text is purchased, sadly.

Libraries are inclusive not exclusive.

If you are planning on asking your local library to let you host your RadFem book club, please be aware that you will have to accept all members of the community as readers and contributors.

Well yes of course, but if a group gets together they will get to know each other locally.

Local resources are important for women.

If it becomes apparent that the group attracts undesirable attention then the women can say nothing, disband the group but continue to communicate and meet elsewhere, and flourish privately without disruption.

(It pains me that I actually said that though.)

If it becomes apparent that the group attracts undesirable attention then the women can say nothing, disband the group but continue to communicate and meet elsewhere, and flourish privately without disruption.

Indeed, but any group that was found to be deliberately exclusionary would not be welcome in a public library. If you want to find like-minded readers, this would not be your best option.

Our local library (for example) removes any and all exclusionary flyers stealthily put on notice boards as soon as they're spotted so as not to make other members of the public feel excluded from what should be a welcoming environment for all members of the community.

I imagine that other public libraries feel the same way.

You really think you can stop local women meeting up in a library?

You really think you can stop local women meeting up in a library?

Why would a library want to that? If the group was willing to abide by the library bye-laws and be accepting of any member of the community that wished to join the group then a feminist book-group would be very welcome.

Women need to be careful because they can't say no to any males that want to join their women's group.

The library byelaws quoted: "can be used when necessary to deal with the more extreme cases of behaviour experienced"

Cos we all know what trouble actual women cause when they meet up in a library.

No.
I'm talking about a disruptive person.

Local women meet up in a ibrary to discuss women's rights.
Disruptive person joins.
Group disbands but remains socially connected.
Call it speed datingmeeting if you like.

Women need to be careful because they can't say no to any males that want to join their women's group.

You can do exactly as you please in your super-sekret exclusionary wimmins group. If you are in a private space you can set the rules. Absolutely no one will stop you. Nor should they.
If you are in an inclusive community space you abide by the inclusive bye-laws. Simples.

Set up your book-group, enjoy it, learn from it; but if you want to use a public, tax-funded, inclusive space then you 're obliged to be inclusive (damn, pesky, inclusive, welcoming libraries) of all members of the community that use them.

Your exclusionary posters won't be welcome there either, but that doesn't mean you can't pay to publicise your group else-where.

I'm not sure why this is so hard to understand, and certainly, no-one is preventing you as an individual from using your public library if you wish to do so within the published bye-laws.

Such a group ought to have a plan for what happens if one or more people show up who have XY chromosomes and bodies to match, but who will tell you they're women, and how they want to join with other women in discussing women's concerns. I suppose you can tell them in conversation "I don't think you're a woman" but I imagine that under the library's rules, you can't stop them attending. In fact, you can't keep the meeting to just women under any circumstances--if men want to join, you have to let them. Is that going to work?

How can my local library host refugee groups, baby singing groups and craft clubs for kids then? Surely they'd have to let in all those who "felt" displaced, child free adults and anyone who fancied doing craft?

You can do exactly as you please in your super-sekret exclusionary wimmins group.

Well that didn’t take long. Went from “you need to be careful you’re not breaking any rules” to “TWAW and you’re a bunch of bigots”, in a shorter time than usual.

So ebooks, does that mean any adult can join the parent and toddlers story time group, even if they don’t have child? Even if their presence makes the actual parents uncomfortable?

How can my local library host refugee groups, baby singing groups and craft clubs for kids then? Surely they'd have to let in all those who "felt" displaced, child free adults and anyone who fancied doing craft?

All those groups are very welcome. But you have to understand that libraries will not exclude transwomen from a feminist book-group. I suspect they wouldn't exclude men specifically either as there would be no reason to prevent men from wanting to read and discuss feminist texts in a welcoming environment. If you want a women's group in a libray then you accept transwomen. If you want a group that discusses feminist texts in a library then you would have to accept anyone that wanted to join, male or female, man or woman.

Most groups are self-selecting, and unaccompanied adults are removed from children's areas as the bye-laws allow for this.

Well that didn’t take long. Went from “you need to be careful you’re not breaking any rules” to “TWAW and you’re a bunch of bigots”, in a shorter time than usual.

I'm not the person who wants to run an exclusionary group in an inclusive environment... I know what that sounds like to most people.

I'm not the person who wants to run an exclusionary group in an inclusive environment... I know what that sounds like to most people.

Why is it such an issue for you that a group of women want to meet to talk about women’s issues? Why would anyone who is not a woman be so invested in joining that? Are women not permitted to have ANY male free spaces? That’s a very misogynistic and creepy viewpoint.

Most groups are self-selecting

Yes eBooks,

at last, you finally said it.

Most groups are self-selecting, and unaccompanied adults are removed from children's areas as the bye-laws allow for this.

I think you’ll find that the law also permits those of the female sex to exclude those of the male sex, or are you not interested in females having rights?

Is it just libraries that this applies to or any publically funded building? Those sessions for dads at my local sure start centre - should I report them?

If you want a women's group in a libray then you accept transwomen

You’re wrong you know. You might wish to be right, but you’re completely wrong. Nice try.