juliwi's review
I have been a Feminist for as long as I can remember, which means my parents raised me as such. Despite this, however, certain doubts, thoughts and fears still creep in, especially in a world that is slowly creeping ever more to the right. Revisiting the writing of (American) Feminists from the past sixty-odd years has been immensely inspiring and I can't help but thank Shulman and Moore for putting this writing together into such an inspiring primer. Thanks to Library of American and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
A shameful confession is in order here. Despite being a feminist for all these years, I have not read as many of the foundation text as I would have liked. Although being a Feminist shouldn't really come with entry requirements, I do think it requires consistent education. As a white, middle-class, cis, heterosexual woman, I need to make sure I continue to broaden my understanding of what women go through. I also need to take a close look at how I benefit and how I suffer from the way society currently functions and what I role I play in that. That was a lot of 'I's, but getting to know yourself and understanding your own position is important. The writings in Women's Liberation! have given me a new vocabulary to express myself, they have opened my eyes even further towards the racism that underlies some feminist writings, and they have been conversation starters for me and my friends.
Women's Liberation! starts with the first chapter of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as a kind of foundational text for American feminism. From there, this collection is divided roughly into decades, covering 1863 to 1991, with each writing prefaced by Shulman and Moore with biographical information. Much of this writing is from the seventies, but each decade has its absolute standouts and heavy hitters. Solanas' SCUM Manifesto makes a thrilling appearance, while the 'Statement on Birth Control' by the Black Women's Liberation Group of Mt. Vernon, NY was eye-opening. I was very much affected by Dana Densmore's 'On Celibacy', especially her naked admission that once you take access to your body off the table the behaviour of men who were friends before will change. The excerpt from Doris Wright's 1970 essay 'Angry Notes from a Black Feminist' highlights the importance of intersectional Feminism, of discussing the similarities but also the differences in gendered issues women of different races face. Mitsue Yamada's 'Invisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman' was especially important for me to read in the past months.
It's impossible to really summarize the writings of Women's Liberation! because there is such a variety of it. But there are a few things these writings have in common. They are indeed rallying cries, written from anger, or sadness, or conviction, or even a joyful cynicism. You can't help but read these women's writing and learn from them, whether it is learning a new vocabulary for your own experiences or learning how to pick apart and understand the elements in society that lead to oppression. There is also a sadness to reading this collection now, when some of the changes these women wrought is being overturned, and when so much hasn't changed yet. But that is where the subtitle of Women's Liberation! comes in. These writings can indeed "still" be inspiring and I realized that by actually engaging with these texts I can be much more effective. Knowing what has come before, understanding where way may have gone wrong and where we forged crucial bridges, all of that helps in taking one step after the other on the journey to a more equal society.
Women's Liberation! is a necessary and timely collection of brilliant writing by Feminists of the last few decades of the 20th century. Let yourself be inspired to keep fighting!
A shameful confession is in order here. Despite being a feminist for all these years, I have not read as many of the foundation text as I would have liked. Although being a Feminist shouldn't really come with entry requirements, I do think it requires consistent education. As a white, middle-class, cis, heterosexual woman, I need to make sure I continue to broaden my understanding of what women go through. I also need to take a close look at how I benefit and how I suffer from the way society currently functions and what I role I play in that. That was a lot of 'I's, but getting to know yourself and understanding your own position is important. The writings in Women's Liberation! have given me a new vocabulary to express myself, they have opened my eyes even further towards the racism that underlies some feminist writings, and they have been conversation starters for me and my friends.
Women's Liberation! starts with the first chapter of Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique as a kind of foundational text for American feminism. From there, this collection is divided roughly into decades, covering 1863 to 1991, with each writing prefaced by Shulman and Moore with biographical information. Much of this writing is from the seventies, but each decade has its absolute standouts and heavy hitters. Solanas' SCUM Manifesto makes a thrilling appearance, while the 'Statement on Birth Control' by the Black Women's Liberation Group of Mt. Vernon, NY was eye-opening. I was very much affected by Dana Densmore's 'On Celibacy', especially her naked admission that once you take access to your body off the table the behaviour of men who were friends before will change. The excerpt from Doris Wright's 1970 essay 'Angry Notes from a Black Feminist' highlights the importance of intersectional Feminism, of discussing the similarities but also the differences in gendered issues women of different races face. Mitsue Yamada's 'Invisibility Is an Unnatural Disaster: Reflections of an Asian American Woman' was especially important for me to read in the past months.
It's impossible to really summarize the writings of Women's Liberation! because there is such a variety of it. But there are a few things these writings have in common. They are indeed rallying cries, written from anger, or sadness, or conviction, or even a joyful cynicism. You can't help but read these women's writing and learn from them, whether it is learning a new vocabulary for your own experiences or learning how to pick apart and understand the elements in society that lead to oppression. There is also a sadness to reading this collection now, when some of the changes these women wrought is being overturned, and when so much hasn't changed yet. But that is where the subtitle of Women's Liberation! comes in. These writings can indeed "still" be inspiring and I realized that by actually engaging with these texts I can be much more effective. Knowing what has come before, understanding where way may have gone wrong and where we forged crucial bridges, all of that helps in taking one step after the other on the journey to a more equal society.
Women's Liberation! is a necessary and timely collection of brilliant writing by Feminists of the last few decades of the 20th century. Let yourself be inspired to keep fighting!
aimiller's review
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This book is a great collection of feminist writing but of course it's also much more than that; it's also an attempt to reclaim and to some extent rehabilitate second wave feminism from charges about how white and disconnected from working class women the "movement" was. (Movement in quote marks to delineate the idea of a single movement.) I would say it's a compelling argument, and definitely raises some questions about how we mark off movements of feminism, though I'm not sure it's necessarily always useful to take these different concerns and mark them all as "second wave."
My primary Big Beef is the way the text draws a line between "academic feminism" and "regular" feminism, as if many of the pieces in the book--including the writings of Audre Lorde--were not produced for academic conferences. The lines between academic and non-academic are not as neatly drawn as this book might suggest, and I'm not sure who they were intending to exclude--Judith Butler? Joan Scott? (neither of whom I would say were second wave necessarily, and in fact responding to some of the claims that "regular" second wave feminists were making.)
A smaller beef is with some of the explanatory text--which overall I did deeply appreciate, but occasionally important terms like "Third World Woman" were badly contextualized (in that case, stripping the term of any anti-colonial commitments.)
Overall though, my personal nitpicking aside, I think this collection is actually very useful and does make a compelling argument for reexamining our assumptions about what constitutes the "second wave." I think especially for teaching, this collection is really really helpful, and I am glad I read it (and have already used it greatly for finding things for high school students and others to read!)
My primary Big Beef is the way the text draws a line between "academic feminism" and "regular" feminism, as if many of the pieces in the book--including the writings of Audre Lorde--were not produced for academic conferences. The lines between academic and non-academic are not as neatly drawn as this book might suggest, and I'm not sure who they were intending to exclude--Judith Butler? Joan Scott? (neither of whom I would say were second wave necessarily, and in fact responding to some of the claims that "regular" second wave feminists were making.)
A smaller beef is with some of the explanatory text--which overall I did deeply appreciate, but occasionally important terms like "Third World Woman" were badly contextualized (in that case, stripping the term of any anti-colonial commitments.)
Overall though, my personal nitpicking aside, I think this collection is actually very useful and does make a compelling argument for reexamining our assumptions about what constitutes the "second wave." I think especially for teaching, this collection is really really helpful, and I am glad I read it (and have already used it greatly for finding things for high school students and others to read!)
jamsreadsbooks's review
Disclaimer: Received a copy for review from the publisher via NetGalley
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