feminism

Well, since Dad complained that I don't post enough these days...here goes. :)

Yesterday night (after making a yummy soup & delicious fruit breads with Bethany, and watching a bit of the newly-released version of The Outsiders), I finished reading Feminism is for Everybody, which was (part of) the first reading for CodePink's new "radical book club". It was a quick read - I don't usually try to juggle 3 books at once, but I had to get this one done for Sunday! - and I really raced through it; bell hooks made it really rather accessible. It's more like a pamplhet for people to pick up when they are curious about what, exactly, feminism entails. And I am so glad I read it - I really didn't know half of what was in there. "Feminist" has gotten such a bad rap in the past several decades, as militant, butch women who despise men and want to rid society of the male population. And that just isn't true (at least, of most feminists!) - I wouldn't mind being called a feminist after having read hooks' book; that didn't used to be the case, only a few short days ago. Feminism isn't anti-men, it's anti-partriarchy. It's against all of the institutions that have forced women into submission & subordination - not the men who have put them there, but the generations & generations of both men and women who accept the way things are - that women have "their place" and that it is somewhere below men, to serve them. Not to say I don't love cooking or doing things for Danny or for my father - but the point, I think, is that you choose to do these things. When I am not in the mood to cook, for instance, I'm not still forced to. And as simple & basic of a right as that sounds, it's not one that a lot of women are lucky enough to have.

I won't get terribly deeply into it, but I did like the book, and I'd recommend it to anyone. I feel like I always kind of knew all that stuff about feminism, but didn't want to acknowledge that I could possibly be a feminist, because of all the negative connotations that word tends to attract. But I do wish that we could change what people think of that denomination. I am not very militant, but I do really love the idea of equality for all. It's what I think I'll push for, under whatever title someone may brand me with. xoxo

Currently Reading:
	TITLE: The Language Instinct AUTHOR: Steven Pinker
	TITLE: Idoru AUTHOR: William Gibson