#radfem book recs

[athenawasamerf]

I want to start being more serious about reading radfem literature. I downloaded every Dworkin book I could find (along with a bunch of other feminist literature in English and Arabic), but I don’t know where to start.

I can only have 10 options, so feel free to vote for Heartbreak or Ice & Fire in the tags.

#radfem #radical feminism #radical feminist #poll #Andrea Dworkin #feminist literature #radfem reading list #radfem book recs

[disillusionedmonster]

I read Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" for @letters-from-x reading challenge and I loved it. I loved the way it felt like Plath was musing through her character but also like she was speaking to me. I loved listening to her reflect on childbirth and the nature of men. She had so many good things to say. And I felt so gripped by her exploration of her mental health and I felt rage at how she was treated. Plath completely sucked me in with her writing and how natural the progression of the book felt. I seriously enjoyed it. Some of my favourite lines in no particular order:

There was also this part where she had this metaphor about a fig tree and her life being wasted, which she commented on a couple pages later saying that musing was caused by her hunger which made me laugh.

#sylvia plath #radfem #radical feminism #book challenge #radfem book challenge #rec #i have already read Invisible Women so I think I will read the short text next

[redheddebeauty]

#tiktok #radfem #book recs #feminist lit #women #feminism #radical feminism #video

[familiar-hands]

hi radblr friends, i’m doing a project on the implications of beauty standards on black women and i need philosophical/philosophical-adjacent feminist texts (sorta like the second sex) for my specific portion of it. if you have any recommendations please share and please rb lol i need all the help i can get

#radblr #radical feminism #radfems do touch #feminist book recs

[radfemkiranerys]

My local library had a big book sale, did I get any winners? I tried to grab most anything feministy. Didn't take much time to read into them as it was a zoo and I wanted to get home lol.

#radfems pleast interact #radfems please touch #radfem books #radfem book rec

[serendipititties]

Welcome all! I'm Wren. Welcome to Wren's Bistro, where we serve a little bit of everything.

(If you're new here, be sure to read my DNI section before interacting. Please note that I'm a minor.)

About the owner:

◇-She is biromantic and likely asexual. She uses she/her pronouns. She is very fond of Hozier, several TV shows like Monk, Justified, Santa Clarita Diet, Good Omens and others.

◇-She is happy to be your mutual if you'd like! Simply pop into the inbox or personal messages, and if she is comfortable following you back you both can be pals while you're here!

◇-Why her mutuals are superior

◇-Her mutuals as songs

Each new mutual will be added to the lists!

Barred from entrance: (DNI list)

♧-Transphobes, Radfems, arophobes, acephobes, exlusionists, biphobes, panphobes, enby-phobes, Forced- Birthers/ anti-choice people, Hindu Nationalists, People who refer to India as Bharat, Pro-Israel blogs, antisemites, islamaphobes, swifties (enjoying her music is fine but if you like her as a person please leave), RDJ stans, people who support Woody Allen and the like.This blog stands with the Free Palestine movement.

PLEASE NOTE:

♧-The owner doesn't take kindly to patrons bringing discourse/arguments in her notes, inbox or personal messages. She will not engage with people who fit the DNI description and will not argue her beliefs or tastes with you. If you don't like what you find here you are free to leave.

The menu (my tags):

Wren reblogs for laughs - things I reblogged for humour

Wren reblogs for enrichment- things I reblogged from my fandoms

Wren posts for enrichment- same as above, for my original posts

Wren's trusty gramophone - opinions about music, music recs, etc.

Wren's trusty bookmark- same as above, only for books and stuff

Wren rambles- my own little additons to posts/ original posts.

Wren et al- posts involving my mutuals (specific mutuals will be tagged)

Wren concurs - a misc tag I use for things without a category that I agree with generally (might vary)

Wren answers mail- answering inbox messages (either on or off anon)

Wren needs to show you something- important things I believe you should see (serious)

Wren left her barbequeue on - things in my queue

Wren's secret menu - my own writings, art, etc that i post here

Now you can order whatever you please!

Dividers credit goes to @cafekitsune. My header and pfp were on pinterest, by jenifer_souzza and graphicsfairy respectively.

Enjoy your meal!

#wren reblogs for laughs #wren concurs #wren et al #wren rambles #wren needs to show you something #wren reblogs for enrichment #wren answers mail #wren left her barbequeue on #wren posts for enrichment #wren's trusty bookmark #wren's trusty gramophone #intro post #wren's secret menu

[vouam]

do you have any radfem book or article recs?

Anything by Andrea Dworkin or Catharine MacKinnon!! Don’t have any specific recs tbh bc I can never remember what I’ve actually read

[judeesill]

tbf i still find non radfem books like who cooked the last supper, invisible women, the feminine mystique, the second sex etc good recs for girls/women interested in radical feminism. sort of like an intro class to feminism in general before you focus on actual radfem literature. you can't go from 0 feminist readings to gyn/ecology overnight... it's not a given that gyns who find themselves on radblr will have read basic feminist texts

yeah that’s a really good point! I think a lot of the problems on radblr come from the fact that most women come to it without any knowledge about feminism, much less any organizing experience. that’s fine, and to some extent should be expected given the current states of the broader left (weak, disorganized, overrun with liberalism/ anarchism) and the feminist movement (functionally non-existent). That’s just the way it is across the left — I can’t tell you how many so-called socialists I know who couldn’t even tell you what class struggle means. In our case, though, I think it’s especially problematic, because a lot of women are “radicalized” by disillusionment with trans politics (or discomfort with trans people 🙃) — and without a proper grounding in feminist basics, it’s really, really easy to at best lose focus on women’s liberation, and at worst just become a reactionary. lol.

So, I totally agree that some feminism 101 is in order, so we’re all at least speaking the same language when it comes to the messier ideological debates about and within radical feminism.

I think a big part of the problem, though, is that … it’s not a given that women who find themselves on radblr will EVER read basic feminist texts, or even radical feminist ones. it’s pretty obvious from the way people talk about lesbian separatism and political lesbianism that, like, no one knows what they’re fucking talking about. and how could they, if they’re just reblogging quote posts and the same handful of master lists with a whole bunch of random pdfs with no context or commentary? hate to break it to ya, ladies, but all your faves were political lesbians. like, literally all of them. And this is actually pretty clear from the things they write!

I’ll save my takes on radblr’s fundamentally incoherent lesbian politics and the fact that separatism has NEVER been a settled question in radical feminism and the fact that political movements need GOALS and STRATEGIES and DUES BASED MEMBERSHIP ORGANIZATIONS for later. Suffice it to say, we need to stop being so content to let tumblr thought leaders pulling evocative quotes from PDFs decide what we think, and start getting serious about political education.

I don’t think every woman on radblr needs to do a PhD to be able to weigh in on things, but I do think those of us with the time/desire to make intellectual interventions, create syllabi, and/or start cohering some democratic organizational infrastructure (or at least some more discussion groups) can and should step up. Obv people are and have been doing this, but if we want to ever do anything more than snipe at each other online, we gotta get movin.

Thanks for letting me grandstand on ur ask, i just have a decade’s worth of frustration built up about this 🙃 always more to say. (like, I also don’t think we should be so into gyn/ecology at all, actually … but more on that later (-:< )

TL;DR: READ MORE! GET WISE, WOMEN! LET A THOUSAND READING GROUPS BLOOM!

#radblr meta

[hauntingyourhouse]

intro

okay okay i know i've done this TWICE but idc

i go by nicholas but if we're close i'm fine w nico or nick

i use he/him, skull/skulls, and bone/bones pronouns

i am a bi trans man

i write fics and doodle, but i've honestly done quite a lot of stuff. like finding gifs, making moodboards, etc.

i am autistic and bones is my special interest.

favorite medias: tua, bones, izombie, criminal minds, glass onion + knives out, criminal minds, and evil dead, drag race

favorite books: turtles all the way down by john greene and the library at mount char by scott hawkins

favorite characters: Lance Sweets, Angela Montenegro, Benoit Blanc, Penelope Garcia, Klaus and Viktor Hargreeves, Ash Williams

extra:

i have three cats and occasionally photo dump pics of them

i adore horror or crime anything pls pls give me recs

almost all of my socials are all under the same user as here lmfao

links:

https://archiveofourown.org/users/hauntingyourhouse

DNI: the basics of course, transmeds and terfs, radfems, com/proshippers, ddlg, NSFW blogs, i cannot think of anything else rn

welp that's it.

#pinned intro #introduction #intro post #pinned post #dni list #kate bush because yes #dividers from @firefly-graphics #i love their graphics sm #Spotify

[radicalfembabey]

🤝, 📚 , 💕 and 👀 for the radfem ask game?

🤝 - What introduced you to radical feminism?

[small tw for sexual violence mention] Okay this is gonna sound kinda weird but I first started seeing radfem takes on Pinterest! In like late freshman/early sophomore year of high school I was getting a lot more politically conscious; I had just taken AP Gov during the 2016 election, so it was a bit of a 0-60 kind of year for that. I remember scrolling through my feed looking through different posts related to reproductive rights and male violence, and a loooooot of posts that convinced me for a while that the libfem idea of gender was the "right" one.

I was a pretty raging TRA for a few months, but by the end of junior year I had been seeing more radfem takes - that just sort of happened by default when I saw gender-related posts, and then I started intentionally seeking them out to gloat about how dumb the radfems were. Then radfem posts started making a hell of a lot more sense than libfem ones.

I made this tumblr account and didn't even post anything, just really quietly followed some radfems on here and started looking through their blogs for a more comprehensive overview of radical feminist beliefs and also to see if anyone happened to have PDFs of radfem theory (again, all I really had to go off of was Pinterest, so not exactly the pinnacle of academia). In particular, I was looking through @rad-chocho 's posts, and saw one that was just a metric shit ton of TIMs expressing their desire to sexually harass, violate, or even brutalize and impregnate radfems. I peaked immediately, found all the radfem theory I could've wanted in a very convenient Google folder, started actually posting on this lovely blog, and haven't looked back since!

📚 - Any books to recommend?

In terms of radfem or related texts, I can't recommend "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado-Perez enough. It's about 400 solid pages of statistics and research that dive into just how deeply misogyny is ingrained in societies worldwide, to the point that we don't even notice it the majority of the time. I would also totally recommend "The Myth of the Female Brain" by Gina Rippon; she's a highly esteemed neuroscientist and this book pretty much destroys the idea that a brain can be scanned and categorized as belonging to a man or a woman, and why. It's decently dense, and there's a lot of technical jargon, but she does an excellent job of explaining what terms mean and why it's important!

For other nonfiction texts that aren't radfem-related, if y'all are interested at all in paleontology, I've been really loving "Dinosaurs Without Bones" by Anthony J. Martin! It talks about trace fossils like footprints and burrows and how we can use these fossils to reconstruct what the lives of dinosaurs might have looked like, migratory patterns, predatory or pack behaviors, and a whole slew of other stuff. He even goes into these really vibrant narratives trying to imagine a holistic view of what the age of the dinosaurs might have looked like, based on trace fossils found during the same eras! Definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a bit of a dino nerd like I am, you'll love it!

I have a love affair with fiction and I've been reading a ton of specifically lesbian fantasy! I've absolutely loved "Gideon the Ninth" and its sequels by Tamsyn Muir; she's hilarious, the worldbuilding is INSANELY interesting, and its a very slow burn about lesbian space necromancers, but if you're not ready to cry your eyeballs out of your skull then maybe wait on this one. I also really enjoyed our classic lesbian fantasy "The Priory of the Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon, but that one's a maaaaajor commitment - like 800+ pages, with a lot of fascinating worldbuilding to understand - so definitely keep that in mind!

Also, if y'all have any recs for me, please don't hesitate to tell me!! I'm always looking for more material ❤️

💕 - Fave mutual?

Definitely on the @rad-chocho train today; I'll always be very grateful to have found her blog, and she's very sweet and knowledgeable!

👀 - Fave radblr blog you follow?

Gotta give it to our beloved @opabiniawillreturn , seeing her deactivate TRAs with a single application of the Socratic method never fails to make me laugh!!

#long post #thank you for the ask!!! #❤️❤️❤️

[forwomenbiwomen]

Have any radfem media recommendations? (Like books, games, movies, TV shows etc)

Hello! 👋👋👋

^the reblogs have a lot of recommendations

And this for books! These are mostly theory based but I think I recall some fiction in there too.

As for games I'm not too sure but I do love me a good horizon zero dawn ❣️

#thanks for the anon! #ref

[joshuadunshua]

thinking about bell hooks’ writings on the “feminism” of (mostly white) class privileged “feminists” being a thinly disguised desire for patriarchal power & dominance on par with (mostly white) class privileged patriarchal men

thinking about how that’s the brand of feminism that won out in the last 15 years even though she saw it as a minority of feminists as recently as 2004

thinking about how that mainstream feminism appropriates the language of Black, intersectional feminism to grant itself an unearned legitimacy in leftist spaces

thinking about how appearing feminist is more important than being feminist in online spaces (& in some cases this has extended to irl)

feminism isn’t a skin you can put on your online avatar for bonus “argument winning” skill points but a good portion of you treat it that way

marginalized people, including your people, need you to not be flippant about your engagement with feminism & feminist theory & feminist texts written by feminist scholars

some of you seem convinced you can get all your feminist education here on tumblr dot com and, speaking from the perspective of someone who first learned about feminism from tumblr and continued to learn about feminism from tumblr for years before deciding to make a fucking degree out of it and has literally formally taught feminisms 101, you absolutely the fuck can not get all your feminist education directly from here.

i’m not saying you shouldn’t speak if you don’t go to school for this shit—this isn’t an elitist post—but I am saying you absolutely need to do more than read & reblog tumblr posts on the topic. whether that’s reading essays available free online, reading books, listening to audiobooks, watching YouTube breakdowns and crash courses, listening to podcasts, whatever your format, you simply must engage on more intentional levels with theory than social media.

the antidote to radfem well-poisoning is education.

you cannot identify dangerous rhetoric creeping into your own if you never learn what it looks like and how to spot its sheep costume. If all feminisms look like sheep to you, you’ll never see the fascistic wolf.

(If you want to get more invested and involved in feminist theory, or would like some advice on where to look, what to consider, reading recs, etc., feel free to ask me. If you have recommendations, feel free to share them with me/others on this post or otherwise! I want to share information as much as possible. There will be no gatekeeping of knowledge here.)

#unsurprisingly I write a fuck ton more here while I’m off semester lmao #where else to put my thoughts if not in a uni paper? tumblr

[vigilante-duck-hawk]

I was looking for new horror books and I found this great list of female horror authors! I’ve already read The Husband Stitch by Carmen Maria Machado and I’d definitely recommend that

#mae speaks #book recs #Book Recommendations #radfem book recs #radfems please interact

[inquisitive-june]

Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, is a modified letter written from Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie to her childhood friend who asked how to raise a feminist daughter. She admits it's a hard question, and after having a daughter of her own she said it's easier said than done.

Tonight (Monday), I finished the introduction and the first six suggestions.  I plan on finishing the other half either later tonight or tomorrow.  It’s a quick read (~60 pages) and I recommend it to any feminist, regardless of whether she has or plans to have daughters.  I wrote a summary and notes of my own for each section in case anyone wants a TLDR.

Introduction

The premise of feminism should be “I matter equally” with no stipulations.  For example, she says to ask yourself “Can I reverse x and get the same result?”  If your husband cheated, is the feminist response always to leave?  Ask yourself if he would stay if you cheated.  If the answer is yes, then staying does not contribute to gender inequality.  The reality is that the answer is typically no, because there is a lower bar for men when it comes to infidelity.  Personally, I believe that focusing on an individual relationship as opposed to societal norms and trends is a mistake.  A woman choosing to stay with an unfaithful husband is not a neutral act even if he would to the same for her.

She remarks that her friend’s daughter is already so curious about the world.  Most people would remark on a newborn’s appearance, as they typically have few defining features beyond which parent they resemble.  Choosing an active rather than passive trait to complement set the tone for the rest of the letter.

First Suggestion

Be a full person, meaning don’t define yourself by your motherhood.  Don’t apologize for working and taking time for yourself.  Also don’t be surprised when you make mistakes and remember to ask for help when you need it.

People cite tradition selectively.  Her SIL suggested she be a stay-at-home mom because it’s “traditional,” despite the fact that double income families is an Igbo tradition.

Already from the first suggestion I can tell she has a wonderful sense of humor.  Adichie references their childhood and mutual friends in a way that makes you feel like an old friend as opposed to a stranger hearing an inside joke.

Second Suggestion

Your husband is just as capable of (and should be doing) everything short of breastfeeding the baby.  Equal childcare doesn’t always mean 50/50 every single day, but you’ll know when it’s equal because there will be no resentment.  Personally, I believe many men would resent having to do childcare because they still believe it is women’s work.  I also think the existence of the nuclear family should change, not just the expectations placed on the father.

Third Suggestion

Domestic skills benefit everyone and shouldn’t be exclusively taught to girls.  If we stopped viewing marriage as a prize for women, we would stop asking whether women should perform domestic labor in order to “earn” a husband.

We teach our children gender roles unconsciously, but it is easier to raise our daughters to be confident and reject gender roles than it is for them to unlearn it later.

Don’t assume your daughter can’t do something.  Even if she can’t yet, let her  try so she becomes confident in her ability and doesn’t feel restricted by gender roles.

Fourth Suggestion

Adichie defines Feminism Lite in a few different ways.  It’s when men say they “allow” their wives to have a career or they’re the man of the house but their wife is the one “really” in charge behind the scenes.  The examples she gives are better than any individual point I could summarize here.

We judge powerful women far more than powerful men.  The implication is that male dominance and power is natural, but women have to either earn or compensate for their power by being humble and domestic.

This is the section where I got the quote from earlier btw.

Fifth Suggestion

Teach your daughter to read, preferably by example but if she’s still not interested reward her for reading.  It will help her learn about the world and herself.  It’s also important that she read a wide variety, not just what is given to her at school.

Sixth Suggestion

Begin by questioning your language and then teach your daughter to question language.  What you say teaches her what she should value.

Terms like misogyny and patriarchy are sometimes too abstract for a child, so focus on specific examples.  Point out what is misogynistic about it and what can be done differently.  If someone criticizes X in men but not women, their problem is with women and not X.  Also teach her to recognize when men revere women (e.g. call them special, divine, superhuman) because this is based on chivalry and infantilization, not respect.

#book review #book recs #reading list #dear ijeawele #a feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions #chimamanda ngozi adichie #radfems interact #radfem safe #radfems please interact #radfems please touch #radblr #terfblr #terfs please interact #terfs do touch #terfs do interact #terfs interact #terf safe

[gently-radical]

I'm on break at work and I'm reading A Light on Altered Land by Becky Bohan and I feel like I need to stop blowing up my girlfriend's phone over it so y'all get to hear my next burst of gushing over this book

I'm 160 pages in and it's been one of the most fun to read books I've had in a long time. There's a lot of little breadcrumbs throughout the book that Bohan is gender critical, including some cute mentions of how much the characters love the wizarding world of Harry Potter (hint hint wink wink) and there's been lots of feminism and really wonderful connection so far, but hearing a lesbian character outright state that many young lesbians who identify with the butch label are now identifying as transmen and just the ability to have these conversations openly and matter of factly without instant vitriol and argument is so healing to me. So much of this book is just making my heart swell and I think I'll be lending this book out and rereading it for quite awhile.

All this to say, if you're looking for a heartwarming lesbian romance that isn't steeped in gender cult terms and actually presents some critical thought and gender critical acceptance, read this book!!! Even if you just want some really steamy sensual romance, this is 1000% the right book to go for

#radical feminism #radfem #book recs for radfems #terf safe

[femmesandhoney]

wait by magic my google search of like three words got the answer of the title i was forgetting. The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston. i should give it a reread w my radfem lens, but it was quite an interesting read from any feminist perspective that i think would pique any radfems interest.

#radfem book rec #radfem book #i read it awhile ago like when i was 15 but from my memory i think it would be an interesting autobiography for any radfem to read #i said this book wasnt my cup of tea and from memory it really wasnt but not bc of the story itself #her writing is very particular and superrrrr flowery prose #so much so it was hard to keep track of what was metaphor and what wasnt sometimes lol #but i wont argue the actual story isnt fucking intense and heartbreaking at many times #remember this isnt about radfem ideology its an autobiography #i just think reading it w a radfem lens would be a great way to read this and many radfems might like this book