Third-wave feminist book

March 24, 2009 8:58 AM

My book club is looking for a book by a third-wave feminist author to read.

The book club is composed of around a dozen women who attended seven-sisters colleges; ages range from 23 to 80. We are looking for a feminist book to read, and are thing something third-wave may initiate some interesting discussion.

I found the following books from the Wikipedia entry on Third-wave feminism. If you have read them - would you recommend them for our book club? Do you have any other recommendations? This is a monthly-club, so a shorter book is better.

ManifestA. 2000. by Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards
To Be Real. 1996. by Rebecca Walker
Listen Up: Voices from the Next Feminist Generation. 1995. Barbara Findlen.
BITCHfest. 2006. Margaret Cho, Lisa Jervis, and Andi Zeisler

I have looked at these to previous posts on feminist literature:
breaking out of the boyzone and Feminism 101

posted by esnyder to writing & language (16 comments total)

I've read Listen Up and I think it'll bring in a lot of good discussion, since it's a group of essays by a wide range of young feminist authors.

It is a bit mid-90s, but aside from that, it's good.

Can I also recommend She's Such A Geek? It's a lovely collection of essays from a wide wide range of scientists, students and raging geeks. And although I feel that the single fan contribution is a bit weak, the rest of the essays are amazing.
posted by Katemonkey at 9:08 AM on March 24

If I've got my ducks in a row, Listen Up! is good because it spends a lot of time focusing on the third wave aspect. Despite the fact that Manifesta has an awesome cover, I was ambivalent about the content - not exactly sure why, though. I haven't read more than a couple pieces out of Bitchfest, even though it's about four feet away from me. Maybe I'll go do that this instant.
posted by soma lkzx at 9:12 AM on March 24

The only one I've read is Manifesta, which I would not recommend.
posted by jrichards at 9:19 AM on March 24

I've read To Be Real--it's pretty good, some of the essays are outstanding and really thought-provoking, but I'm not sure about using it for a book club. In fact, I'm not sure about using anthologies in general; some people are really going to want to talk about one essay while others are going to want to talk about different essays, and I could see it being hard to have a satisfying discussion. Do you only focus on one of the essays? Do you spend 1/12th of the time on each essay? Too complicated; I think it's better to pick a book with one theme/idea and then have a good discussion on that.

This is going to be a bit hard if you're specifically looking for something labeled as 3rd-wave feminist--that's a relatively limited pool. Just like a lot of the seminal 2nd-wave writings weren't really labeled as "second wave" until after enough time had passed, a lot of stuff that may be considered really groundbreaking or important in terms of developing the 3rd-wave viewpoint isn't really labeled as such right now. The stuff that does call itself "third wave" is limited to books that are either positioning themselves to be used as anthologies in women's studies classes or are consciously trying to wrest the meaning of "third wave" to what they think it should be. (I'd put "Manifesta" in this latter category.) A big part of what third-wavers point to as differentiating them from earlier feminists is their focus on intersectionality and listening to different voices, not letting one standpoint be the "official" one. That's why there's so many damn anthologies :)

Can you give us an idea of what types of book your book club has done so far? I think we could probably come up with good books that are similar the types of books you've been reading so far (e.g., fiction or nonfiction) but have a distinct 3rd-wave sensibility or viewpoint that your book club could talk about.
posted by iminurmefi at 9:38 AM on March 24

I read Manifesta. And then I threw it against a wall. Hard. (For what it's worth, I identify as a third-wave feminist, and found it full of obnoxiousness.)

I'd recommend Black White and Jewish by Rebecca Walker. It's not exactly a textbook of feminist theory, but it's the story of her growing up, and figuring out her identity as a mix of so many influences. I would call this very much a third-wave-themed book (a lot of writers seem to be focusing on identity and what labels -- either self-given or imposed -- mean in addition to being feminists and growing up in a world of feminism), though it's properly mostly an autobiography.
posted by kalimac at 10:24 AM on March 24

I've read Manifesta and BITCHfest, and pretty much agree with everyone on Manifesta so far. I liked BITCHfest and IIRC, it's s a collection of articles from Bitch over the years, which might be an interesting way to track feminist responses from the past 10 years or so. But it has the pop culture slant which might not be exactly what you're looking for. Are you after books about what 3rd-Wave feminism is all about/has become?
posted by pised at 10:33 AM on March 24

Judith Butler - "Gender Trouble" or "Bodies That Matter"
posted by rhizome at 10:41 AM on March 24

Are you interested at all in feminist authors in science fiction / fantasy? If so, then I recommend the author Octavia Butler (especially her Lilith's Brood trilogy). For something kind of short but very powerful, I recommend The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper. And of course there's Margaret Atwood, though I've actually never read any of her stuff so I couldn't recommend one over another.
posted by CTORourke at 12:38 PM on March 24

This Bridge Called My Back is probably the most complete collection of various third-wave feminists. Manifesta is, um, fine, I guess? But it's still from the perspective of white privileged women and inexplicably conflates feminism with indie pop culture, which is not okay. The best aspect of Third Wave feminism is that it finally encompasses the subaltern voices that were previously subsumed by white upper-class feminists, so it seems like only reading Manifesta would miss that point.

Butler is awesome, a seminal writer for the queer theory movement, and difficult as all hell to get through in one sitting--if you suggest her work to 10 people, statistically only 1 person will actually read the material. It depends on how intense your reading group, but I would never pick up Bodies That Matter to round out my lunch break. If you want to go down the academic route, Eve Sedgwick is far more readable.

I'd also recommend picking up the latest issue of Bitch magazine in case you don't opt for BITCHfest, just to get some relevant commentary on pop culture in addition to the archived classics.
posted by zoomorphic at 1:30 PM on March 24 [2 favorites]

Try Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs.
posted by Rangeboy at 2:08 PM on March 24

I don't have a specific book rec as I've only read shorter pieces of hers, but consider bell hooks as well. Her stuff is engaging, but I'd imagine it would still be pretty approachable.
posted by SoftRain at 7:36 PM on March 24

Chiming in to second the recommendation of She's Such a Geek. I love that book so much. I wish Seal Press would make it into a series. I want to read more essays by geek feminists!

I thought about recommending This Bridge We Call Home: Radical Visions for Transformation (review), the follow up to This Bridge Called My Back. But that's quite a long book for a book club. I remember liking Listen Up and To Be Real, but I haven't read either of them in a long time. Like others in this thread, I didn't care much for ManifestA. I wanted to like it, really I did...but I was not impressed. I haven't read BITCHfest, though I used to love Bitch magazine in my younger years, when I was more familiar with pop culture.

I'll also second the recommendation of Ariel Levy's polemic Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and The Rise of Raunch Culture. Provocative and witty, troubling, sad and funny at the same time. No doubt it will generate discussion! And it's probably just the right length for a book club.

Oh, and I recommend bell hooks' work, too. I can't think of anything I've read by her that I didn't enjoy.

Happy reading!
posted by velvet winter at 8:27 PM on March 24

I'll nth anything by bell hooks. She's fantastic.
posted by thankyouforyourconsideration at 10:42 PM on March 24

Thanks for the great input! Our book club reads all sorts -- Washington Square, Their Eyes Were Watching God, Kite Runner, Omnivore's Dilemma -- so all types of books could work. iminurmefi brings up some good points about anthologies and book clubs. I'll run your suggestions by the other 20-something in the club and let you know how it turns out!
posted by esnyder at 1:15 PM on March 25

Well, if any type of book would work, I'd definitely try for one that's interesting and discussion-provoking without necessarily trying to encompass all of third wave feminism. Given the length/type of book you've previously done, I think the following books could definitely spark some discussion:

*Female Chauvinist Pigs is I think a good suggestion, very provocative and focused in some ways on the perceived "failures" of second-wave feminism

*Get To Work: A Manifesto for Women of the World (by the infamous loved-and-hated-in-equal-measure Linda Hirshman) is another provocative feminist book that focuses on what she thinks are the shortcomings of some strands of second-wave feminism

*Don't Call Us Out of Name doesn't really label itself as feminist, but I think this is an outstanding example of a major strand of third-wave feminism: putting the focus on women who haven't traditionally been recognized by mainstream feminism, and considering what sorts of policies make sense from the point of view of *their lived experiences*, not what the traditional wisdom (either convention or feminist) has been

Sounds like such an awesome book club. I'll just re-iterate my point that MANY of the self-titled third-wave feminist anthologies are well-meaning but definitely read like a textbook for a women's study class. I think they're great to read in certain contexts, but most of them feel all wrong for a book club--both too weighty and too insubstantial at the same time.
posted by iminurmefi at 1:55 PM on March 25

Can I ask about your book club? How did you find one? I recently moved to KC and I'm looking for one to join, but I don't know that many people in the area, and I'm not in school so that takes out that option. The only ones I've heard about have been religious and through the library, but I really liked having a group of people (especially all women) in Austin.
posted by questionsandanchors at 4:09 PM on April 15