Book review: Reclaiming the F Word, the new feminist movement

I finished reading this book aaages ago but I'm finally getting round to blogging a review of it now. The book was written by Catherine Redfern, the founder of The F Word website, and Kristin Aune, a lecturer in sociology at the University of Derby.
This book is excellent at introducing the concept of feminism, why it is relevant, and why it is being reclaimed etc. It is a good starting point for all "new found feminists" as it provides an overview to the various issues surrounding feminism. I feel that I should have perhaps read this book before I read The Equality Illusion, which explored certain issues deeper.

The great thing about the book is that it is littered with quotes, statistics and examples, and each chapter ends with a "Take Action!" box that lists a few easy activism tips, thereby encouraging the reader to acknowledge what is wrong but also take action, which is just brilliant.

I feel all the issues were written about in a well-rounded and unbiased way, and whereas The Equality Illusion was more graphic and shocking, The F Word presents the issues and encourages activism.

I think that the topic of religion and feminism was explored brilliantly, as the authors explained that there are different types of religious feminsts and categorized them into four sections:

1. Religious Reformists- "are liberals who seek equal opportunities for men and women within religious traditions. They don't want to revolutionise styles of worship, reject sacred texts or change the gender of deities. But they believe religious texts and doctrines have been misinterpreted in a way that disadvantages women, hindering their participation in religion and its leadership strucutres." This is definitely the type of religious feminsts I identify with.
2. Religious Revisionists - "believe that expanding women's roles within the existing structures isn't enough. They look for a liberating core within their religion, reject the rest, and believe a deeper transformation is required, of religious structures and society."
3. Spiritual Revolutionaries- "are highly critical of institutional religion, and reject religion in its conventional forms." They distinguish religion from spirituality
4. Secular Feminists- "include those who want to separate religion from the state, and those who have abandoned religion and spirituality completely."

I think though, despite this, there are a lot of negative comments that get directed towards myself and others who identify themselves as Muslim AND feminst, as people seem to think that the two cannot coexist. I think I'll address this issue in a separate blog post, otherwise this one will be too long!

I also particularly liked the chapters on sexism, and advertising and the media, and the crucial role it plays in the repression of women.

I particularly enjoyed this quote in the last chapter "Feminism Reclaimed" :

I will leave you with a section from the last chapter, which I found to be quite poignant:

"(...) feminism is a survival mechanism. It assures you that you have a right to live your life the way you want and imagine a brighter future for the world. It prompts you to question the status quo, rather than assuming that the way things are is the best they can be. Feminism assures you that you're not alone, that the problems you experience are shared by others, and that, as a woman your concerns are important.

But feminsim isn't just about "making us feel better". It's about collective action. So, second, feminism encourages us to consider the wider impact of our actions. In other words, it's not just about us, but is about ending sexism and liberating everyone from centuries of oppression based on gender.

Feminism enables us to link together the problesms highlighted in this book and see them not as coincidences but as part of a wider pattern of sexism underpinning our entire culture- some might refer this as patriarchy or attribute it to capitalism. Indeed, as we've been writing the chapters, it's been hard to decide how to split the themes up, snce they seem to seep into one another. These issues are not accidental or individual problems- they are a pattern of structural inequality."

The Feminism Series: The Equality Illusion, book review

I've finally finished reading The Equality Illusion, which was first on my reading list of the feminism series. It's taken me quite long to finish it, I'm a slow reader, but I'm proud of myself for actually finishing it (in the past I have never been able to finish books, I seem to lose interest). Perhaps the reason why I was able to finish the book is that I'm more interested in factual books now than fictional stories.

Anyway, my review. This book is written in a highly persuasive and emotive manner, in order to persuade the reader that the objectives of feminism haven't been achieved and feminism is still highly relevant today. However, the author uses statistics to verify her statements which make the book more credible, yet simultaneously shocking. A lot of the facts were very surprising, and this is probably because gender inequality issues that we are faced with today are sugar coated or based upon stereotypes. The book also includes countless interviews and stories of real women, to emphasize that these issues are faced by real women on a daily basis. Parts of this book were uncomfortable to read; especially the chapter called The Booty Myth; a night out in the sex industry, which dealt with the truth of the pornography and prostitution industries.  The book explored further topics that I have touched upon in my own blog, including femininity, beauty, prostitution and the sexualization of women in the media, which is why I related to it more. This book was a real eye-opener, and provided a much-needed insight into the problems that women and girls still face in the twenty first century. This book acted as a real myth buster, especially regarding rape and abuse, as stats show women are more likely to be abused by someone they already know; so the scenario we're fed in the media of someone attacking us in a dark alleyway is completely false. In the chapter Hands up for a gendered education, I learnt that it is from a very young age that we learn (from teachers, parents & society) what it means to be a girl, how we are meant to behave and act or even which toys we are meant to play with; and I found this to be both interesting and true. The gender boundaries are laid out to us very clearly from a young age, and anyone that tries to act differently, for example a boy picking a pink crayon is labelled as "gay". I was disappointed to find out the "bra-burning tale" is in fact a myth *boo!* :( Anyway, the book ends with a chapter called A New Day, in which the cases of some individuals and organisations who are actively campaigning were highlighted in order to prove that anyone can make a change, and the gender inequality problems we face are not inevitable. However, a lot of support services, for example Rape Crisis Centres are closing despite the fact that abuse and rape incidence is increasing, as it all boils down to funding. This chapter also states that Feminism Helps Men (FHM); feminism is not just for women, and the more men we get involved, the better, since it is vital that men change their attitudes on women. Another key issue is that we need more women involved in Politics, because if more women are in Parliament, it's more likely that issues relating to gender inequality will be tackled by the government which may lead to bills being passed. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this book; it was interesting, insightful, shocking yet inspiring. It inspired me to get involved with grassroots campaigning or activism. I highly recommend it to anyone and everyone. I'll leave you with a quote from the book:

"What's clear is that anyone can bring about change, whether it's from a home computer or from outside the Houses of Parliament."

Further Reading:

Why do women become sex workers, and why do men go to them?

Feminism is back and we want to finish the revolution, say activists 


Feminista

Feminism Series: "The Equality Illusion"

From watching the video in my previous post, entitled "Beyonce run the world LIES", and doing lots of research, I was really inspired to find out more about feminism, gender inequality and female empowerment. I want to know what it really means to be a woman in the twenty-first century, I want to know what it was like for women in the sixties; I want to learn about the women who burnt their bra's or tied themselves to railings to be allowed to vote. It just seemed to trigger something within me. I figured out that I needed to read more; my plan was to read more books over summer, real books; from getting sick of Economics textbooks (as much as I love the subject).

So I began to look on amazon and stuff for books on feminism, and I compiled a MS Word document of all the stuff I want to read. I've made two separate lists; one on feminism, and one on economics, which includes books on capitalism. The stuff is just fascinating. Only God knows if I will actually get through this list, or even manage to read one! I have been known not to finish books and get bored of them. I used to love reading, but I just can't seem to come across anything that floats my boat in terms of ficiton. But now I want to read up about real issues. Educate myself, not just learn for exams, and read for the sake of revising.

So, today I went to pick up one of the books on feminism from my local library. It is called "The Equality Illusion: the truth about women & men today", and is by Kat Banyard.

To make sure I keep reading it, I will, InshaAllah make notes as I go along, and any gems I read I will post on here, under the feminism series tag. At the end, I will write an overall review of the book, and let you know if I think you should read it too. So all the books I read on feminism will be tagged under the "feminism series" thingy, and I hope it becomes a regular thing.

About the book

Today it is believed that women and men have achieved equality. This is quite simply an illusion. In the equality illusion, campaigner Kat Banyard argues passionately that women still face inequality in almost every aspect of their lives, and that feminism is still one of the most urgent and relevant social justice campaigns of today. Banyard sets out the makor issues for twenty-first century feminism, from the growing power of the sex industry to the widening pay gap to the myths and taboos which still surround rape and domestic violence. At the heart of the book are more than a hundred interviews with a diverse range of women who have been affected by gender inequality. Their stories show how sexism is intimately woven into people's everyday lives, and how it hurts both women and men. Banyard also draws on her own campaign experience as well as academic research.

About the author

Kat Banyard was born in 1982 and is the founder of FEM conferences, an acclaimed series of national feminist conferences. She is one of the founders and Co-Directors of UK Feminista, a new feminist activist orginastion, and until recently was the Campaigns Officer at Fawcett Society, the UK's leading campaign for women's rights. Prior to her work at Fawcett, Kat worked for a refugee organisation in Sheffield, setting up wonmen's groups. She now lives in London and this is her first book.

*New comment system*- some of you may have noticed I changed my comment system to DISQUS recently. I did it so that anybody anywhere can comments not just people on blogger, and it also means I can reply to each individual comment- yay!. But it's gone and deleted all my old comments from blogger :(( so it looks like I'm a loner who has no comments! I got all your comments on my Beyonce post, and I enjoyed reading them all by the way, glad you liked that post.