The F-word discussion

Hi All, I'm after a recommendation for a good introduction to modern feminism, preferably one that sketches out the antecedents in earlier feminists. Any suggestions? Thanks, Tim.

Hi, Tim. That's a good question, though not one that I find easy to answer. Though that may be because I am still always reading and searching too. :) I'll also admit that I had previously missed so many earlier texts that I feel I am trying to "catch up" now, and have not gotten to as many of the newer perspectives on feminism, modern or historical.

A good place to start for ideas here, though, might be our bookshelf to see what we have already read. You can see from there any discussions the books have had in this group, and I believe even individual's ratings and reviews if they read the book.

Otherwise, hopefully someone else can jump in with some good ideas as I would also be interested.

Tim, have you read anything already that you feel is close but not quite what you're looking for? This might help spark my memory on other things that might work for you.

I think Rebecca Solnit's The Mother of All Questions is a great start. An older book, Jessica Valenti's Full Frontal Feminism might be helpful too.

I ALWAYS recommend "Whipping Girl" by Julia Serano to EVERYONE I meet. It should be required reading. She's a scientist, so the chairs are kind of thick with information, but she carefully explains "the scapegoating of femininity" as her thesis: how Western society values and gives power to certain traits that are seen as "male" (anger, strength, doing mechanical things, invulnerability) and looks down on traits seen as "feminine" (emotional vulnerability, gentleness, wearing makeup, crying) AND how this leads straight into the cultural obsession with males (or trans women) who "display feminine traits" and why that sets off shock and horror in the masculinity obsessed mind that most people have who have never thought about gender.

I rather suspect that modern feminism is impossible to define? Seems like feminism has sprawled as a political movement so there are now whole branches that disagree on every point with other branches.

We probably can't talk meaningfully about modern feminist, just modern radical feminism, modern eco-feminism, modern social justice feminism, modern liberal feminism etc.

A book which did justice to all the different feminisms would be an excellent book indeed, since most authors belong to one branch or another so have a hard time doing justice to other branches.