Required reading

[newrubylane]

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?

[newrubylane]

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

[DreadPirateLuna]

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.

[sawdustformypony]

[ValancyRedfern]

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

Anything by Audre Lorde.

[hoodathunkit]

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

[mintkoala]

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.