Others: Mixed In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty."
Genres: nonfiction
Lists: …
Angela Y. Davis
1981 · 271 pages · 2 reviews
Others: Overwhelmingly positiveLongtime activist, author and political figure Angela Davis brings us this expose of the women's movement in the context of the fight for civil rights and working class issues. She uncovers a side of the fight for suffrage many of us have not heard: the intimate tie between the anti-slavery campaign and the struggle for women's suffrage. She shows how the racist and classist bias of some in the women's movement have divided its own membership. Davis' message is clear: If we ever want equality, we're gonna have to fight for it together.
What made the match, strongest first
Kate Morgan
2024 · 320 pages · 2 reviews
Others: PositiveA Waterstones Best History Book 2024'Compulsively readable' – Times Literary Supplement 'An outstanding work' – Philippa Gregory 'A powerful narrative told with frankness and sensitivity' – Helen Fry, historian and author of Women In Intelligence 'A woman, a dog and a walnut tree, the more they are beaten, the better they’ll be.'So went the proverb quoted by a prominent MP in the Houses of Parliament in 1853. His words – intended ironically in a debate about a rise in attacks on women – summed up the prevailing attitude of the day, in which violence against women was waved away as a part and parcel of modern living – a chilling seam of misogyny that had polluted both parliament and the law. But were things about to change? In this vivid and essential work of historical non-fiction, Kate Morgan explores the legal campaigns, test cases and individual injustices of the Victorian and Edwardian eras which fundamentally re-shaped the status of women under British law. These are seen through the untold stories of women whose cases became cornerstones of our modern legal system and shine a light on the historical inequalities of the law. We hear of the uniquely abusive marriage which culminated in the dramatic story of the ‘Clitheroe wife abduction’; of the domestic tragedies which changed the law on domestic violence; the controversies surrounding the Contagious Diseases Act and the women who campaigned to abolish it; and the real courtroom stories behind notorious murder cases such as the ‘Camden Town Murder’. Exploring the 19th- and early 20th Century legal history that influenced the modern-day stances on issues such as domestic abuse, sexual violence and divorce, The Walnut Treelifts the lid on the shocking history of women under British law – and what it means for women today.
What made the match, strongest first
Sarah Clegg
2023 · 1 review
Others: PositiveThe history of a demonic tradition that was stolen from women – and then won back again. Demonic temptresses – from siren-mermaids to Lilith – are well known today, and their mythology focuses around the seductive danger they pose to men. But the root of these figures can be traced back 4,000 years and in their earliest incarnations they were in fact demons worshipped and feared by like Lamashtu, the horrific talon-footed, serpentine monster, who strangled infants and murdered pregnant women, or the Gello, the ghost of a girl who had died a virgin and so killed expectant mothers and their babies out of jealousy. This history of a demonic tradition from ancient Mesopotamia to the present day – from Lamashtu and Gello, to Lamia and Lilith, and mermaids and vampires – shows how these demons were co-opted by a male-centred society, before being recast as symbols of women's liberation. We also learn what this evolution can tell us about the experience of women and the danger of childbirth, changing attitudes towards sexuality and the movement for women's rights.
What made the match, strongest first
Silvia Federici
2018 · 120 pages · 1 review
Others: MixedThe world is witnessing a new surge of interpersonal and institutional violence against women, including new witch hunts. This surge of violence has occurred alongside an expansion of capitalist social relation. In this new work, Silvia Federici examines the root causes of these developments and outlines the consequences for the women affected and their communities. She argues, that this new war on women, a mirror of witch hunts in 16th- and 17th-century Europe and the “New World,” is a structural element of the new forms of capitalist accumulation. These processes are founded on the destruction of people’s most basic means of reproduction. Like at the dawn of capitalism, the factors behind today’s violence against women are processes of enclosure, land dispossession, and the remolding of women’s reproductive activities and subjectivity.
What made the match, strongest first
Andrea Dworkin
1983 · 256 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveWhat does the Right offer to women? How does the Right mobilize women? Why is the Right succeeding in opposing women's rights? With the stark precision and forceful passion that characterize all of her work, Andrea Dworkin answers these timely questions. And by providing the first clear analysis of the impact on women of the Right's position on abortion, homosexuality, anti-Semitism, female poverty, and antifeminism, she demonstrates how the Right attempts both to exploit and to quiet women's deepest fears. — From the reverse cover.
What made the match, strongest first
Jane Harrington
2025 · 240 pages · 1 review
Others: PositiveLong before The Brothers Grimm, there was a sisterhood of writers who defied the patriarchy and launched a literary craze with their feminist fairy tales—these are their stories. In 17th century Paris, a group of women who called themselves conteuses (female storytellers) came together to weave the very first fairy tales. One of them, Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, coined the term ‘fairy tale,’ and some of these stories contain many familiar elements that appear in tales like Rapunzel and Beauty and the Beast. Unfortunately, these women and their tales have mostly been forgotten to history.Women of the Fairytale Resistance uncovers seven of these writer’s biographies—which are just as compelling as their fairy tales—and retells 12 of their original stories. The women were mostly young noblewomen who were forced into undesirable marriages and did not have the freedom to give their opinions, travel, or choose who they wanted to love. They used their stories as a way of subtly complaining about their husbands and critiquing the oppressive reign of King Louis XIV. The female-empowering, gender-bending tales combine themes like romance, fantasy, escapism, and their protagonists control of their own destiny—something the writers deeply desired in their own lives. Enchantingly designed with stunning full color illustrations throughout, this unique and entertaining book will have you rethink everything you know about traditional fairy tales.
What made the match, strongest first
MixedI was quite enjoying it for the most part. It was a slower read but I was really fascinated but I just ran out of time with this one... some of these "statistics" that are included... some of them are apparently made up so that puts into question the validity of a lot of the things in it.
