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Jan. 17th, 2007 10:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaSubversive literature arrived in the mail last night, always a cause for celebration. :-D
I received Feminism is for Everyone by bell hooks, and Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology.
In the intro to her book bell hooks calls it a short primer she could give to anyone who wanted to know more about feminism, but 10 pages into it i disagree that it is any sort of primer at all. It's too polemic to be a primer. See, i can tell that hooks is the sort of person who, very much like me, thinks that getting people to agree with her is primarily a matter of explaining the facts and theories clearly enough, and that with understanding will come agreement. And while i agree with the picture she paints of careerism and white privilege undermining the feminist movement's momentum (my own first exposure to feminism was in the academic environment and it was not the most positive experience), her words on that subject, this early into the book, make it into the sort of book that i would not hand to someone inexperienced in thinking radically. If it was me, and i was writing a book nominally directed at everyone, i wouldn't put controversial stuff like this at the very beginning where it's more likely to turn people away.
The anthology looks like deep academic stuff that i'll probably have to digest in small bits. But i'm eager to dig in because what i've seen of INCITE!'s perspective excites me a great deal. Also i've come to the conclusion, after everything i've seen at the Network La Red, and in the blogosphere, and in other places, that radical women of color are the best allies that transpeople have. Transactivists have spent a lot of energy forming alliances with the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities but i think we need to consider their willingness to sell us short to meet their own goals.
I received Feminism is for Everyone by bell hooks, and Color of Violence: the INCITE! Anthology.
In the intro to her book bell hooks calls it a short primer she could give to anyone who wanted to know more about feminism, but 10 pages into it i disagree that it is any sort of primer at all. It's too polemic to be a primer. See, i can tell that hooks is the sort of person who, very much like me, thinks that getting people to agree with her is primarily a matter of explaining the facts and theories clearly enough, and that with understanding will come agreement. And while i agree with the picture she paints of careerism and white privilege undermining the feminist movement's momentum (my own first exposure to feminism was in the academic environment and it was not the most positive experience), her words on that subject, this early into the book, make it into the sort of book that i would not hand to someone inexperienced in thinking radically. If it was me, and i was writing a book nominally directed at everyone, i wouldn't put controversial stuff like this at the very beginning where it's more likely to turn people away.
The anthology looks like deep academic stuff that i'll probably have to digest in small bits. But i'm eager to dig in because what i've seen of INCITE!'s perspective excites me a great deal. Also i've come to the conclusion, after everything i've seen at the Network La Red, and in the blogosphere, and in other places, that radical women of color are the best allies that transpeople have. Transactivists have spent a lot of energy forming alliances with the gay, lesbian, and bisexual communities but i think we need to consider their willingness to sell us short to meet their own goals.
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Date: 2007-01-17 03:53 pm (UTC)agreed.
Have you seen Taking Steps yet?
http://takingsteps.blogspot.com/
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Date: 2007-01-17 04:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 05:45 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-17 06:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-01-19 08:19 am (UTC)So why don't you? Seriously, you're intelligent, you communicate well in writing, and you have a lot of valuable things to say. I hope you will consider writing professionally at some point in your life.
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Date: 2007-01-19 11:31 am (UTC)Actually i more than consider it -- i'm planning books out in my head all the time. It's following through and actually writing a book from start to completion where i come up short. I'll make it happen, somehow.