Book Shelf

Book Review: Generation Roe

April 15, 2013 By Serena Leave a Comment

Sarah Erdreich has been very busy, ya’ll. She has published a book called Generation Roe: The Future of the Prochoice Movement. I admire Sarah’s tenacity and her ability to get so many abortion patients and providers to talk to her. Many of them were willing to use their own names.

1. How were you able to gather so many statistics to support your arguments?A lot of research!
I spent hours falling down the research rabbit hole—reading a paper to get information on one specific issue, but then learning about something else that I wanted to include, so going to the footnotes to find that source, and so on. The biggest challenge was finding sources that were reputable and nonpartisan, and for that the Guttmacher Institute and Centers for Disease Control in particular were really invaluable.

2. How were you able to get so many doctors to share their stories? You mention that many of them have received death threats at their homes. How did you convince them to speak out? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: authors, book reviews, history of abortion, interviews, prochoice, sarah erdreich, women's history

Feminist Book List

March 6, 2013 By Elin and Hennie Weiss Leave a Comment

Now that we are celebrating women’s history month we wanted to acknowledge and share some great books on different feminist related topics.

The Disability Rights Movement: From Charity to Confrontation (Updated Edition) – Doris Zames Fleischer and Frieda Zames

This is a great book that discusses disability rights activism over the last few decades and describes the struggles of disabled individuals and their fights to gain access to a number of institutes and buildings. The Disability Rights Movement is at times truly disturbing and effectively highlights discrimination and prejudice.

Pray The Gay Away – The Extraordinary Lives of Bible Belt Gays – Bernadette Barton

Pray The Gay Away is an amazing book which critically discusses the impact of homophobia on the lives of homosexual individuals. Bernadette Barton has interviewed gay men and women across the Bible Belt and shows how devastating homophobia is on the well being of homosexual individuals. Pray The Gay Away is very critical of homophobia and the role that religious beliefs and Christianity play in the treatment of homosexual people.

Let’s Talk About Sex: Histories of Sexuality in Australia from Federation to the Pill – Lisa Featherstone

Featherstone traces the history of Australian sexuality from the “start of the new Australian nation in 1901” to when the pill came out in Australia (in 1961). As such, Featherstone touches on the issues of gender, ethnicity, marriage, women’s reproductive rights, and just about everything surrounding sexuality in Australia. The book can at times be rather sexually graphic and detailed, but it is a very interesting read.

The Richer Sex: How the new majority of female breadwinners is transforming sex, love, and family – Liza Mundy

According to Mundy, the percentage of female breadwinners and stay at home dads is on the rise. Therefore, the changing nature of breadwinning brings about fundamental changes in the gender structure, with “role”switching occurring more often than before. Mundy uses research from the past decades to discuss female breadwinning. Even though we do not necessarily agree with everything Mundy says, the book is an interesting account of women’s changing roles.

When Mars Women Date – Paulette Kouffman Sherman

Even though we are not big into dating books, When Mars Women Date is quite different. It questions and takes a critical look at gender stereotypes and dating tips that are often aimed at women. Paulette Kouffman Sherman writes that: “These dating rules proposed by female authors include things like telling women not to talk too much, not to return a man’s calls or ask him out, only to see him twice a week, not to have sex too early, not to go dutch on dates, to ignore your dates and seem disinterested, never to be overweight, to always wear makeup”. (p. 36). The book is refreshing because it tells women that they do not need to “act” in order to find a good partner and that men do like strong, independent and successful women.

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: book list, breadwinners, dating, disability rights, gender stereotypes, homosexuality, Religion, sex

“Assault by Leer” or “Leering While Black”

November 17, 2012 By Hennie 1 Comment

When cleaning out the garage I found a copy of Quick News Weekly from November 24, 1952. On page 49, in the crime section I came across the short article titled Assault by Leer, describing how Mack Ingram was sentenced and jailed for simply leering at a 17-year-old white girl. According to the article, in North Carolina “assault by leer” was a possible offense in 1952, even though there was no actual physical contact. There seems to be no coincidence that Mack Ingram was Black and Willie Jean Boswell white.

To put the article into perspective, in 1952 Dwight Eisenhower was President, cold war tensions were beginning to brew and public schools were separated based on skin color. It was not until two years later that Brown v Board of Education was decided on. De jure (by law) discrimination is said to have ended after Brown v Board of Education in the 50s, but de facto (by fact) discrimination is still persistent in various forms, such as in the racial profiling of Blacks, often described as “Driving While Black” or “Walking While Black” (the killing of Trayvon Martin comes to mind). Other forms of societal racism are further called “Hailing While Black” (as Danny Glover puts it), “Learning While Black” or “Eating While Black.” If the persecution of individuals based on “Driving While Black” and “Walking While Black” is common de facto, then it seems safe to say that Mack Ingram was convicted of a de jure crime based on “Leering While Black.”

This picture was taken by Hennie Weiss and is shared under a creative commons license. You are free to share, copy and redistribute the work as long as attribution is given. You may not make commercial use of the work.

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: 1952, assault by leer, de facto, de jure, Mack Ingram, racism

Book Review: The Good Girls Revolt

November 9, 2012 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Image courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

Lynn Povich’s The Good Girls Revolt tells the story of a class action lawsuit that was brought against Newsweek in 1970, by a number of the women then employed at the magazine. In their groundbreaking suit, the forty-six women charged Newsweek with discrimination in promotion and hiring; this was the first female class action lawsuit, and the first brought by female journalists.

One of the leaders of the suit, Povich deftly ties several narrative threads together in this fast-paced account. She simultaneously details the relevant history of the magazine; introduces the reader to a large cast of characters, including editors, researchers, attorneys and reporters; and paints a vivid picture of the work environment at the magazine in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While the story can become complicated at times, particularly when it comes to discussing the lawsuit’s aftermath, Povich’s writing style is straightforward and engaging.
It would be nice to think that Povich’s experience is one that resides safely in the past. But while great strides have been made for workplace equality – and gender equality in general – Povich makes it clear that women are still encountering workplace discrimination today, albeit in more subtle forms. She bookends her tale with the story of three young female Newsweek employees who, almost forty years after the lawsuit, navigate an environment that, in some ways, may not have changed as much as one would expect – and hope.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: gender discrimination, harriet rabb, lawsuit, lynn povich, Newsweek, the good girls revolt

Book Review: How to Be a Woman

November 1, 2012 By Sarah Leave a Comment

Image courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

British columnist Caitlin Moran’s nonfiction book How to Be a Woman was published in 2011 – and I meant to read it in 2011, too. I really did. But despite best intentions, it wasn’t until my sister and I were browsing in a bookstore last month, and she asked if I’d read How to Be a Woman, that I bought the book. My only regret is that I waited so long to do so.

I can’t remember the last time a book made me laugh out loud, but Moran’s blend of memoir, essay, and cultural criticism had me not only laughing, but nodding my head in agreement and reading passages out loud to my husband. I defy anyone to read the chapter “I Don’t Know What to Call My Breasts!”, particularly the section where she discusses the difficulty of naming one’s vagina, and not at least chuckle.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: books, caitlin moran, feminism, how to be a woman, nonfiction

Books About Women, For Women

August 16, 2012 By Elin and Hennie Weiss Leave a Comment

We thought it would be interesting to share with the readers some of the books we have read and really found valuable to us. Many of these books are written by women, for women and highlight various forms of issues that are relevant to women. The books about LGBTQ issues are important no matter gender and age.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: book tips, LGBTQ, sexual violence, sexuality, women's health, women's roles

Book Review: Rebel Moms

July 27, 2012 By Maria 1 Comment

I’m not a mom yet, and don’t plan on becoming one for years. However, like many women today I’m already worrying about the dreaded “having it all”: how will I combine a career and child-rearing and what will happen to my life once I decide to reproduce and bring forth little humans who my husband and I will be completely responsible for? The book “Rebel Moms” edited by Davina Rhine perhaps provides some answers to these questions, which perplex so many of us (also increasingly men as well – yay for equality or boo – for today’s society where it seems to be so hard for everyone to have a family?).

The moms in Rebel Moms are all self-described “counter-culture” women with fascinating life stories. They do awesome things – they’re activists, writers, teachers, tattoo artists, professional bassists and actresses. No 9-till-5 corporate jobs for these ladies! They all stayed true to their (mostly) non-consumerist, non-mainstream ideals through their pregnancies and beyond and live to tell the tale. It was truly inspiring to read about so many women who are moms and don’t stop being themselves, even if who they are doesn’t fit with what society tells us mom “should” look and behave like. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf, Parenting Tagged With: counter culture parenting, Davina Rhine, Motherhood, rebel moms

Second-Chance Mother Unravels the Adoption Story

May 29, 2012 By Serena 1 Comment

I recently read Second-Chance Mother, by Denise Roessle. The book describes Roessle’s experience of putting her son up for adoption in 1969, and then reuniting with him many years later. Roessle’s story is very powerful, and anyone who reads it realizes that adoption is not an easy decision for anyone involved. Second-Chance Mother is currently the #1 title in the adoption section at Amazon. Over Mother’s Day weekend, over 12,000 readers downloaded a copy of the book.

I caught up with Denise Roessle to ask her a few questions about Second-Chance Mother. When you read what she has to say, I know you’ll have a lot of things to marinate in your brain.

1. What was your motivation for writing Second-Chance Mother?
My initial plan was to write a guide to adoption search and reunion for mothers. After four years in reunion, attending support groups and reading others’ stories, I realized that mothers like me needed help navigating the rough course of reunion. What I had in mind was a book with specifics, real information and advice, not just personal stories, that would help mothers (and possibly adoptees) figure out how to handle things like initial contact, the first meeting, how to deal with adoptive parents’ reactions, etc. Of course I didn’t have all the answers, but I knew where to get them and was planning to research: consulting searchers, adoption therapists, mothers and adoptees who were long into reunion. I had a detailed proposal for the book with a table of contents and sample chapters, which I pitched to various agents and publishers at a writing conference in 2000. I couldn’t convince anyone that this book was viable and needed, even though there were/are six million birthmothers in the U.S. alone. Everyone I talked to, especially after hearing my multi-generational adoption story, said, “write the memoir.” So I began.

My motivation was the same as it was at the beginning: to help other mothers get through this difficult process. As it turned out, in writing the memoir, I helped myself. It was cathartic, working through painful memories and coming to terms with the past. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf Tagged With: Abortion, adoption, denise roessle, emotional impact, prochoice, reunion, second chance mother

Here Come the Brides: Reflections on Lesbian Love and Marriage

April 12, 2012 By Maria 2 Comments

I feel I owe any potential readers of this review two disclaimers: 1) I’m recently (heterosexually) married 2) I’m a pretty emotional softy who loves a real-life story with a happy ending. And with that out of the way, here’s the basic thing you should know about this book: it’s awesome! I absolutely loved it. This 400-page new Seal Press anthology edited by Audrey Bilger and Michele Kort is a veritable page-turner, which includes essays, as well as poems, comic strips and pictures. I had real trouble putting the thing down and had “something in my eye” on more than one occasion.

The book is what the title claims it will be – reflections on lesbian love and marriage – and more. Between the covers are dozens of stories of real women, real drama, real love and real sadness. It gripped my heart and made me think seriously about some of the issues concerning marriage equality, which I have never given much thought before. This book is more than just love stories with a happy ending – there are also stories of divorce and essays by women who do not want to get married to their life partners. For the first time, I seriously considered the arguments of LGBTQ activists who claim marriage equality is a “political red herring” which draws attention away from other important issues such as health and immigration. It made me think about what marriage actually really means to me, and what a privilege it was to get married so easily in a pretty homophobic country.
[Read more...]

Filed Under: Book Shelf, LGBTQ Tagged With: Audrey Bilger, here come the brides, lesbian weddings, Michele Kort