my top six for a feminist reading fix

I received an email from a former student asking for references regarding ethnicity, pop culture and identity. As I culled through my citations I reminisced over all those books that impacted my thinking in meaningful ways. I decided to share some of them with you.

These are the six books that have most shaped my own feminist thinking. I don’t claim they are the most representative of feminist literature. They all came into my life at different times and all made different impacts on my thinking in important ways. I have the books listed below with a little blurb accompanying each as to why I think it’s so great.

This compilation-post seems like such a good idea that I hope to regularly post similar lists from others who are actively involved in the animal rights and feminist communities. I know a top-six list is a little unconventional. It just so happens that I hate almost every prime number, so a top-five list was out 😉

In alphabetical order by author…

Sexual Politics of Meat, Carol Adams

I read this book after a friend told me if I was really a feminist I would be a strict vegetarian too (at the time I went by the label “pescatarian”). This book made me despise all feminists who wear fur and cringe when animal rights activists call people “douche bags.” Oh, and I became vegan right after reading it…

Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture and the Body, Susan Bordo

I encountered this book toward the beginning of my graduate career. It shaped the way I thought about women and the body and lead me to a lot of fun reading and research. For the next three years my studies centered on the body and I developed and regularly teach a course on the body.

Sexing the Body, Anne Fausto-Sterling

This book brought me from acknowledging that not only is gender socially constructed but a binary system of sex categorization is socially constructed as well. Fausto-Sterling used her background in biology, a deep historical analysis and sociological world-view to break it down and blow my mind!

Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, bell hooks

This will be one of the most inspired and inspiring feminist texts you ever read. Some of these ideas seem common now, but they started here! It puts into place the necessity of understanding intersectionality (the idea that there are multiple oppressions that work simultaneously). It also made me realize that academic-speak is not for the masses and a true feminism needs to speak to everyone (hence a blog- though the limitations on this medium are noted!)

Toward a Feminist Theory of the State, Catherine MacKinnon

Around the same time as Unbearable Weight came into my life so did MacKinnon’s work. It happened in a contemporary theory seminar my first year of graduate school. As soon as I read the idea that under patriarchy all sex is a form of patriarchal domination I was hooked. Actually, I was hell-bent on combating her. In the end, though, this sex-loving-heterosexual-feminist agreed. (And agreeing didn’t ruin my sex life, so don’t be scared, friends, give MacKinnon a try; and if Toward a Feminist Theory of the State is too harsh, her collected talks, Feminism Unmodified, is more digestible).

Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence, Adrienne Rich in Blood, Bread and Poetry

It’s short, just read it and soak it up!