Top products from r/Feminism

There are a number of academics in sociology, gender studies, anthropology, psychology, and even political science who are doing some pretty great work researching men and men's issues. Michael Kimmel and R.W. Connell are two such researchers, as are Dr. Shelley Pacholok and Michael Messner. In many universities, courses in Gender Studies now include examinations of men and masculinities alongside feminist theory and queer/critical theory.

My own MA thesis discussed constructions of masculinity within far right white supremacy movements, and my PhD research is examining men and masculinities in militia movements in the United States. I have several colleagues who are pursuing similar lines of research. While not a 'men's movement' per se, it is certainly doing what it can to look behind the 'male mystique' and see how men live, what sorts of issues they face, and how we can all work together to deconstruct some of the most harmful forms of masculine behaviour. The work is both male-focussed and absolutely pro-feminist. Interestingly enough, this growing body of work gives the MRM a wide berth, as its contributions have been negligible at best.

Check out "Masculinities" by R.W. Connell, or "Men's Lives: 9th Edition" by Kimmel and Messner, if you're interested in this kind of research.

I read a really great book while planning my wedding, One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding. It analyzes the commercial aspects of weddings piece by piece and deconstructs what we think of as traditional and "wedding-y." It might inspire you to come up with your own traditions. It certainly helped me feel good about planning my very unusual, casual wedding.

Is there anything other than the white dress, the walking down the aisle, and the taking of his last name that you find oppressive in the marriage process? Those things are all completely optional. I eschewed them all.

Some weddings have all of these parts to them that people think of as necessary - otherwise it won't be a real wedding - but really, you can do, or refuse to do, any and all of it and it will still be a great time and it will still be Your Wedding. Mine looked nothing like the wedding people expect when they think of "weddings" and two years later people still tell me it was the best wedding they've been to by far. We did it our way. It meant the world to us and it would have been so much less "us" if we'd done all the normal stuff, the aisle walk and the bouquet toss and the reception line and blahblahblah.

So figure out what your way is and do that.

I'd recommend Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs. It's an interesting view of how women are objectifying each other in the way men used to/still do. I also really enjoyed The Beauty Myth.

Thanks for joining the feminist side =D

EDIT: Spelling

I'm in the middle of reading Bell Hooks' The Will to Change. It's great, and deals with a lot of the things you have questions about. You could propose this as a book to your reading group, or if you are interested, I would love to have a discussion about the book over google hangout or something.

If anyone is interested in reading this book (or others like it), and meeting via hangout to discuss it, PM me. If the book is cost prohibitive also PM me as I'm sure we can figure something out.

I wasn't raised religious, so never had those issues, but my parents are feminists and read me The Paper Bag Princess (http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Bag-Princess-Annikin/dp/0920236251) and Not One Damsel In Distress, (http://www.amazon.com/Not-One-Damsel-Distress-Folktales/dp/0152020470) both of which I and my sisters loved. When they get older, Tamora Pierce has a bunch of fantasy books with female protagonists, and Diane Duane's So You Want To Be A Wizard books were also favorites.

Edit: How could I forget Madeline and Pippi?! https://www.buzzfeed.com/sarahbreen/feminist-books-ftw?utm_term=.hs2PoxVvj#.ug2KJ8X0B
Also Ella Enchanted is a great retelling of the Cinderella story, I think it's either Jane Yolen or Ursula K LeGuin

For those interested in learning more about this alongside a bit of feminist theory, Jessica Valenti's book The Purity Myth has a pretty lengthy section about the whole purity ball phenomenon. The book itself is a discussion of American culture's obsession with virginity and reads pretty quickly--I'd recommend it for sure!

Check out Yes Means Yes by Jaclyn Freidman and Jessica Valenti, really good collection of essays about sex-positive feminism. Check it out! http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Means-Visions-Female-Without/dp/1580052576

Pick up some books by Jessica Valenti. They're very accesible and interesting. Some of them are addressed to women, but they're a good read for anyone:
Yes Means Yes,
He's a Stud, She's a Slut,
Full Frontal Feminism,
and The Purity Myth.

Camille Paglia has an interesting book called Sexual Personae. It's very dense, but very well researched unified-field theoretical book that blasts conservative, liberal, and feminist readings of human nature. I don't agree with some of the biological determinism in it and it sees art as fact in a sort of problematic way, but it gets you thinking about gender pretty hard!

Yay for respectful curiosity!

"The Guy's Guide to Feminism" is a fast little book if you want to read up on some basics, it also has a bit of humor in it which I know helps with some of the more depressing issues. It's not perfect, but it's def a good introduction to some of the vocabulary and topics common in feminism.

Great infothing.

Recommended reading: "Half the Sky" http://www.amazon.com/Half-Sky-Oppression-Opportunity-Worldwide/dp/0307387097

These are both great.

http://www.amazon.com/Feminist-Thought-More-Comprehensive-Introduction/dp/0813343755/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324396213&sr=1-5

http://www.amazon.com/Feminist-Theory-Reader-Wendy-Kolmar/dp/0073512265/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324396213&sr=1-6

Hi Phoolf,

In the sidebar, we have a link to a selection of books on feminism, should more books be posted here, I will make sure to update the list :)



From previous discussions:

By wave:

Mary Wollstonecraft; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

J. S. and Harriet Taylor Mill; The Subjection of Women

(Second wave) Simone de Beauvoir; The Second Sex

(Second wave) Betty Friedan; The Feminine Mystique

(Third wave) bell hooks; Ain't I a Woman?

(Third wave) bell hooks; Feminist Theory

(Third wave) This Bridge Called My Back




By subject:




Law:

What is Feminism

Intro to 'Schools' of Feminist Thought

Post-structural / post-modern

The Laugh of the Medusa, Helene Cixous

Speculum of the Other Woman, Irigaray

Powers of Horror, Kristeva

General overview of feminist theory in the west:

The Feminist Mystique Betty Friedan

Sister/Outsider Audrey Lords

Feminist Theory, Bell Hooks

Borderlands, Gloria Anzaldua

No Logo, Naomi Klein

LGBT:

Gender Trouble, Judith Butler

Bodies That Matter, Judith Butler

Postcolonial

Under Western Eyes, Chandra Talpade Mohanty (PDF)

International/Transnational feminist topics:

Gloria Anzaldua- Borderlands

Chandra Mohanty- Feminism Without Borders and Under Western Eyes

Sociology works:

Resisting Vulnerability: The Social Reconstruction of Gender in Interaction JOCELYN A. HOLLANDER

Some Effects of Proportions on Group Life: Skewed Sex Ratios and Responses to Token Women Rosabeth Moss Kanter

The Retoric and Reality of “Opting Out” Pamela Stone

Literature

The Handmaid's Tale, by Margret Atwood



Other works:

Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir

Feminism is for Everybody, Bell Hooks

Full Frontal Feminism

The Politics of Reality, Marilyn Frye,


No Turning Back, by Estelle Freedman



Reclaiming the F Word by Catherine Redfern

The Equality Illusion by Kat Banyard


The Guy's Guide to Feminism, Michael Kaufman


The Purity Myth, Jessica Valenti

Backlash, Susan Faludi



Introductory articles

Why Women Aren't Crazy

Ted Talk: A Call to Men, by Tony Porter

What No Woman Deserves to Be Called, Yashar Ali

Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Feminism But Were Afraid to Ask

"Delusions of Gender" by Cordelia Fine

"Gendered Society" by Michael Kimmel

"Click: The Moment We Knew We Were Feminists", Bitchfest

How to Be a Woman - Caitlin Moran

"Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis" by Joan Wallach Scott

The Politics of Reality, Marilyn Frye

How Two Aspiring Pornographers Turned Me Into the Ultimate F Word, by Hank Shaw

"The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz


Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Feminism But Were Afraid to Ask

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, by Linda Nochlin

Here’s a great book for you https://www.amazon.com/Right-Side-History-Reason-Purpose/dp/0062857908

This is a great book that addresses some of the questions you are asking. It’s totally opposite of what most of us have been taught, food for thought anyway. Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061707813/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_qg.6Cb69NTRX5

"The Macho Paradox" by Jackson Katz is an excellent book, and was one of my first intros to feminism.

http://www.amazon.com/Significant-Sisters-Grassroots-Feminism-1839-1939/dp/0195040147/

This book, more than any other, really impressed upon me how far we have come.

To this end, we got our little boy a bunch of similar books. Notables:

Baby Feminists
Dream Big Little One

Not feminist but honorable mention as it is too much fun with some of the double entendre:

Woke Baby

Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape

http://www.amazon.com/Yes-Means-Visions-Female-Without/dp/1580052576/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312294851&sr=1-1



Activists and writers Friedman and Valenti (He's a Stud, She's a Slut) deliver an extraordinary essay compilation focusing on the struggle to stop rape in the U
.S. and the importance of sexual identity and ownership. Early on, Thomas MacAulay Millar and Rachel Kramer Bussel explain how the "no means no" concept (sexual consent equals the absence of no) must be rejected in favor of a "yes means yes" mentality: the idea that consent means affirmative participation in the act itself, a broader definition that better protects women while encouraging power over-not fear of-personal sexual identity. Other topics include body image and self-esteem issues as well as incest, the dangers faced by female immigrants and the public perception of rape; in "Trial by Media," Samhita Mukhopadhyay looks at the Duke Lacrosse rape case and finds the media acting in the tradition of slavery by commodifying the young, female African-American body. Though surprisingly entertaining throughout, with no shortage of wit or humor, unexpected topics (Friedman on enjoying sex, transsexual writer Julia Serano on the mixed cultural messages that lead "nice guys" to sexual aggression) keep the book dynamic. Sure to empower and inform, this is an important and inspiring read for assault survivors, educators, activists, experts and those on a path to self discovery.

If you are into woman rights you should get this shirt!


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B8HHFWT

Female Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy

http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2008/07/23/feminist-porn-sex-consent-and-getting-off/

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/mcelroy_17_4.html

http://www.amazon.com/Deviant-Eyes-Bodies-Chris-Straayer/dp/0231079796

You're probably even more correct than you think you are.

Feminism and Sexuality: A Reader

Yes Means Yes


The Purity Myth


EDIT: The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help

> but you're sexist and need to learn about your bias.

There are tons of books on business/decision-making out there which focus on the idea of how unconscious biases can lead to worse outcomes/poor management/lost money. I feel like getting someone to buy into the idea that biases lead to worse outcomes can be a good path to helping them identify biases which may be more uncomfortable to confront initially.

Examples:
https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374533555
https://www.amazon.com/Predictably-Irrational-Revised-Expanded-Decisions/dp/0061353248
https://www.amazon.com/Blink-Power-Thinking-Without/dp/0316010669