No Matter What Anyone Tells You, You Are Never Too Old To Eat Frozen Go-gurt.

No matter what anyone tells you, you are never too old to eat frozen go-gurt.

Well, Loft is my favorite store but I'm officially boycotting for at least the rest of pride month. Way to hop on the bandwagon with all the other gender affirmers in capitalist America.

Malala Yousafzai for British Vogue (2021)

“I know the power a young girl carries in her heart” l a Pakistani activist for girls' education and the youngest Nobel Prize laureate, Malala began campaigning for girls’ rights in Pakistan at the age of 11. Almost 13 years later, a woman's right to education is still at the forefront of her cause, expanding beyond her home country to nations all over the world.

The 23 year-old Oxford graduate has become a beacon of hope, committed to ensuring girls across the world get the education they deserve. And now she stands at a crossroad in her own life. / all © British Vogue

“If one girl with an education can change the world, just imagine what 130 million can do.” (British Vogue 2018)

Hi, here is a list of feminist texts I’ve found online. There are many important and notable readings not on this list that I’ve been unable to find working links for, and I haven’t read all of these yet. I have downloaded them all, though, so if a link breaks please let me know.

The complete works of Andrea Dworkin

“Loving to Survive: Sexual Terror, Men’s Violence and Women’s Lives” by Dee L.R. Graham, Edna I Rawlings, and Roberta K. Rigsby

“Men Who Hate Women and the Women Who Love Them: When Loving Hurts and You Don’t Know Why” by Susan Forward and Joan Torres

“Why Does He Do That?: Inside the Minds of Angry and Controlling Men” by Lundy Bancroft

“Against Our Will: Men, Women, and Rape” by Susan Brownmiller

“Gyn/Ecology” by Mary Daly

“Sister Outsider” by Audre Lorde

“Only Words” by Catharine A. MacKinnon

“Sexual Politics” by Kate Millet

“The Feminine Mystique” by Betty Friedan 

“Feminism is for Everybody” by bell hooks

“The Dialectic of Sex: The Case for Feminist Revolution” by Shulamith Firestone

“Origin of the Family, Private Property, and the State” by Friedrich Engels

“The Second Sex” by Simone de Beauvoir

“Women, Race & Class” by Angela Davis

“Women as a Force in History: A Study in Traditions and Realities” by Mary Beard

“The Subjection of Women” by Harriet Taylor, published under the name of a friend, John Stuart Mill

“A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” by Mary Wollstonecraft

“S.C.U.M. Manifesto” by Valerie Solanas 

En Español

“Women and their Bodies” by Boston Women’s Health Collective

“Refusing to be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice” by John Stoltenberg

“Liberalism and the Death of Feminism” by Catharine A. MacKinnon

“Sexology and Antifeminism” by Sheila Jeffreys

“Confronting the Liberal Lies About Prostitution” by Evelina Giobbe

“Abortion and Pornography: The Sexual Liberals’ “Gotcha” Against Women’s Equality” by Twiss Butler

“Sexual Liberalism and Survivors of Sexual Abuse” by Valerie Heller

“The Many Faces of Backlash” by Florence Rush

“The Sexual Liberals and the Attack on Feminism“ Edited by Dorchen Leidholdt and Janice G. Raymond

“Liberals, Libertarianism, and the Liberal Arts Establishment” by Susanne Kappeler

“Women and Civil Liberties” by Kathleen A. Lahey

“The New Reproductive Technologies” by Gena Corea

Do you think trans women who pass as cis (thinking of someone like Patti Harrison) experience misogyny? I look at her and I’m like, she must experience the same things I do societally as a woman. I didn’t know she was trans until I read it somewhere. What are your thoughts?

Hm. I think that they experience a surface level misogyny - like a cat call (or other male harassment/objectification). But a lot of the misogyny we face as female people is systemic.

It's all healthcare/medicine that's available to us being only tested on males, prioritized for male bodies, and constructed so our role as birther > our humanity. And no matter how well a trans woman passes, healthcare is still made for their male body. And I still am being given medicine that was only tested on male rats and male humans because "females have complicated hormonal cycles that are difficult to control for". I am still being treated by a physician who was taught the male symptoms for all ailments, the female ones not considered.

Its being raised in a society that celebrates and rewards male excellence, and discourages and doesn't teach examples of women in math and science and medicine. It's being raised to be clean, be helpers, risky play discouraged. No matter how well a trans woman passes, they were encouraged to adventure, be explorers, pursue math and science. Their questions were celebrated, not quieted.

It's my upbringing being fundamentally affected by every male who ever interacted with me and how their thoughts and opinions of my femaleness influenced their treatment of me.

Its a society that demands female sacrifice, beauty, smoothness, chastity, thinness, litheness, grace, feminity, starvation, sensuality, motherhood, and conformity. Its being a woman punished for not adhering. And a trans woman, passing however well, selecting optionally to opt in to whatever degree of that they like, or worse yet, agree with.

Its being in a world in which over 95% of lawmakers and politicians are male. Which means absolutely all laws, rules, governing structures, and systems within that world are given male bias. Benefit male people. Its being a female in that system. And however well a trans woman passes, they still are male bodied and benefit from the entire structure and ongoing state of the nation and world that benefits male people.

Its having every top religion of the world written by men to include a male Father-God.

Its being regarded as "the second sex".

Its having all sports that exemplify male biological advantages being highly paid and in the spotlight, and all sports that exemplify female biological advantages taking second fiddle.

Its having female bodily autonomy constantly up for grabs, and male bodily autonomy never on the chopping block. Female reproductive freedom always restricted, male reproductive freedom never questioned.

Its having femicide, rape, abuse as a constant threat. It's seeing that treatment of females constantly glorified for entertainment value in all medias.

Its seeing female bodies broken and abused in pornography, with worse treatment every year. Its seeing male bodies doing the treatment.

And it goes on and on and on.

Its systemic. Its all-encompassing. And it is biology specific.

You're definitely not alone. I pick up a good romance novel every now and again. I also like how you pointed out that it's a case by case basis as I will never condone 50 shades and the like.

I also like how you made a point that there is actually a story and relationship development. Think about how many movies have a few sex scenes without it being the focus of the whole romance film (e.g. No Strings Attached, The Notebook, etc.). I think the huge difference between romance novels and porn, is that women are not being objectified as often in romance novels because women are the ones writing them.

I am resolutely against visual porn involving real human beings, but I think that (written) erotica by women can be an incredibly powerful tool in allowing women to explore their sexuality safely without exposing themselves to a constant stream of images of beaten and battered women. The content involved in such books (i.e. unsafe kinks) should be judged on a case-by-case manner whether or not it is harmful, because there are some genuinely good stories in this genre. It’s also important to always read everything critically, and I’m not saying that erotica should be exempt from this or general criticism.

also worth noting that out of all pornography types, written erotica (by women for women) is the most scorned and ridiculed by mainstream society- the porn that widely actually involves a story and relationship development is the one that gets made fun of for being embarrassing to engage in. Shocker.

I’m not sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts! 🤍🤍