The word ‘Feminism’ got coined in 18 century and has become a very quotidian word in today’s world.
The idea focuses on many ill-standards of society asking for equal rights for all genders but is usually misconceptualized, somehow pulling down the real motto of the word which still has milestones to achieve.
In the real world, as voices echoing for equal rights are getting deeper, Feminism always pops up which many people stutter to explain. So, let’s find the real meaning of ‘Feminism’ from the brilliant storytellers and encounter their perspective behind it.
Here are some recommended reads:
1. Yes Means Yes:
Till date the burden of rape is carried by the victim and not accused, which with the rudimentary sense sounds baffling. ‘Yes Means Yes’ is a non-fiction book edited by Jaclyn Friedman and Jessica Valenti and focuses on the affirmative consent campaign and law signed by California Governor Jerry Brown which requires colleges in California to revise the sexual assault policies where phyisical or verbal consent is needed to call any intimate relation as a mutual decision.
2. A Room Of One’s Own:
‘A Room Of One’s Own’ is a collection of two essays by Virginia Woolf where she argues about the position of a woman in a male-dominated literary culture from both literal and figurative space. In her essay, Woolf focuses on how there arises to have gazillions of hindrances if a woman wants to write, discussing the societal pressure and financial limits. She also talks about the portrayal of women in the literary pieces where they are often treated as beauty objects and how women writers always have limited reach.
3. Gender Outlaw:
Gender has been very influential till date and the correct place for people who have fluid identity have always been denied. Somehow in the multicultural world, you need to have a gender identity which has a vague binary division; male and female. But what about those who can’t identify themselves in any of these structures? In her book, ‘Gender Outlaw’ Kate Bornstein takes us on a funny yet profound journey of the transformation of a birth-assigned male to lesbian woman who questions the entire cultural assumptions for defining genders.
4. Sister Outsider:
‘Sister Outsider’ by Audre Lorde discusses the complexity attached with the identities along with modern-day feminist agenda. In her collection of essays the author digs into the topic of oppression she faced because of her intersectional identity naming police brutality, racism, classicism, homophobia, imperialism and more. The book focuses on the critical behaviour of society which challenges the normal living of an individual on a daily basis.
