Feminism 101: Core Texts?

[BlueIris]

What books do you think are essential for every feminist to have read? My brain is a little overwhelmed right now, so the only contribution I want to list is (pardon the American bias, here): It Changed My Life, by Betty Friedan.

[Finder]

1. Here are my favorites...

The Other Half-roads to women's equality:Cythia Fuchs Epstein and William Goode
c1971

Pure Lust-Mary Daly

All of Mary Daly's works are insightful. Her books deal with a lot of history, especially church history, the different feminist philosophies etc..

In Their Own Words--an anthology of writings by women in the sufferage movement up to the mid 70s.

[JHB]

2. The Mismeasure of Woman, by Carol Tavris

The Mismeasure of Woman, by Carol Tavris

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671797492/ref=pd_sxp_f/002-3288089-4307252?v=glance&s=books

[Senior citizen]

3. Prof. Gerda Lerner's books:

The Creation of Patriarchy

The Creation of Feminist Consciousness

[Eloriel]

4. I second that!

I really have to get Creation of Patriarchy back in my library (I pared down my feminist and a lot of other books once upon a time). I was so looking forward to her 2nd book, but when I got it, I read the first couple of paragraphs and was SO "triggered" (and not in a good way), I had to put it down. And I never picked it up again. So I should give that one a try to.

Her astonishing (to me) intro remarks was that her research had again and again led her, in this 2nd book in the series which covered later centuries, to the realization that women's core concern through it all was a quest for the spiritual -- and that of course the patriarchy had pretty much kept women OUT of spiritual leadership (unless you call nuns spiritual leadership). Wish I had the book so I could quote it because I'm sure I'm mangling the meaning. It was just way too personal to me. I couldn't go any further.

This reminds me of one of my favorite books: From Housewife to Heretic by Sonja (Sonia?) Johnson. She's a Mormon. There's even some good stuff in it about ole Orin Hatch. Wonderful book. She got kicked out of the church /religion she loved because of her feminist activities including promoting the ERA.

So many of the really great books may seem a little dated, but I think they're worth reading for anyone NEW to feminism -- if they can get past that 1970s funk. LOL.

Anything by Gloria Steinem (but don't read later stuff first, please!). Betty Friedan's Feminine Mystique, which I didn't read until MUCH later in my own feminist education, seemed a pretty good description of 1950s life -- how it was before feminism rocketed onto the scene in the late 1960s (1967, I think, was the founding of N.O.W. -- and it's the National Organization FOR Women).

Whatever book(s) it was by Elizabeth Janeway, wife of economic Elliot Janeway (he was famous during that era).

The Chalice and the Blade by Rianne Eisler -- fabulous book. among other things, it gave me a look at what kind of society might be possible, were patriarchy to be defeated. AND (so valuble) it describes how the ancient matrilineal, goddess-worshipping societies were defeated, and by whom. Hint: It resulted in nearly instant Patriarchy! Wonderful book.

And this one belongs in EVERYONE's library if you're on the left, IMO: Homopobia: A Tool of Sexism by Suzanne Pharr. Lotta people here may not be all that interested in gay rights, and that's perfectly fine (well, for the purposes of this discussion and this book). This is much less about gay rights than it is about the whole system of oppression that affects gays, women, minorities -- how it's built, how it works. It exposes that system for what it is. How "tokenism" works, for example. It's been used as a textbook, it's that good. It's a fairly slim but very, very potent little volume, and not that pricey, either.

When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone and The Feminine Face of God (do I have that right? Hmm. Can't remember the author either), for those who may be interested in spiritual matters.

Marilyn French's Beyond Power: Women, Men and Morals -- I frankly don't remember much about this book, but it's one I put back into my library, with real limited funds for books, so there must've been a good reason.

If you're anti-porn, or wonder why many feminists are, don't miss Letters From a War Zone by Andrea Dworkin. NOT for the faint of heart, nor for the squeamish. These are very, very intensely angry essays, but boy do they hit their mark. (I used to say, "I don't like porn, but it's a First Amendment issue." And I always, ALWAYS had a little glitch go off in my brain as I said it. Dworkin showed me why -- it's all just propaganda for the sex industry, I now understand. This is one dynamite book. Kaboom!! :nuke:

That's all I can think of right now. The wonderful Carol Tarvis book was already mentioned. There were so many during the 70s. Backlash by Susan Faludi, written during the Reagan administration, is an excellent book that documents how TPTB got crazy and decided they could let us be only so free and no freer, and the propaganda and other campaigns to roll back our gains. Again, quite dated, but still illuminating I'd think.

Stay away from anything by Camille Paglia, who is nuts and/or a rightwing shill (never quite made up my mind which, tho there's nothing that says she can't be both). Christine Hoff, or Hoffman? Another rightwinger sometimes posing as someone "helpful," I guess you could say. :puke:

[chicaloca]

15. or, if you're teaching a class....

you could do a point/counterpoint and have students read an essay by Paglia, and then read Molly Ivins' brilliant response in her article "I Am the Cosmos." You can find it online by doing a Google search for the words "Damn me, so was I" (in quotation marks) and then clicking on the cached link below the actual link that Google provides. Or, better yet, you can buy her book "Nothin' But Good Times Ahead," which begins with the Paglia essay. My favorite line from that article:

Ah, but you do not yet know the Camille Paglia school of I-am-the-cosmos argument. Ms. Paglia believes that all her personal experiences are Seminal. Indeed, Definitive. She credits a large part of her supposed wisdom to having been born post-World War II and thus having been raised on television. Damn me, so was I.

I :loveya: Molly Ivins.

[Warpy]

5. Oh, gee, there are so many

"The Womens' Room"
"Beyond God the Father"
"S.C.U.M. Manifesto" (I know, but a good read and great catharsis)
"Our Bodies, Ourselves"
"The Second Sex"
"Against Our Will, Men, Women and Rape"
"The Female Eunuch"

And those are just off the top of my head right now, and I'm tired.

[Kerrytravelers]

6. The Feminist Chronicles

This is a dateline collection of the Second Wave's fight for women's rights.

[BlueIris]

7. "The First 'Ms.' Reader," edited by Francine Klagsburn.

As you may know, this is a compilation of the articles published in the first year of "Ms." magazine. I think it's an excellent and essential slice of thought from the strata of feminist history in America.

[BlueIris]

8. "Feminism Unmodified," by Antonia Frasier.

Even if you do not agree with some (or any) of her key points of contention in this one, (as I do not) this book is a key part of the canon of feminist thought in America. I feel about it the same way I feel about "Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man." You've got to read it, to hate it, and considering the impact I thin it had, it's worth reading even if you do wind up hating it.

[Stuckinthebush]

9. All of the text mentioned in this thread are wonderful

One needs to be added:

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Dr. Butler highlights the problem with male/female sexual dichotomy and starts the highly valuable discourse of sexuality as a continuum.

[tishaLA]

11. This, to me, deserves to be the foundational text

Of any serious feminist, but it's an incredibly difficult book for many people to read and it's filled with specialized language. She has a new book out--I'm not remembering the title--that is, I hear, a simpler version of Gender Trouble.

I admit to having somewhat idiosyncratic tastes in feminist texts, but I always return to a few: Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Women, Margaret Fuller's Woman in the 19th Century, Virgina Woolf's \A Room of One's Own, Gayle Rubin's "The Traffic in WOmen," Audre Lorde's Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, the edited collection All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us Are Brave, This Bridge Called My Back and many many more.

[Eloriel]

12. Wollstonecraft reminds me of a century later, John Stuart Mills

The Subjugation of Women
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=341&topic_id=106&mesg_id=3294


That was SUCH a revelation to me -- Wollstonecraft too, but that was less accessible reading (and therefore a little less exciting to me) and I was frankly more touched that a man had argued the exact same things 2nd Wave Feminism was arguing, over 100 years earlier, and in England. And English women didn't get the vote til a year or so before WE did, despite the likes of JSM arguing on our behalf.

[tishaLA]

14. I love Mill too

In fact, I left him off because of the men in feminism issue! I agree with you, though, about the scope and depth of his understanding of gender oppression. He and Margaret Fuller could keep me busy for a very long time.

[trotsky]

10. Women Without Superstition: "No Gods - No Masters"

http://www.ffrf.org/shop/books/details.php?cat=fbooks&ID=FB8

The Collected Writings of Women Freethinkers of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries.

The first anthology of women freethinkers, featuring more than 50 activists and writers critical of religion. Includes biographical sketches, selected writings, 51 photographs, and full index. (ISBN 1-877733-09-1)

A lot of misogyny and sexism directly come from the modern patriarchal religions. Annie Laurie Gaylor of the Freedom From Religion Foundation did a fantastic job putting together this collection.

[chicaloca]

13. In my intro women's studies class...

we read "Sing, Whisper, Shout, Pray: Feminist Visions for a Just World." Not all the texts deal with feminism or women's issues specifically, but collectively they present a picture of a feminist world. Most of the texts are written by women of color, and a lot of them are really inspiring and uplifting, which is a nice change from some of the other books that can get kind of depressing after a while. Most of the essays focus on solutions and action rather than explaining to the reader what sexism and misogyny are and how they operate in the world. I definitely think that's an important grounding to have, but this book provides a nice balance to the more common "this is how sexism affects women" books.

I'd also second "The Mismeasure of Woman." Amazing book!

[BlueIris]

16. Women: Images and Realities.

Read it in my Feminism: 101 class in college. Excellent compendium of essays, poetry and other materials about feminism (art, for one). I don't happen to recall the editors name off the top of my head (migraine). I'm sure you could easily locate it on a Google search, though I suspect it's one to order.