book reviews
Must-read books for and about women, including thought-provoking novels, business books, memoirs and feminist histories.
Surviving Sexual Violence. Feminist Perspectives
Author of the book: Liz Kelly Year of publication: 1988 Book title: Surviving Sexual Violence Publisher: Polity Press Liz Kelly was born in 1951 and she has been a feminist researcher and activist ever since she got involved in Women’s Liberation Movement in 1973. She also worked in her local refuge, Rape Crisis group, and Women’s Centre (Kelly, 1988). From 1987 she has been working in the Child and Women Abuse Studies Unit (CWASU), University of North London and her involvement also include managing a Council of Europe group of specialists for developing a plan of action on violence against women (Radford, Friedberg & Harne, 2000). Kelly has written several books, journal articles and papers on violence against women and children and her book, Surviving Sexual Violence, discussed below, was published more than a decade after the first refuge for abused women opened in England, followed by several support groups and projects world-wide for battered women (Kelly, 1988). For her, feminism is a belief that women are oppressed which leads to a responsibility for eliminating that oppression by being a part of the fight against it (Kelly, 1990). Among the projects she was involved in is a funded research for a local authority that was aiming to investigate services in Hammersmith and Fulham for women facing sexual abuse from their male partners (McGibbon, Cooper & Kelly, 1989 apud Kelly, 1990).
By Monica Panait8 years ago in Viva
Must Read Feminist Books
The mind of a feminist is more powerful and open-minded than most others. Why? Their main focus in life is to gain equalization for both genders — to demolish gender roles, stereotypes, and everything else that's preventing women from being themselves. As sad as it is, we do need feminism in this world, because certain parts of society have a backwards mentality that can't fathom certain things when it comes to gender roles — in which case they need to understand the guide to feminism. And this strived numerous feminist writers to write down their thoughts in the form of stories to pass on significant messages.
By Rachel Blanchard8 years ago in Viva
The Rhetorical Analysis of Peggy Orenstein's 'Just Between You, Me, and My 622 Bffs'
When I first got into Facebook and Twitter, I got bullied because of my weight and looks. I would have people comment on my pictures "You're fat," "You are a cunt," "You need to lose weight," "It looks like your face got ran over a bus six times," and the worst one, "You're too ugly to be alive." This, of course, killed me inside. I stayed home for days at a time thinking to myself, "Am I really that ugly?" When I would go to school, I'd ignore everybody because I was afraid that they would start telling me all of those things to my face. But then I met my friend Adrianna in seventh grade. Adrianna always stuck up for me when people would start to call me names. Adrianna and my cousin Brittany were the two that made me feel good about myself. They made it so I wouldn't care what people would think, but then the bullying started to get worse. I went to my principal and tried talking to him about what was going on.
By Kristina Bratsch8 years ago in Viva
In Defense Of Minor Characters
We have seen what’s on the road. We’ve seen the drug hazed, beautiful rot that followed a generation of lost boys, straight out of Peter Pan, as they searched a postwar concealer-soaked country for an example–or even just an explanation–of masculinity and what it means to be a man. We’ve seen this trauma, but it would be foolish and a tad bit pig-headed to think that the trauma of the lost boys was the only one out there. Minor Characters is not only important, but it’s essential, because it shows us the generation of lost girls. The girls under glass and in the bell jar.
By Destiny Smith8 years ago in Viva
Gender Criticism of Junot Diaz's 'The Cheater's Guide to Love'
In today's society, gender plays an important role in almost every aspect of our lives. Much like racism, and religious intolerance, sexism is a learned behavior. It is prevalent in many cultures, including our own. For example, in our last presidential election, the objectification of women became a key narrative. At that time, candidate Donald Trump was secretly recorded speaking vulgarly about touching women’s body parts with Entertainment Tonight's correspondent Billy Bush. He later justified it, by saying it was only “locker room” talk. Despite this, Donald Trump still became president. What does that say about our culture? It says that, when it comes to gender roles, we have not made much progress. Generally speaking, so called "locker room" talk is common among most men in our country. It is obvious that there are still many elements of sexism left in our culture. Dominican author Junot Diaz's touches on this, in his short story, "The Cheater's Guide to Love," which is the culmination of a collection of short stories called "This Is How You Lose Her." In the story, there is no question that the narrator, Yunior, is a womanizing sexist. However, some gender based critics contend that even though Yunior is a sexist, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the story is sexist.
By Wilson Geraldo8 years ago in Viva
Best Books about Overlooked Women in History. Top Story - August 2017.
Rosa Parks. Amelia Earhart. Cleopatra. Jackie Kennedy. Joan of Arc. These are just a few names on the long list of women who have unequivocally changed the course of history through their work, talent, beauty, or courage. And yet, this long list of names is immeasurably shorter than its male-centric counterpart. Over time society has been and continues to work toward gender equality; still, there are too many stories of feminine fierceness untold. While the world was busy lauding history's great men, there were women reaching equally laudable achievements, but the world wasn't ready to listen. It's time to give the long overdue recognition to some of the many women overlooked by history.
By Rachel G. David8 years ago in Viva
