#women studies | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

regulusrules · 17 days

Note

Yo, I saw your post about orientalism in relation to the "hollywood middle-east" tiktok!

How can a rando and university dropout get into and learn more about? Any literature or other content to recommend?

Hi!! Wow, you have no idea how you just pressed a button. I'll unleash 5+ years on you. And I'll even add for you open-sourced works that you can access as much as I can!

1. Videos

I often find this is the best medium nowadays to learn anything! I'll share with you some of the best that deal with the topic in different frames

• This is a video of Edward Said talking about his book, Orientalism. Said is the Palestinian- American critic who first introduced the term Orientalism, and is the father of postcolonial studies as a critical literary theory. In this book, you’ll find an in-depth analysis of the concept and a deconstruction of western stereotypes. It’s very simple and he explains everything in a very easy manner.

• How Islam Saved Western Civilization. A more than brilliant lecture by Professor Roy Casagranda. This, in my opinion, is one of the best lectures that gives credit to this great civilization, and takes you on a journey to understand where did it all start from.

• What’s better than a well-researched, general overview Crash Course about Islam by John Green? This is not necessarily on orientalism but for people to know more about the fundamental basis of Islam and its pillars. I love the whole playlist that they have done about the religion, so definitely refer to it if you're looking to understand more about the historical background! Also, I can’t possibly mention this Crash Course series without mentioning ... ↓

• The Medieval Islamicate World. Arguably my favourite CC video of all times. Hank Green gives you a great thorough depiction of the Islamic civilization when it rose. He also discusses the scientific and literary advancements that happened in that age, which most people have no clue about! And honestly, just his excitement while explaining the astrolabe. These two truly enlightened so many people with the videos they've made. Thanks, @sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog

2. Documentaries

• This is an AMAZING documentary called Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Villifies A People by the genius American media critic Jack Shaheen. He literally analysed more than 1000 movies and handpicked some to showcase the terribly false stereotypes in western depiction of Arab/Muslim cultures. It's the best way to go into the subject, because you'll find him analysing works you're familiar with like Aladdin and all sorts.

• Spain’s Islamic Legacy. I cannot let this opportunity go to waste since one of my main scopes is studying feminist Andalusian history. There are literal gems to be known about this period of time, when religious coexistence is documented to have actually existed. This documentary offers a needed break from eurocentric perspectives, a great bird-view of the Islamic civilization in Europe and its remaining legacy (that western history tries so hard to erase).

• When the Moors Ruled in Europe. This is one of the richest documentaries that covers most of the veiled history of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Bettany Hughes discusses some of the prominent rulers, the brilliance of architecture in the Arab Muslim world, their originality and contributions to poetry and music, their innovative inventions and scientific development, and lastly, La Reconquista; the eventual fall and erasure of this grand civilization by western rulers.

3. Books

• Rethinking Orientalism by Reina Lewis. Lewis brilliantly breaks the prevailing stereotype of the “Harem”, yk, this stupid thought westerns projected about arab women being shut inside one room, not allowed to go anywhere from it, enslaved and without liberty, just left there for the sexual desires of the male figures, subjugated and silenced. It's a great read because it also takes the account of five different women living in the middle east.

• Nocturnal Poetics by Ferial Ghazoul. A great comparative text to understand the influence and outreach of The Thousand and One Nights. She applies a modern critical methodology to explore this classic literary masterpiece.

• The Question of Palestine by Edward Said. Since it's absolutely relevant, this is a great book if you're looking to understand more about the Palestinian situation and a great way to actually see the perspective of Palestinians themselves, not what we think they think.

• Arab-American Women's Writing and Performance by S.S. Sabry. One of my favourite feminist dealings with the idea of the orient and how western depictions demeaned arab women by objectifying them and degrading them to objects of sexual desire, like Scheherazade's characterization: how she was made into a sensual seducer, but not the literate, brilliantly smart woman of wisdom she was in the eastern retellings. The book also discusses the idea of identity and people who live on the hyphen (between two cultures), which is a very crucial aspect to understand arabs who are born/living in western countries.

• The Story of the Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole. This is a great book if you're trying to understand the influence of Islamic culture on Europe. It debunks this idea that Muslims are senseless, barbaric people who needed "civilizing" and instead showcases their brilliant civilization that was much advanced than any of Europe in the time Europe was labelled by the Dark Ages. (btw, did you know that arabic was the language of knowledge at that time? Because anyone who was looking to study advanced sciences, maths, philosophy, astronomy etc, had to know arabic because arabic-speaking countries were the center of knowledge and scientific advancements. Insane, right!)

• Convivencia and Medieval Spain. This is a collection of essays that delve further into the idea of “Convivencia”, which is what we call for religious coexistence. There's one essay in particular that's great called Were Women Part of Convivencia? which debunks all false western stereotypical images of women being less in Islamic belief. It also highlights how arab women have always been extremely cultured and literate. (They practiced medicine, studied their desired subjects, were writers of poetry and prose when women in Europe couldn't even keep their surnames when they married.)

4. Novels / Epistolaries

• Granada by Radwa Ashour. This is one of my favourite novels of all time, because Ashour brilliantly showcases Andalusian history and documents the injustices and massacres that happened to Muslims then. It covers the cultural erasure of Granada, and is also a story of human connection and beautiful family dynamics that utterly touches your soul.

• Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi. This is wonderful short read written in autobiographical form. It deconstructs the idea of the Harem in a postcolonial feminist lens of the French colonization of Morocco.

• Scheherazade Goes West by Mernissi. Mernissi brilliantly showcases the sexualisation of female figures by western depictions. It's very telling, really, and a very important reference to understand how the west often depicts middle-eastern women by boxing them into either the erotic, sensual beings or the oppressed, black-veiled beings. It helps you understand the actual real image of arab women out there (who are not just muslims btw; christian, jew, atheist, etc women do exist, and they do count).

• Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. This is a feminist travel epistolary of a British woman which covers the misconceptions that western people, (specifically male travelers) had recorded and transmitted about the religion, traditions and treatment of women in Constantinople, Turkey. It is also a very insightful sapphic text that explores her own engagement with women there, which debunks the idea that there are no queer people in the middle east.

---------------------

With all of these, you'll get an insight about the real arab / islamic world. Not the one of fanaticism and barbarity that is often mediated, but the actual one that is based on the fundamental essences of peace, love, and acceptance.

76 notes · View notes

lady-corrine · 2 months

Text

#i read so slowly because of uni but still #if any of you are interested or curious 💜#books #book recs #queenship #women studies #history #studies

3 notes · View notes

mrsdallowayreads · 2 years

Text

“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.

I earnestly wish to point out in what true dignity and human happiness consists — I wish to persuade women to endeavour to acquire strength, both of mind and body, and to convince them that the soft phrases, susceptibility of heart, delicacy of sentiment, and refinement of taste, are almost synonymous with epithets of weakness, and that those beings who are only the objects of pity and that kind of love, which has been termed its sister, will son become objects of contempt.”

—Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792).

#mary wollstonecraft #queen and icon #currently reading #quotes #book quotes #feminism #rights of women #feminist theory #feminist literature #women writers #mary shelley #gender studies #women studies

76 notes · View notes

covergirlnay · 1 year

Text

I had to do a separate post for this book as one of my faves from 2022.

This was an interesting read from beginning to end with her talking about her upbringing, going to college, and then her career in the fashion industry.

Even though I could not relate to most of her experiences, I understood them completely. Some of the few experiences that I could relate to was the hair-straightening phase (not as bad though), being the go-to-black person for questions (or as I like to call the “safe black person” 😑and being told that I talk or act “white” by other black people🙄.

This is a book that I wish I could’ve read back in college in either my Women studies class or my Women in America writing class. I know that it probably would have made some people uncomfortable with the truths that were being dropped throughout the book, but it is needed.

Kudos Danielle.

#Token Black Girl #Danielle Prescod #Women studies #black authors #representation matters #acting white

2 notes · View notes

darling-imobsessed · 2 years

Text

Hello, I'm in desperate need of help.

Okay, so, I'm going to graduate highschool this year and I want to study Women and Gender studies in university. I find the topics really interesting and important. But I need someone to be real with me. What can I do with this major afterwards? Will I be able to find a good job? Can you tell me about your experience with this major? Can you give me an advice or should I be warned about something?

If you study this major or you know someone who does, PLEASE contact me!

#lgbtq #university #study motivation #studying #feminism #women rights #women studies #women and gender #women and gender studies #please send help #gender #gender studies

4 notes · View notes

imeiman · 4 days

Text

#women studies #genderstudies #womenempowermentindia #feminism #patriarchy #upsc

0 notes

portable-magic-bookblog · 14 days

Text

The Woman They Could Not Silence by Kate Moore

“In the end, this is a book about power. Who wields it. Who owns it. And the methods they use. And above all, it’s about fighting back.” Kate Moore, The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman, Her Incredible Fight for Freedom, and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear From Goodreads: 1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six,…

View On WordPress

#book review #books #history #Non-fiction #reading #Women studies

0 notes

blvvdk3ep · 8 months

Text

I love you people going into "useless" fields I love you classics majors I love you cultural studies majors I love you comparative literature majors I love you film studies majors I love you near eastern religions majors I love you Greek, Latin, and Hebrew majors I love you ethnic studies I love you people going into any and all small field that isn't considered lucrative in our rotting capitalist society please never stop keeping the sacred flame of knowledge for the sake of knowledge and understanding humanity and not merely for the sake of money alive

36K notes · View notes

artdotts · 1 year

Text

The more I tried…

to exclude myself from the feminine narrative the more I found to be a “she” cliché myself. I was not woman enough before to understand how divine the experience is. How daring. How universal yet undefined. Not to say that femininity is exclusively related to womanhood, or in any way related, to that matter. Two different concepts to be studied as such with keen awareness of intersectionality. I’m not really sure where the link dates to. But as common belief that is necessarily symbiotic, why would I , as woman, ever try to reject femininity?

#women studies #feminism #gender #queer #intersectionality

1 note · View note

skeletorg · 9 months

Text

study from the only video that matters this month. EVERYBODY MOVEMENT.

#planet of the bass #dj crazy times #women are my favorite guy #tiktok #everybody movement #fanart #art #study

5K notes · View notes

foreverrryourssss · 5 months

Text

Girls who study

2K notes · View notes

shitacademicswrite · 1 year

Photo

#grad school #academica #women's studies

13K notes · View notes

stemgirlchic · 2 months

Text

why neuroscience is cool

space & the brain are like the two final frontiers

we know just enough to know we know nothing

there are radically new theories all. the. time. and even just in my research assistant work i've been able to meet with, talk to, and work with the people making them

it's such a philosophical science

potential to do a lot of good in fighting neurological diseases

things like BCI (brain computer interface) and OI (organoid intelligence) are soooooo new and anyone's game - motivation to study hard and be successful so i can take back my field from elon musk

machine learning is going to rapidly increase neuroscience progress i promise you. we get so caught up in AI stealing jobs but yes please steal my job of manually analyzing fMRI scans please i would much prefer to work on the science PLUS computational simulations will soon >>> animal testing to make all drug testing safer and more ethical !! we love ethical AI <3

collab with...everyone under the sun - psychologists, philosophers, ethicists, physicists, molecular biologists, chemists, drug development, machine learning, traditional computing, business, history, education, literally try to name a field we don't work with

it's the brain eeeeee

983 notes · View notes

mrsdallowayreads · 2 years

Text

“To account for, and excuse the tyranny of man, many ingenious arguments have been brought forward to prove, that the two sexes, in the acquirement of virtue, ought to aim at attaining a very different character: or, to speak explicitly, women are not allowed to have sufficient strength of mind to acquire what really deserves the name of virtue. Yet it should seem, allowing them to have souls, that there is but one way appointed by Providence to lead mankind to either virtue or happiness.

If them women are not a swarm of ephemeron triflers, why should they be kept in ignorance under the specious name of innocence?”

—Mary Wollstonecraft, Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

#mary wollstonecraft #book quotes #feminism #vindication of the rights of woman #feminist theory #feminist literature #book reccs #currently reading #book talk #gender studies #women studies #women writers #mary shelley

13 notes · View notes

ibchemist · 3 months

Text