Recently in Books Category

There has been loads of criticism about Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series; being in the particular target demographic, I've been responding by shoving critical analyses at all my obsessed friends :P

There have already been many wonderful Community posts about Twilight.

But with the Twilight movie coming up (and I'm wincing a lot at that), publicity has been going into overdrive for the series. I was browsing through news articles today, and found an interview with lead actor Kristen Stewart.

While I find most of the interview pretty well-thought-out - and I also find it great that Ms Stewart actually did mention most of the points feminist and literary critics have against Twilight, one bit struck me as a little jarringly off:

Question: Have you followed any of the criticism from the feminist perspective about Bella?

KS: Ugh. I'd love to talk to them. Really. When I read little brief descriptions of the movie, I was like, "I don't want to be part of that." I was working on something else, and I didn't want to have my focus stray. It was like, "I don't wanna be part of this very set unrealistic ideological of love and push it on every little girl because they're never gonna get that." But the vampire in our story is entirely damaged. Bella wears the pants in the relationship. She's the sure-footed confident one. She's naive to the world of vampires and everything like that, but she's not doing it for him. It takes a lot of power and strength to subject yourself to someone completely, to give up the power. It has to start there. You'd be scrambling for it if you needed it. The fact that she is that, she is so trusting of herself.

It really has nothing to do with Edward and giving herself to him and being this weak damsel in distress. It's very courageous what she's doing. She's believing what's inside of her, driving her. It's a very personal thing, what she's going through. It really has nothing to do with Edward. So I don't know why [the criticism].

*Spoiler after the jump*

Hi, all! This is my first time posting in the community section here.  I'm getting my master's in literature, and I'm prepping for my comprehensive exams next semester.  My topic right now is American Women Writers in the 20th century, and I was hoping y'all could help me put together a reading list of women's and feminist literature from the USA.

So far, I'm thinking about Eudora Welty, Flannery O'Connor, Zora Neale Hurston, and Katherine Ann Porter.  Some of the themes I'm most interested in are women's roles, spirituality and religion, the South, and multiculturalism.

What authors and works do you suggest?

And as a bonus: Who are your favorite female writers and why?

Alright, so.  I am currently working as a research assistant for a professor who is looking to extend her dissertation: she has previously done a lot of research on feminist mothers and the children raised by them, but for a variety of factors was limited to studying the outcome of feminist parenting on female children only.  Therefore, she's decided to extend her project by looking specifically at feminist parents and sons (and, you know, generally keeping up with research on feminist parenting).

Here's where you folks come in:

My first post on the Feministing community! Sorry this post doesn't have a catchy title like the Not-Oprah's Book Club series of posts - I'm out of wittiness for the day (maybe even the week - it's been a long one, and it's not even half over).

What finally prompted me to start posting on the Community site is this absolutely awesome young adult book I just read: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks . It's a fun, fast, and very smart, feminist read that is absolutely perfect for teenagers. And perhaps best of all, it's just recently been nominated for a National Book Award for Young People's Literature. I haven't read the other nominated books, so I don't know if this one deserves to win in comparison, but it is more than worthy of a nomination.

Today I got to thinking about a five-year-old Sweet Valley Senior Year book I read. Now, this spinoff is considerably higher-quality than its predecessor: it has no cults, no kidnappings, no evil twins, and relatively few instances of the twins being kissed more passionately than they'd ever been kissed before. Also, some of the new people seem much more real (except for HBIC Melissa Fox and her little helper Will Simmons), and the plots are more honest about what really happens in the world. So it's not as embarrassing to admit that you read it.

But this book, #39 Best of Enemies, contained one element that bothered me. You see, it's time for the big Presidents' Day dance at Sweet Valley High, and the cheerleading squad has been put in charge of organizing it. Tia and Annie make up the election committee. Their discussion is as follows:

Younger Women’s Task Force-NYC Metro Chapter hosts monthly book club meetings. See the end of this post for more information.

I’m always proud to display the books I’m reading on the subway, particularly when they have provocative titles or covers. When God was a Woman was certainly no different; I imagined some people might be intrigued by this title. One day, I was standing in a crowded subway, holding on to the overhead bar. There was a woman sitting directly in front of me, and the cover of the book was practically in her face. I could see her eyeing the book and reading the blurb on the back. I immediately felt a rush of excitement – here’s the moment I live for! I’m inspiring someone to think differently, to see an alternative side to the predominant ideologies we are taught today. Just then, however, I noticed her shaking her head and glaring at the book with unmistakable disdain. I noticed she had a book in her hands as well. My gaze shifted downward to see what it was, and I could only chuckle when I did. It was the Bible.

Clearly, not everyone is open to the idea that before God and Jesus, many inhabitants of the Earth believed a being with breasts ruled the Heavens above. But honestly, why shouldn’t this idea be a shock to people? It’s not something highly publicized, this part of our history really isn’t fodder for any major motion pictures. In fact, it doesn’t even get much play time in high school social studies classes! And even if you go searching for more information on this topic, you’ll find, as Stone herself did, that not much has been written about the civilizations where women held the dominant positions. Additionally, the material that Stone was able to dredge up, she found much of it to have been written by male scholars who, more often than not, injected their religious and social biases into their findings. In response to one scholar’s research that provided a quick dismissal of the idea that skulls of animals were hunting trophies of a prehistoric tribe simply because they were found in the grave of a woman, Stone questions, “Might these authors be judging the inherent physical nature of women by the fragile, willowy ideals of today’s western fashions?” (Intro, xxi). (As this book was published in 1976, we can only hope more objective and valuable resources have since emerged.)

Despite efforts to minimize or erase it from the dominant discourse of our history, existence of female dominated civilizations cannot be denied. There have been numerous excavations of ancient temples and artifacts, as well as accounts of travelers passing through the regions way back when, that exist today to clue us in to the truth of the past. One account from a traveler describes how women, and only women, were involved in the public affairs of daily life – they held public office, fought wars, and engaged in trade. It was the men who were relegated to taking care of the children, the home, and other domestic efforts.

Stone gives a great overview of the violent and forced transition from the goddess-worshipping practices to the current male-dominated religions of today. Some of the events will really leave you horrified. In writing this book, though, Stone does not call for women of the world to rise up in arms and wage a war to take back what is rightfully ours. Rather, she states her purpose for women as this, “With [the understanding of these civilizations], we may be able to regard ourselves not as permanent helpers but as doers, not as decorative and convenient assistants to men but as responsible and competent individuals in our own right. The image of Eve is not our image of woman” (Intro, xxvi).

For anyone who wants to delve further into a more shielded facet of history, for anyone who wants to know what it was like when women were on top, When God was a Woman is a great place to start. 

YWTF-NYC’s November book club meeting will be about Christina Page’s How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America . Check out our Meetup site for more info on upcoming meetings.

Jessica Perl is an active member of YWTF-NYC.

If you're in the New York area, bring your daughters, nieces, little sisters, friends, and neighbors to Blue Ribbon General Store on Saturday, October 18th. I'll be reading from my book, You're Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self , and conducting self-esteem activities for girls from 12-1:30 p.m. You'll be free in time for some Brooklyn brunching. All the details are here.

I wanted to thank everyone on here to helped suggest books (original post ) for my students. Not to leave anyone in the dark, the class split into four groups and chose the following books.

• He's a stud, She's a slut, by Jessica Valenti
  
• Fast Food Nation, by Eric Schlosser
  
• Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, by Courney Martin
  
• Everyday Courage, by Niobe Way

It was up in the air for a while as to which group Jessica's book as each group listed it as their first choice. The group who ended up with the book I was a bit surprised about (in a good way). This group has two of the three guys in the class in it and they were just as much for wanting the book as the gals. Considering the very conservative background of many of the students, it was a happy surprise.

I teach a Freshmen Seminar course at my university (among other classes) and after a few terms of trying and failing to get the students to choose topics that help them see things from points of views they haven't heard of before in regards to social conscience issues, I have decided that this semester each of the small groups (3 to 4 students) in the class will pick a book, read it, research topics discussed in the book and use that for their end of semester presentation.

Three years ago, I was sitting at Jennifer Baumgardner's kitchen table, helping her transcribe and edit the interviews from Speak Out: I Had an Abortion that would become the focus of her newest book, Abortion & Life (Akashic, 2008).  I turned to Jennifer and said, “I don't know anyone who's had an abortion, doesn't that seem odd?” “Well, you probably do,” Jennifer replied, “they just haven't told you.”

After that conversation, I thought a lot about friends and relatives who might be keeping their abortions quiet. I was caught up in the disconnect between my socially feminist role and the absence of abortion stories being shared with me; it just didn’t make sense. I can't recall how many months after that initial conversation the next one occurred, but it wasn't many.

My mother was driving to referee a high school girls' field hockey game and called to check in. I remember being especially reflective that morning and I decided to relay the conversation I had with Jennifer about abortion to my mother. As I explained the situation, my mother boldly interjected, “Well, you never asked me.” I took the bait: “Have you ever had an abortion, Mom?” "Yep," she replied curtly. Wondering why she hadn’t told me earlier, I took her pause as an invitation to proceed with questioning: “When? Where was I? Why didn't you tell me?” Calmly, my mom answered all of my questions, delivering as much detail as I wanted. I detected no hint of shame, guilt, or embarrassment in her tone; instead, I sensed relief.