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"The Other Side of Paradise" by Staceyann Chin

Review by Courtney Zehnder

From On The Issues Magazine

"Am I a feminist or a womanist? The student needs to know," Staceyann Chin begins her poem, “CrossFire.”

Chin continues with her answer:
I am afraid to draw your black lines around me I am not always pale in the middle I come in too many flavors for one fucking spoon…

“CrossFire" reads like a living, breathing organism, with passionate rants against the stigma of being raped and the need society has to stereotype and keep people in easily understandable--and, therefore, manageable--categories.

Out poet and activist Staceyann Chin released her memoir, The Other Side of Paradise, earlier this year. Chin chronicles her journey from an impoverished, abuse-ridden childhood in Paradise, Jamaica to her decision to move to New York City where she became an accomplished college graduate. In it, she never loses sight of the fire and intensity that pulsates through all of her poems. This change in medium for Chin, who is known primarily for her performance art, not only re-emphasizes that she will always defy labels, but also acts as an ultimate assertion of the importance of one’s own voice.

Spoilers for both. Rape and sadism referenced but not explicitly described.

I've recently read two books in which rape plays a major role in developing characters and plots. Please understand that by submitting this post I am not claiming any special insight, but hoping to spark a discussion about what these mean. I understand that some people might find this banal and 101.

In Half of a Yellow Sun , Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie tells the story of the Igbo rebellion and the hopeless fight for the independence of the Biafra region of Nigeria. Over the course of the war, as Nigeria slowly chokes and starves the rebels, the poorly-trained and  leaderless rebel soldiers turn on their own civilian population. A squad gang-rapes a barmaid, and a major protagonist whom the reader has known since he was a sweet little boy succumbs to peer-pressure and joins in the assault. This is the only time in literature I have ever encountered a sympathetic character who commits rape. When he is killed later on I felt really sad, even though he'd done something that I've always been taught puts you beyond the pale of humanity. Adichie is writing about the losing end of a vicious civil war, and that she's not shirking from the fact that good people can do really really really bad things. Perhaps she knows men whom she admires in other ways who've nonetheless done such terrible things, especially under the influence of PTSD, group mentality and macho posturing (most of the soldiers are young men who were drafted forcibly and who are trying to hide their terror). But it's jarring to have a good character commit such an unamiguously evil act, and then to mourn his death.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson goes the other, more traditional route. Larsson uses the act of rape to mark characters as evil, in fact there's almost a 100% correlation between villains and rapists. The one villain who is not exposed as a rapist impregnated a young woman and forced her to have an abortion or be murdered. And the rapists, some of whom are part of a kidnapping-rape-murder cult and one who is a lone maniac, are extreme sadists who engage in all kinds of torture. The rapists are all rich and powerful men, abusing women who are under their power and supposedly their protection. They are all punished with death or torture, and none's demise evokes any pity. Larsson also punctuates his book with statistics about violence against women in Sweden. The original Swedish title is said to translate as Men Who Hate Women. The opposite of Yellow Sun's painful ambiguity, in Dragon Tattoo rapists are evil men and men who aren't evil don't hurt women. For me this is much more comfortable: I don't want to empathize with a rapist. But it also feels exploitative: It seems like he's lazily using violence against women like a black hat to mark the bad guys.

What do others think about violence against women in these books or other fictional literature?

I recently finished Escape by Carolyn Jessop, which details her life in and eventual escape from the FLDS community led by Warren Jeffs.  My interest was partly a general interest in women's issues, and partly because my family is descended from one of the early leaders of the Mormon church (no real believers though for a couple of generations) and I am probably distantly related to at least some of the people in that community.

I should note it is a pretty harrowing story, and those who are easily triggered might want to avoid it.

One of the things I found most interesting was  the practices she details that were used to keep her and the other women in line.

a) She was taught she was practically royal to have been born into the family she was, a favored child of God

b) Entering a polygamous marriage was God's design for her, and the only means to salvation

c) Once in the marriage, pleasing her husband was the way to maintain that possibility of salvation

d) Access to money and transportation was restricted

e) Any misfortunes were her fault, for not being more submissive

f) She was misinformed about what would happen if she left, that there was no way she would get her children

g) The educational system was dismantled; little beyond religion is ever taught

h) A hint of even sexual interest outside marriage could be punished severely

I can see some parallels with tactics used in the mainstream world, though the mainstream isn't typically as extremeas the FLDS. 

Any thoughts?

Dear Feministing Community,

I am a Special Education teacher who works with young adults with Emotional Disturbance and other mental health issues and out of my eight students, I have one young woman. This young woman has severe depression and is extremely quiet but as of Friday, has opened up to me and asked for advice. I tried not to jump for joy when she said quietly while we were shooting the basketball around, "Miss Leonard, can I ask you for advice?"

Anyway, so I've earned this young woman's trust and I would like to start working on empowering her as a woman. Do you have any recommendations for books for the budding young feminist or any ideas on curriculum for a "Girl Power"-type class? I have been researching all weekend and haven't found much of anything. PLEASE HELP! I am desperate to help this young woman overcome her timidness and find her voice. She's so smart and so capable but like all of my students, lack the encouragement from home and/or a strong family support system.

Thank you in advance for your help!

I enjoy reading fantasy. When I read the post bemoaning a lack of feminist fantasy and romance novels, I went back to my book shelf to look through it with a feminist eye.

It was an interesting discovery on my part. For though I have only been identifying as a feminist for less than a year, every single one of my favorite books has a strong woman in it. They also have at least a remotely happy ending, because I don't read fantasy to be depressed at the end of it. I love these writers, and I hope you do, too.

So, here they are:

Anne Bishop

Awesome! My favorite writer EVER. The central theme in all her books is strong woman saving the world. Be warned, her work is dark, though getting less so. Terrible things happen to the lead characters, but they all learn to live beyond it to happy lives. I love her characters because they are not just good or bad. They all have bits of both. Her worlds suck you in and it's hard to leave.

She has three worlds/series which include The Black Jewels Trilogy, the Pillars of the World series, and the pair Sebastian and Belladonna. All are great, but I would start with the Black Jewels or Sebastian.

Does anyone have any suggestions for a feminist health book?  I will be leaving the country for several months, and will be able to have only very limited contact with my sister back in the US.  My sister and I are very close, she is several years younger, and she often asks me questions about sex and her reproductive health.  Since I won't be able to answer her questions directly, I'm looking for a resource to leave behind with her. 

I own the most recent addition of "Our Bodies, Ourselves," and though I think it's a great book, I am looking for something that is even more focused specifically on sexual and reproductive health issues.  Her questions are generally along the lines of "is it normal that my boyfriend does this?," or "is it ok to have sex when I have my period," etc. My sister is in high school, so something that's fairly simple to understand would be ideal.

Women's Voices For Change   presents the concluding segments of Laura Baudo Sillerman's interview with Ginnah Howard, author of Night Navigation.

In part three, Ginnah continues her precis of the sweeping, ambitious trilogy of which Night Navigation will be the central core.

In the final installment , Ginnah talks about her mixed feelings about the honor of the Times review of Night Navigation, and her hope that readers will have a more nuanced response.

Read the series from the beginning:

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Part Four

As a twenty-year old newly-outed queer-feminist booknerd (try saying that 10 times fast!), I'm always looking for new and exciting literature to read -- strong heroines, who happen to like women just as much as I do... is that too much to ask? 

Apparently so.

I visited the Castro in San Francisco for one of the first times today, incredibly excited to become a part of this subculture.  I wandered into a bookstore, ecstatic at the possibility of finding a strong, passionate and queer female heroine to identify with.  Give me a good murder mystery with a queer female protagonist.  Maybe some historical fiction, ladies-in-waiting and all that.  Perhaps even some comedy - I love a good joke now and then.  I looked through all the shelves -- "Gay Fiction", "Gay Non-Fiction", "Gay Humor" the shelves were marked.  Row after row of men loving men loving men. 

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm all for male exploration of sexuality. But tell me why in an ENTIRE bookstore of supposed LGBT literature, only ONE bookcase was devoted to lesbian literature, both fiction and non-fiction shoved in a corner.  Did they forget the L in the LGBT sign on the front of their store? 

Even in this world of queer existence, men get all of the attention, just like they always do.

Perhaps I am in the wrong store, I said to myself, perhaps I just need to find the right place.  So, I kept looking.  I went in another bookstore.  Same deal.  By this time, it was getting dark and I was already frustrated, so I drove home, my search fruitless.

I am quite aware that there are plenty of lesbian authors, both of fiction and non-fiction.  I'm sure that there are multitudes of fantastic fictional stories starring the heroines I've been looking for.  But I can't find them!  Between the bookstores and library, the only thing I can find is ancient texts from the '60s and badly-written erotica -- and even those are in short supply!.  Where are my sassy, snappy lesbian literary heroes?  My Gossip-Girl, queer style? 

Help a sister out! I feel like I am going to be drowning in man-on-man cowboy novels forever.

The Twilight series, penned by Stephanie Meyer, is not a boon to feminism by any means. It tells the story of Bella Swan, a teenage girl forced to choose between two men who display some of the worst characteristics one could imagine in a mate. Edward, a controlling, emotionally abusive vampire, feeds her codependence by the truckload, and Jacob, an immature, violent-tempered shape shifter, uses her emotions to manipulate and intimidate her.

I expected more women to be up in arms about Bella’s false boyfriend dichotomy. I’m sure if more women bothered to read the books before leveling a criticism, they’d have come up with something better than the prevailing criticism of Bella and Edward’s first time.

I first caught wind of this criticism while enjoying a cup of coffee with a group of college acquaintances. What began as a round mocking of some of the less-solid plot points in the series quickly turned into a serious discussion about this article.

One of the women I was sharing coffee with was appropriately up in arms because she had read that a "rape scene" takes place in one of the books. Now, I've read all the books at least twice. I'm a thorough reader. And for the life of me, I couldn't recall a rape scene. Edward and Bella have some rough sex on their wedding night, but there's no doubt that it's consensual act…

Hey everyone! I am heading off to college as a freshwoman in less than two weeks and am currently in the process of packing my stuff. I am going to bring some feminist books with me (of course). Hopefully I am not the only incoming freshwoman around here that is bringing feminist books with me to college. So if you are heading of to college/grad school this fall post the list of books you are bringing and maybe a line or two on why you are bringing that book to your already cramped dorm/apartment. Or if you are going into the military (is anyone?) you can write about which books you are bringing with you. Or if you have other plans with what you want to do with your life which books are you bringing with you. (Sorry I'm being redundant, I'm just trying to include everyone!)

Here is what I am bringing:

1. "The Beauty Myth" by Naomi Wolf -I feel like this book is definitely going to come in handy a lot. It was written the year I was born and almost nothing has changed with regards to beauty standards. Every time I read it, I can completely relate to it. I will probably be loaning this book out to a lot of people.

2. "Sisterhood is Forever" by Robin Morgan -The one word that comes to mind when I think of this book is "comprehensive". It covers everything I would want it to cover and a lot more. I love the other "Sisterhood" books by Robin Morgan but I only have room for one so I chose the most recent one.

3. "Women and Wilderness" by Anne LaBastille -I found this book a couple of months ago at Half-Price Books. Its a couple decades old and a bit out-of-date but it has a lot of interesting insights about women in outdoor professions. I love the outdoors!

Oh, and I WANT to bring "Intercourse" by Andrea Dworkin if I can find an edition WITHOUT Ariel Levy in the introduction. I checked it out from the library and read half of it, but never got around to finishing it. 

What are you bringing wherever you are going in life?

So, Maybe I'm way behind the times on this, but a friend of mine recently turned me on to this site called paperbackswap.com. What you do is you post all the books you've read and don't want for other people to request. After you send off your books, you can select other people's books in exchange.

Why does this fit at feministing? A few reasons! For starters, as many people know, books can be expensive. Rather than buying new books, or even spendy used books, we can just trade books amongst ourselves for no cost above shipping (around $2.50).

The next reason I'm putting this to the people here is that the fiction section on there is great, but aside from bell hooks and some anthologies I've yet to see any really great feminist literature (sorry, that's not true... found tons of Joanna Russ who is amazing). My thought is that if all of us started making our feminist theory and fiction available to each other, we have the ability to read a lot more of the information we love, without paying $8-25 that could be spent on any number of other things (donations, gas to go volunteer, etc.).

Finally, the barter/swap method of property exchange allows us to opt out of parts of capitalism while supporting reading/readers all over the country.

If you are interested, the link is www.paperbackswap.com (and don't feel obligated, but if you want to put in that you were referred by me, I wouldn't complain, lol! (user name = hpunzel).

Hp

Cross-posted at Deeply Problematic

Last month, I covered Newsweek's myopic list of the 50 books that define and explain these confusing modern times . To recap: the list was 84% white, 78% male, 96% straight, and 66% both white and male, and that is not relevant to these modern times.

In response to this list, I presented 50 Books for Post-Modern Times , and began soliciting submissions from the Feministing Community and the readers of Deeply Problematic. I've already gotten a lot of great responses from folks - thank you so much!

I have re-named the project, and it is now called:

What is 50BPT? It's a list of 50 writers who shed light on society as it is today (its virtues and its flaws) without the benefit of bodies that fit into the canon. When lists of great writers usually reinforce that the important words and ideas are created by those with the most privilege, this list seeks to prioritize the voices of writers who speak most knowledgeably of the issues our society faces.

What writers can I nominate? Women writers, writers of color, LBGQ writers, and trans writers are the writers I have in mind here. I'm particularly interested in writers featuring intersectional challenges. I understand that oppression does not fit into neat little categories and is definitely not limited to the isms implied above. If you have a writer who faces or faced a significant oppression unmentioned here who challenges societal ideas of what a successful and noteworthy writer is, please send it in and we'll discuss.

What if I have a writer who's really relevant to feminist conversation, but doesn't fit into the guidelines above? I may do an extra-50PBT entry outside of the confines of this project. Write me about him anyway.

What books are eligible? Any kind of work - novel, poetry, history, short stories, anthology. Nominations for a body of work are fine, but please mention a specific work.

When will 50BPT begin and end? I will post the first writer on August 3rd, and will post one a day until September 22.

Who should contribute? Everyone!

To contribute:

Leave a comment here with your submission, including contact information and why you love them, or Email me at deeplyproblematic@gmail.com with your submission.

In your communication, tell me:

How they inspire you What they contribute to our cultural narrative Why they are relevant today.

Please keep descriptions of each work/writer to 250 words if you can.

Everyone who contributes to this list will be quoted and linked, and I will inform you of your entry before it runs.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed so far. If you haven't...I look forward to hearing from you!

Hey feministing community -

I've written a few posts and comments on here over the last 10 months about my work with street harassment and my efforts to collect street harassment stories for a book I've been working on. Well, I am pleased to share that I got offered a book contract today and I am really happy!

After talking about writing a book, doing research, interviewing people, and collecting stories, being offered a contract finally makes me feel legitimate and makes the whole thing real!! Especially in this economy, I feel lucky to have found someone willing to take a chance on someone who has never published before, is only a few years out of college, and who has written on an underrepresented topic (in books) and one which will likely be very controversial.

My manuscript is due Jan 1 so I will be working really hard these next few months on it and I want to make sure I include as many points of view, stories, thoughts, and experiences as possible. So thank you everyone who participated in my informal survey last fall, and if you didin't but you have a street harassment story, strategy for dealing with it, idea for ending it, or if you're an activist on this issue and you want your info to be considered for inclusion in the book, please contact me at stopstreetharassmentATyahooDOTcom. You can also fill out an anonymous online form to submit the info to me.

:)

Yesterday in my blog, I covered Newsweek's myopic list of the 50 books that define and explain these confusing modern times. To recap: the list was 84% white, 78% male, 96% straight, and 66% both white and male.

Now, I'm not putting down white male writers. But there are many wonderful writers who are subject to significant oppression, and choosing to promote already coddled and significantly advantaged writers disproportionately contributes to that problem. Our country and our world is filled with brilliant and illuminating writers who do not fit perfectly into Jon Meacham’s narrow idea of what the canon looks like.

In response to this list, I present:

50 Books for Post-Modern Times

One upcoming week in my blog , I want to collect perspectives on 50 works by writers whose bodies do not fit neatly into the canonical narrative. I want writers that reflect the issues of discrimination that we face today: writers of color, women writers, QLBTGI writers, disabled writers. I want writers who have shaped your feminist/progressive worldview. I want writers who “challenge the structure that would allow for domination of white male authorship.”*

So: who inspires you? I want to hear from the Feministing community. Give me up to five authors who face significant oppression. I’m especially interested in intersectional writers. There are no genre limitations. To contribute:

Leave a comment here with your submission and contact information, including why you love them, or
Leave a comment with submission and contact info in this entry at my blog, or
Email me at deeplyproblematic@gmail.com with your submission.

In your communication, tell me:

How they inspire you What they contribute to our cultural narrative

Everyone who contributes will be listed, quoted, and linked to when I post at least one of your submissions in the multi-entry list next week (or later, depending on how long it takes to get people to participate).

I'm excited to hear from you!

*Description by the excellent M of Ped Xing , who named this project.

This is my first post here so I'm sorry if it is terrible!

Today I was browsing my local book/music/coffee chain Chapters (basically the Canadian Barnes and Noble), when I noticed a display table that was called "It's a Girl Thing". Since I am a feminist (obviously) I decided to check out what kind of titles Chapters had decided to put on this table for girls. I quickly noticed a trend. Most of the books were EXTREMELY stereotypical ranging from books about fashion, to teen romance novels, to one particularly horrifying title "Smart Girls Marry Money". I was, needless to say, more than a little miffed that these were the books Chapters thought girls should be reading, but the horrors did not end here. I turned away from the "It's a Girl Thing" table, only to be faced with another display; this one was called "Boys with Brains". I quickly scanned the titles of the books on this table. Most of them had to do with things like physics, evolution, space, economics, and other appropriately "brainy" subjects.

I stood in between these two tables today, completely and utterly sickened. I looked back and forth between the two of them and I had to wonder how anyone could get away with such blatent sexism in our supposed "post feminist" society.

I talked to the store manager about this situation and she informed me that she had already had several complaints about the tables. I will be calling the Chapters head office as soon as they are open, but I just had to tell some fellow feminists about this situation! Has anyone else had a similar experience? If so is there anything else I can do to ensure that this display is at least modified or removed completely?

I want to make sure that my daughter, from the very beginning, is made aware that families and couples and people in general come in many varieties, and that that's okay. What are some good children's books with non-traditional families, persons, or ideals?

This is no big surprise, but I thought it was funny so I'm just going to comment.

My boyfriend's birthday was yesterday, so we took a trip to Sioux Falls in South Dakota to celebrate, since we're from a smaller town near Sioux Falls.  Well, we ended up going to the Barnes and Noble (as always, since my town doesn't even have a book store) and I decided to look for the new book my Jessica Valenti, The Purity Myth .  The Women's Studies section is minuscule, so I was glad that it was there, and picked it out immediately (Along with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , Virgina Woolf's The Voyage Out , Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights , and a copy of BUST magazine--it was a fantastically productive book trip and I stored up on my women studies literature).

Well, when casually standing and chatting with our other friends Tom and Emilie, I started flipping through the book and found a free book mark.  I actually had to do a double-flip because at first I thought it was some kind of weird insert, and when I actually processed it, I got a wonderful surprise.

The Fellowship Trac Leauge, on page 140-141 feels sorry for me picking up the book, and tries to convince me to start praying for forgiveness.  They even give me the standard prayer for forgiveness in case I don't know how to ask correctly.  For reading The Purity Myth.

Ugh.

So because I'm reading The Purity Myth, I must not be a Christian of any sort.  I must be a slut heathen who needs to ask for forgiveness as soon as possible, preferably in the middle of the book, and stop reading.  I am one heartbeat away from death, it reminds me, and god forbid I die reading The Purity Myth while unsaved.

Christ South Dakota...  Though I'm sure this happens all the time, it was the first time it's happened to me, so I burst into laughter, just for being so ironic, it kind of was a wake-up call, because it hit so close to home--even though it was very expected from conservative South Dakota.  I'd been to so many chruch camps, so many youth groups, and so many church services that it just seemed so weird to me, never mind that I denounced my faith only two years ago.  I've been a self-proclaimed Christian for longer than I've been a self-proclaimed atheist.  In fact, it's shameful to admit, but my boyfriend Mike was the first person who got me thinking about feminism.  He said, "Well I'm a feminist, why wouldn't you be?"

I mean, hell, how many girls can say their boyfriend got them thinking about feminism and women activism?

Anyway, I was of course, proud to see South Dakota appear on page 14 of The Purity Myth , for trying to stupidly ban any sort of abortion.  I just knew we would be included.  Sigh.  Here's one girl saying not all is lost in this eerily conservative mess--at least we voted hell NO to that ban.

Well, at least I can safely say that so far, The Purity Myth is great!  And it might come with a free book mark for your personal enjoyment!

A group of Evangelicals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin is plying the local government for the right to remove and burn a YA book about a gay teen (ALA). This article reminded me of a list of banned and contested books that my Adolescent Literature teacher showed the class last semester. The list also included various complaints made against the books - one individual called Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath "filth".

As someone who likes books a lot, I am strongly against the banning or burning of any work of literature, even books that I myself hate (although it would be really, really hard to resist attending a Wild at Heart bonfire). It's ridiculous that this still takes place today, but, then, I think of the fact that The Grapes of Wrath is generally considered to be pretty non-threatening, today. This book that's currently being contested in Wisconsin will eventually fall under the same category - after conservatives succeed only in making it desirable reading for young adults by drawing attention to its "wickedness".

What I want to do here is ask (beg and plead) for a list of book suggestions. I've been reading the site for years but I don't believe I've ever commented; still, I knew this was the best place to come for something like this. I need book suggestions, non-fiction or fiction, that speak to women who have been stepped on, who are weak and unsure of themselves, who have never been truly independent, and who are hesitant to think of themselves as anything other than a wife and mother. Empowering books, uplifting books, "I can do this!" books. Here, I can expand on this: 

My Grandmother passed away in 2000.  When my uncles were clearing out her apartment, they found boxes and boxes full of "bodice rippers."  You know, the novels with a half dressed woman and a pirate locked in a passionate embrace on the cover?  My mother as an ever rotating collection of these.  She reads them to relax in the evening.  Or to escape reality.  Romance novels have been a vice for me since I was 13.  I was curious about my Mom's reading material.  I picked one up and looked at it in my room with the door closed.  And there it was: sex.  Throughout college, I got these novels from the library and squirlled them away from sight.  I discovered online romance serials, and my life was never the same.

Fast foward.  I'm 26 years old.  I've been an elementary teacher.  I've traveled.  Now, I have 1/2 of a graduate degree. I've been dating my boyfriend for 6 months.

My mother sent me a package with two of these stupid romance novels in it earlier this week. I got home from class, went in my room and cracked it open...to escape into a world where one glance across a room means true love, where women are thrown into the heat of passion without the awkward "getting to know you" phase.  (First dates are rough!)...

Then, I stopped and thought, "Why am I reading this?" 

First, it's an escape from reality.  I can be swept away into a story where a happy ending is part of the package deal.  No-brainer on how the story will end!  Not a major mental investment.  The literary equivalent of cotton candy!

Second, emotional connection! After indulging in hundreds of these novels, I can safely say that I like the emotional connection with the characters.  I get attached (for a short time) with the characters and when they fall into each other's arms, there's something oddly satisfying about it.  Are our relationships so unfulfiling that a 2-dimensional sexual romp has to substitute for human connection? 

Third, a chance to live vicariously through the characters.  I can step into the world of jet setting heiresses.  I can go on a mental date with a tattooed biker.  A millionaire will sweep me off my feet.

I've noticed a new Harlequin series with edgier photos splashed across a bright red cover and titles like "Hard Ride."  Does this mean that woman are being more open about their sexual appetites?  Does it mean that our society is so sex-saturated that it's taking more and more to keep our attention?

For whatever reason, these novels are selling as best-sellers. 

Ladies, what need are these kinds of novels filling?

My fellow Feministing friends,

Currently compiling my summer reading list, and I couldn't think of a better group of folks to ask for suggestions! I would love to get an idea of what you plan to read this summer or what you have recently read and loved. Please share in comments.

Here's my summer fiction (wish)list so far:

The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Beloved by Toni Morrison
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

What's on yours?

I was just checking out the Barnes & Noble website, browsing books and decided to check out what was under the category "gender studies." First off, it took me until the very end of the first page to identify anything I would call as feminist. More disturbingly, however, I found titles such as For Women Only: What You Need to Know About the Inner Lives of Men and Becoming the Woman of His Dreams: Seven Qualities Every Man Longs For.
What. The. Hell.
Since when did gender studies become cosmo? So when women (or men) want to look for gender studies, this is what they'll find. A bunch of self-help books that supposedly teach women how to mold themselves into an "ideal" for some man. This is really disheartening. Books like these not only damage women by telling them to behave in certain ways to get a man, but it also shortchanges the men who would have loved these women as themselves. It also sets up a woman's primary concern to be finding a man- not even love- but a man. As if catching a man equates happiness. Not to mention the extreme heteronormativity of the whole thing.
I have to admit, I have never opened one of these books (and, quite frankly, never plan to) because I a) have no desire to be exposed to such crap b) have no desire to contribute to the market for such crap but I do have a pretty good feeling that any book entitled Becoming the Woman of His Dreams is not going to be particularly enlightened. I am just enraged that anyone who would go out of their way to look for gender studies is going to be told that this qualifies as gender studies. I think I'm going to send a nasty email to B&N...

(xposted at sex.feminism.empowerment.life )

Advanced warning: spelling might not be as accurate as possible.

Not too long ago, I was talking to my step-father about "The Vagina Monologues" as I had just read it for my Women and Gender Studies class. I was excited that there was such a liberating book out there for women. My step-father had the class to tell me that "The Vagina Monologues" were sexist. Of course, I asked him why. I was told, "There is nothing in there about men." I remember thinking, it's about vaginas, and unless you have one, or are planning on getting one, then why would there be anything about men. Comments?

I just finished reading an amazing book, and I'd like to plug it here, since it deals with issues of control over female bodies, tied to sexuality and multi-racial couples. I heard about this book only because I heard a lecture by the author a few years ago.

In Ontario (Canada) there was a law called "The Female Refuges Act". Under this law, girls and women between the ages of 15 and 35 could be deemed incorrigible by their parents or husband, and sentenced to a term in a house for wayward girls, mental hospital or prison. Irregardless of where they were originally sent, most women charged under this act ended up in the Mercer Reformatory in Toronto.

Approaching my Junior year in college, I am yearning to read more feminist literature.  I have taken quite a few classes that have let me sample the subject, but I would like to compile a list of books to read this summer.  And I thought, where better to ask for help?

Here's what I'm looking for:

1.  A variety- not just fiction, not just theory, a nice mixture of everything.  So I can switch it up now and again.

2.  Diverse authors- I want lots of women perspectives, the classic white woman movement, the bell hooks, the lesbian perspective, the third wave thinker, EVERYTHING!  Well, at least a little bit of everything.

3.  A good read-  Remember, this is summer reading, and as much as I enjoy Judith Butler, I just don't think I could focus with so much sun in my eyes.

So please, suggestions, comments, whatever!  I want to further my feminist education this summer.  Also, if you have other media suggestions, such as movies, I'd welcome that too.  If people are interested, I'll compile suggestions into a useable list for every eager young feminist like me out there.

Tamora Pierce is a young adult fantasy author whose novels are all, so far, narrated by strong, independent young women.

In her first quartet, young Alanna wants to become a knight, but her twin brother is to become one while she goes to train to be a 'lady.' Instead, they switch places, Alanna pretended to be a boy, her brother going to train as a mage. She proves herself to be just as good, and better than, the boys. In the final novel, she brings a powerful artifact to the king and saves her kingdom, becoming the King's Champion.
Still, she's seen as a woman. She has lovers, and, in other books, she is a mother while still being King's Champion.

This book also touches on racism, when Alanna travels into the deserts and meets the dark-skinned Bazhir. She helps to restore peace between the Bazhir tribes and the kingdom of Tortall.

The bbc (accessed via their website) has been doing a series of readings from the book "Singled Out" by Virginia Nicholson.  It's a historical account of post WWI western socieites when unmarried women greatly outnumbered unmarried men.  Discusses how gender relationships were affected by this imbalance.  The final section is titled "It Takes a Valiant Woman to Remain Unmarried." It will only be available for the next few days, so check it out pronto if you're interested.

Singled Out at the BBC

I sent the this letter to Amazon this morning.  I recieved the reply that follows about an hour ago.

My letter:

Dear Amazon,
I am outraged at the current issue regarding de-ranking books.  While Publisher's Weekly may have claimed that it was "a glitch," your own company had earlier released a statement claiming that these products, including same sex parenting books and Foucault's sexual theory books, are inappropriate for your normal searching public.
By these standards, I am assuming that you view your purchasing population to be closeminded, heteronormative, and not intelligent. If not, why would all these feminist, gender theory, and queer narratives (Ellen DeGeneres's biography is inappropriate!?) be removed?
Gay rights are human rights. If you refuse to represent these books, you are standing in the way of equality.  Instead you promote books that will "heal" homosexuality.
I am a heterosexual, feminist, intellectual advocate for human rights, and I will not support a company that disenfranchises any author.  I believe in the power of voting with my dollar. Therefore, you have lost a customer.

Sincerely

Gexx (actually, I used my real name)

Their response:

Hello,

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.

Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.

Best regards,

Praveen Ponnam
Amazon.com
We're Building Earth's Most Customer-Centric Company
http://www.amazon.com/your-account

Am I Blue? , one of the books I mentioned in my earlier post , now has its ranking restored. I suspect that other rankings will continue to reappear as Amazon works on correcting that “glitch.”

I am more and more convinced that this operation was carried out by trolls who exploited Amazon’s woefully insecure ranking system. And my guess is that an uncoordinated customer service response effort prevented them from recognizing how vulnerable they were to this kind of mass manipulation, even though incidents of de-ranking had been reported to them months ago .

Their customer service reps were clearly trying to deal with those those reported problems on a case-by-case basis, each rep looking for a way to fit their correspondence into a pre-approved, “if someone complains about this, give them this response” script. Unfortunately, no one was able recognize that a new problem of epic proportions was brewing. Vulnerability in your ranking system combined with a flawed customer service policy is not the same as a clandestine corporate effort to silence gay and lesbian voices. It is, however, a major FAIL.

Still waiting for more from Amazon. In the meantime, Neil Giuliano, president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, says in a statement : “GLAAD has reached out to Amazon.com and they indicate this was an error, so we expect to start seeing evidence of its correction immediately, and any loss of visibility of gay-themed books as a result of this error will be made right by Amazon … When people learn about the lives of gay and transgender people and the common ground we share, the culture changes and advances. It is so important that stories about the lives of our community are available, and that companies like Amazon promote these titles in an equal fashion.”

Cross-posted at clairemysko.com .

My book for girls, Girls Inc. Presents: You’re Amazing! A No-Pressure Guide to Being Your Best Self , still has an Amazon ranking. The same cannot be said for two titles included in the book’s resource guide:

GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Queer and Questioning Teens by Kelly Hugel

Am I Blue: Coming Out from the Silence edited by Marion Dane Bauer (The first anthology of YA fiction to explore gay and lesbian themes. It includes contributions from Lois Lowry and Francesca Lia Block, among others).

When I checked just now, the sales rankings for both titles were gone.  While much has been written about why Amazon erased the rankings of these and hundreds of other books, I’m getting on board with the troll theory .

I would not be surprised if a hate group has been testing Amazon’s system under the media radar with success over the last few months, which enabled them to pull off a coordinated attack over the weekend.

What will Amazon say about this epic fail? So far they are admitting that the erasures were a result of a “glitch” they are working to correct. But even if past manipulations/reconnaissance went unreported until now (with the exception of author Craig Seymour’s attempts to garner some attention for his mysterious de-ranking and restored ranking in February), Amazon surely was aware that something was going on if authors had contacted them –repeatedly.

Their biggest mistake might have been in assuming that they could continue to deal with these issues on a case-by-case basis, correcting the “glitches” they probably believed were caused by random people and their morally outraged tags and complaints rather than fixing their whole system. They should never have underestimated what can happen when those random people turn out to be not-so-random. They figure out your weak spots so they can unleash the power of Nutjobs En Masse. 

Thanks to the sharp eye of author Mark Probst, it appears that Amazon is now removing sales rankings from a vast swath of LGBT books for being too "adult."

Official Amazon.com Response:

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

Hence, if you have further questions, kindly write back to us.

Best regards,
Ashlyn D
Member Services
Amazon.com Advantage

Which means that highly "adult" materials like Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness and the The Advocate College Guide for LGBT Students no longer have sales rankings, while blatantly 'adult' material such as Laurel K Hamilton's Merry Gentry series is still ranked.

And with most of the LGBT-focused books de-ranked, the Gay and Lesbian Betseller list is now almost entirely listing only Kindle editions (ranked on their own Kindle-exclusive list).

Oh, the horrors that might result if one were to "introduce into the minds of perfectly innocent people the most revolting thoughts.

Also, it should be noted that not only LGBT books are suffering: Feminist and general sexuality books have been targeted as well.

In Self-Made Man, journalist, out lesbian, and daredevil Norah Vincent chronicled the year and half she spent disguised as a man and occupied with typically masculine activities.  Now, in Voluntary Madness, Vincent investigates another world through immersion in it—the inpatient psychiatric ward.  In this book, Vincent’s relationship to the social sphere she examines is ambivalent.  As a long-time sufferer of depression, Vincent’s first trip to a psych ward is brought on by a mental crisis and instigated by her therapist.  The three following trips that occupy the book are taken for the purpose of research, but the depression she continues to struggle with throughout the narrative is real.

Vincent spends time in a city public hospital, a privately owned hospital in the Midwest, and an experimental facility, also private.  At the beginning of the book, she is skeptical of inpatient treatment, psychiatric diagnoses and the use of psychiatric medication.  This basic skepticism lasts through her journey.  However, experience of her fellow patients leads her to acknowledge that some people experience mental distress that makes daily functioning impossible and that medication can help alleviate pain.  By the end, she tries to reconcile her own use of meds with the self-directed spiritual practice she develops in the last facility.

Throughout the work, Vincent’s libertarian perspective leads her to reject forcefully the role of victim. While at times her emphasis on individual agency is inspiring, at other times this stance distorts the reality of her situation.  For instance, throughout most of the book, she avoids discussion of how her sexuality and gender make her vulnerable.  Then, at the end, she reveals crucial information about both dimensions of her identity that changes how the reader views her depression.  Finally, her preference for private over public treatment centers sidesteps a pressing question: how can America best help those impoverished, uninsured, and in mental distress?  Vincent’s on-the-ground powers of observation make for an informative and engaging book, but in the case of social justice, her work raises more questions than it answers.

Ten years after becoming the first woman to row solo across the Atlantic Ocean, Tori Murden McClure has published a memoir about her quest and the lessons she learned along the way.

"A Pearl in the Storm: How I Found My Heart in the Middle of the Ocean" (HarperCollins) hit book stores yesterday. I had the opportunity to interview McClure a couple of weeks ago for Velocity Weekly (I promised you a link to the Q&A but it wasn't posted online. Sorry. But I'll share some highlights from our talk in this post.)

McClure is pretty amazing and not only rowed across an ocean but has skied to the South Pole and climbed mountains in Antarctica. She has a master's in divinity from Harvard University and a law degree. She once ran a shelter for homeless women and she now serves as vice president at Spalding University in Louisville, Ky. (Yeah, I felt pretty worthless too after learning all this.)

During our chat McClure told me she had trouble figuring out a way to write her adventure story in a way that would also speak to the female experience. "Folks kept reading it and saying 'You're writing it as a man would write it,'" she said.

Recognizing that the quest narrative is typically told from the male perspective, she saw this as her chance to change that. To improve the memoir she started to share stories of the people who had made a difference in her life, people she called pearls in her storm. And McClure said she hopes that people who read her book, especially those people having a tough time these days, will look around and find that there are pearls in their storm too.

I asked McClure what she learned out there in the ocean. She said she realized that all her life she'd been trying to deny her humanity. She realized that a part of her believed that if she could be superhuman she could protect her loved ones from anything.

"But I can row across the Atlantic -- I can row to the moon -- and there are still going to be things I can't change," she said.

But while she was out there in the middle of the ocean, McClure said she realized that the only thing that makes that reality bearable is love.

"That was the big Aha! for me," she said. "Most people don't have to row across the Atlantic to figure that out."

crossposted at GeorgiaMae.com

I just finished reading an excerpt for my Teen and Children's Lit class at college.  The excerpt is from The Witch in History by Diane Purkiss.  I doubt this will be the first article/excerpt I blog about from this class.  This excerpt looks at the cultural representation of the witch, and what it meant to New England societies during the witch hunts in the first part, and in the second there is a conclusion about the overall portrayal of witches in culture.

For the first part, I would like to look at a question the excerpt made me think of.  It proposes two ways that witches are culturally signified during the sixteenth up until the eighteenth or nineteenth centuries.  The first is that of disrupting the domestic sphere that is the provence of the woman in the society.  A witch would cause a cow to stop giving milk, cream not to churn into butter, or sicken a child or animal.  The second is that witches, in their actions are "leaky".  Women in general are more "leaky" than men.  Her definition is that there is a fear during this time period that women, due to their feeding of infants, are able to "absorb" in some way others, and that infants even are fighting between this need for food and fear of absorbtion, and that the witch, in causing inappropriate intimacy through her actions absorbs in some manner.  My question is how much of the second signifier we see in the anti-feminist literature, or is it more exclusively the first, or is it yet others not discussed in the excerpt I read.

For the second part, there is a quote that I think summons up the critical issues for feminists:

"For despite the subtleties of radical feminists, historians and modem witches, the dominant image of the witch is still of a shrieking hag on a broomstick, the Wicked Witch of the West."

How has that view, that of the "wicked witch" affected the culture?  Is it a significant part of Patriarchy, or is it a more minor part of the overall culture?

And, overall, is the discussion of the portrayal of witches in particular something there should be a feminist discussion, or is it best subsumed into the larger discussion of the portrayal of women in general?

I know there is the "Not Oprah" section... But BEYOND that...

I've been looking for some essential feminist reads.  Every time I go to the book store, the same old books seem to be there.  What have you read that has left you feeling proud of feminism? What would be THE book you would recommend?

This past week, I took a break from academic reading to enjoy the fourth installment of the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed , by Patricia Briggs. The series, if you haven't already encountered it, is a fantasy series centered around a young woman who works as a car mechanic and happens to be a walker raised by werewolves. At the beginning of the series, Mercy is trying to avoid her supernatural past as much as possible, a goal that becomes increasingly untenable as she is drawn deeper and deeper into local politics and relationships with a cast of characters both human and non-human (and, often, somewhere in between).

I've been looking forward to this book since the last one came out, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. The fourth installment is on par with the other three novels in the series (Moon Called , Blood Bound and Iron Kissed ) and manages to balance Mercy's newly-established significant-other relationship with a plot involving the local vampire seethe, a malevolent ghost, and tense inter-species politics. Furthermore, Briggs deserves major kudos for writing Mercy into an emotionally and physically intimate relationship with a super-dominant werewolf without finding it necessary to alter Mercy's basic personality or downplay her established ability and willingness to stand up for herself and the people she cares about.

I'm about halfway through Guyland by Michael Kimmel and while I want to blog more on it later, I want to write about one thing that caught my attention. The fifth chapter discusses common rituals that exist in Guyland, most of which are done during college in fraternities, although their influence may be seen in other campus groups as well. Kimmel notes that fraternities flourished because they were a way to protect one's self image of manhood in a white patriarchal culture that was being invaded by others.

"...the Greek system really became entrenched in the United States during the late nineteenth century, when large land-grant universities [...] were required to admit women, newly arrived immigrants, and freed blacks who had migrated north. Fraternities were an answer to the question: Where can a white guy go where he won't have to be around all these women, minorities, and immigrants?"

Kimmel's book is about men between the ages of 16-26 in today's culture. The vast majority of his research is focused on white, middle class, college-educated men. And so far, he's been very successful at pointing out the ways in which many young, white, economically privileged men are threatened by those outside of their sphere and how this plays into their always stifling, and sometimes dangerous, antics to prove their manhood. And although his book is meant to address the issues of those on the upper echelons of society, this chapter seems just as relevant for those from the lower classes as well. The initiation into fraternities does not seem so different from the initiation into gangs.

I'm working on a project for a Gay & Lesbian Drama class and I'd like your help! 

I'm researching Young Adult Literature with gay-positive themes and story lines.  What great books have you read that feature queer characters and same-sex desire in a positive light?  I'd love to hear your thoughts & opinions about the individual books, authors you love, and stories that changed your lives.  How did these books help you or contribute to your developing understanding of yourselves and the world around you? 

All genres are welcome as long as they are generally geared towards younger readers (teens or pre-teens, nothing too adult).

Thank you, all you awesome Feministing folks!

While at the bookstore today a book in the etiquette section caught my eye (the etiquette section appears to be located next to the home decor and knitting sections... I wonder why?).

It's called Debrett's Etiquette for Girls by Fleur Britten . Ah yes... more ideological pap wrapped up in a glossy package and reiterating the same old stereotypes of what a 'good' woman should be/act like/look like.

The front cover comes complete with a headless woman with cleavage in the midst of eating an oyster, in yet another fantastic example of using woman's body as an object.

Category headings like "Man Management, " "Image Management" and "Social Graces" just reinforce the same old stereotypes of what a 'proper' woman should do, how they should act in regards to a man, other women and society in general.

This gem comes from the 'Man Management' section, sub-section 'Flirting': "A little purr can only increase your bargaining power" (p. 118).
Um.. excuse me? Now, not only am I being commodified, but I gain power over men by acknowledging that fact?

But what bothered me the most? There is an equivalent book out there by the same publishers called Debrett's Manners for Men: What Women Really Want .
Of course... so now we're 'girls' who need to act in a certain way to be considered ladylike and it is assumed that this is what men want- yet the 'men' are accorded the respect of the word 'men' (not 'boys') and then they get the manual to spell out what we are supposed to want.

(As a note, I have nothing against etiquette or manner's in general at all! I just hate the exceedingly gendered application these rules seem to take.)

How do these books still sell? Who buys them? Sometimes I just want to become a full-time hermit and ignore all of this junk.

/end rant

Well, I was in Barnes and Noble's yesterday, and since it was quite packed, I picked up the only book that stood out to me on the table display. I flipped through it and immediately realized that it was not worth wasting my time with, but given the impressive list of credentials this female neuro-psychiatrist had, I felt compelled to give it some time. I finished about four chapters, quickly skimmed through the rest, since I ran out of time, and noticed that there was nothing else in this book concerning the operations of a "female brain" other than relationships, sex, menopause (and very brief), more relationships, PMS, love, and parenting. Above all else, this really angered me the most because it implies that females spend time on nothing else in their lives other than these things, and that's quite sad. You would think that a female psychiatrist of all people would realize this; there was nothing about creativity, problem solving skills in general, interests, careers, friendships, mental disorders, etc.

What was worse, was that the book was choc full of anecdotal evidence, the most tired, cliched, unimaginative stereotypes out there (some to the point of being laughable), like when she talked about the little girl cradling her toy truck because of built in genetic maternal instincts, which I, being a girl, have never had by the way, is there something wrong with me?

Speaking of not displaying typical "female characteristics", any girl who did not display these in her book was considered to have a disorder. She is so quick to state in all factuality that the female brain is hard-wired to display indigenous female characteristics and behavior. So basically, in her book, males and females are born males and females, and culture, generational memes, conditioning play no part in any of it.

What bothers me, is that she claims these to be scientific facts, yet has no real evidence to back them up.

The book received mixed reviews. Here are the editorial reviews.

Customer reviews.

I find it disheartening that a female doctor can be just as oblivious or sexist as any male. I've also googled women's health sites, and came up with the same things; Sex, Dieting, Relationships, Beauty and Style tips, yet nothing about real health issues, such as aging, heart attack, and stroke, etc. As if the only thing females should be concerned about are staying thin, keeping their vadges clean, trying not to be hysterical, and holding on to their breasts.

I'm reading a Charles Stross novel, and just ran across a scene that my brain just wouldn't parse until I got to the end and then read it through again. It's a discussion between the narrator, a nurse, and a cop. They all have clearly different agendas and are otherwise were easy to distinguish, but when it got down to pronouns, my brain sort of gacked. My problem was that my brain read cop and though "male" and read nurse and thought "female" even though the text clearly said that the cop was a woman and the nurse was a man.

I like Stross quite a bit, and one of my favorite things about him is his willingness to mess with expectations, especially when it comes to gender. This is a tiny scene in a light comedic novel, but he managed to use it to remind me of my own sexism.

Nice.

We noticed something interesting about Amazon.com's list of Editors' Picks for the 100 best books of 2008 .

Out of the top ten books on the list, only one is written by a woman. And there are only three books by women in the top 25, five in the top 35, and 27 in the full top 100 (including one book co-written by a woman and a man). Now, we're not suggesting that every list of this type has to have perfect 50/50 gender parity, but these numbers seem kinda skewed to us. Somehow we really doubt that 2008 was just an 'off year' for women writers, so we're forced to conclude that this list can suck it.  It also makes us feel like putting together a long list of books by women to read in 2009.

So, what was your favorite book written by a woman in 2008?  It could also be something written earlier that you read for the first time last year.

[Cross-posted from Evil Slutopia ]

A lot of us have a love/hate relationship with Oprah, especially in light of her recent comments where she shamed herself for gaining weight. Last night, I found one reason to be extremely grateful to her. She included the book "Night" by Elie Wiesel in her book club. I read the book last night. It is a powerful and terrifying account of a survivor of the Holocaust. In his book, Wiesel speaks of his experiences surviving the Auschwitz, Buchenwald, and Buna concentration camps. At 15 years of age, he survived starvation, deprivation of water, exposure to extreme cold, sleep deprivation, and beatings.  He witnessed the murder of countless people, including children and infants. After I read the book, it took me a while to process the fact that this really happened in real life. 

I went to Amazon out of curiosity to see how many people reviewed "Night." There were about 500, and most of them had never heard of the book before it was included on Oprah's book club. I had never heard of the book until I did a crossword puzzle, where one of the answers was "Elie Wiesel," which sparked my curiousity about who Wiesel is, which lead to me looking him up online, which lead to me seeking out his book "Night". I feel angry that I had never heard of this person before and did not read his book until recently. Why wasn't this required reading in high school?

Anyone who feels removed from the Holocaust and cannot imagine it actually happening should read this book. Anyone who feels offended when someone uses the word "Nazi" inappropriately should read this book. Anyone who DOESN'T feel offended when someone uses the word "Nazi" inappropriately should read this book. Anyone who feels they didn't learn enough about the 3rd Reich in high school should read this book.

So as I was reading this post on Feministing, I stumbled upon this link to a book by the editor of WorldNetDaily, the (unfortunately) "world's largest independent news site." (That a conservative and Christian-oriented "independent" news website managed to become the largest in the world is unbeleivable.)

The book is about how Americans apparently fell victim to evil through the use of very clever marketing and PR campaigns. And of course, this "evil" includes being gay and getting "unrestricted abortions-on-demand" (um, has he been living under a rock in Lapland for the past 20 years?)

Furthermore, he's spouting this nonsense:

Likewise, most of us mistakenly believe the "abortion rights" and "gay rights" movements were spontaneous, grassroots uprisings of neglected or persecuted minorities wanting to breathe free. Few people realize America was actually "sold" on abortion thanks to an audacious public relations campaign that relied on fantastic lies and fabrications. Or that the "gay rights" movement – which transformed America's former view of homosexuals as self-destructive human beings into their current status as victims and cultural heroes – faithfully followed an in-depth, phased plan laid out by professional Harvard-trained marketers.

Clearly, he's selling yet another conspiracy theory to try and convince Americans that they're being tricked into becoming "amoral" or "gay" - this is apparently the only way left to try and get people to hop back onto the conservative/republican/christian bandwagon. Never mind the fact that the only people who don't already believe this crap that would actually buy his book are those who would want to read it for the sole purpose of ripping every one of his arguments to shreds.

In light of beka’s post about Twilight and the fishy ‘independence’ of it’s heroine and the fact that the movie is making wheelbarrows full of cash , I wanted to pass on some recommendations for good feminist-friendly YA books.  They would make good stocking stuffers for any teen girls or boys in your life, Twilight obsessed or not, that enjoy reading and that you would like to indoctrinate/influence with feminist leanings.  And yes Virginia, you can read them too because these are some awesome stories. 

A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray is a wonderful book for anyone who liked the magical worlds and supernatural romance of Twilight , but prefers that it’s heroine to be stronger and have more of her own voice.  It is the first in a trilogy, with Rebel Angels and Sweet Far Thing being the other volumes.  The story starts in 1895 when Gemma Doyle has a vision of her mother being murdered, a vision that comes true.  She must leave India, the only home she has ever known, to attend a stuffy boarding school in England.  She slowly begins to learn about herself and her powers, eventually making three unique friends that she is able to take into ‘the realms’, a land of magical enchantment.  She meets a boy and starts to fall for him (of course), but he is Indian and a member of a secret society determined to stop her from exercising her powers. 

Themes of matriarchy vs. patriarchy are all over this book, and it doesn’t shy away from racism and classism (though it is from a white POV).  It showcases the historical repression of women in Victorian England, and couples it with strong heroines who must balance their powerlessness in the real world with a supernatural world that hands them nearly unlimited power.  Plus, the interracial and intercultural romance between Gemma and Kartik is pretty hot (but just as chaste as the first three books of Twlight ), and there is some surprising queer content in the last book. 

I have a great many friends who read, and since the release of "Breaking Dawn" I have heard over and over again the argument that Meyer is supporting the right to "choose" to be a wife/mother rather, that Bella "chooses" to take on that role as just one choice out of many that she could make, as if the author and the story itself openly support the idea of Bella having freedom of choice. 

I myself support all choices for women, which in my mind include the stay-at-home mother and/or wife roles.  However, while I would like to give Meyer the benefit of the doubt, it's highly unlikely that she meant to support any form of feminism in the Twilight Saga novels, due to her rather obvious religious/cultural influences. 

I was watching the news in Dallas last night, and I saw a segment about a nine year old boy named Alex Greven who wrote a book about dating called "How to Talk to Girls."

What initially caught my attention was not that a 9 year old boy is being touted as a dating guru, but how adults are treating him like some prodigy. The news achors and his teacher were simply amazed at his ability to parrot back sterotypes about heterosexual dating norms. I don't see this kid as being particularly precocious or intuitive just because he can articulate what he observes from watching tween sitcoms on the Disney Channel. The book is chock full of such gems as "About 75% of regular girls ditch boys; 98% of pretty girls ditch boys." WTF? First of all, where the hell did this statistic come from and futhermore, how many times has this kid told a classmate whether or not she was a "regular girl" or a "pretty girl"? Now I know what people will say: "What's the big deal? It's just a cute, harmless little thing." "You don't have to analyze every little thing from a feminist standpoint." I think it IS important. This kid's book was sold at his school's book fair and now he's got a deal with Harper Collins. It won't take long till it's a part of the assigned reading in elementary schools. Since it's written for kids by kids, it's given a higher authoritative value. He describes getting the girl that you have a crush on as "winning the victory." He goes on to say "Winning the victory is a dream for most boys, but it is very rare." My feathers would be less ruffled if he had talked about the fact that boys and girls are interested in a lot of the same things or that a boy and a girl can be just friends without romantic undertones. Go to the link and check out the excerpt. What do you think about little Romeos and their pigtailed Juliets?

My "pro-choice book club" is looking for books for next year's reading list. We don't limit ourselves to choice related books, but since that was our common bond from the beginning of the group, we try to stay with books that deal with feminist issues, are by feminist authors, or will somehow let us discuss feminist topics!

So - what was on your reading list this past year (or will be for next year) that you think is worth reading? New titles, old favorites... any recommendations you have will help us enrich our list for next year!

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.

I have a few (million) issues with the series known as Twilight (link opens to the wikipedia page about the series) over what I see as the glamorization of emotional abuse. So when I got linked to Stephanie Meyer's faq section on her website , I was interested as to what she might say about the chauvanistic messages in her book.

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

Martha Burk’s book, Your Money and Your Life: The High Stakes for Women Voters in ’08 and Beyond , is more of a good skim than a good read. And that fact is actually more of a service to its purpose: to provide women with an overview of the 2008 election issues, the facts, and the questions we should ask. Rather than discussing the book as a book, or my own reactions to it (as YWTF-NYC’s earlier book club posts have done ), I will share a few points that I found interesting and encourage you to pick up the book if you want more.

I was recently reading this History philosophy book and I was very upset that they barely included any women on their book. That's almost in any philosophy book you see. But what was really disgusting to read was Aristotle's point of view on women. H esaid that women was a castrated man that therefore women could never be complete in any way. And he went on a bout explaining women's natural inferiority to men and so on.

I've slowly been making my way though the last book of the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn . Slowly because about every ten pages something happens or is said in the book that makes me so angry and upset; these books have quite the following, and I'm just sickened at the way the main female character, Bella, excuses and downplays the fact that she's been physically hurt by her vampire boyfriend --well, it really isn't that bad, I'm really fine, it's nothing.

So, I'm reading this, and I start to get really uncomfortable:

"There was stiffness, and a lot of soreness, too, it was true, but mostly there was the odd sensation that my bones all had become unhinged at the joints, and I had changed into the consistency of a jellyfish" (88).

". . . large purplish bruises were beginning to blossom across the pale skin of my arm. My eyes followed the trail they made up to my shoulder, and then down across my ribs. I pulled my hand free to poke at the discoloration on my left forearm, watching it fade where I touched it then reappear. It throbbed a little" (89).

"I threw up my hands in frustration, feeling an ache in my shoulder that I ignored." (91).

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

Many people see a contradiction between feminism and sexual desire. Even feminists sometime have trouble harmonizing their personal sexuality with their political values. The authors of Jane Sexes It Up are smack in the middle of this contradiction, trying to sort out what it means to be a woman, a feminist, an academic, and a sexual being. However, the debate about feminism, sex work, and public sexuality has changed drastically in the past few years.
We are now living in what Ariel Levy calls “raunch culture,” in which feminist sexual desire is rarely represented. Women of all ages are trying to express themselves sexually in a split culture where you are either making out with your girlfriend for the Girls Gone Wild camera or pledging your virginity to daddy . Feminist debates have raged for decades about the possibility of feminist sex work, but today, “reality” sex workers are paid in t-shirts and “(over)exposure,” not hard cash. They have no say in the image they present, and are edited to fit into misogynist roles. There might be young women who are positively exploring their sexuality on Girls Gone Wild, but (to state the obvious) it is not a safe space where women can assert themselves or ask for a share of the profits.

A coworker was looking for novels for her 12-year-old daughter, so I reread The Willowmere Chronicles (The Witches of Willowmere, The Warding of Willowmere, and The Wyrd of Willowmere) by Alison Baird to make sure they'd be an appropriate recommendation.

Upon rereading, I concluded that they're definitely an appropriate choice for a young woman. There's no sex and no bad language, which was important to my coworker. And I think my coworker will approve of the main character, Claire. Claire is a strongly feminist 16 year-old girl who's very intelligent, courageous, a critical thinker, and someone who doesn't follow the crowd.

I admit it, I don't like reading fiction stories. I never read fiction books unless it is required for a class. However, it is important for people to know how to read and think critically. Reading is a necessary evil!

There is nothing wrong with thinking reading is boring, but there is a lot wrong with using sexist stereotypes as a way to dismiss it.

Is anyone else creeped out by the new, supposedly Harry Potter-esque teen craze for Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series?  Being a feministy-vampire series aficionado (especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, back when there was still plot), I picked up Twilight a couple years ago and rather enjoyed it.  Picture a paranormal romance for teens complete with hunky Byronian vampire hero, Edward, and whip-smart yet isolated heroine Bella.  The hero happens to be a member of an anti-human-snacking vampire clan, who meets the heroine while enrolled at the local high school as a way to pass the centennials.  So far, nothing beyond the usual eww factor of a 100+-year-old immortal dating a teenager. (Warning – rather long post containing spoilers ahead)

So I have not read the "Twilight" series and after reading a few posts on here about the scariness of the main character I have decided not to even spend my money on the books.  Today I was on Facebook (as I am often) and I was looking for a sarcastic bumper stick to send to a friend and one bumper sticker caught my eye.  

The text reads as:

"Edward can bust my headboard, bite my pillows and bruise my body any day."

This is just horribly disturbing, again it supports the belief that a damaged man is romantic and there is nothing wrong with dealing with his physical abuse.  I am aware of BDSM communities but I do not feel that this qualifies just from reading about other aspects of Edward's personality.  

*Emphasis mine

Feminists Say the Darndest Things

While perusing Barnes & Noble.com's website, looking for a new book to read, I happened upon this charmer (see above link).

Are you in NYC? Hope you can make it to one (or both!) of these events: I'm on the bill for Great Teen Reads Night at Books of Wonder , Wednesday August 6th, 6:00-7:30 p.m. Books of Wonder is one of my favorite spots in New York, and not just because it happens to be attached to The Cupcake Cafe ! This super deluxe reading and signing also includes Melissa Walker (Violet on the Runway , Violet by Design and her brand new release, Violet in Private ); New York Times bestselling author Lisa McMann (Wake ); Linda Gerber (Death by Bikini , P.S. Did you enter Linda's giveaway-to-end-all-giveaways yet?); Katie Davis (The Curse of Addy McMahon ); and Jenny Davidson (The Explosionist ). Brooklyn Flea , Sunday, August 10th, 10 a.m. until I can't take the heat (literally). I'll be selling and signing books at the flea this Sunday! I'm sharing a table with photographer extraordinaire Kate Glicksberg . She's the one who made me look all reflective and professional in my author pic. Come on by and see us. I'll be the one in the sun hat and slathered in SPF 45. Yeah, I'm a delicate flower.

The following was originally posted to my blog .

I don't think any single one person has the feminist "voice" within our movement and so I don't have a favorite author. But there are pieces of literature that have transformered my life. So a fun post that won't require you to think too much. What are some of your favorite pieces of feminist lit?

Mine are:

The Subjugation of Women - John Stuart Mill. Perhaps one of the earliest pro-feminist men in history, Mill always has a place in my heart. His progressive views on marriage certainly created controversies, but also very consistent with the feminist message.

Ain't I a Woman? - Sojourner Truth? Even very early on, Truth makes us think about the intersectionalities of race and gender. A short piece that makes me think.

Bitch Manifesto - Joleen Freeman. A woman is a bitch because she is strong, unapologetic and ambitious. Freeman paints a wonderful picture of a feminist "bitch." Also speaks a lot about gender roles we're each assigned to.

Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity - Robert Jensen. Robert Jensen isn't interested in being a man. He is interested in being a good human being. This piece paints a truthful and horrifying picture of the porn industry, often masked by erotic images that prevent us from seeing reality of it all.

Myth of the Vaginal Orgasm - Cynthia Koedt. What can I say? This piece made me rethink my sexual practices as well as how sex - something so natural and intimate, can at times be anti-feminist.

Getting off On Feminism - Jason Schultz. I read this during a struggle with the unhappy fact that sometimes feminist activism and women's studies courses do not connect. It made me realize that life is especially complex, as feminists, and we can be normal and still live the feminist life.

A nice book called "Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation." - A collection of essays from "young," third-wave feminists. My favorite piece is one called, "Don't Call me a Survivor."

Feminine Mystique - Betty Friedan. One of the first pieces of literature I'd read as a freshman. Although somewhat radical, Friedan did a good job with reporting on the conditions of women who became mothers and wives not because they wanted to, but because they were conditioned to do so.

If Men Could Menstruate - Gloria Steinem. On the night before a big dinner with Ms. Steinem that I was fortunate enough to have been invited to, I whipped out this piece of literature and studied up on it. It does a wonder job painting the constructions of gender roles through nature and what's  most natural.

What are your suggested reading?

There has been a lot of talk on here about sexism in fairy tales and such. Well, I've got good news: I have found a feminist fairy tale.

Princess Bubble , which was written by Susan Johnston and Kimberly Webb, is about a princess who is confused by the message found in traditional fairy tales that she must find her Prince Charming in order to live "happily ever after." In the story, she is a college grad who travels the world as an airline attendant, meeting new people and learning about different cultures. Then, several of her friends get married, and her mother tells her it is time for her to find her Prince. She signs up on www.FindYourPrince.com, interviews her married friends, and goes on several dates, but she isn't happy. So she dons her thinking crown and researches the traditional fairy tales. Finally, with a little help from her Fairy God Mother (this is a fairy tale, after all), she discovers that she doesn't need to find a prince to be happy. She already is happy.

"True happiness," the book reveals, "is found by loving God, being kind to others, and being comfortable with who you are already!"

The three most common disorders in young girls are low self-esteem, depression, and eating disorders.

In 2003, breast implants rose from 3,827 to 11,326 in girls under age 18.

Girls age 12 to 19 spent over $8 million on cosmetics in 2005

(Source: Report of the APA Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls, 2007)

The authors hope to change that with this book. Granted, it's not perfect. It still reinforces the heterosexual norm by implying that it would have to be a prince that she found, and it implies that you can only be happy if you are a Christian, but it is definitely a step in the right direction. I only wish there had been a fairy tale like this when I was growing up.

I hate the Twilight Series by Stephine Meyer.

Really, I do. Now, I know it sounds harsh, but I really truly do. For many reasons. I'm a book lover, and Twilight is just poor literature.  No literary elements, no character development, and the purple prose is so thick, it's hard to understand what Meyer is actually getting at. But as a book lover, I'm well aware not every book needs to be a classic. In fact, I actually enjoyed Eragon.

So my problem doesn't lie in the poor writing, though that certainly has something to do with it. So, what then, could make me hate a book that it seems every one of my peers love? It's almost like it insulted some of my core beliefs!

Oh wait. It did.

Now, for coherency and length purposes I'm going to discuss the Twilight series in three main categories: The "Heroine" Bella, The "Boyfriend" Edward and Their Relationship, and The Other Females.

While walking through the insanity that is Penn Station early on a Tuesday morning, I was in a different state than the normal look-straight-ahead-and-maintain-efficient-steps routine I usually maintain: I was actually hyper-aware of marital imagery. 

After finishing another chapter from Anne Kingston’s “The Meaning of Wife”, I almost laughed out loud to really see an advertisement for “Bridezillas” on WeTV at the exit of my train.  I’d passed by the advertisement for several months without ever truly pausing to think about the implications of the entrenched message it sends about brides-- women who are getting married turn into emotionally unstable, child-like beasts that act on primal, deep-seated urges.  These urges, we’re told, “naturally” affect us all, but certain women get more “passionate” than others about it.