Apparently the head of Warner Brothers has declared that WB won't be making any more movies with women in the lead. And you all thought this systemic sexism thing was just a myth! Ha! (Notice that the url is "catfight with girls" and the headline uses the word "bitchslaps"--one could probably come up with a more dismissively sexist way to title the story but it would take some thought). Gloria Allread summarizes the issue in a nutshell:

when movies with men as the lead fail, no one says we'll stop making movies with men in the lead.

Obviously all decent human beings will be boycotting the WB. On the upside, it's fall, and we should all be catching up on our reading instead.

So by way of making this task easier for everyone--because I am nothing if not a giver--here are a few links to Recommended Feminist Reading for all of you. I hereby declare that no one is qualified to argue about feminism unless and until they've read everything on these lists, okay?

First, normal British women talk about their favorite formative feminist reading. Biggest winner? Simone de Beauvoir, specifically The Second Sex, which badly needs a new and better translation but is nonetheless my own personal favorite feminist book in the entire world.

Second, a forthcoming book that, for once, looks at rape from the rapist's point of view: Joanna Bourke's new Rape: Sex, Violence, History. (If you're at all interested in cultural studies, her other books are excellent, by the way). From a review in the Guardian:

"men should step up to the plate. Women are told how to fight back, to get good locks for our doors, to be sensible. It has become our responsibility to make sure 'they' don't do something to 'us'. And when you know that a lot of rapes are committed by husbands, boyfriends and acquaintances - well, it's outrageous. I can't work out why people aren't more outraged. But this epidemic of sexual violence doesn't do men any favours either. Not normalising it, not naturalising it, making it seem abhorrent - that's one of the ways forward."

Just in case it isn't clear, not naturalizing rape means not talking about it as if it's just some force of nature that will inevitably "happen" to women if they aren't careful enough. Someone is doing the raping. That someone is usually men. Stopping rape means dealing with rapists, not victims. The end.

But not really; I've got one more book to recommend. I'm looking forward to reading Sisterhood, Interrupted, which is a history of the women's movement that, according to reviews I've read, puts to rest the idea that somehow there's a new generational divide that's somehow destroying or disrupting feminism. Deborah Siegel's book reportedly shows how feminist disagreement over supposedly "new" issues (e.g. sex) has been around since the beginning of the movement, and how anti-feminist critics have picked up on these conversations to present them as "infighting" in order to misrepresent and undermine feminism as a whole. If you're inclined to buy into the argument that so-called Radical Feminazis (or whatever you want to call them) are ruining the movement for the Good Feminists Who Don't Hate Men, you really should pick up this book.

Because like I said, I forbid you from discussing feminism until you have.

Bitch_PhD is TOTALLY NOT KIDDING. And yes, this will be on the test.

Aiceanta

Winchester, VA

August 2006

OCT 08, 2007 04:04 PM

That is ridiculous. WB is now boycotted in my house.

JoLeigh

SUICIDEGIRL

Florida, USA

OCT 08, 2007 04:27 PM

*Applauds*

MasterNSlave

Los Angeles, CA

September 2005

OCT 08, 2007 04:31 PM

Ok, Female Chauvinist Pigs needs to be on this list.