Saturday, October 11, 2014

Some Things I Hate About Feminism

Recently I became aware of the current hashtag trend #womenagainstfeminism and the poplular http://womenagainstfeminism.tumblr.com/. The overwhelming feminist response has been that these women have no idea what they are talking about. They are a joke. They are not to be taken seriously.

I completely disagree. Many of the #womenagainstfeminism have valid points about the flaws in modern feminism. This article at Time does an excellant job of explaining the valid points they make. It's called Stop Fem-Splaining: What 'Women Against Feminsm' Get Right.

Because I'm not quite as eloquent I will share my list of things I hate about feminism using a list of tweets as examples.

Example 1: The idea that men shouldn't have a voice.

Example 2: The belief that rape only happens to women and only by men.

Example 3: Some feminists use feminism as a means to bully others.

Example 4: Many feminists are angry at men just for being men.

Example 5: Feminists bashing other feminists because of race or nationality.

Example 6: Feminists not allowing non-feminists to criticize feminism.

Example 7: Feminists having extremist attitudes or ideas they force on everyone else.

Example 8: The hashtag trend #bringbackourgirls completely ignored the death of Nigerian boys

Example 9: Feminists treating unborn babies as part of their own body or property.

Example 10: The belief that misandry isn't real.

Example 11: Feminism sometimes implies every woman is a victim.

Example 12: Feminists sometimes think women are better.

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Political Science 101 and Beyond: A Suggested Reading and Free Course List

I call myself a political junkie. But how much do I really know about politics? Is most of what I have learned from the news media? I feel like it's time to research how politics has evolved (or devolved). I've decided to compile a suggested reading list for political science. I am not familiar with any of these books so hopefully I am making some good choices.

1. Who Governs? by Robert Dahl
2. Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam
3. An Economic Theory of Democracy by Anthony Downs
4. The Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson
5. Social Choice and Individual Values by Kenneth Arrow
6. Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
7. The Federalist by Publius
8. Making Democracy Work by Robert Putnam
9. Exit Voice and Loyalty by Albert Hirschmann
10. The Semisovereign People by E.E. Schattschneider
11. American Grace by Putnam and Campbell,
12. The Party Decides by Cohen, Karol, Noel, and Zaller
13. Red State, Blue State, Rich State, Poor State: Why Americans Vote the Way They Do by Andrew Gelman
14. Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
15. The Art of Not Being Governed by James C. Scott
16. Why Nations Fail by Acemoglu and Robinson
17. The Sovereign State and Its Competitors by Hendrik Spruyt,
18. Nixonland by Rick Perlstein 19. The Dictator’s Handbook by BDM and Smith
20. The Tragedy of Great Power Politics by John Mearsheimer
21. What It Takes by Richard Ben Cramer
22. Man, the State, and War by Kenneth Waltz
23. The Oil Curse by Michael Ross
24. Power: A Radical View by Steven Lukes
25. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York by Robert A. Caro
26. Democracy and Its Critics by Robert A. Dahl
27. History of Political Thought by Mukherjee and Ramaswamy
28. Political Theory by O.P Gauba
29. The Rise of The Counter-Establishment by Sidney Blumenthal
30. None Dare Call It Treason by John Stormer
31. Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson
32. The Twilight of the Presidency by George Reedy
33. The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx
34. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
35. The Republic by Plato
36. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
37. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
38. On Liberty by John Stuart Mill
39. Politics by Aristotle
40. Animal Farm by George Orwell
41. The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order by Samuel P. Huntington
42. The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism by Naomi Klein
43. The Origins of Political Order: From Prehuman Times to the French Revolution by Francis Fukuyama
44. Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky
45. Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance by Noam Chomsky
46. 1984 by George Orwell
47. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
48. The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
49. Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond
50. The Constitution of the United States of America by James Madison
51. The Logic of Collective Action: Public Goods and the Theory of Groups by Mancur Olson Jr. 52. Lies & the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair & Balanced Look at the Right by Al Franken 53. Diplomacy by Henry Kissinger
54. The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman
55. A People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present by Howard Zinn
56. The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution of the United States by Thomas Jefferson
57. The Future of Freedom: Illiberal Democracy at Home and Abroad by Fareed Zakaria
58. No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs by Naomi Klein
59. The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria
60. The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization by Thomas L. Friedman
61. What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank
62. Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy by Noam Chomsky
63. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt 64. The Revolution: A Manifesto by Ron Paul
65. A Brief History of Neoliberalism by David Harvey
66. American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America by Chris Hedges
67. Discourse on the Origin of Inequality by Jean-Jacques Rousseau
68. Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid by Jimmy Carter
69. America (The Book): A Citizen's Guide to Democracy Inaction by Jon Stewart
70. A Theory of Justice by John Rawls
71. Utilitarianism by John Stuart Mill
72. Understanding Power: The Indispensable Chomsky by Noam Chomsky
73. Drift: The Unmooring of American Military Power by Rachel Maddow
74. The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court by Jeffrey Toobin
75. Profit Over People: Neoliberalism and Global Order by Noam Chomsky
76. Development as Freedom by Amartya Sen
77. Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime by John Heilemann
78. Congress: The Electoral Connection by David R. Mayhew
79. The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals by Jane Mayer
80. On Liberty and Other Essays by John Stuart Mill
81. Soft Power: The Means To Success In World Politics by Joseph S. Nye Jr.
82. Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jeremy Scahill
83. 9-11 by Noam Chomsky
84. Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto by Mark R. Levin
85. It's Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the Politics of Extremism by Thomas E. Mann
86. Polyarchy: Participation and Opposition by Robert A. Dahl
87. Rights of Man by Thomas Paine
88. Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals by Saul D. Alinsky
89. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew J. Bacevich
90. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
91. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich
92. Media Control: The Spectacular Achievements of Propaganda by Noam Chomsky
93. The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
94. Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff
95. Decision Points by George W. Bush
96. Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel W. Drezner
97. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
98. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart by Bill Bishop 99. The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone by Joseph S. Nye Jr.
100. American Theocracy: The Peril and Politics of Radical Religion, Oil, and Borrowed Money in the 21st Century by Kevin Phillips
101. Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning by Jonah Goldberg
102. God's Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn't Get It by Jim Wallis
103. The Human Condition by Hannah Arendt
104. The 5000 Year Leap: A Miracle That Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen
105. Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Collected Essays) by Henry David Thoreau
106. The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin by Corey Robin 107. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer
108. America Alone: The End of the World As We Know It by Mark Steyn
109. Policy Paradox: The Art of Political Decision Making by Deborah Stone
110. How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter by Ann Coulter 111. The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf
112. The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion by John R. Zaller
113. Rush Limbaugh Is A Big Fat Idiot by Al Franken
114. Idiot America: How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free by Charles P. Pierce 115. The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better by Richard G. Wilkinson
116. The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry M. Goldwater
117. Anarchy, State, and Utopia by Robert Nozick
118. Back to Work: Why We Need Smart Government for a Strong Economy by Bill Clinton
119. The World America Made by Robert Kagan
120. The Wrecking Crew: How Conservatives Rule by Thomas Frank
121. The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power by Jeff Sharlet
122. The End of Poverty by Jeffrey D. Sachs
123. Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think by George Lakoff
124. What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception by Scott McClellan
 125. Glenn Beck's Common Sense: The Case Against an Out-of-Control Government, Inspired by Thomas Paine by Glenn Beck

Free Courses at MIT Open Courseware:

1. Introduction to Comparative Politics

2. Introduction to Political Thought 

3. Field Seminar: International Relations Theory 

4. Introduction to the American Political Process

Sources:
10 books everyone studying grad polisci will read
15 Must-Read Books (And 2 Must-Watch Movies) For Political Science Students
What are the 10 Best Books in Political Science?
The Best Political Nonfiction Books Ever
Good Reads Popular Political Science Books
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Feminism 101 and Beyond: A Reading and Free Course List


I call myself a feminist. I have for over a decade. But how much do I really know about feminism? Is most of what I have learned from pop culture?

I feel like it's time to finally educate myself on the herstory of feminism. I'm a big reader so I've decided to compile a suggested reading list.

1. The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan
2. The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
3. A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf
4. The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler
5. Sexual Politics by Kate Millett
6. The Female Eunuch by Germaine Greer
7. The Beauty Myth by Naomi Wolf
8. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
9. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
10. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft
11. Feminism Is for Everybody: Passionate Politics by bell hooks
12. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
13. The Collected Poems of Lucille Clifton by Lucille Clifton
14. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
15. How to Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran
16. Scum Manifesto by Valerie Solanas
17. The Dialectic of Sex by Shulamith Firestone
18. Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape by Susan Brownmille
19. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
20. Our Bodies Ourselves by Boston Women's Health Book Collective
21. The Sex Which is Not One by Luce Irigaray
22. Fat is a Feminist Issue by Susie Orbach
23. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
24. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
25. Intercourse by Andrea Dworkin
26. Backlash: The Undeclared War on Women by Susan Faludi
27. Gender Trouble by Judith Butler
28. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
29. Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richard
30. Are Men Necessary? When Sexes Collide by Maureen Dowd
31. Full Frontal Feminism by Jessica Valent
32. The Future of Feminism by Sylvia Walby
33. Bossypants by Tina Fey
34. Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture by Ariel Levy
35. Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio
36. Feminism and Pop Culture by Andi Zeisler
37. A Little F’d Up: Why Feminism Is Not a Dirty Word by Julie Zellinger
38. Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
39. The Bust Guide to the New Girl Order
40. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
41. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
42. The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
43. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
44. The Awakening by Kate Chopin
45. A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen
46. Beloved (Toni Morrison Trilogy #1) by Toni Morrison
47. Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape by Jaclyn Friedman
48. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
49. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
50. Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
51. The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle #4) by Ursula K. Le Guin
52. Feminist Theory from Margin to Center by Bell Hooks
53. The Mists of Avalon (Avalon, #1) by Marion Zimmer Bradley 
54. Orlando by Virginia Woolf
55. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
56. The Women's Room by Marilyn French
57. He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti
58. Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano
59. Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
60. Women, Race, and Class by Angela Y. Davis
61. Feminism: The Essential Historical Writings by Miriam Schneir
62. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination by Sandra M. Gilbert
63. The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
64. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
65. The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women by Jessica Valenti
66. Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi
67. The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
68. The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill
69. The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner
70. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts' Advice to Women by Barbara Ehrenreich
71. Diving Into the Wreck: Poems, 1971-1972 by Adrienne Rich
72. Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New Economy by Barbara Ehrenreich
73. Revolution from Within: A Book of Self-Esteem by Gloria Steinem
74. Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas
75. Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing by Christiane Northrup
76. Fear of Flying by Erica Jong
77. Bitches, Bimbos, and Ballbreakers: The Guerrilla Girls' Illustrated Guide to Female Stereotypes by Guerrilla Girls
78. Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation by Barbara Findlen
79. Witches, Midwives and Nurses: A History of Women Healers by Barbara Ehrenreich
80. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
81. Pornography: Men Possessing Women by Andrea Dworkin
82. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin
83. When God Was a Woman by Merlin Stone
84. Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution by Adrienne Rich
85. The Bitch in the House: 26 Women Tell the Truth About Sex, Solitude, Work, Motherhood, and Marriage by Cathi Hanauer
86. The Female Man by Joanna Russ
87. Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by Bell Hooks
88. Feminism Unmodified: Discourses on Life and Law by Catharine A. MacKinnon
89. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
90. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions by Gloria Steinem
91. In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
92. How to Suppress Women's Writing by Joanna Russ
93. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future by Riane Eisler
94. How the Pro-Choice Movement Saved America by Cristina Page
95. The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker
96. The Second Shift by Arlie Russell Hochschild
97. Femininity by Susan Brownmiller
98. Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty
99. Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
100. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
101. When She Woke by Hillary Jordan
102. On Lies, Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose (1966-1978) by Adrienne Rich
103. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
104. Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice by John Stoltenberg
105. The Golden Notebook by Doris Lessing
106. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
107. Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice by Jack Holland
108. Kiss My Tiara: How to Rule the World as a SmartMouth Goddess by Susan Jane Gilman
109. The Technology of Orgasm: "Hysteria," the Vibrator, and Women's Sexual Satisfaction by Rachel P. Maines 
110. Get to Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World by Linda R. Hirshman
111. The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Goddess by Starhawk
112. I am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World by Eve Ensler
113. Foxfire by Joyce Carol Oates
114. A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer: Writings to Stop Violence Against Women and Girls by Eve Ensler
115. Slut!: Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation by Leora Tanenbaum
116. Hello Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws by Kate Bornstein
117. The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory by Carol J. Adams
118. Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference by Cordelia Fine
119. The Hours by Michael Cunningham
120. Can't Buy My Love: How Advertising Changes the Way We Think and Feel by Jean Kilbourne
121. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
122. Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World by Peggy Orenstein
123. The Feminine Mistake: Are We Giving Up Too Much? by Leslie Bennetts
124. Packaging Girlhood: Rescuing Our Daughters from Marketers' Schemes by Sharon Lamb
125. Homophobia: A Weapon Of Sexism by Suzanne Pharr
126. Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen by Alix Kates Shulman
127. Jane Sexes It Up: True Confessions of Feminist Desire by Merri Lisa Johnson
128. Toward a Feminist Theory of the State by Catharine A. MacKinnon
129.Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
130 .Survival of the Prettiest: The Science of Beauty by Nancy L. Etcoff
131The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships by Harriet Lerner
132. The Natural Superiority of Women by Ashley Montagu
133. Virginity or Death!: And Other Social and Political Issues of Our Time by Katha Pollitt
134. Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
135. Gyn/Ecology: The Metaethics of Radical Feminism by Mary Daly
136. Stiffed: The Betrayal of the American Man by Susan Faludi
137. My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely by Kate Bornstein
138. Meena, Heroine of Afghanistan: The Martyr Who Founded RAWA, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan by Melody Ermachild Chavis
139. Beyond God the Father: Toward a Philosophy of Women's Liberation by Mary Daly
140. Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women by Geraldine Brooks
141. BITCHfest: Ten Years of Cultural Criticism from the Pages of Bitch Magazine by Lisa Jervis 142. Women's Voices, Feminist Visions: Classic and Contemporary Readings by Susan M. Shaw 143. Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism by Natasha Walter
144. Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier
145. Heartbreak: The Political Memoir of a Feminist Militant by Andrea Dworkin
146. The Meaning of Wife: A Provocative Look at Women and Marriage in the Twenty-First Century by Anne Kingston 136. Living My Life by Emma Goldman
147. Girls Gone Mild: Young Women Reclaim Self-Respect and Find It's Not Bad to Be Good by Wendy Shalit
148. What Is Marriage For?: The Strange Social History of Our Most Intimate Institution by E.J. Graff
149. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development by Carol Gilligan
150. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
151. The Boundaries of Her Body: A Shocking History of Women's Rights in America by Debran Rowland
152. Transformations by Anne Sexton
153. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire
154. Pro-Life Feminism Different V by Gail Grenier-Sweet
155. Going Too Far: The Personal Chronicle of a Feminist by Robin Morgan
156. Buddhism After Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism by Rita M. Gross
157. A Question of Choice by Sarah Weddington
158. In Our Time: Memoir of A Revolution by Susan Brownmiller
159. The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence by Colette Dowling
160. How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868-1914 by Rebecca J. Mead
161. The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer
162. Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory by Marilyn Frye
163. Women and Economics by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
164. Who Cooked the Last Supper?: The Women's History of the World by Rosalind Miles
165. The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West by Karen Armstrong
166. Gendered Bodies: Feminist Perspectives by Judith Lorber
167. Myths of Motherhood: How Culture Reinvents the Good Mother by Sherry Thurer
168. Living With Contradictions: Controversies In Feminist Social Ethics by Alison Jaggar
169. More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave by Ruth Schwartz Cowan
170. Right Wing Women by Andrea Dworkin
171. The Good Girl Revolution: Young Rebels with Self-Esteem and High Standards by Wendy Shalit
172. Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving Hurts And You Don't Know Why by Susan Forward
173. Postfeminist News: Political Women in Media Culture by Mary Douglas Vavrus
174. The Conflict: How Modern Motherhood Undermines the Status of Women by Élisabeth Badinter
175. Fire With Fire: New Female Power and How it Will Change the Twenty-First Century by Naomi Wolf
176. We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists by Melody Berger
177. Dead End Feminism by Élisabeth Badinter
178. A God Who Looks Like Me by Patricia Lynn Reilly
179. Woman Hating by Andrea Dworkin
180. Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali
181. The Civilization of the Goddess by Marija Gimbutas
182. No Constitutional Right to Be Ladies: Women and the Obligations of Citizenship by Linda K. Kerber
183. The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine by Sue Monk Kidd
184. Founding Mothers: The Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts
185. The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir
186. Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir
187. Living Islam Out Loud: American Muslim Women Speak by Saleemah Abdul-Ghafur
188. Dakini's Warm Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism by Judith Simmer-Brown
189. The Industrial Vagina: The Political Economy of the Global Sex Trade by Sheila Jeffreys
190. The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker
191. The Female Thing: Dirt, Sex, Envy, Vulnerability by Laura Kipnis
192. Pornland: How Porn Has Hijacked Our Sexuality by Gail Dines
193. Not Without My Daughter by Betty Mahmoody
194. Anticlimax: A Feminist Perspective on the Sexual Revolution by Sheila Jeffreys
195. The Equality Illusion: The Truth About Women And Men Today by Kat Banyard
196. Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls: By the Guerrilla Girls (Whoever They Really Are); With an Essay by Whitney Chadwick by Guerrilla Girls
197. Radically Speaking: Feminism Reclaimed by Diane Bell
198. A Thousand Sisters: My Journey into the Worst Place on Earth to Be a Woman by Lisa Shannon
199. The Essential Feminist Reader by Estelle B. Freedman
200. The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
201.The Complete Idiot's Guide to Women's History (The Complete Idiot's Guides) by Sonia Weiss, Lorna Biddle Rinea
202. Les Guerilleres by Monique Wittig16. Jailed for Freedom: American Women Win the Vote by Doris Stevens
203. Prolife Feminism by Mary Krane Derr
204. The Frailty Myth: Women Approaching Physical Equality by Colette Dowling
205. America's Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines by Gail Collins
206. All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks
207. Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture by Peggy Orenstein
208. When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost: A Hip-Hop Feminist Breaks It Down by Joan Morgan
209. The War Against Women by Marilyn French


Free Courses at MIT Open Courseware:

Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies 2009
 
 Introduction to Women's and Gender Studies 2010

Feminist Political Thought

Gender and Media Studies: Women and the Media

See more MIT Gender Studies courses here

See more MIT Women's Studies courses here

Sources: Top Ten Most Influential Feminist Books
A Reading List of One's Own: 10 Essential Feminist Books
50 Essential Feminist Books
Feminism 101: A Guide to the Best Introductory Books
10 Essential Feminist Texts That Everyone Should Read 
The 10 Best Books of the Year for Young Feminists
Goodreads Best Feminism Books
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Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Don't Know Much About Feminism


I voted enthusiastically for President Obama twice. The second time was because I thought maybe he needed a second term to achieve his promises. However, I keep feeling more and more like the Obama I voted for and the Obama that is the President is not the same person.

I just finished watching Morning Joe on MS-NBC where they shared criticism of how President Obama continued with his speech about the economy in the wake of the Navy Yard shooting. Later, Joe Scarborough discussed how President Obama and the White House seem out of touch and detached. Scarborough described Obama as being a "passive observer." He discussed how President Obama has been seriously dysfunctional in communication with the public as well as Democratic Senators. I tried to find a clip of this but it seems MS-NBC has conveniently left this segment out of their available clips.

Scarborough didn't come out and say it this morning, but I got the impression that he thinks what many of us are thinking. President Obama is incompetent. How he has handled Syria is the most recent and extreme example of that incompetence.

Not all people believe that the President "made things up as he went along" in his handling of Syria. I've spoken to a number of people that describe Obama as being "a master chess player" and having "an incredible poker face." They seem to be under the impression that Obama used the threat of bombing Syria to get the diplomatic deal that emerged and that he was in cahoots with Putin the entire time.

However, there is evidence to the contrary.

The Bloomberg View says, "The White House says that what matters is the outcome, not the process."

Commentary Magazine says, "This latest volte-face by the president is evidence of a man who is completely overmatched by events, weak and confused, and deeply ambivalent about using force."

The Washington Post says, "The administration claims (preposterously, but no matter) that Obama has been working on this idea with Putin at previous meetings. Moreover, the idea was first publicly enunciated by Kerry, even though his own State Department immediately walked it back as a slip of the tongue."

Like I said this is only the most recent example.

Time Magazine accused Obama of being incompetent regarding Obamacare back in April. Why? It seems they delayed a huge part of Obamacare. According to The New York Times, "Unable to meet tight deadlines in the new health care law, the Obama administration is delaying parts of a program intended to provide affordable health insurance to small businesses and their employees — a major selling point for the health care legislation."

I don't remember hearing about this in the news. Perhaps it's because back in April I was still putting Obama on a pedestal. Since then his pedestal has gotten smaller and smaller. In the last few weeks it's came crashing down. When he announced that he wanted to bomb Syria, I disagreed with him, but I could certainly understand his reasoning.

It was when he addressed the nation about Syria, that he completely lost me as a supporter. He said, "And several people wrote to me, we should not be the world's policeman. I agree." Then completely contradicted himself when he said, "My fellow Americans, for nearly seven decades the United States has been the anchor of global security. This has meant doing more than forging international agreements. It has meant enforcing them. The burdens of leadership are often heavy, but the world's a better place because we have borne them." (Emphasis is mine.)

WTF Mr. President?

To make matters worse, he repeats the previous idea. "Our ideals and principles, as well as our national security, are at stake in Syria, along with our leadership of a world where we seek to ensure that the worst weapons will never be used. America is not the world's policeman. Terrible things happen across the globe, and it is beyond our means to right every wrong." (Emphasis is mine.)

I decided to do a Google search for the words "Obama is not the man I voted for." I wrote the words "Obama is not the man..." and Google conveniently finished the phrase for me. The phrase Google gave was "Obama is not the man America voted for." Unfortunately most of these links were from around the time of his reelection. Not quite what I was looking for.

So I tried again. I had no more typed "Democrats dis..." when Google suggested not one but four interesting search topics.

1. democrats disappointed in Obama
2. democrats distancing from Obama
3. democrats distancing themselves from Obamacare
4. democrats distancing themselves from Obama

It's really more than just my disappointment in Obama. I'm disappointed with the entire Democratic party. Lately I'm disgusted by MS-NBC. I used to drink the MS-NBC Kool-aid but I've watched the news station push more and more GOP propaganda everyday. I remember agreeing with the joke about "Faux News" but now I respond to the joke by saying MS-NBC is just as bad. Was I really surprised when I saw Joe Scarborough's negative comments about Obama weren't available in the online clips?

If I made this blog a year ago, it would have been a lefty, progressive, liberal, Democratic schmoozefest for Obama. Anyone in these categories could do no wrong in my eyes, especially Obama. But at this point in my life, I don't know who I am or what I believe in anymore.

If Obama isn't all the things I believe in, then who is? Six months ago I would have answered that question with this: Hillary 2016.

I know better now. I used to think the saying "A politician is a politician is a politician" was just a joke, but if Obama has taught me anything, it's that there's some truth to that saying.

It goes so much deeper than that though. I was friends with and dated a conspiracy theorist some years ago. He had a lot of theories (which he claimed where not theories because he had facts to back them up). To say I gave him a hard time for these conspiracy theories would be an understatement. I thought most of them were silly and crazy. Most of all, I thought all his theories were wrong and aggressively told him so. We parted ways on bad terms and haven't spoken in a few years.

Then things started happening that shattered my paradigm of the world and politics. Things he had said were coming true!

D's Theory #1: The government is trying to poison you.

I thought this theory was a load of crap. That is until Mosanto started making the news. Not alternative news, mind you. Headline news in the "lamestream media." At first, I honestly thought GMO's can't possibly be that bad. Sure something banned in over two dozen other countries can't be that bad. Then came the refusal to label foods. Next was the reports of organic farmers and even gardeners being told to cease and desist. The facts just got scarier and scarier.

D's Theory #2: The government is trying to control the internet.

This one I outright laughed at. Then came SOPA in 2012 and then CISPA this year. I do admit whether or not these would be used to censor the internet was only speculation but it did seem like slippery slope to online censorship.

D's Theory #3: Big Brother is watching.

This past year is was revealed that the NSA has been spying on us for years using our phone records. At first the White House outright denied it. Then Obama tried to claim the NSA surveillance programs are "transparent." He claims that he learned the truth about the NSA from the media.

D's Theory #4: The government suppresses anyone who tells the truth.

Three people proved this to be true. While some considered them to be criminals, others consider them heroes for being brave enough to tell the truth about our government. Those people are Julian Assange, Chelsea Manning (formally known as Bradley Manning), and Edward Snowden.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not going to start pointing out signs of the Illuminati in music videos or claiming that government leaders are reptilians but I do have to ask:

How far down does the rabbit hole go?

What is the truth? What do Democrats and Republicans really believe? What do the third parties believe? What does it mean to be "liberal" or "conservative?" How biased is the media? What was this country really founded on? How many more "conspiracy theories" are true?

This blog is also about feminism. How did we become a patriarchy? How and when did feminism start? How much truth is there to the feminist agenda? Do I have to stop wearing makeup and loving fashion to be a feminist?

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Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Race Issues, Women Against Feminism, and Finding the Truth


I've considered myself a feminist since I was in my early twenties. I was what I would call a "pop culture" feminist in that I took what I knew about feminism only from popular culture. I was interested in academic feminism but I never took the time to research the history of the feminist movement and explore all of it's nuances. 

I naively thought the race issues between white feminists and feminists of color was a nuance. It is not a nuance but is interwoven into the very fabric of all three waves of feminism. It is bigger than I can even comprehend.

I am a white woman and while I wholeheartedly support intersectionality, I have yet to claim the word for the reasons the meme above expresses. As a white woman do I have the right to claim to even understand intersectionality? Can I even begin to understand what it is like to be a woman of color in today's world?

What's worse is that white women throughout the feminist movement have not only claimed to understand it, they have equated their experience with that of the black slave, turned their backs on abolitionism, or are feminists who just simply ignore the fact that early feminists did turn their backs on the very slaves they originally were trying to help.

A Very Brief Look at a Handful of Examples
Here is a handful of examples. These can't even begin to cover the issue of race and feminism but I want to start somewhere. Entire books have been written on the topic and as I research the topic I will add blog posts to expand on it. 

Mary Wollstonecraft
"Is one half of the human species, like the poor African slaves, to be subject to prejudices that brutalize them, when principles would be a surer guard, only to sweeten the cup of man?"
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759–1797).  A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

 Susan B. Anthony
"I will cut off this right arm of mine before I will ever work or demand the ballot for the Negro and not the woman.” Susan B. Anthony

 Susan B. Anthony worked alongside African American men and assumed that women would get the vote at the same time as they did. Unfortunately when this didn't happen, it's said that she turned against her former allies in the abolitionist movement, and instead aligned herself with a racist benefactor. She even argued for women suffrage by comparing educated white women like herself to the semi literate black men who were going to be getting the ballot first.

Ann Snitow
"Woman" is my slave name; feminism will give me freedom to seek some other identity altogether. Ann Snitow "A Gender Diary," Conflicts in Feminism 

 Betty Friedan
"But it is an undeniable fact that organizing, petitioning, and speaking out to free the slaves, American women learned how to free themselves."
Betty Friedan The Feminine Mystique

 There's nothing actually wrong with the quote itself. Friedan simply means they learned how to go about it. The problem I have is that in The Feminine Mystique, she fails to ever mention that once learning how to free themselves Susan B Anthony turned her back on the very abolitionist movement that helped her get their start. Instead she talks about how heroic she was completely leaving out anything that might blemish Anthony's reputation as an activist.

Current Examples
Back in May I blogged about the hashtag #yesALLwhiteowomen. The tag was created by 4chan who have since become rather notorious for their pranks in the feminist community. The guys at 4chan thought they were being original when they created the hashtag #yesAllwhitewomen but not one of them ever realized the similar hashtag #solidarityisforwhitewomen was created by feminist women of color back in 2013 in response to white feminists.

This past week I watched a well known voice in the feminist community decide to shut down her Twitter because she was being accused of lying about being a woman of color. She decided to start her Twitter over so that she could remain completely anonymous and protect herself from the harsh harassment. Was it a 4chan troll or a member of the MRM (Men's Rights Movement) that was harassing her and making the accusations? No. It was a fellow feminist this woman had considered an ally.

Why am I telling you this story? Because the meme at the top of this post epitomizes the point the woman of color was trying to make. If you are white than how can you possibly know what it's like for a women of color? How does your feminism fight for us?

But those are not the questions I'm trying to answer here.

 How Does All This Tie in with Women Against Feminism?
I have a very simple point. It is why I wrote this post to begin with. It is a reality that, as someone who has considered herself a feminist for most of my adult life, I am having a rather hard time coming to terms with.

It is a reality that many supporters of #womenagainstfemism and #menagainstfeminism have been trying to tell me all along. (Well, now they are openly telling everyone.) This simple message is "what you believe might not be all it's cracked up to be." It's the message that "what the majority of feminists have been saying may not be entirely truthful."

At first it was pretty easy to ignore these messages. Things like "feminism is misandry," "feminists think women are superior," and even "patriarchy is not real" are opinions. But when I kept hearing the idea that "feminism has been rife with racism from the very beginning" I realized there had to be some truth to this.

Why? Because the feminists who are women of color were saying it too!

The worst part is that it went even further. Because the feminists in the gay and transgender community were saying they felt discriminated against by straight cisgender feminists. I especially saw it when the hashtags #yesallwomen, #eacheverywoman, and #allmencan were at the height of the popularity. Those that are transgender or gender ambiguous kept saying over and over "Stop alienating us!" but very few listened or even seemed to care.

I also learned why I was always so leary of the hashtag movement #bringbackourgirls. I always had this gut feeling that I was missing something important regarding the issue. I was horrified to learn this past week that while the hashtag movement was viral no one talked about the boys that had been murdered. I found an article by Naomi Wolf titled it Bring Back Our Girls. And Boys." She is the only feminist that I saw even talk about the boys. Society, the media, and feminists as a whole did not care about these boys. Just the girls.

Is this what feminism has become? Save the girls but we don't care if you kill the boys?

So these past few days, when I saw the Women Against Feminism holding up signs that said "feminism is hateful," "feminism is alienating," and "feminism is divisive" I found myself reluctantly agreeing. If you read my last post, you know I found myself agreeing with many of the points Women Against Feminism made.

 So Now What?
After all that I have discovered, do I still consider myself a feminist? I don't know. I don't know if that is a label that I want to apply to myself anymore. If I reject some beliefs of feminism does that mean I have to reject feminism as a whole?

I have always considered my definition of feminism to be equalist, egalitarian, humanist, and yes even intersectional. Is it possible to continue to practice what I personally believe feminism is when feminism as a whole has so much baggage, negativity, and is perceived as hate?

Can I really make the world a better place if I am constantly having to prove how I'm not a man hating, alienating, angry, vengeful, blaming, perpetual victim? I found myself constantly having to prove to people that I'm not a stereotypical radical feminist even before Women Against Feminism went viral.

There's the rebel in me that says if I give up the label of feminism I am letting them win. The whole point is that feminism isn't a dirty word, right? The whole point is not to be afraid to call myself whatever I want...but even if clinging to that word means it gets in the way of the activism I actually want to do?

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Thursday, June 12, 2014

I Don't Know How To Be a Feminist


Since starting this blog and Twitter I have learned a much needed lessen. You see I've finally realized that I've been trying to be something I'm not. I'm not some hardcore feminist. As much as I would like to write intelligent, thought provoking rants with words like rape culture, cisgender, ablist, white privilege, and intersectionality, I'm just not there yet.

Granted, I started this blog and Twitter during a very serious hashtag movement. #Yesallwomen and #eacheverywoman is a very serious topic. It deserves to be taken seriously.

The problem is that I'm taking myself too seriously. The truth is I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Because I don't know what the hell I'm doing I've been trying way too hard. I'm trying to be on the same level as these hardcore feminists who use all those fancy words and pretend I understand what on earth I'm talking about. Most of the time, I'm just making a fool of myself instead. (The /pol/ 4chan incident is an excellent example!)

Worst of all, I keep trying to be the "perfect" feminist. I want to say all the right things, do all the right things because I think I need to fit in with the other feminists. I want to be accepted. I want to be seen as one of them. I want to be a card carrying hard core feminist too. I want to be able to smash the patriarchy!

The problem is that I'm not being true to myself. I like to laugh. I think many feminists I have come across take themselves far too seriously. The best time I had on Twitter this past week was when I kept making jokes for the #yesallcats satire hashtag movement. And if I'm going to be really honest there were a few jokes on the #yesallwomenjokes hashtag that I laughed at.

But I'm not supposed to because I'm a feminist.

Another reason I realized I don't have to be so damn serious all the time is because I've been reading How To Be a Woman by Caitlin Moran and she's funny. She rants about the big things like patriarchy but finds the absurdity of the little things too like periods and shaving and even masturbation, What's bizarre is that I'm reading The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan at the exact same time. Friedan is as serious as a heart attack all the time and only discusses the big issues. They are both feminists but are like night and day.

Certainly I want to do what I can to help the feminist movement but I'm trying so hard that I'm ignoring who I am as a feminist. What kind of feminist do I want to be? The truth is at this point I think I want to be more like Caitlin Moran that I do Betty Friedan. I want to write about things with words like rape culture, cisgender, ablist, white privilege, and intersectionality, but can't I do it and be funny at the same time? (Okay, probably not.)

So until I get to words like rape culture, cisgender, ablist, white privilege, and intersectionality, I'm just going to have to stick with what I know. I know about Disney Princesses and boys being told not to cry or throw like a girl. I know about my daughter dressing like a boy and my son being teased because he's short and thus not as masculine as the other boys. I know about raising boys without a father figure and being a girl growing up with homemakers as examples (unless you count the Avon lady). I know about playing with Barbie dolls, selling cookies as a Girl Scout, and never having to work on the farm because I was a girl. I know about getting married at only 18 and finally living without a man to take care of me at 32.

I want to find my feminist voice. Not Caitlin's voice or Betty's voice or anyone else's feminist voice but mine. That means doing something very scary. That means being me and deciding that other feminists can take me or leave me. It means deciding that what other people think of me doesn't matter. It means saying what I think and feel even if it doesn't always agree with feminism. It means admitting that I want to be pretty and skinny, wear makeup and find true love and that I don't know how to reconcile those things with feminism.

It means admitting I don't know how to be a feminist my way.
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