The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan (1405). It's a classic, but one I rarely see mentioned.
Another one I don't see here is The Mismeasure of Woman by Carol Tavris. Really good defense of egalitarian feminism as well as a good smackdown of biological reductionism.
If anyone can recommend a good biography of Hildegard of Bingen, I would appreciate it muchly. #feministbooks
Nekropolis, Maureen McHugh. Future world, middle east. Woman who lives in the necropolis agrees to be genetically programmed to be the perfect kept woman. But then she falls in love with someone else. #feministbooks
I'm cowering here, my virtual forearms over my virtual forehead, but...Gone with The Wind.
Scarlett is a woman ahead of her time and, I think, a feminist. A racist, vain feminist, but her racism (which is very disapproved of in the book and is used as an indicator as how far away from her goal of being a lady she goes as the novel progresses) and vanity don't take away from the fact that she constantly stresses that she can do anything a man can do, and most likely better. She shuns motherhood, runs two successful businesses in VERY male dominated worlds (a general store and a wood mill), manages a huge plantation, finds food for her family when there is none, constantly scorns society's notion of what she should and should not do because of her gender... I could go on for pages. The book is not the movie! The book is wonderful! #feministbooks
@agirlnamedstewart: The book is racist. I don't want to derail this thread (and I seem to remember another thread a little while ago on this same topic), but any book where the "good guys" ride with the KKK to avenge an attack on a woman (hello culture of lynching!), as Frank and Ashley do? Or where only one slave is ever mentioned being whipped at Tara? Where there are no mixed-race folks and all the slaves except Mammy and Peter are shown to be child-like and needing the guidance of white people? A book whose whole theme is that everything about Southern culture would've been just fine if those horrible, uncouth Northerners hadn't come down and ruined it all with their War of Northern Aggression?
Yes, the book contains criticisms of white women's expected roles in antebellum society, and Scarlett's rebellions against those roles are a big part of continually driving the story forward. But to make an argument against Scarlett as a feminist icon: she marries her sister's fiance to save her home. She's not exactly about female solidarity, even with other white women. She's really just about herself. I mean, if the character inspires you, fab, but I wouldn't call her feminist. #feministbooks
@agirlnamedstewart: SO fucking hearted for this. I have been making this argument for years, and have been shouted down by several people. Scarlett's inner discourse about how silly one has to be to catch a husband, and how boring it is to tell men how great they are, should convince people.
1. Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler. I have never looked at not just gender identity but identity the same way ever again.
2. La Conciencia de la Mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzuldua. I felt a profound loss when I found out she had passed away.
Books:
-The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
-The Weetzie Bat books, but especially Witch Baby
-Jane Eyre
-Awkward: A Detour by Mary Cappello. I had the privilege of being her student and the fate of being a person in a fluctuating state of awkwardness. This book is fantastic.
-Anything by Julia Alvarez or Isabel Allende
-Meridian by Alice Walker
-UnLunDun by China Mieville and Coraline by Neil Gaiman for their kickass girl protagonists, but especially UnLunDun because it is just so brilliant.
-My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
-The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel #feministbooks
Eve and Adam by Kristen Kvam, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood, and Great Speeches by American Women. #feministbooks
Okay, I don't want to get in trouble for promoting every single comment in this thread, so I am just going to suggest that everyone view ALL the comments here - some great suggestions!
I would also HIGHLY recommend Femininity by Susan Brownmiller, as well as her Against Our Will: Men, Women & Rape. Backlash by Susan Faludi and Abortion & the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker, while written in the '80s, still ring extremely true. In fact, I may just re-read them (after I tackle some of the recommendations here). Thanks all!
ETA: I really can't recommend Femininity enough - the writing is fun and the history is fascinating.
Going out of our minds: the metaphysics of liberation by latter day saints excommunique Sonia Johnson is a radical inspiration from 1987 that proves the hand that rocks the cradle also can cradle a rock, metaphorically speaking, of course. brilliant. #feministbooks
The Feminine Mystique, Pride and Prejudice*, Our Bodies Our Selves (thanks, Mum), and Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs. Also, in terms of homegrown writers: Fiona Kidman, K. Man, Janet Frame, Fay Weldon.
Those are the ones I lend out/make everyone promise to read, anyway.
@Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith: I loved Female Chauvinist Pigs, and my burgeoning love for Ariel Levy was only bolstered by the various interviews I saw of her. #feministbooks
I don't really read 'feminist' books. I do look for books with strong female characters, but I don't know if I've ever read a book explicitly about feminism. Something to look into.
Also, after reading The Handmaid's Tale, I would get drunk at parties in college and tell people I was going to tattoo 'Pen Is Envy' on my arm to remind myself of the Bush administration's anti-woman agenda. Needless to say, I was an annoying drunk. #feministbooks
@GirlTakeItEasy: I'm with you, I don't read "feminist literature", but I really really love a ripping yarn with a kick-ass female lead character. I'm fond of mystery novels with smart women detectives. #feministbooks
@euterpe35: Have you tried the Evan Delaney books by Meg Gardiner?
Evan is a female sci-fi writer turned detective and utterly bad ass. Love them...especially since mystery or detective stuff can be full of men rushing to save the little lady... #feministbooks
Appetites by Caroline Knapp. It's both a memoir of anorexia, and a critique of the capitalist/patriarchal system of which anorexia is one of many symptoms. And for those of you put off by the usual 'let me tell you all about the details of how I ate nothing but carrots and mustard for 53 months' memoir, this one is... not like that. It is much, much better. Why is Caroline Knapp not still alive and writing more amazing stuff like this? Whyyyyyyyyy?
Reviving Ophelia by... someone awesome! I listened to this on tape on the drive to campus during my junior year of high school, and it made me SO. MAD. to hear about how the situation not only sucked as much as I thought it did-- it, in fact, sucked even worse.
Contact by Carl Sagan. It got me into science, and plainly discussed the problems the sexism agains female scientist cause the field. And the herione is a blazingly smart and fashionable physicist! Le Awesome!
@pajanguin: Eleanor Arroway was my hero as a 13 year-old science nerd. I wanted to be her and I loved the character even more when she was played by Jodie Foster in the movie. #feministbooks
I need to finish The Second Sex, which I started for a feminist & queer theory class but our professor didn't have us read all of it. As well as Carol Gilligan's In a Different Voice, which I simply didn't finish just because I'm a lazy-ass.
I'm also in the middle of Hanne Blank's Virgin: The Untouched History. I recently bought Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks and I think I'm putting Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch on my Christmas list.
11/14/09
11/14/09
11/14/09
Another one I don't see here is The Mismeasure of Woman by Carol Tavris. Really good defense of egalitarian feminism as well as a good smackdown of biological reductionism.
If anyone can recommend a good biography of Hildegard of Bingen, I would appreciate it muchly. #feministbooks
11/14/09
11/14/09
Scarlett is a woman ahead of her time and, I think, a feminist. A racist, vain feminist, but her racism (which is very disapproved of in the book and is used as an indicator as how far away from her goal of being a lady she goes as the novel progresses) and vanity don't take away from the fact that she constantly stresses that she can do anything a man can do, and most likely better. She shuns motherhood, runs two successful businesses in VERY male dominated worlds (a general store and a wood mill), manages a huge plantation, finds food for her family when there is none, constantly scorns society's notion of what she should and should not do because of her gender... I could go on for pages. The book is not the movie! The book is wonderful! #feministbooks
11/14/09
11/14/09
Yes, the book contains criticisms of white women's expected roles in antebellum society, and Scarlett's rebellions against those roles are a big part of continually driving the story forward. But to make an argument against Scarlett as a feminist icon: she marries her sister's fiance to save her home. She's not exactly about female solidarity, even with other white women. She's really just about herself. I mean, if the character inspires you, fab, but I wouldn't call her feminist. #feministbooks
11/14/09
Thank you for posting this! #feministbooks
11/13/09
1. Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler. I have never looked at not just gender identity but identity the same way ever again.
2. La Conciencia de la Mestiza/Towards a New Consciousness by Gloria Anzuldua. I felt a profound loss when I found out she had passed away.
Books:
-The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
-The Weetzie Bat books, but especially Witch Baby
-Jane Eyre
-Awkward: A Detour by Mary Cappello. I had the privilege of being her student and the fate of being a person in a fluctuating state of awkwardness. This book is fantastic.
-Anything by Julia Alvarez or Isabel Allende
-Meridian by Alice Walker
-UnLunDun by China Mieville and Coraline by Neil Gaiman for their kickass girl protagonists, but especially UnLunDun because it is just so brilliant.
-My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki
-The Farming of Bones by Edwidge Danticat
-Fun Home by Alison Bechdel #feministbooks
11/13/09
11/13/09
"White Privilege and Male Privilege: A Personal Account of Coming to See Correspondences Through Work in Women's Studies," Peggy McIntosh
"Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective," Donna Haraway
"Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality," Gayle Rubin
"Monster, Terrorist, Fag: The War on Terrorism and the Production of Docile Patriots," Jasbir Puar and Amit Rai #feministbooks
11/13/09
I would also HIGHLY recommend Femininity by Susan Brownmiller, as well as her Against Our Will: Men, Women & Rape. Backlash by Susan Faludi and Abortion & the Politics of Motherhood by Kristin Luker, while written in the '80s, still ring extremely true. In fact, I may just re-read them (after I tackle some of the recommendations here). Thanks all!
ETA: I really can't recommend Femininity enough - the writing is fun and the history is fascinating.
11/13/09
Whipping Girl: A Transexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Sterano
The Female Nude: Art, Obscenity, and Sexualy by Lynda Nead.
A Room of One's Own by Virginia Wolf
Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett (or any of the Witches books)
Also poems by Dorothy Parker, though I'm not sure she ever identified as feminist. #feministbooks
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
Those are the ones I lend out/make everyone promise to read, anyway.
(*and hey, my reading list, my choice!) #feministbooks
11/13/09
11/13/09
Also, after reading The Handmaid's Tale, I would get drunk at parties in college and tell people I was going to tattoo 'Pen Is Envy' on my arm to remind myself of the Bush administration's anti-woman agenda. Needless to say, I was an annoying drunk. #feministbooks
11/13/09
11/14/09
Evan is a female sci-fi writer turned detective and utterly bad ass. Love them...especially since mystery or detective stuff can be full of men rushing to save the little lady... #feministbooks
11/13/09
Reviving Ophelia by... someone awesome! I listened to this on tape on the drive to campus during my junior year of high school, and it made me SO. MAD. to hear about how the situation not only sucked as much as I thought it did-- it, in fact, sucked even worse.
Contact by Carl Sagan. It got me into science, and plainly discussed the problems the sexism agains female scientist cause the field. And the herione is a blazingly smart and fashionable physicist! Le Awesome!
11/13/09
11/13/09
I'm also in the middle of Hanne Blank's Virgin: The Untouched History. I recently bought Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks and I think I'm putting Germaine Greer's The Female Eunuch on my Christmas list.