The Menstuff® library lists pertinent books on feminism. See books on women's issues and womens' violence.
Barz, Helmut, For Men, Too: A grateful critique of
feminism. The authors quotes. "The strongest impulse leading
me to write this book is my conviction that the women's movement
is, or should be, just as much a matter for men as for women. I
want to react, to respond as one male human, to the discovery -
descibed for the most part by women - that the history of humanity
over the past several thousand years has also been a history of
the oppression of women by men. From the viewpont of many feminist
authors - among whom I include myself, although with some
hesitation - all men are oppressors and exploiters of women, not
neecssarily because they want to be, but because both men and
women have become so used to the collective pattern of the
oppressive man and the oppressed woman that they have to follow
this schema even against their will. I would have a bad conscience
if I did not attempt to voice this conviction. To do this, though,
I have to risk such daring understandings as to say what I
understand women to be, and men to me." Chiron
Publications. 1991 ISBN 0-933029-42-X Buy
This Book!
Bem, Sandra Lipsitzm An Unconventional
Family. In 1965, when psychologists Sandra and Daryl Bem met
and married, they were determined to function as truly egalitarian
partners and to raise their children in accordance with
gender-liberated, anti-homophobic, and sex-positive feminist
ideals. During the next ten years, they exuberantly shared the
details of their daily lives in both public lectures and the mass
media in order to provide at least one concrete example of an
alternative to the traditional heterosexual family. In the 1990s,
Sandra Bem also published an award-winning book, The Lenses of
Gender, which spelled out the feminist theory behind their
feminist practices. This book, an autobiographical account of the
Bems' nearly thirty-year marriage, is both a persoanl history of
the Bems' past and a social history of a key period in feminism's
past. It is also a look into feminism's future, because the Bems'
children, Emily and Jeremy, now in their early twenties, speak in
the book as well. The author analyzes what aspects of family
background and psychological makeup led them to bond so
immediately and to become gender pioneers. She describes the
egalitarianism and feminist child-rearing that they invented for
their private needs and tells how these family agendas were
transformed into public feminist discourse. Finally, she
reassesses their early feminist union now that the marriage has
come to an end and the children are young adults, evaluating (with
the help of lengthy interviews with Emily and Jeremy and a brief
epilogue by Daryl) what the Bems' experiences - both positive and
negative - have to say about the viability and necessity of
nontraditional gender arrangements in society today. (Ed. I would
sure like to read more than a "brief epilogue" of Daryl's
experience through his own words. I hope that book is in the
works. It might be at least as enlightening as this one.) Yale
University Press, 1998 ISBN 0-300-07424-7 Buy
This Book!
Bondoc, Anna & Meg Daly,
Letters of Intent: Women cross the generations to
talk about family, work, sex, love and the future of feminism.
Frustrated by the standoff between both camps of the feminist
generation gap, two twenty-something authors decided that it was
time to bring women of all ages together. What could young women
learn from their foremothers, who had fought for sexual freedom,
educational opportunity, and equality in the workplace? What did
older women need to hear from the young women who now struggle
with the day-to-day difficulties of life after he sexual
revolution and the women's liberation movment? Sports, homophobia,
racism, identity, food, and cancer are among the topics addressed
in these intimate exchanges. Free Press, www.simonsays.com
1999 ISBN 0-684-85624-7 Buy
This Book!
Caraway, Nancie, Segregated Sisterhood: Racism
& the politics of American feminism. In increasingly
eloquent terms, black feminists have protested the liberal
feminist agenda, which they claim incorporates the racism and
chauvinism of the very patriarchy white feminists are trying to
dismantle. In this brave and highly original work, the author
examines the historical and theoretical schisms that prevent black
and white women who are feminists from working together on a
common feminist agenda. She is a white feminist political theorist
who attempts to center her thinking in the paradigms of black
feminism. Speaking in an energetic, commited voice, she offers a
theory of multicultural feminism that challenges the notion of
"sisterhood" and advocates instead a "crossover" coalition
strategy that can place feminists in an egalitarian politics of
solidarity. In the process, she traces the contours of Afrocentric
feminism and analyzes its connections to postcolonial discourse
and postmodern feminist theory. University of Tennessee, 1991
ISBN 0-87049-720-0 Buy
This Book!
Chancer, Lynn S., Reconcilable
Differences: Confronting beauty, pornography and the
future of feminism. This book breathes sanity, balance and
wisdom into debates about the current state of feminism. Why, the
author asks, do we so often find ourselves lining up on one side
or the other of a great divide? What are the
costs? How do we learn to think in terms of "both/ands"
rather than "either/ors"? These are key questions for
our times, and the author does them brilliant justice, challenging
rigid positions on pornography, sex work, beauty and
sadomasochism, showing that even with these charged issues, we can
be attentive to our differences without denying our commonalities,
acknowledge women's agency while criticizing coercive
institutions, and celebrate sex without giving up the battle
against sexism. The author is a passionate and persuasive enemy of
the oversimplified polarities that have dogged feminist debates.
Her radical and richly nuanced essay on the "beauty issue" sets a
standard that any future argument on the subject will have to
meet. A must read for feminists of all persuasions. Univeristy of
California Press, 1998
Chapin, Bernard, Women: Theory and
practice. This book challenges the accepted theories of
feminism and sexual equality in this thought-provoking,
revolutionary look at the battle of the sexes in the twenty-first
century. This book captures the true essence of today's apocryphal
gap between men and women and how it affects not only the
workplace, but also romantic relationships and the interactions of
men and women everywhere. The author introduces a truly contrarian
argument against society's current atmosphere of political
correctness. He also makes a convincing case for the hidden damage
caused by the women's movement and the popular mindset that women
are no longer just the fairer sex, they are the better sex. This
book provides a clear, rational argument against a popular
socio-political atmosphere that has turned women into demi-gods
and men into second class citizens. iUniverse, www.iuniverse.com,
2007 ISBN 978-0-595-44360-4 
Delacoste, Frederique & Priscilla
Alexander, Sex Work: Writings by women in the sex
industry. The first (and only?) book to be reviewed favorably
by both The Women's Review of Books and Hustler,
this book popularized the term "sex work" to describe the
occupations of street prostitutes, exotic danvers, nude models,
escorts, porn actresses, and workers in massage parlors and so
changed the way we talk about sex and money. Features the original
stories of women in the life, including writings by Sapphire, Nina
Hartley and Joan Nestle. Includes Sex Workers' response to AIDS.
Latest information on the legal status of sex work in the US,
Europe and Asia. Growth of the international prostatutes' rights
movement. Bibliography, revised to reflect a decade's worth of
writing and publishing on sex work. Resources, including activists
organizations and publications - many just a web click away. Cleis
Press cleis@aol.com 1998
ISBN 1-57344-042-6 Buy
This Book!
Digby, Tom, Men Doing Feminism. The relation between
feminism and men is often presumed to be antagonistic. Men are
expected to resist feminism; feminists are assumed to hate men.
However, that opporitionality is thrown into question by the
increasing numbers of men involved in feminist theory and
practice. This collection of essays, most of them published here
for the first time, presents both enthusiastic and cautionary
views of men doing feminism. The eighteen contributors to this
book, women, men, blacks, whites, gays, straights, transsexuals -
move the conversation about male feminism beyond simplistic
notions of opporitionality between feminism and male identity.
Many of the authors use personal narrative to show ways men's
lives can shape approaches to doing feminism, and to convey the
opportunities and challenges involved in integrating feminism into
men's lives. Routledge www.routledge.com
1998 Buy
This Book!
Elliott, Michele ed, Female Sexual Abuse of Children. The
subject of female sexual abuse has been a dark, unexplored corner
of our field. Like most adhorent aspects of human behavior, it is
easier and more emotionally congruent to deny, ignore, or
discredit that which we cannot accept or will not acknowledge.
Historical reactions to the discovery (and rediscovery) of incest
- from Freud to the False Memory Syndrome Foundation - are
poignant tributes to the enduring strength of our collective
resistance. There is no room in this, of all fields, for secrecy
or denial about any aspect of child abuse. There is no room for
cowardice, political ideology, or the focus of our attention and
resources on one area to the total exclusion of others. This is a
bold book and a valuable resource for our time. Guilford, 1994
ISBN 0-89862-004-X Buy
This Book!
Faludi, Susan: Backlash: The
undeclared war against American woman. In this disturbing
examination of women's crumbling status in American life and
culture during the past decade, the author uncovers a growing
backlash against a sex that is still, in many respects, second. It
is a backlash that, as she amply demonstrates, has worked on two
levels: convincing women that their feelings of
dissatisfaction and distress are the result of too much feminism
and independence, while simulatneoulsy undermining the minimal
progress that women have made at work, in politics, and in their
own minds. The author shows how the media has spread the backlash
message through moralizing "news" stories and manipulated
statistics, and how virtually every outlet of popular culture has
contributed its own embellishments and anxiety-producing visions.
This book exhaustively documents and dissects this largely
soft-peddled and insidious war againast women's rights, probing
the dimensions of a cultural phenomenon that has changed shape and
resurfaced in Hollywood films and TV, in the fashion and beauty
industries, in New Right rhetoric and presidential speeches, and
in office harassment and clinic bombings. Whether by the promotion
of dubious stidues about "the man shortage" and "the infertility
epidemic," or by the rollback of employment and reproductive
rights, or by the elevation of commerical female icons like the
"New Traditional Woman" and the liposuction-perfect model., the
backlash has cost American women dearly in their endless struggle
for equality. This book challenges the central, and suspect,
thesis of the backlash: that feminism is women's worst enemy, that
the very changes that leave strengthened women have actually led
to their decline. In doing so, this book offers a timely and
troubling picture of the female condition today, a picture that
women and men cannot and must not ignore. Crown Publishers, 1991
ISBN 0-517-57698-8 Buy
This Book!
Farrell, Warren, with Steven Svoboda vs.
James P. Sterba, Does Feminism Discriminate Against
Men? A debate. Does feminism give a much-needed
voice to women in a patriarchal world? Or if the world not
really patriarchal? Has feminism begun to level the playing
field in a world in which women are more often paid less at work
and abused at home? Or are women paid equally for the same work
and not abused more at home? Does feminism support equality in
education and in the military, or does it discriminate against men
by ignoring such issues as male-only draft registration and boys
lagging behind in school? The only book of its kind, this volume
offers a sharp, lively, and provocative debate on the impact of
feminism on men. A perfect book to get students thinking and
debating, it is ideal for courses in gender studies, sociology,
psychology, economies, feminist philosophy, and contemporaary
moral issues. It is also compelling reading for anyone interested
in the future of men and women. Oxford University Press, www.oup.com/us/he,
2008 ISBN 978-0-19-531283-6 
Feminist Accused of Sexual Harassment. Duke University
Press, 1997
Findlen, Barbara, editor, Listen
Up: Voices from the next feminist generation. This
country hasn't heard enough from young feminists. We're here, and
we have a lot to say about our ideas and hopes and struggles and
our place within feminism. We haven't had many opportunitites to
tell our stories, but more of us are finding our voices and the
tools to make them heard: books like this one, and also
music, zines, newspapers, videos, the vote, letters to the editor,
marches, conferences, the Net. This collection gives voice to
young feminists' personal experiences because they have often
been, and continue to be, our point of entry to feminism. But
that's just the beginning. My hope is that this anthology - along
with all the other platforms we are creating - will serve as a
catalyst for consciousness, action, and ultimately, change in the
lives of young women and those whose lives we touch. Seal Press
1995 ISBN 1-878067-61-3 Buy
This Book!
Gallop, Jane, Feminist Accused of Sexual
Harassment. "I am a feminist professor who was accused by two
students of sexual harassment. This book is centered on that fact:
the title is modeled after the style of tabloid headlines because
of the way this fact lends itself to sensationalism. While any
accusation of sexual harassment seems to promise a juicy scandal,
this particular accusation is more sensational due to the
newsworthy anomaly value of a feminist being so accused. While
sexual harassment is customarily a feminist issue, feminists
usually appear on the accuser's side. For a feminist to be the
accused is a dramatic reversal. What kind of a feminist would be
accused of sexual harassment?" The author from Chapter
1. (Ed - This is a reflection of just how sexist society is and
assuming feminists aren't sexist is as big an assumption. Like
many issues, if it wasn't the standard assumption that men are the
perpetrators and women the victims, we would all get a clearer
picture of what is really going on with our children, in our
schools and universities, and in the work world to set-up this
division. Making an assumption of guilt or innocense because
someone calls themselves a feminist or masculinist or mother or
father or some other politicized name does not warrant immunity
from responsibility.) Duke University Press 1997
Gmelch, Sharon Bohn, Gender on
Campus: Issues for college women. As women enter
college they face many new challenges, including how they are
perceived by their professors and peers. The issues of feminism,
gender and sexuality crop up in dormitories and classrooms, on
dates and in conversation. This is the first book to combine
analyses of the broad range of gender issues for women in college
with realistic approaches to heighten awareness and initiate
positive change. The author addresses both the subtle and blatant
areas where gender is an active ingredient of college life - from
the sports field to social life. She probes sexism, racism and
homophobia on campus. She addresses the special issues facing
diverse women students and the universal issues of body image,
diet, and sexuality confronting all women in college. Students
will come away from this book prepared for the role gender will
play after college - in the media, workplace, and politics. This
is a book that should be read by every student - male and female.
It also serves as a valuable resource for parents preparing their
daughters for college. After thoroughly discussing a topic, each
chapter provides a list of books, videos and organizations for
additional information and action. Rutgers University Press.1998
ISBN 0-8135-2522-5 Buy
This Book!
Johnson, Allan, The Gender
Knot: Unraveling our patriarchal legacy. A powerful
approach to gender inequality that empowers both men and women to
be part of the solution instead of just part of the problem. We
are all living with an oppressive gender legacy called patriarchy.
Millions of women are weary from the struggle simply to hang on to
what's been gained, and many well-intentioned men do nothing
because they can't see how to acknowledge what's going on without
inviting guilt and blame simply for being men. In this book, the
author defines and addresses patriarchy in terms that we can all
understnad. He explains what it's got to go with each of us and
reveals how both men and women can see themselves as part of the
process of change toward something better (not matriarchy). With
more than twenty years of experience in addressing gender and
communication issues, the author offers a practical,
compassionate, and readable guide to resolvng gender
inequality.Temple University Press 1997
Jong, Erica, What Do Women Want? Reflections on a entury
of change. This is a book of inspiration, humor, and
provocation - an intimate conversation between the reader and
author. In these personal statements she addresses many of the
questions that concern women and men today. Are women better off
today than they were twenty-five years ago? Why do powerful
women evoke ambivalence? Why do mothers continue to be blamed
for working outside the home? How does the mother-daughter
relationship influence cycles of feminism and backlash? What
is the connection between pornography and the creative
spirit? Who is the perfect man? With her characteristic
wit and her refreshing refusal to bow down before political
correctness, she tackles these and other issues. Grappling with
the writers she loves and the hypocracy she hates, she reveals her
own original, quirky take on the world we live in.
HarperPerennial, 1998 ISBN 0-06-098445-7 Buy
This Book!
Kroker, Arthur and Marilouise, The Hysterical Male: New
feminist theory. This book is a thematically focussed
exploration of feminism in the 1990's. Initiated as a companion
text to Body Invaders, it traces out the logic of imminent
reversibility in received patriarchial discourses in
psychoanalysis, art, theory and culture. Here under the sign of
male hystericization, critical feminist theorists from the US,
Canada and Britain track out the next stage of gender politics.
From Daddy's No (refusing the psychoanalytics of Derrida
and Lacan) and Phallus of Malice (where the image of the
ejaculating woman substitutes for the disappearing penis) to the
Mirror of Seduction (where women, too, are doubled in an
endless regression of mirrored identities) and Sacrificial
Sex (where feminist theory is encoded in a labyrinth of
spectral images) this book nominates new feminist theory in light
of the inverted world of the male hysteric. What results is an
intense, provocative and creative theorization of feminism under
the failing sign of the unitary male subject. St. Martin's Press,
1991 ISBN 0-312-05297-9 Buy
This Book!
Lamb, Sharon, ed, New Version of
Victims: Feminists struggle with the concept. Must
one be subject to long-standing suffering to be called a
victim? How are we to explain rape victims who
seemingly "get over" their experience with no lingering emotional
scars? The contributors grapple with the complexities
of these issues rather than play into oversimplified popular
debates. They critique exaggerated claims by victim advocates
about the long lasting harm of victimization, while simultaneously
taking on the claims of writers such as Katie
Roiphe and Camille Paglia and offering tools for rebutting
their backlash assertions. Can a book that refuses to take an
extreme position enter this debate? Indeed it can, and
it is a must-read for clinicians, theorists, victims and
activists. Written in clear, accessible language, this book offers
a critical analysis of pupular debates about victimization that
will be applicable to both practice and theory. New York
University Press, www.nyupress.nyu.edc
1999 ISBN 0-8147-5153-9 Buy
This Book!
Lambert, Ellen Zetzel, The Face of Love: Feminism
and the Beauty Question. An alluring book, moved by the trauma
of her own mastectomy, broadened by her kinship with eighteenth-
and nineteenth-century women novelists, put on notice by the odd
fascination she feels for photo albums that record her youth, the
author makes palpable to readers what she plainly experienced as a
middle-aged woman: a secular revelation that beauty is very deep
indeed, as deep as we're capable of making it. The book's
affirmation of the corporeal as an important root of our identity
places the author at the forefront of an important new area of
feminist research and theory that is beginning, at last, to take
women's bodies seriously without trapping them in politically
dangerous notions of the essential female. By reclaiming the vivid
ways in which beauty can be understood as a quality of the spirit
- even in a culture dominated by images of MTV vixens and
willowy supermodels - the author has produced an eloquent plea for
the enduring uses of beauty in feminist discourse. Beacon Press,
1995 ISBN 0-8070-6501-3 Buy
This Book!
Levy, Ariel, Female Chauvinist
Pigs: Women and the rise of raunch culture. Meet the
Female Chauvinist Pig - the new brand of "empowered woman" who
wears the Playboy bunny as a talisman, bares all for
Girls Gone Wild, pursues casual sex as if it were a sport,
and embraces "raunch culture" wherever she finds it. If male
chauvinist pigs of years past thought of women as pieces of meat,
Female Chauvinist Pigs of today are doing them one better, making
sex objects of other women - and of themselves. They think they're
being brave, they think they're being funny, but in this book, a
New York magazine writer asks if the joke is on them. In
her quest to uncover why this is happening, she interviews college
women who flash for the cameras on spring break and teens raised
on Paris Hilton and breast implants. She examines a culture in
which every music video seems to feature a stripper on a pole, the
memoirs of porn stars are climbing the best-seller lists, Olympic
athletes parade their Brazilian bikini waxes in the pages of
Playboy, and thongs are marketed to prepubescent girls. She
meets the high-powered women who create raunch culture - the new
oinking women warriors of the corporate and entertainment worlds
who eagerly defend their efforts to be "one of the guys". And she
traces the history of this trend back to conflicts between the
women's movement and the sexual revolution long left unresolved.
In the tradition of Susan Faludi's Backlash
and Naomi Wolf's The Beauty
Myth, she pulls apart the myth of the Female Chauvinist Pig
and argues that what has come to pass for liberating rebellion is
actually a kind of limiting conformity. Irresistibly witty and
wickedly intelligent, this book makes the case that the rise of
raunch does not represent how far women have come, it only proves
how far they have to go. Simon & Schuster, www.simonsays.com,
2005, ISBN 0-7432-4989-5 
Millard, Alan, Equality: A man's
claim. The equality issue from the male pespective and an ethical
society's viewpoint. Have you ever been lost for a defense
against feminists who use their own language and terminology to
promote their misguidd, prejudiccd philosophies? This
book retraces irrational accusations and exposes ill-founded
feminist beliefs which have become standard misinformation in
today's society. It offers strong argument to counteract feminist
conjecture - an argument which has purposely been kept from you by
the media and other sources of feminist propaganda. Finally, here
is a source that takes an unblinking look at the critical issues
being used by feminists to destroy the interaction between men and
women. Northwest Publishing, www.alanmillard.com
1995 ISBN 1-56901-342-X Buy
This Book!
Modleski, Tania, Feminism Without Women: Culture &
criticism in a "postfeminist" age, Is the "feminist era"
over? The media declare that the battles have been won. In
this book, the author examines "the myth of postfeminism" and its
operation in popular culture, especially popular film and cultural
studies. In a series of essays scrutinizing feminist and
post-structuralist positions, the author shows how women are once
again being relegated to the margins of discourse and society,
only now, ironically, they are in danger of being marginalized by
feminism itself. Offering a multi-faceted response to the shift
within feminist theory from a woman-centered critical practice to
an increasingly male-oriented "gender studies", this book assesses
recent trends in feminist thought by discussing social issues
relevant to feminism: women and war, the controversy within
feminism over lesbian S&M, the intensification of racism under
Reagan and Bush, and the emergence of "male feminism". She argues
that it is important for men to continue to support women's
struggles. But, she warns, if the result if "feminism without
women," this can only be patriarchy in a different voice.
Routledge, 1991 ISBN 0-415-90417-X Buy
This Book!
Mosmiller, Tom & Michael Kimmel, Against the
Tide: Pro-feminist men in the U.S. 1776-1990
A Documentary History. In a society where many men have
resisted and still resist women's claim to equal rights, this book
presents a surprising and refreshing reality - writings by men
from Thomas Paine to John Lennon, from Frederick Douglass to Walt
Whitman, Alan Alda and Isaac Asimov - all attesting to the ways in
which men have shouldered responsibility along with women to fight
against social injustice. Its importance is unequalled and
provides some unusual portairts of pioneers involved in social and
political change. Meticulously researched and put
together...fascinating reading. Beacon, 1992
ISBN 0-8070-6767-9 Buy
This Book!
Nadeau, Robert L.,
S/he Brain: Science, sexual politics and the myths
of feminism. Margaret Mead's argument that gender identity is
learned in sexless minds separate and distinct from sex-specific
bodies legitimized the "sex/gender system" in feminist theory. In
this system, sex refers to physiological differences in the domain
of the body and gender to learned behavior in the domain of the
mind. Since this "two-domain" distinction obviated the connection
between biological reality and gender identity, it allowed gender
identity to be viewed as a product of patriarchal cultural
narratives - stories, myths, legends and the like invented by men
in order to control and oppress women. In this book, the author
demonstrates that the sex/gender system is not some arcane bit of
academic jargon that has no impact on our daily lives. It is the
greatest source of conflict in politics or our sexual lives for a
now obvious reason: the brains of men and women are not the same,
and the differences have behavioral consequences. Yet the intent
of the book is to serve the cause of full sexual equality and not
to escalate the gender war. The author argues that an improved
understanding of the relationship between sex and gender cannot
only enlarge the basees for meaningful communication between men
and women, it could also serve as the basis for an improved
standard of sexual equality that eliminates the grossly unfair
treatment of women sanctioned by the current standard. Praeger,
1996
Nagle, Jill, Whores & Other
Feminists, Jill Nagle. This is the first volume to examine sex
work and the sex industry through the eyes of self-identified
feminist sex workers - strippers, prostitutes, porm writers,
producers and performers, dominatrices - and their allies.
Comprising a range of voices from both within and outside the
academy, this collection draws from traditional feminism,
postmodern feminism, queer theory, libertarianism and sex
radicalism. Through essay and personal narrative, the contributors
liberate the exchange of sex for money from its arranged
ideological marraige with sexist oppression, highlighting instead
more local questions about particular sex work practices and their
interface with feminist thought. This is a who's who of
contemporary progressive thought on the sex industry. This
sparkling collection brings together some of the most passionate
and articulate feminist activists on the planet: feminist sex
workers. These eloquent partisans provide a badly needed
immunization against moralistic versions of feminism. It asks that
other feminists accept their challenge by joining their efforts to
decriminalize all voluntary sex work. This indispensable anthology
will help feminism renew its historic commitment to a vision and a
political agenda for true sexual justice. www.jillnagle.com
Routledge, 1997 ISBN 0-415-91822-7 Buy
This Book!
O'Beirne, Kate, Women Who Make the World
Worse and how their radical feminist assault is ruining our
schools, families, military and sports. The author is fed up
with women who make the world worse. Women who see "gender
discrimination" in every office, in every classroom, on every
sports field and on every military base. Women who sniff that
mothers who stay home with their kids are wasting their lives,
that fathers are optional, and that marriage is an oppressive tool
to keep women down. Who who ignore the remarkable opportunities
American women enjoy and deny the career and family choices they
freely make. Women who scream "sexism" because there aren't enough
female firefighters doing the dangerous, demanding work of saving
lives. Fueled by their persecution fantasies, modern feminists
have been calling for radical social engineering to eliminate any
differences between the sexes. They insist that any sex
differences are the result of social construction, not biology. So
they want boys and men to be reprogrammed and treated for their
"pathology." The author, one of our most respected conservative
thinkers, has been doing battle with the man-hating "sisterhood"
since the 1970's. Now, in her first book, she offers all the
frankness and common sense she demonstraed during her ten years on
CNN's The Capital Gang and in her articles about policy and
politices for National Review. She captures the radical feminists
in their own words, explains why they've got it all wrong, and
shows why they have to be stopped - before they do even more
damage to our schools, families, military and sports. Sentinel,
www.penguin.com, 2006,
ISBN 1-59523-009-2 
Patai, Daphne,
Heterophobia: Sexual harassment and the future of
feminism. Heterophoia is the fear of and antagonism toward
heterosexuals and heterosexuality. Once confident in the potential
of feminism to create a more equitable and just society, the
author persuasively demonstrates how the efforts of some feminists
- members of what she calls the "sexual harassment industry" -
have created an environment that stifles health natural
interactions between the sexes. The trememdous growth of sexual
harassment legislation represents feminism's greatest contemporary
success, but this victory has dubious consequences - a world where
kindergarten boys face legal action for kissing female classmates
and men are sued by coworkers for offenses such as unwanted hugs,
uninvited compliments, or glances that last too long. The
Feminine Mystique, The Second Sex, Sexual Politics, Sexual
Personae, Bachlash - These are widely regarded as the most
influential statements of feminism ever written. Read this book
and you will understand why it will soon join this pantheon as the
most powerful and eloquent analysis of contemporary feminism of
this decade. Rowan & Littlefield, 1998
ISBN 0-8476-8987-5 Buy
This Book!
Phelps, Stanlee, Nancy Austin, The
Assertive Woman. Do you want to: Restore balance in your
life? Say no and draw the line with confidence? Make the
right choices? Face up to challenges and changes with
courage? With this book, now you can. The fourth edition of
this classic bestseller, revised and updated, is an original and
lively self-help resource, packed with tested exercises,
step-by-step guides, and solid advice on how to express yourself
with co-workers, authority figures, lovers, family and friends.
This book debunks the tired old myths and stereotypes of women
bosses, stay-at-home moms, "bully broads," and superwomen and
presents a refreshing, positive alternative. From breaking out of
the Compassion Trap and countering manipulation, to nurturing a
hardy spirit and reaching out to friends and lovers, this book
delivers real answers and steadfast support to real women
everywhere. Impact Publishers, www.impactpublishers.com,
2002, ISBN 1-886230-49-8 Buy
This Book!
Re/Search, Angry Woman. 16 cutting-edge performance artists
discuss critical questions such as: how can you have a
revolutionary feminism that encompasses wild sex, humor, beauty
and spirituality plus radical politics? How can you have a
powerful movement for social change that's inclusionary - not
exclusionary? How is language based on dualisms (male/female,
gay/straight, black/white, mind/body, personal/political)
obstructing our visualization of a "better world"? A wide
range of topics - from menstruation, masturbation, vibrators,
S&M & spanking to racism, failed Utopias and the death of
the Sixties - are discussed passionately. Armed with total
contempt for dogma, stereotype and cliche, these creative
visionaries probe deep into our social foundation of taboos,
beliefs and totalitarian linguistic contradictions from whence
spring (as well as thwart) our theories, imaginings, behavior and
dreams. Re/Search Publications, 1991 ISBN 0-940642-24-7
Buy
This Book!
Roiphe, Katie, The Morning After: Sex, Fear and
Feminism. To the author, feminism had always meant freedom -
but as an undergraduated at Harvard and a graduate student at
Princeton, we was shocked to discover that the same movement that
had once promised women a voice was now being used to tell them
what they ought to say and think and feel. This book arose out of
her frustration with today's feminism and with the hypocrisy of a
culture that idealizes freedom of speech but refuses to tolerate
real dissent. Here, the author takes an uncomfortably close look
at how that intolerance is manifest, offering penetrating
critiques of our urge to legislate love and desire, our
infatuation with consent, and our unreasonable fear of the human
imaginatoin, which is expected to stoop before rules about sex and
gender. Ground-breaking and controversial, the book has inspired
heated debate the world over. Read it and make up your own mind.
Little, Brown & Co., 1993 Hardbound
ISBN 0-316-75431-5 Buy
This Book! 1994 Paperback with new introduction by the author
ISBN 0-316-75432-3 Buy
This Book!
Roth, Julius, Sour Notes on Feminist Issues. Essays on Roe
vs. Wade, pay equity, maternity leave, affirmative actoin, and
some other feminist issues. The author usually accepts the aims of
the feminist movement, but disagrees with the means (the
"sournote"). In general, he recommends more aggressive action,
while he himself occupies a safe position. This is also analytic
commentary on such matters as patronage and toilets. Self
published booklet, Julies Roth, Department of Sociology,
University of California, Davis, CA 95616 1992
Snortland,
Ellen, Beauty Bites Beast: Awakening the warrior
within women and girls. Women have been sold a bill of goods -
that they are helpless in the face of attack. Nonsense, asserts
the author and proceeds to trace her discovery of self defense and
how it changed her life. This is a clarion call to "sleeping
beauties" to wake up and take charge of their own self-defense -
both verbal and physical - and celebrates women (and kids) who
fought back. Here is an irreverent, but deadly serious look at how
family, religion, history, news and entertainment keep women
thinking they are helpless and how the author and other women have
vanquished this self-defeating attitude. (Ed. - One of the
benefits of this somewhat angry book is the encouragement for
women to take responsibility
for their lives and stop holding men responsible for taking care
of them and their needs. Bravo! It's also a valuable book for our
daughters to teach them self-reliance. And, it's suggestion to
take a self-defense course is an excellent recommendation for both
women and girls and men and boys, since violence by partners is
spewing in all directions and the fact that "Beauty Beats the
Helpless Beast" is becoming quite common where the man/boy must
learn how to protect himself without inadvertantly doing something
that, if the woman did it would be excused, but if a man did it
(like restraining her arms from hitting or stabbing you), could be
a felony.) Trilogy Books, 1998 ISBN 1-891290-00-2 Buy
This Book!
Sommers, Christina Hoff, The War Against
Boys: How misguided feminism is harming our young men.
It's a bad time to be a boy in America. As the century drew to a
close, the defining event for American girls was the triumph of
the U.S. women's soccer team. For boys, the symbolic event was the
mass killing at Columbine High School. It would seem that boys in
our society are greatly at risk. Yet the best-known studies and
the academic experts say that it's girls who are suffering from a
decline in self-esteem. It's girls, they say, who need extra help
in school and elsewhere in a society that favors boys. The problem
with boys is that they are boys, say the experts. We need to
change their nature. We have to make them more like...girls. These
arguments don't hold up to scrutiny, says the author in this
provocative, fascinating book. She analyzes the work of the
leading academic experts and finds it lacking in scientific rigor.
There is no girl crisis, says the author. Girls are outperforming
boys academically, and girls' self-esteem is no different from
boys. Boys lag behind girls in reading and writing ability, and
they are less likely to go to college. The "girl crisis" has been
seized upon by some feminists and has been suffused with sexual
politics. Under the guise of helping girls, many schools have
adopted policies that penalize boys, often for simply being
masculine. The author says that boys do need help, but not the
sort they've been getting. They need help catching up with girls
academically. They need love, discipline, respect, and moral
guidance. They desperately need understanding. They do not need to
be rescued from masculinity. Simon & Schuster www.SimonSays.com
2000, ISBN 0-684-84956-9 Buy
this book!
Sommers, Christina Hoff, Who Stole
Feminism: How women have betrayed women. American
feminism is currently dominated by a group of women who seek to
persuade the public that American women are not the free creatures
we think we are. The leaders and theorists of the women's movement
believe that our society is best described as a patriarchy, a
"male hegemony," a "sex/gender system" in which the dominant
gender works to keep women cowering and submissive. The feminists
who hold this divisive view of our social and political reality
believe that we are in a gender war, and they are eager to
disseminate storeies of atrocity that are designed to alert women
to their plight. The "gender feminists" (as the author will be
calling them) believe that all our institutions, from the state to
the family to the grade schools, perpetuate male dominance.
Believing that women are virtually under siege, gender feminists
naturally seek recruits to wage their side of the gender war. They
seek support. They week vindication. They seek ammunition. The
author has been moved to write this book because she is a feminist
who does not like what feminism has become. The new gender
feminism is badly in need of scrutiny. Only forthright appraisals
can diminish its inordinate and divisive influence. If others will
join in a frank and honest critique, before long a more
representative and less doctrinaire feminism will again pick up
the reins. But that is not likely to happen without a fight. This
book has its dukes up and is ready. Simon & Schuster,
1994 ISBN 0-671-79424-8 Buy
This Book!
Stone, Lynda, Education Feminism Reader. This book boldly
lays claim to the centrality of feminist education theory by
bringing together for the first time the most important and
influential essays written on the subject. Equally committed to
advancing a pluralist vision of the field, the anthology showcases
the thinking of traditionally liberal feminists, radical
postmodern theorists, feminists of color, and those with private,
political and popular agendas. Mixing classic contributions with
recent essays by younger scholars, the anthology offers a
much-needed overview of the field. Among feminists education
topics treated in the twenty-two essays are the psychology of
self, multiculturalism, black women's sisterhood, girls' identity
and persofmrnace in school, the "feminization" of teaching,
sociology of knowledge, gender-free education, Latina students,
education reform, curriculum, and "women's ways of
knowing." Informed by the contributors' own lives,
educations, and teaching practices, the essays offer an impressive
range of disciplinary perspectives on the subject-from sociology,
psychology and women's studies to philosophy and education.
Designed specifically as a classroom text for education and
women's studies courses, this book will make a marked difference
in the educational lives of women and girls. Routledge, 1994
ISBN 0-415-90793-4 Buy
This Book!
Walker, Rebecca, To Be Real: Telling the truth and
changing the face of feminism. Determined to extend the
boundaries of feminism to embrace social, politicial and economic
equality for all humanity, these exciting young activists and
thinkers recast the concepts of feminism to reflect their own
experiences and beliefs. They speak out, challenging many of their
own assumptions about the women's movement and demanding that
readers recognize a new relationship between the personal and the
political. Black and white, male and female, gay and straight,
they fearlessly describe their liberation from the feminist
"ideals" that conflict with the reality of who they are, expose
"shocking" secrets, and acknowledge long-hidden accomodations and
anomalies. This book is a blueprint for the creation of a new
political force. Anchor Books, 1995 ISBN 0-385-47262-5
Buy
This Book!
Walkerdine, Valerie, Daddy's
Girl: Young girls and popular culture. When she's
itty, bitty and blond, wearing ribbons and curls and an aura of
money, she's adorable and vulnerable, the tiny, innocent heart of
our culture. But when the little girl comes from the working
class, she's something else. Just what, and why so little is said
about it, are the questions the author asks in this book, a book
about how we see young girls, how they see themselves, and how
popular culture mediates the view. The author's challenge to
certain feminist conceptions of today's problems is both
refreshingly iconoclastic and worth considering. She provides a
provocative historical analysis of the portrayal of girls. She
also offers her view of the implications of television, where
young girls, primarily working-class girls, dress up like adult
women rock stars and gyrate provacatively while they sing pop
songs full of sexual innuendos. Harvard University Press, 1998
ISBN 067418601X Buy
This Book!
Weisser, Susan Ostrov, Feminists Nightmares: Women
at odds - feminism and the problem of sisterhood. Gone are the
days when feminism traslated simply into the advocacy for women.
Women's interests are not always aligned; race, class and
sexulaity complicate the equation. In recent years, feminist
ideologies have become increasingly diverse. Today, one feminist's
most ardent political opponent may well be another feminist. As
feminism grows increasingly diverse, the time has come to ak a
painful and frequently avoided question:What does it mean for
women to oppress women? This pathbreaking, provocative
anthology addresses this troublesome dilemma from various feminist
perspectives, offering an interdisciplinary collection f writings
that widens our understanding of "oppression" to take into account
women who are at odds. The book examines the social, political and
psychological ramifications of this phenomenon, as evidenced in a
range of texts, from women's antislavery writing to twomen's
anti-abortion writing, from mother-daughter incest stories to
maternal surrogacy narratives, from the Bible to the popular
romance novel, from Jane Austen to Alice Walker. New York
University, 1994 ISBN 0-8147-2620-8 Buy
This Book!
Wurtzel, Elizabeth, Bitch: In praise of difficult women. No
on better understands the desire to be bad than the author. This
book is a brilliant tract y of manipulative female behavior. By
looking at women who derive their power from their sexuality, the
author offers a trenchant cultural critique of contemporary gender
relations. Beginning with Delilah, the first woman to supposedly
bring a great man down (latter-day Delilahs include Yoko Ono, Pam
Smart, Bess Myserson), the author finds many biblical counterparts
to the men and women in today's headlines. In five brilliant
extended essays, she links the lives of women as demanding and
disparate as Amy Fisher, Hillary Clinton, Margaux Hemingway and
Nicole Brown Simpson. She gives voice to those women whose lives
have been misunderstood, who have been dismissed for their beauty,
their madness, their youth. She finds in the story of Amy Fisher
the tragic plight of all Lolitas, our thirst for their brief and
intense flame. She connects Hemingway's tragic suicide to those of
Sylvia Plath, Edie Sedgwick and Marilyn Monroe, women whose beauty
was an end, ultimately, in itself. Writing about the wife/mistress
dichotomy, explains how some women are anointed as wife material,
while others are relegated to the role of mistress. She takes to
task the double standard on women, the cultural insistence on
goodness and society's complete obsession with badness: what's a
girl to do? In a prose both blistering and brilliant, Bitch is a
treatise on the nature of desperate sexual manipulation and a
triumph of pussy power. Doubleday www.bdd.com
1998 ISBN 0-385-48400-3 Buy
This Book!
Young, Cathy, Ceasefire! Why
women and men must join forces to achieve true equality. Are
men and women really from other planets? The author
argues that our current obsession with personal problems between
the sexes has had disasterous consequences for women's progress -
and for men's as well. Young believes "the myth of gender
difference" has allowed feminists to continue to see women as
victims, at the same time buttressing conservatives' claim that
the weakening of traditional roles has wreaked havoc on our
society. It's time to re-examine our allegiances in the gender
wars. Drawing on scholarly research, media reports and real-life
cases, this book demolishes both feminist and antifeminist
fictions. The author challenges men and women to transcend old and
new myths, to look beyond the polarities of either denying or
exaggerating sex differenecs, and to value individual uniqueness
and flexibility. To achieve true equaity, we must pay attention to
sexism against men as well as against women (without turning men
into a new victim class) and ask women as well as men to rethink
their stereotypical views of the other gender. This book surveys a
wide range of issues - from career/family conflicts to female
violence, from sexual dynamics on the job to the problems of
divorced fathers - to offer a surprising vision of true social
equliaty. The Free Press, www.simonsays.com
1999
Zubaty, Rich, Surviving the Feminization of
America: How to keep women from ruining your life. Would
you like to learn how to love a woman without having her ruin your
life? Would you like to protect your kids from the ravages of
divorce? Avoid being shamed at school or at work because the
things you like are not the things women like? Become honored
in your manhood and comfortable with your masculinity? Become
more attractive to women as you evolve into the kind of man they
are actually looking for? Discover that your supposed
weaknesses are actually your historical strengths? Help
rescue American from a 60% divorce rate. Do something for the
50% of American children who are being raised in homes without
their dads. Did you know: Women own more than 50% of
America's wealth? 80% of the homeless are men? Most
child abusers are women? The Supreme Court has ruled that the
sex discrimination laws protect women only? And more. Panther
Press, 1993 ISBN 1-882342-04-6 Buy
This Book!
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