Posted by roxy_fondue on 2004-04-21 09:58:57
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Bitch is a fantastic magazine! i've had a subscription for a while now, and i've never been disappointed. I know that their new issue is out, but i haven't received it yet (i live in canada so it takes a bit longer). every day at approximately 2:15, i run out the mailbox with such anticipation. of course, i've been disappointed, but fingers crossed that today's the day. i love me some feminist literature, especially when it comes in magazine form (my ultimate guilty pleasure).
Posted by anthrogirl on 2006-02-05 22:35:04
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I am sad that she's gone, but I think it's important to point out that she left a mixed legacy. Betty Friedan was at the forefront of chasing lesbians out of NOW, calling them a 'lavender menace'. she despised leatherwomen. While her book The Feminine Mystique still has validity, there was one thing she got terribly wrong- she didn't seem to realize that many women were already working- and most of those women were poor women who often worked cleaning the houses of other women who did a very limited amount of work inside or outside the home. My grandmother was a day-worker- she would have given anything to have stayed home while she was younger, to raise her own children instead of having to leave them with her own mother, to cook food only for her only family, to eat off the very plates she herself washed.
I live in New York, where many 'liberated' professional women pay other women- often poor women of color- to clean their apartments and raise their children for low wages, no health care, and extremely limited time off. Many of these women have to leave their children in their home countries or neighborhoods, and essntially live apart from them, especially if they work as nannies. In my neighborhood, they are often ignored, or treated as if they are invisible. They are not afforded opportunities or enough money for an education, and neither are their children. When my mother told me what day-work was like (she did it as a summer job while growing up), and how it felt to not be allowed to eat off the very plates she had washed, I understood why she had worked so hard to give me a good education.
While I am a feminist, I am still disturbed at how mainstream feminism, of which Fiedan was a stalwart, ignored the complexities of women's lives, and how many women exploit other women for their own purposes. Friedan's work for the most part did not trickle down to people like my grandmother and mother, who did not have the same choices available to them as others, or the leisure to read feminist literature and thought. At the same time I realize that women like my mother benefited from the idea that women are capable of more than cleaning a house, if they wish to do something other than that.
Posted by moon_lemming on 2005-01-28 09:35:43
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I haven't read much on feminism (having the same problem you do with not knowing what to read), but I recommend The BUST Guide to the New Girl Order as sort of a fluffy feminism book. It was the book that launched me into identifying myself as a feminist.
I really want to read some bell hooks, but am afraid I'll never actually read the books if I buy them. She's generally rec'd whenever I look into feminist literature. Jennifer (I want to say "Garner," but I know that's not right, hee) -- I can't remember her last name -- something's Manifesta is supposed to be a really fun read re: third wave feminism.
(Her name is Jennifer Baumgardner, I looked it up on Amazon. They rec'd Iron Jawed Angels as a related interest, and I have to say, I loved that movie. I had no idea what women went through to get the right to vote in this country before I saw it.)
Anyway, sorry for rambling, I'm interested to see recommendations, too!
Posted by leCandypopRock on 2005-03-28 11:48:00
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jen, i understand your need for "smart" books. though i too love all the fun and light-hearted stuff a lot. my bookshelf has some academic stuff, but mostly pertaining to health and meditation and new age-y things. i read a lot of craft books, metaphysical books, cook books, gardening books, fairy tales (kiddy and more mature both) and TONS of children's lit. so every so often, i crave more heavy type things. i find a lot of feminist literature very, very entertaining AND academic... they actually make me feel smarter (in that my brain is becoming open to new ideas and perspectives). reading parts of 'the feminine mystique' especially was great. i love anything by bell hooks and i think i even consider the brash and sometimes sarcastically humourous 'bitch' (wurtzel) to be pretty brainy. maybe that's just me.
other stuff i didn't really come around til until after high school was kafka, camus, sartre, nietzsche... stuff that's all mentioned in the curriculum but i didn't really appreciate it til i was older. there are a ton of authors i really love that definately make way for heavier enjoyment reading (banana yoshimoto, sylvia plath, katherine davis and kurt vonnegut are my favorites), but there's still that element of fantasy and fiction that isn't so interwoven with academic flair that in a way i still consider that stuff to be kids books for the grown up me. ;)
Posted by honeybee on 2005-03-01 12:46:54
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But I am nervous that, in the past, the version of 'feminism' this brings forward is not a liberal feminism. For example, the bit of the article that honeybee cites - that women being outsiders from the authority positions in institutions is really a good thing because then they don't have to follow protocol - makes me terribly nervous. What does this leave women free to do exactly? Make subtle suggestions to their husbands while serving him dinner?
i interpreted this differently-the way i see it is that the people outside of the mainstream institutions don't have to hedge their words and follow the antiquated constructs dictated by these institutions; rather, they can speak and act freely, and in doing so, garner more attention with their stronger and more radical ideas. work for change from the outside in, if you will.
and i also get a different impression about the faith of the women in these gatherings. perhaps i'm projecting my own loose medley of paganbuddistagnosticism, but i don't see where christianity is the loudest voice of the group in the article. (then again, i don't think 'god' when i read 'divine source'- it sounds to me like a more inclusive term that isn't limited to one form of religion). i, too, balk at the word religion, but the term spirituality has a much different feel to me and that's the word that stands out in my mind after reading the article in utne.
slight tangent- i was not, as many of you have been, formally schooled in feminism-i didn't take women's studies courses, and my attitude toward most feminist literature is similar to my attitude towards art- i feel more comfortable coming to my own conclusions and adopting styles and beliefs that feel most natural to me, rather than going on what the masters or experts dictate. also, i was not raised by a self-proclaimed feminist, though, when i was young, my mother always made sure i knew i could be anything i wanted and that boys and girls were equal. that, in addition to being lucky enough to not have encountered discrimination based on my sex have lead me to take my rights as a woman for granted. i guess my point is that sometimes i feel devalued by scholarly feminists and a bit out-of-the-loop with all the talk of second wave, third wave, etc, especially when i speak of my values as a woman who is in touch with my innate connection to the cycles of nature and the wonders of carrying, birthing, and nurturing another being. these are primarily feminine qualities and abilities, and to hear dissent over my feelings and beliefs is sometimes frustrating.
/end tangent (for now ;). and i'm getting a lot from this discussion.
and there are more points i wanted to address, but i don't feel like a megapost right now.
