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
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
Euripides' Medea. actually it's been interpreted as both misogynistic as well as feminist. either way, it's worth reading. I recommend the Esposito translation for those who don't read classical Greek.
and if any of you out in the Jezesphere are interested in a feminist take on the Classics, a great secondary source is the book Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome, ed Amy Richlin. I recently wrote a paper on rape in Ovid, and this book gives a pretty good introduction to feminist scholarship in Classics. actually I'm expanding that paper into a new one from a slightly different angle, and it's gonna. be. awesome. on female-on-female violence and metaphorical rape in the Ovid's Metamorphoses. I'm pretty stoked about it, and if you've read this far, thanks! #feministbooks
@andromache: My AP Lit class read Medea at the beginning of this year! All the guys (and a majority of the girls) thought Medea was the worst and most disgusting person they had ever read about. My friend and I, enlightened feminists that we are, understood her actions to some degree, as awful as they were. Besides, it's a Greek tragedy, no one comes out looking good in 'em! #feministbooks
@taliewalie: Medea represents what all (ancient) Greek men feared: a strong, independent-minded (foreign) woman who would stop at nothing to exact revenge on her husband. she also gives some great commentary on how much it sucked to be a woman in her time and location (especially when she says she'd rather go into battle than have children, since childbirth was inherently dangerous). if you ever want to learn more about the myth of Medea, I recommend reading Ovid's treatment of her in the Metamorphoses, because he focuses on the sympathetic side of the character rather than the murderous side. Seneca and Flaccus also wrote tragedies (in Latin) but they're nothing compared to Euripides anyway. #feministbooks
I can recommend the pretty obscure Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, a novel about three World War I era male explorers who get lost & stumble upon an all-female utopia in which women reproduce simply by willing themselves to pregnancy & chief values are Strength, Health, & Intelligence. It was required reading for Men, Women, & Justice, a poli-sci course that examined gender politics & one of the few books I didn't sell back at the end of the term. #feministbooks
@doit2julia: "Herland" sounds interesting and perhaps it will be better than "The Cleft" by Doris Lessing, which sorely disappointed me. I am normally a Lessing fan (I loved the Children of Violence series and "The Golden Notebook") but "The Cleft" really left me cold. I suppose with as prolific as she has been, there have to be a few duds, though. #feministbooks
I absolutely loved Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, by Alix Kates Shulman.
I first read it when I was in middle school (about 15 years ago). It was the perfect introduction to the world of feminist literature.
I've since read a few other novels by Shulman, and they're all excellent. #feministbooks
@PoisonPixie: maybe you mean 'when god was a woman' by merlin stone, also another along similar lines by barbara walker, 'the women's encyclopedia of myths and secrets,' both rather fascinating to peruse at leisure along with robert graves 'the white goddess,' three to dip into and read pages at random. #feministbooks
Woman at Point Zero, anything by Gloria Anzaldua, Maria Mies: Patriarchy and Accumulation. Nothing like a little Patriarchy-as- Capitalism to get your blood going.
I am surprised no one has mentioned bell hooks! Feminism is for Everybody.
Also, these are the books that I devoured when I discovered feminism:
- Manifesta: Young Women and Feminism by Amy Richards
- Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism by Daizy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman
- To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism by Rebecca Walker.
- Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism by Leslie Haywood
I am sad that I haven't read many of the classics - Feminist Mystique, anything by Audre Lorde, Virgina Woolf, Noami Wolf, etc...love reading these comments for my ever growing reading list! #feministbooks
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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
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
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Those are the ones I lend out/make everyone promise to read, anyway.
(*and hey, my reading list, my choice!) #feministbooks
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11/13/09
and if any of you out in the Jezesphere are interested in a feminist take on the Classics, a great secondary source is the book Pornography and Representation in Greece and Rome, ed Amy Richlin. I recently wrote a paper on rape in Ovid, and this book gives a pretty good introduction to feminist scholarship in Classics. actually I'm expanding that paper into a new one from a slightly different angle, and it's gonna. be. awesome. on female-on-female violence and metaphorical rape in the Ovid's Metamorphoses. I'm pretty stoked about it, and if you've read this far, thanks! #feministbooks
11/13/09
Have you read Antigone by Sophocles? Absolutely phenomenal. #feministbooks
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I first read it when I was in middle school (about 15 years ago). It was the perfect introduction to the world of feminist literature.
I've since read a few other novels by Shulman, and they're all excellent. #feministbooks
11/13/09
11/13/09
11/14/09
11/13/09
11/13/09
Also, these are the books that I devoured when I discovered feminism:
- Manifesta: Young Women and Feminism by Amy Richards
- Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism by Daizy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman
- To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism by Rebecca Walker.
- Third Wave Agenda: Being Feminist, Doing Feminism by Leslie Haywood
I am sad that I haven't read many of the classics - Feminist Mystique, anything by Audre Lorde, Virgina Woolf, Noami Wolf, etc...love reading these comments for my ever growing reading list! #feministbooks
11/13/09