Reading List

How does one prioritise the reading order of books? Do you start at the beginning of publishing and work your way to the present? Do you put on hold the books you think you have a gist of already and go for something more alien? How about relevance, and if you get bored or tired do you go on to something light or funny? Over the past few months I have made it my mission to read all feminist books ever published.

“All of them?” I hear you say. “But there must be thousands.”

Well, as many as I can hold in my small flat at one time and purchase on my tiny income, yes. And no, there aren’t thousands. There are a lot, but not thousands.

With such a wide range of topics and such a great deal of herstory to cover, I never really know where to go next. It’s more of a pick and choose what I’m in the mood for. I know I need to read the real groundbreakers, but while I am reading those from 1935 I don’t want to miss something that is happening right now, in the moment. Woe is me!

So far: Living Dolls, The Awakening, Reading Women, Herland, Yellow Wallpaper, The Beauty Myth, Human Rights are Women’s Rights, Reconciliations, How to be a Woman, Women on the Edge of Time,

Books to read within the year: Female Chauvinist Pigs, Half the Sky, Feminine Mystique, Fat is a Feminist Issue, Vagina (by Naomi Wolf), The Female Eunuch, The Equality Illusion, Gyn/Ecology, The Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Vagina Monologues, The City of Ladies, A Room of One’s Own, Second Sex, He’s a Stud, She’s  a Slut, Gender Trouble, Cinderella Ate My Daughter, The Second Sexism, Full Frontal Feminism etc etc…

Some of these authors have plenty of books. I can’t only read the ones that got best reviews! I need to absorb everything! Germaine Greer, Sappho, Virginia Woolf and Naomi Wolf  and most of the books I listed have other books to go with them! I keep starting books then getting too excited to wait to start reading the next one and before I know it I have six books on the go but only two book marks and no idea where I am up to on the others. On top of books there are also the blogs, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, films and videos I need to watch and see all of, along with Newspaper and magazine articles and then the real life discussions and activism with other feminists. It’s almost as if there couldn’t be more to take in and couldn’t be less time to do it in! Then again, I am only racing against myself here. 

I have promised not to buy or borrow any more books until I have finished I already have, but there are so many out there I feel I need in my life immediately.

I have asked and searched in many places for books on the Suffragettes but keep finding a lack of published material where I thought there would be plenty. If anyone out there knows of any, please let me know. That will be the LAST book I buy… I promise.

Power Hungry

The BBC’s Women’s Hour released their 100 Most Powerful Women in the UK List earlier this week. Now most people have issues with who is in the No.1 spot but to be honest, I don’t really know or much mind about how powerful Her Royal Majesty really is. I’m sure that the critics are right and that she doesn’t actually have much say in the goings on of the 16 countries she is theoretically in charge of but that, to me, is by the by. What I am more interested in…. let me re-phrase that… What I am more bothered about are some of the women who have somehow become powerful through means that are much less beneficial to humankind.

Maybe I should start with the word power before I get to my botherings with some of the listed women. I LOVE the idea of promoting and publicising the work of most of the people who have been listed. There are scientists, writers, politicians, activists and women from all backgrounds and walks of life. The initial idea of this power list is to show the reader who has made change for the good through whatever means they had at their disposal. That is my opinion, of course I have no idea what the BBC and Women’s Hour intended by their power list. If I were to do a list I might do “100 most Important/Influential/Useful/Amazing Women in the UK”.

My list would certainly include the majority already chosen. I mean this truthfully and earnestly when I say that Women’s Hour have done a great job in recognising so many incredible people in such a vast array of careers, but a few of the chosen ones I would rather not promote with public compliments. A multi-billionaire who started an online gambling empire, a chief executive of a global Tobacco company, an unfeasibly annoying celebrity who recently donated her middle son of 10 to a fashion house as a child model (I don’t have issue with child models but seriously… Vogue isn’t a place for 10 year old boys). How can these women be on the same list as some who have spent their lives dedicated to helping vulnerable children, or developed medical research that could save lives, or the eloquence and bravery of the first openly gay poet laureate.

The women who have done so much for what they believe in to be good and stuck to their guns deserve the praise, not No.23, No.42 or No.96 (my subtle way of letting you all know who I mean).

There was one who stood out for me as very interesting and gave me hope. Clare Foges (pictured left) is one of the youngest on the list, her master degree in Poetry and a CV that reads of working from an Ice Cream Van is now dubbed “The Prime Minister’s Larynx”. Now there is an out of the ordinary woman. In fact, there are lots of unusual women who are given the title of powerful in this 100. The common theme is rich and white which is disappointing, but again, what do I personally want from this list and the meaning of “Power”? I would have hoped that less than 92% were white, and less than 50% were from impossibly wealthy families.

What I wanted from this list was influential and inspiring, and what I got was Powerful. Point taken.

Lessons in Manhood

If you have 15 minutes to spare please watch this clip. The way Colin Stokes puts it is succinct and welcoming. This talk is on how young boys are growing into young men and somehow there is a lesson being missed in how to treat women. Since the huge publicity of sexual harassment through One Billion Rising and other awareness raising events, I think this talk couldn't be more perfect in its relevance. Please take a few moments and enjoy this wonderful speech. Thank you
ted.com/talks/colin_stokes_how_movies_teach_manhood.html

Herlympics

When I was in high school there were no extra-curricular activities in the persuasion of sports for girls. Nothing at all. Our male counterparts had a plethora of choice, rugby, football, basketball and pretty much any team sport you can think of. The girls however, had to either sit in detention for forgetting their PE kits or go home and watch TV. Imagine the surprise of the teachers and heads when a girl… yes a GIRL asked to join the basketball club. No, they said, for “obvious reasons”. Well they weren’t obvious to her. What about the hockey club? No again? But why? They told her she could get hurt. It was true that most of the boys in the team were about a foot taller than her but she was just as fast.

 It ended up our girl started her own sports club just for girls. The only way to get her friends interested was make it about dieting and looking good and she managed to persuade the young women to come to circuit training once a week at the sports centre. The first week was great. Our female sports fan had got in touch with the local council and asked for funding for a trainer or coach. There were twelve in attendance and the woman who was talking them through the circuits was great fun and so enthusiastic. The following week however, the coach wasn’t there. The team of girls stood near the hoops and the steps and the skipping ropes laid out and no one stepped forward to start the session. After that, no one came. 

PE in school was always so boring. Girls were taught how to do the indoor sports, high-jump, aerobics, netball. You can imagine even the most eager sports lover would ‘accidentally’ forget her kit so she could sit and chat with her friends. After years of girls being told sport is not for them they start to believe it, and start getting used to the idea.

2012 brought the London Olympics and Para-Olympics and with it came many idols for the next generation. A huge number of people took up sports again after seeing men and women achieving such incredible feats. Sports in High School clearly hadn’t put everyone off. The number of park runners seemed to increase along with the teams of rowers for local clubs. Everyone seemed to have some fancy towards a better version of themselves that included a higher level of fitness.

We were given role models in abundance. Jessica Ennis and Ellie Simmonds for the women, Bradley Wiggins and Jonnie Peacock for men. 

After the hyper-speed-buzz of the Olympic summer calmed to an autumn trot we all got back to our old selves. Well, most of us. Some amazing women did not stop there though. An incomprehensible gender shift happened when no one (other than cricket fans) was looking. Sarah Taylor, the wicketkeeper for the England Women’s cricket team is set to cross the sex divide and play in the men’s team. I nearly fell off my proverbial stool when I heard this ground breaking news.

 Of course, the whole reason it is so amazing is that it shouldn’t be amazing at all. Why on earth is this the first time this has happened? I am taking this as a good omen, that women and girls will begin, slowly but surely, to feel included and that sport is not a boys-only club but an everyone club. 

So February is here and along with it comes all things romantic and pink. I usually find February the most frustrating month where men get told by the tv how to please and satisfy their woman and how women can wear sexy underwear to make their man interested. Valentines day this year has been hijacked by a much more interested, exciting and inspirational cause. One Billion Rising! If you don't know about it yet please get on their site and find the nearest event to you. It's the most incredible cause that has got the whole world talking.
Find a dance squad near you!

My very first time

Hello, I am Ms L.

I'm starting my very first blog as I've noticed a niche which shouldn't be there. A huge gaping  hole in the internetersphere where there should be a plethora of blogs and bloggers. That hole is UK feminism. I've had a look at the sites available and it seems there aren't many out there and the ones that are there aren't for people like me, young women trying to find out how to get by in this fourth wave everyone keeps talking about.

I'll be posting news feeds, bloggers feeds from across the pond and any topics I feel crop up of importance.

Thanks for your time,

Ms. L