Understanding the current moment Through Feminist Texts
Content Warning: This article contains mentions of sexual assault and Gender-based violence.
In recent months, college students across the country have been left to grapple with the rapid changes in the higher education landscape. Feminists, however, have been grappling with the rise of misogynistic and anti-feminist rhetoric for decades, so I compiled a reading list of inspiring feminist texts I encountered in my coursework that helped me through these uncertain times.
1. Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
Sister Outsider is a foundational text in which Audre Lorde addresses not only sexism, but racism, homophobia, and classism in a series of essays compiled into a book. She recognizes oppression as looking vastly different for each individual depending upon other aspects of one’s social identity, challenging the notion that all women share a universal experience.
2. All About Love by bell hooks
bell hooks problematizes the way society conceptualizes love in her book All About Love. hooks challenges the reader to think of how love can move beyond the romantic, as it often leads to disappointment in one’s life. Rather, hooks suggests that love is a process that can manifest outside of the storybook or rom-com narrative. Friendships and platonic connections can often result in more fulfillment than any romantic connections, but they are often trivialized in the media. Instead, hooks suggests finding liberation in a love that expands beyond the romantic.
3. the second sex by simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir describes the experiences of women as those of the other. In a patriarchal world, men are considered the norm, which problematizes any variation from the male bodily form. Furthermore, de Beauvoir highlights that differences are often viewed as a weakness, rather than a strength, of humanity, which can explain why women are made to internalize these feelings of inadequacy.
4. Femininity and Domination by Sandra Bartky
Sandra Bartky utilizes a Foucaultian framework to explain how the beauty and cosmetic industry has become a source of surveillance and control for women. As the main consumers of beauty and body products, marketing campaigns and strategies prey on women’s insecurities, causing them to invest time, money, and resources into achieving a specific aesthetic rather than other pursuits.
5. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color by Kimberlé Crenshaw
KimberlĂ© Crenshaw draws attention to how gender intersects with other aspects of one’s identity, specifically race and class, in instances of sexual violence. Crenshaw, like other feminists, problematizes the idea of a unifying experience that ties all women together. For Crenshaw, a truly feminist movement cannot ignore the differences among women to achieve equity.
6. Women, Race, and Class by Angela Davis
Angela Davis provides an overview of why previous feminist movements, specifically in the United States, have failed. Davis argues that overlooking and sidelining women of diverse backgrounds has undermined any attempt at collective liberation. The book concludes that the classism and racism of women’s movement leaders are the cause of its own shortcomings.
7. We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie provides a great introduction to feminism for someone looking to engage critically with the theories and issues, but does not want to commit to a longer, dense read. Adapted from a TED Talk, Adichie provides a framework that includes all individuals, regardless of identity, in the twenty-first-century feminist movement. By collectively identifying as feminists, Adichie believes that dialogue on issues of appearance, sexuality, and socialization can occur between men and women.
8. If men could menstruate by Gloria Steinem
Gloria Steinem’s If Men Could Menstruate is a satirical piece that addresses how the world would conceptualize and market menstruation if the process applied to men. Using tongue-and-cheek humor, Steinem highlights the lived reality of women, girls, and all people who experience menstruation as one of shame. Reconceptualizing menstruation is essential to achieving equity for all people, regardless of gender identity, because it is not culturally acceptable to have open discussions about what accommodations and structural changes would be necessary to make one’s cycle less burdensome.
Time to get reading
Reading should open our eyes to new perspectives and experiences. By engaging critically with literature that is not necessarily covered in the traditional historical canon, we can become a more equitable and feminist society.