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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Required reading

31 replies

newrubylane · 18/06/2020 14:53

Following on from the 1984 thread. I have noted a couple of other books were mentioned on there, which I plan to read. Does anyone have any other good recommendations on the topic - books or blogs etc?

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mintkoala · 22/06/2020 17:14

I just did a re-read of Woman on the Edge of Time! What jumped out at me this time - and I'm now not sure I am comfortable with it - is that the future feminist utopia is a utopia because the women have stopped giving birth. (Children are created in labs and brought up by groups of three friends.) Mothering is no longer something that women do exclusively. It suggests that women cannot become free without giving up mothering.

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hoodathunkit · 22/06/2020 13:50

More essential reading
Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich
How Positive Thinking Fooled America and the World

the blurb says:

In this highly original and hugely entertaining account, Barbara Ehrenreich confronts the cult of positive thinking in America. She examines the impact of positive thinking on religion, medicine, academia and the business community, and exposes the psychological effects of a world which tells us to ‘put on a happy face’. From the pink ribbons and platitudes that surround breast cancer sufferers to the blind optimism that led to the recent economic disaster, Ehrenreich pokes holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ends with a rallying cry for clarity and courage.

www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003DX0HWC/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3?tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

I really enjoyed this book and it set my mind racing and making connections between disparate fields of research of interest to me. The book critiques the New Thought movement beloved of Ophra Winfrey, Gwyneth Paltrow, Meghan Markle and many other people of influence.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Thought

The New Thought movement has been highly influential in terms of the TRA movement as it promotes the idea that you can be whatever you want to be as long as your thoughts and beliefs are genuine. Sod reality, science, peer reviewed research and skepticism. Fake it till you make it and if you have cancer or are poor it is because you are not thinking the right thoughts. While it appears to be benevolent, new age fluff, the New Thought movement is a significant causal factor tin the creation of the sinister Orwellian world in which we find ourselves today.


also essential reading

Making Monsters: False Memory, Satanic Cult Abuse, and Sexual Hysteria
Richard Ofshe and Ethan Watters

A beautifully written book that, while not addressing the the TRA issue directly, illuminates how whole societies have been swept up in a bizarre form of mass hysteria. This book is actually extremely relevant to anyone interested in how we got here.

www.amazon.co.uk/Making-Monsters-Memory-Satanic-Hysteria/dp/0684196980/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=2P7A81XLT5DT9&keywords=making%20monsters%20richard%20ofshe&sprefix=making%20monsters%20%2Cdigital-text%2C226&qid=1592829886&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

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ValancyRedfern · 22/06/2020 07:03

I think White Fragility is excellent. It could just as easily be called Male Fragility and be about sexism.

Anything by Audre Lorde.

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sawdustformypony · 22/06/2020 06:09
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DreadPirateLuna · 22/06/2020 00:28

An obvious one is The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.

I also liked The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg It's about the "bacha posh", Afghani girls who take the role of boys.

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newrubylane · 21/06/2020 23:54

Thanks all. I've got a lot of reading to do!

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Freespeecher · 21/06/2020 23:27

sourdoughismyreligion

Abridged! It's taking me a while to work my way through it, not sure I'd ever finished the unabridged version. Well worth it though.

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sourdoughismyreligion · 21/06/2020 18:47

@Freespeecher

Ah! I was going to ask for a recommendation for a Cultural Revolution suggestion and it looks like 'Wild Swans' is it.

I'll keep on banging the Solzhenitsyn drum and go with 'The Gulag Archipelago'.

The abridged or the unabridged edition?
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Cascade220 · 21/06/2020 17:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

hoodathunkit · 21/06/2020 17:26

Pomerantsev describes how in Russia advertisments for secretaries and other administrative jobs include the words "no complexes" which translates as "must be willing to provide sexual favours to your employer".

a little sample

books.google.co.uk/books?id=Nb8pDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT11&lpg=PT11&dq=golddigger+academy+Pomerantsev&source=bl&ots=RM-g18KQlH&sig=ACfU3U1T8BwLH8UTWx9gGBiGkpu9vcN8Iw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjivqyhqZPqAhUaUhUIHVLkBDgQ6AEwCXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=golddigger%20academy%20Pomerantsev&f=false

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hoodathunkit · 21/06/2020 17:21
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hoodathunkit · 21/06/2020 17:19

<a class="break-all" href="//www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-True-Everything-Possible-Adventures/dp/0571338526/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=3KR6A9P6FARH5&keywords=nothing%20is%20true%20and%20everything%20is%20possible&sprefix=nothing%20is%20%2Caps%2C176&qid=1592755202&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21" rel="nofollow noindex" target="_blank">//www.amazon.co.uk/Nothing-True-Everything-Possible-Adventures/dp/0571338526/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&crid=3KR6A9P6FARH5&keywords=nothing%20is%20true%20and%20everything%20is%20possible&sprefix=nothing%20is%20%2Caps%2C176&qid=1592755202&sr=8-1&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

absolutely essential reading

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endofthelinefinally · 19/06/2020 22:27

Thanks Dido
I remember listening to a radio documentary about him years ago. I misremembered the details.

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DaisiesandButtercups · 19/06/2020 21:55

We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

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DidoLamenting · 19/06/2020 21:48

Nobel Prize, not Pulitzer.

It wasn't that he wasn't allowed to collect it but he feared that if he went to Stockholm he would be denied re-entry to the USSR.

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endofthelinefinally · 19/06/2020 21:34

I read Cancer Ward when I was 17. Then A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovitch.
Made a lasting impression on me.
He was never allowed to collect his Pulitzer Prize. ( I think it was Pulitzer Prize).

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Ninkanink · 19/06/2020 19:24

Yes I really do need to read The Gulag Archipelago.

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BolloxtoGender · 19/06/2020 08:20

@Freespeecher Yes. Alexander Solzynitsin. Good choice.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064220408537357

Short essay Live Not by Lies

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endofthelinefinally · 19/06/2020 06:50

Thanks goosefoot.
I had a feeling that might be the case. Sad

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Goosefoot · 19/06/2020 02:33

White Fragility isn't worth anyone's time. DiAngelo is the L. Ron Hubbard of identity politics.

Brave New world would be a good choice, though.

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TehBewilderness · 19/06/2020 01:58

Every word Ursula LeGuin ever wrote.

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aliasundercover · 19/06/2020 00:18

The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin

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Freespeecher · 18/06/2020 22:55

Ah! I was going to ask for a recommendation for a Cultural Revolution suggestion and it looks like 'Wild Swans' is it.

I'll keep on banging the Solzhenitsyn drum and go with 'The Gulag Archipelago'.

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endofthelinefinally · 18/06/2020 22:50

Robin de Angelo
Angela Davis ( authors)

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endofthelinefinally · 18/06/2020 22:47

I have been advised to read
White Fragility
and
Women Race and Class.
Has anybody read these?

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