Recent feminist books: a reading club / discussion?

[SimonedeBeauvoirscat]

Hi all, I was wondering whether anyone else out there has been working their way through the recent crop of feminist books, and would like to discuss them?

I have recently read Material Girls by Kathleen Stock, Trans by Helen Joyce and I’ve just finished Feminism For Women by Julie Bindel. I found them all useful, in different ways.

My main takeaway from Material Girls was the very interesting way in which she highlighted the nature of a belief that you don’t really believe - the professed belief that TWAW is analogous to transubstantiation in the Catholic mass, she argues. I felt the book gave me a really solid understanding of the philosophical underpinnings of the debate.

I found Trans to be a great overview of how we got to where we are today, the early history of it all up to the 1990s was really illuminating.

FFW is one of those Marmite books, I think - a bit like its author, as I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me saying. It’s highly polemical and deliberately provocative. I enjoyed it though I thought she could flesh out the logical steps in her arguments more coherently in parts. It was a refreshing change to read something so uncompromising and rooted in truly feminist principles.

Anyone else got any thoughts?

I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then! 😂

I'm still waiting for Trans to arrive @SimonedeBeauvoirscat ! Hopefully other mumsnetters have done this reading 📚

I've just started FFW and have Trans on my reading list. So I'm interested but haven't read the books yet! I bloody love Julie Bindel's uncompromising feminism, was it Rachel Cooke in her review that called FFW a ronseal book? A timely one too I suspect in an environment where feminist are being attacked and slurred so overtly for fighting for and advocating for women's rights.

I found Trans excellent. I didn't think the author sounded "angry" until the chapter about how transgender ideology was disadvantaging schoolgirls in the United States, at which point I could feel her fury bouncing off the pages.

Unsporting by Linda Blade is also good. If you take more than a passing interest in women's sport the names and examples will be familiar, and she also explains how the current situation has come about. When I started it I wasn't sure about the writing style, but I soon settled into it and found it a straightforward and accessible book.

I have Testosterone by Carole Hooven, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez, Why Women Are Blamed For Everything by Dr Jessica Taylor and Men Who Hate Women by Laura Bates still to read. I haven't bought this many new books in years. Does anyone have any advice about which of these I should read first?

Invisible Women is amazing. Men Who Hate Women is really important, but really you don't need to read the whole thing to understand her argument. Haven't read the other two!

I agree that Joyce’s Trans was excellent. (I haven’t read the others yet but I’ve ordered Material Girls after reading some great reviews. Trans was incredibly clear sighted and, I thought, largely compassionate toward trans people whilst being unflinching in its exposure of the top-down, insidious nature of the TRA and gender ideology movement. What I wish I knew more about is the motivations of wealthy donors in supporting TRA groups. It seems so obviously wrong and pernicious to insist that we must all accept as quasi-fact that a trans woman is in fact — rather than merely in law or theory — a woman. Why is there so much money being funnelled toward installing that as a required article of the liberal faith? Any thoughts? I also enjoyed the shout-out to MN and FWR at the end! Actually the whole, brief discussion of why the U.K. seems to be resisting gender ideology more robustly than some other nations was fascinating.

Thanks for all the responses!

Yes @RoseAndGeranium I thought the financial aspect was interesting too - Joyce could have written more about that, perhaps she was limited by word length … I would like to read more on the money side of things, hopefully she or another journalist will write something about it in future.

I haven’t actually read Invisible Women - to be honest I feared it would make me too angry However I do have an amusing anecdote about a guy I was at university with who has always been massively full of himself and absolutely loved saying sexist things in a provocative ‘devil’s advocate’ way … he got in touch with me again after many years to tell me that he had read IW, it had opened his eyes to what a prick he had been in his youth, and had I read it? when I said no he proceeded to mansplain it all to me in great detail 😂

And thanks for mentioning the other books @KohlaParasanda - I will look into those. I suspect Men Who Hate Women will scare me, it looks like a really impressive piece of work.

Both the Helen Joyce and Kathleen Stock books are excellent, though the Joyce book has the edge for me.

I would definitely recommend Invisible Women. It is one of those few books that really makes you see the world in a new light - an experience I remember having when reading Dale Spender's Man Made Language many years ago. The world around us is designed by men for men.

I am interested in Men Who Hate Women, but I started reading one of Laura Bates’ other books, ‘Misogynation’ and was put off it at the very start when she said that transwomen suffer from misogyny.
I’m sure some transwomen do suffer some abuse from time to time, but that abuse is categorically not misogyny.

Dale Spender's Man Made Language

That - Deborah Tannen's work and Women, Fire and Dangerous Things - not feminist but fascinating.

Laura Bates does have a bit of a trans blind spot but 'Men who hate women' is still excellent and absolutely terrifying. It doesn't explicitly tackle the trans connection (I haven't quite finished but I don't think it is going there) but I could easily see the commonality in the arguments between the manosphere groups and the messages the TRAs are giving.

I'd like to add Milli Hill's 'Give birth like a feminist'. Anyone who has given birth or been in a Labour room should read this and put their own experience into context. Birth is a feminist issue - not just the biology of it but he way pregnant and birthing women are treated by the medical profession.

Thanks for the suggestions! I haven’t heard of some, will look them up. Man Made Language sounds interesting.

On the subject of Laura Bates, I had been wondering where she stood on the trans issue; I hadn’t seen her address it at all and I’d mentally filed her in my list of women who seem to be avoiding the subject - but I haven’t investigated her views myself so perhaps that’s unfair of me. I do wonder how she can write about men hating women without mentioning some of the overt misogyny involved in parts of the trans community. But perhaps I should read the book before judging!

I've read Trans, absolutely brilliant. And her background helped me recommend the book to some people that wouldn't have accepted some more radical names:). I was wondering if you have any suggestions where to start with my daughter.. I would like to recommend some books to her, something gender critical but acceptable for teens:). I was thinking about Girl up from Laura Bates, but I am trying to avoid woke moments as much as possible. Do you think that would be ok or if you have any suggestions, I would very much appreciate it.

I've nearly finished Trans, and I think it's brilliant. I read it after hearing HJ interviewed on the 'Gender a Wider Lens' podcast. Next on the list is 'Irreversible Damage' by Abigail Shrier

do wonder how she can write about men hating women without mentioning some of the overt misogyny involved in parts of the trans community. But perhaps I should read the book before judging!

It's a blind spot that's making me increasingly angry. How can she justify hand waving it away?

The inane, dismissive and callous response she gave to all the questions about it in her mumsnet webchat was something else.