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Feminism: A Graphic Guide
What is feminism? Why are we still talking about it, and what can it tell us about ourselves, our societies and prejudices?
In this unique, illustrated introduction, we’ll explore the early history of conscious struggle against sexist oppression, through the modern “waves” of feminism, up to present-day conversations about MeToo, intersectional feminism, and women’s rights in the Middle East. We’ll look at critical theory, popular action and the social and cultural forces that affect attitudes toward gender, women’s lives and the struggle for equality. And we’ll hear about the contributions of pioneers like Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir and Kimberlé Crenshaw. As we’ll see, feminism is at once global, local and individual.
Written by Cathia Jenainati with illustrations from Judy Groves and Jem Milton, Feminism: A Graphic Guide engages with the heated debates taking place in our homes, workplaces and public spaces -- and the work still to be done.
In this unique, illustrated introduction, we’ll explore the early history of conscious struggle against sexist oppression, through the modern “waves” of feminism, up to present-day conversations about MeToo, intersectional feminism, and women’s rights in the Middle East. We’ll look at critical theory, popular action and the social and cultural forces that affect attitudes toward gender, women’s lives and the struggle for equality. And we’ll hear about the contributions of pioneers like Mary Wollstonecraft, Simone de Beauvoir and Kimberlé Crenshaw. As we’ll see, feminism is at once global, local and individual.
Written by Cathia Jenainati with illustrations from Judy Groves and Jem Milton, Feminism: A Graphic Guide engages with the heated debates taking place in our homes, workplaces and public spaces -- and the work still to be done.
192 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 8, 2019
34 people are currently reading
591 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 38 reviews
November 15, 2020
This is a perfect example of everything that is wrong with feminism today....all sound bites and no substance.
Liberating women takes work beyond publishing woke shyte and stuff. And in this book, MODERN DAY violence and torture against women and girls is not a highlight, just a few (palatable) footnotes here and there....which, in actual feminism, is the whole core.
Liberating women takes work beyond publishing woke shyte and stuff. And in this book, MODERN DAY violence and torture against women and girls is not a highlight, just a few (palatable) footnotes here and there....which, in actual feminism, is the whole core.
March 21, 2024
Commento generale: pensavo meglio.
Credo possa essere anche piuttosto valido se di femminismo si sa poco o nulla perché dà un’infarinatura sulle tre ondate; ci sono poi una lista di libri che permettono eventualmente di approfondire quello che interessa di più (e questo mi piace sempre molto).
Quello che non mi ha convinto è che nella sostanza è prevalentemente un elenco di date e nomi, davvero poco approfondimento.
Trovo anche che sia stato dato tanto spazio alla prima ondata, molto meno alla seconda e ancora meno alla terza, come se si procedesse sempre più velocemente.
Pensavo meglio, confermo.
Credo possa essere anche piuttosto valido se di femminismo si sa poco o nulla perché dà un’infarinatura sulle tre ondate; ci sono poi una lista di libri che permettono eventualmente di approfondire quello che interessa di più (e questo mi piace sempre molto).
Quello che non mi ha convinto è che nella sostanza è prevalentemente un elenco di date e nomi, davvero poco approfondimento.
Trovo anche che sia stato dato tanto spazio alla prima ondata, molto meno alla seconda e ancora meno alla terza, come se si procedesse sempre più velocemente.
Pensavo meglio, confermo.
March 2, 2020
This had so much potential, but failed miserably. The graphics are boring and seemingly thrown in in a last ditch attempt. The cover looks great, but that's not the art in the book itself. The information provided, is just fact after fact after fact. I think this book had the chance of taking feminism and its ideology into something that's more accessible and easier to digest for the general audience. Instead it was just dry fact listing youd read in any other book.
February 27, 2021
Very interesting history and perspective on feminism.
December 14, 2019
This was ok but a little brief. I thought the illustrations could have been better for a book marketed as a ‘graphic guide’.
May 27, 2020
Aside from religion, race, class and gender are probably three of the biggest divisive factors in the world, and the older I get the more these fascinate me as I see how much they influence our society and culture. I’ve read quite a bit on class, and I’m trying to educate myself a lot more on the race and gender issues, learning more all the time, so I was interested to see what this had to say.
It’s strange as the font and the lay out of this book has the look of a workbook which would have been handed out in school classrooms back in the 80s or 90s. There certainly won’t be any prizes for the art work, which is passable at best, but that’s not the point, the content more than does its job and we touch upon all the big guns, the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst, Virginia Woolf, Simone de Beauvoir through to more contemporary voices like Germaine Greer and Naomi Wolf and many more movers and shakers who have done significant work throughout the three waves of feminism.
I have to say that the part about Oprah standing up for woman feeling secure in their own bodies etc had me laughing…pick up any copy of the Oprah magazine, (what sort of egotistic person not only names a magazine after themselves, but insists on being on the cover of every issue too?...) Anyway you look at the images in her magazine and how much touching up and er outright deceit is practised in her image cultivation as well as all the other hyper-consumerist nonsense in there. It doesn’t seem very feminist to me, that’s just egotistical capitalist greed.
Anyway, sorry for the rant, but I did enjoy this, it came up with a lot of names and books to follow up on later, which is what a good introduction should do, oh and I learned a new term "coverture" so there we go...yippeeeee!
November 23, 2024
History of the theme of feminism. While hits on the major points, thinfs can be heavy. Not a read in one sitting. Take your time. Later in the flow, pornography and explicit images talked about/shown. Yet all areas handled clinical and without too much fancy language. Can be a bit aggressive pro female but also feels balanced. Graphics do not mirror the covers potential.
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February 5, 2025Good GOD does this book fall flat on its face on handling transfeminism. That combined with the distribution of attention given to certain concepts/movements and several other missteps (it's been known that the Frances Gage transcription of Sojourner Truth's speech is grossly inaccurate) gives cause to raise eyebrows at best.
February 16, 2025
Fa quello che promette, un'analisi cronologica dell'evoluzione femminista.
Sicuramente i concetti vengono presentati molto sinteticamente, gli episodi e l3 protagonist3 vengono essenzialmente accennat3, lasciando la possibilità a chi legge di poter approfondire in altre sedi.
Direi che è considerabile come un "punto di partenza".
L'unico appunto riguarda il fatto che si basi principalmente sulla storia del femminismo dei paesi anglofoni "occidentali" (USA e UK)
Sicuramente i concetti vengono presentati molto sinteticamente, gli episodi e l3 protagonist3 vengono essenzialmente accennat3, lasciando la possibilità a chi legge di poter approfondire in altre sedi.
Direi che è considerabile come un "punto di partenza".
L'unico appunto riguarda il fatto che si basi principalmente sulla storia del femminismo dei paesi anglofoni "occidentali" (USA e UK)
August 30, 2021
Pretty good book but it should have been called A Graphic History not A Graphic Guide because its just kinda a timeline of feminism, whereas I was expecting more of a guide to navigating modern feminism.
June 28, 2020
The Age of Reason - During the 18th and 19th centuries, many notable female figures were outspoken about the need to challenge women's subordinate social position. Their writings express, to a great extent, the legacy of the Age of Enlightenment by insisting that we must use /reason/ as opposed to /faith/ to discover any truth about our existence. Finding things out individually rather than unquestioningly following tradition was the Enlightenment's practice of /free enquiry/. "Reason can free us from superstition" "Free enquiry is the simple path to truth" "Reason and 'free enquiry' can be cultivated through education" "Reasonable' free enquiry dictates that women need more opportunities" p 15
In 1884 Friedrich Engels wrote 'The Origins of the Family, Private Property and The State'. In this work he argues that the family unit is vital for the success of capitalism. p 22
Against Rousseau - Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication in response to the Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), whose book Emile Claimed that women were sentimental and frivolous, and that in marriage they could occupy only a subordinate position as companions to their husbands. // As a pioneer of the British suffrage movement she was outspoken about the need to challenge prescribed gender roles. She advocated women's education and argued for their right to participate in public life, declaring: "I do not wish women to take power over men; but over themselves" p 28
"Reason is absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly, and I must again repeat that /sensibility/ is not /reason/." In this respect, teaching girls to read romance, play music, sing and recite poetry will nourish their sensibilities at the cost of their sense. Girls educated in such frivolous pursuits, she concluded, are more likely to become emotionally dependent, to shrink their domestic duties and indulge in morally reprehensible actions. Rational and independent women however, develop moral capacities which enable them to become 'observant daughters', 'affectionate sisters' 'reasonable mothers' and 'faithful wives'. p 30
Wollstonecraft maintained that an ideal marriage is one of intellectual companionship and equality. She challenged contemporary social beliefs by declaring that: "The divine right of husbands, like the divine rights of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger." p 31
Elizabeth Cady Stanton have the keynote speech (at the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention), which she entitled 'Now we demand our right to vote'. She provocatively warned men in power that "so long as your women are slaves you may throw your colleges and churches to the winds. / You can't have scholars and saints so long as your mothers are ground to powder between the upper and nether millstone of tyranny and lust." p 59
Woolf is a modernist writer who explores the limitations of conventional narrative genres and sets out to create a form of female self-expression. "I use stream of consciousness narratives because I want to describe the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which the fall." p 81
Existence Precedes Essence - De Beauvoir explained subjectivity (our sense of Self) through Existentialist philosophy. Existentialism proposes that one exists first, and through one's acts, one becomes something. She reasoned that an individual has absolute control over their fate, and neither society not organized religion should limit our freedom to live authentically. "We construct our sense of Self in relation to something which is not "our self" - an Other." But since men have claimed the category of Self, or Subject, for themselves, woman is relegated to the status of Other. Consequently, the category of woman has no substance except as an extension of male fantasy and fears. Since all cultural representations of the world around us have been produced by men, women read themselves in terms of masculine definitions and "dream through the dreams of men." Thus woman is required to accept her status of Other, "make herself object" and "renounce her autonomy." "This status of other can be change if women learn to access the subjecthood they have so far been denied. Women must achieve complete economic and social equality, which will enable an inner metamorphosis to take place. Wien a female becomes a woman, she will be Subject as man is a Subject, and an Other to man in as much as he is Other to her." p 87
Socialist feminists saw great potential in uniting women into bonds of sisterhood which would allow for a revolutionary seizing of power. p 102
Traditional Marxist Feminism "We ascribe social factors such as class division to women's oppression. We advocate the eradication of the bourgeois family structures which depend on women's unpaid domestic labour." p 103
Consuming for Capitalism - Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic Sex / 1970) explained that the biological family based on sex class discrimination benefits capitalism by making possible the confinement of women to the domestic sphere and enabling men to control the public sphere. "As unpaid house workers, women, and their children, become consumers in support of the capitalist economy." Capitalism is thus predicated upon the distinctions of woman-as-reproducer and man-as-producer. However, once women are freed from the responsibility to reproduce, they can participate in the workplace and achieve economic and personal independence. p 120
Misogyny in Literature - Kate Millett (Sexual Politics / 1970) looked to literature for examples of misogyny. She isolated the trio of D.H.Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer as the worst culprits. "Literature acts as a form of propaganda for patriarchy, and these authors in particular had reactionary ideas which explicitly glorified the stereotyping and objectification of women." p 123
Ann Oakley (Subject Women / 1981) provocatively suggested that although some social groups have conspired against women, yet women have also conspired among themselves and discriminated against their own kind. She advocated a more active engagement of feminists in the sociological aspects of women's lives rather than confining their efforts to the elite domains of research and academia. p 126
Gynocriticism - In the 1970s, a decade which witnessed intense feminist activity on the political and sociological levels, feminist academics became actively engaged in challenging the western literary canon. "The western canon revolves around literary work endorsed by patriarchy, written mostly by men." Elaine Showalter's 'A literature of their Own' (1977) attempted to establish a literary tradition which reflected the variety of women's experience of the world. It also claimed women writers as significant contributors to the corpus of Western literary writing. p 127
Showalter divided female literary history into three phases. The Feminine Phase (1840-80) in which writing produced by women imitated mainstream publications by men. The Feminist phase (1880-1920) in which women writers protested against their marginalization. The Female phase (1920s onwards) when women's writing is preoccupied with self-discovery. // In 1979 Showalter coined the term "gynocriticism" to refer to a form of critical practice whereby the "psychodynamics of female creativity" is explored and recorded. Gynocriticism became associated with Anglo-American feminist literary criticism, and Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) is one its most influential works. It attempted to establish an Anglo-American literary tradition of women without referring to or incorporating male authors. p 128
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) Made the case for biological motherhood and argued against Firestone and Oakley's positions. // In her book Of Woman Born (1976), Rich noted that women's experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering are increasingly controlled by male doctors, who are replacing female midwives. "This control over women's reproduction and their bodies enables the perpetuation of patriarchal principles which dictate to women when to eat, sleep, exercise, have sex, breastfeed, feel pleasure and endure pain." Rich concluded that if women reclaimed control over their bodies during pregnancy and were able to perform motherhood without interference from male representatives of the patriarchal establishment, then they would become less alienated from their bodies, their spirits and the institution of motherhood. p 136
As a feminist who identifies as a lesbian, Rich coined the term "compulsory heterosexuality" in 1980. She maintained that patriarchal society dictates that women must choose men as their sexual partners and perpetuates the ideology of the heterosexual romance. Consequently, lesbian sexuality is seen as deviant and transgressive "The emphasis on the primacy of the man-woman relationship precludes the development of any bonds of sisterhood between women." p 137
Gyn/Ecology - Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist philosopher and theologian. In 1973 she published God the Father, in which she maintained that the function of God in all religions is to 'act as a legitimating paradigm for the institution of patriarchy' "If men's claim to personhood is based on the assumption that they have been created in the image of God, then through the process of power-over they marginalize women as non-persons, impersonal objects, Other. // I advise feminists to advocate the notion of God as Immanence and to detach God from gender." // In her most famous book, Gyn/Ecology (1978), she rejected the term "God" altogether. She urged women to access the "wild woman" within them who will liberate them from social restrictions of feminine behaviours. Daly advocated revising language, which mainly represents men's experience of the world. She published a feminist dictionary, Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedry of the English Language (1987). p 138
These ideas are illustrated in Audre Lorde's explanation that, as a 'forty-nine-year-old Black lesbian feminist socialist, mother of two, including one boy, and a member of an interracial couple', she did not want to divorce herself from any aspect of her identity in her feminist activism. Rather, Lorde concludes that in order to achieve a sense of Oneness, and escape the incessant feeling of Otherness ... "I will integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without restrictions of externally imposed definition." Nowadays Lorde's concerns are captured and developed in discussions on intersectionality. p 141
Popular fiction in the 1980s - In the Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer famously proclaimed that novels were the "opiate of the supermenial" and described the romantic hero as the "invention of women cherishing the chains of their own bondage." Romance stories published in women's magazined and in Mills and Boon novels generated a great deal of debate in the 1980s. // Ann Douglas dubbed the phenomenal increase in mass-market romance a symptom of "soft-porn culture." She thinks the increase in the popularity and availability of these novels can be correlated with concerted efforts to undermine the rise of the women's movement. p 154
The women's movement encouraged women to see themselves as individuals, not as types: Angel, Madonna, Mother, Prostitute, Dutiful Daughter, Etc. Mass market romance was part of the backlash against feminist activities to free women from the stereotypes which had been perpetuated about them for centuries. // However, other feminist critics questioned women's passivity as readers and refused to believe the suggestion that women believed and adopted the stereotypes offered to them in romance novels. Tania Modleski (b. 1949) is a Marxsist feminist who writes about the representation of women in the popular media. Her first book, 'Loving with a Vengeance' (1982), scrutinized traditional forms of writing which were aimed at women, such as Harlequin novels, Gothic romance and television soap operas. p 155
We distinguish between Erotica, which depicts women enjoying sexual encounters and finding fulfillment in them, and Thanatica which denotes sexually explicit images of women being involuntarily physically possessed and dismembered in sexually coercive situations. // ... Nancy Friday is one critic who made a career out of compiling and examining women's sexual fantasies. ... Recent scholarship on "feminist queer pornographies" has questioned mainstream pornography's representation of behaviour that is cis-identified, heteronormative and predominantly capitalist lifestyles. To learn more about this topic, look up Courtney Trouble's visual and critical work. p 158
Fat is a political issue. Rich societies value thinness in women, poor societies value plumpness in women, but all male dominant societies value weakness in women. Beauty is not about how we look; it is about getting us to do whatever society wants us to do. - Gloria Steinem p 161
Judith Butler argues that gender distinctions are valid only if we accept a social system based on Binary Oppositions: i.e. seeing woman as opposed to man; "feminine" as the opposite of "masculine". p 165
In 1884 Friedrich Engels wrote 'The Origins of the Family, Private Property and The State'. In this work he argues that the family unit is vital for the success of capitalism. p 22
Against Rousseau - Wollstonecraft wrote Vindication in response to the Swiss-French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), whose book Emile Claimed that women were sentimental and frivolous, and that in marriage they could occupy only a subordinate position as companions to their husbands. // As a pioneer of the British suffrage movement she was outspoken about the need to challenge prescribed gender roles. She advocated women's education and argued for their right to participate in public life, declaring: "I do not wish women to take power over men; but over themselves" p 28
"Reason is absolutely necessary to enable a woman to perform any duty properly, and I must again repeat that /sensibility/ is not /reason/." In this respect, teaching girls to read romance, play music, sing and recite poetry will nourish their sensibilities at the cost of their sense. Girls educated in such frivolous pursuits, she concluded, are more likely to become emotionally dependent, to shrink their domestic duties and indulge in morally reprehensible actions. Rational and independent women however, develop moral capacities which enable them to become 'observant daughters', 'affectionate sisters' 'reasonable mothers' and 'faithful wives'. p 30
Wollstonecraft maintained that an ideal marriage is one of intellectual companionship and equality. She challenged contemporary social beliefs by declaring that: "The divine right of husbands, like the divine rights of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger." p 31
Elizabeth Cady Stanton have the keynote speech (at the 1848 Woman's Rights Convention), which she entitled 'Now we demand our right to vote'. She provocatively warned men in power that "so long as your women are slaves you may throw your colleges and churches to the winds. / You can't have scholars and saints so long as your mothers are ground to powder between the upper and nether millstone of tyranny and lust." p 59
Woolf is a modernist writer who explores the limitations of conventional narrative genres and sets out to create a form of female self-expression. "I use stream of consciousness narratives because I want to describe the atoms as they fall upon the mind in the order in which the fall." p 81
Existence Precedes Essence - De Beauvoir explained subjectivity (our sense of Self) through Existentialist philosophy. Existentialism proposes that one exists first, and through one's acts, one becomes something. She reasoned that an individual has absolute control over their fate, and neither society not organized religion should limit our freedom to live authentically. "We construct our sense of Self in relation to something which is not "our self" - an Other." But since men have claimed the category of Self, or Subject, for themselves, woman is relegated to the status of Other. Consequently, the category of woman has no substance except as an extension of male fantasy and fears. Since all cultural representations of the world around us have been produced by men, women read themselves in terms of masculine definitions and "dream through the dreams of men." Thus woman is required to accept her status of Other, "make herself object" and "renounce her autonomy." "This status of other can be change if women learn to access the subjecthood they have so far been denied. Women must achieve complete economic and social equality, which will enable an inner metamorphosis to take place. Wien a female becomes a woman, she will be Subject as man is a Subject, and an Other to man in as much as he is Other to her." p 87
Socialist feminists saw great potential in uniting women into bonds of sisterhood which would allow for a revolutionary seizing of power. p 102
Traditional Marxist Feminism "We ascribe social factors such as class division to women's oppression. We advocate the eradication of the bourgeois family structures which depend on women's unpaid domestic labour." p 103
Consuming for Capitalism - Shulamith Firestone (The Dialectic Sex / 1970) explained that the biological family based on sex class discrimination benefits capitalism by making possible the confinement of women to the domestic sphere and enabling men to control the public sphere. "As unpaid house workers, women, and their children, become consumers in support of the capitalist economy." Capitalism is thus predicated upon the distinctions of woman-as-reproducer and man-as-producer. However, once women are freed from the responsibility to reproduce, they can participate in the workplace and achieve economic and personal independence. p 120
Misogyny in Literature - Kate Millett (Sexual Politics / 1970) looked to literature for examples of misogyny. She isolated the trio of D.H.Lawrence, Henry Miller and Norman Mailer as the worst culprits. "Literature acts as a form of propaganda for patriarchy, and these authors in particular had reactionary ideas which explicitly glorified the stereotyping and objectification of women." p 123
Ann Oakley (Subject Women / 1981) provocatively suggested that although some social groups have conspired against women, yet women have also conspired among themselves and discriminated against their own kind. She advocated a more active engagement of feminists in the sociological aspects of women's lives rather than confining their efforts to the elite domains of research and academia. p 126
Gynocriticism - In the 1970s, a decade which witnessed intense feminist activity on the political and sociological levels, feminist academics became actively engaged in challenging the western literary canon. "The western canon revolves around literary work endorsed by patriarchy, written mostly by men." Elaine Showalter's 'A literature of their Own' (1977) attempted to establish a literary tradition which reflected the variety of women's experience of the world. It also claimed women writers as significant contributors to the corpus of Western literary writing. p 127
Showalter divided female literary history into three phases. The Feminine Phase (1840-80) in which writing produced by women imitated mainstream publications by men. The Feminist phase (1880-1920) in which women writers protested against their marginalization. The Female phase (1920s onwards) when women's writing is preoccupied with self-discovery. // In 1979 Showalter coined the term "gynocriticism" to refer to a form of critical practice whereby the "psychodynamics of female creativity" is explored and recorded. Gynocriticism became associated with Anglo-American feminist literary criticism, and Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar's The Madwoman in the Attic (1979) is one its most influential works. It attempted to establish an Anglo-American literary tradition of women without referring to or incorporating male authors. p 128
Adrienne Rich (1929-2012) Made the case for biological motherhood and argued against Firestone and Oakley's positions. // In her book Of Woman Born (1976), Rich noted that women's experiences of pregnancy, childbirth and mothering are increasingly controlled by male doctors, who are replacing female midwives. "This control over women's reproduction and their bodies enables the perpetuation of patriarchal principles which dictate to women when to eat, sleep, exercise, have sex, breastfeed, feel pleasure and endure pain." Rich concluded that if women reclaimed control over their bodies during pregnancy and were able to perform motherhood without interference from male representatives of the patriarchal establishment, then they would become less alienated from their bodies, their spirits and the institution of motherhood. p 136
As a feminist who identifies as a lesbian, Rich coined the term "compulsory heterosexuality" in 1980. She maintained that patriarchal society dictates that women must choose men as their sexual partners and perpetuates the ideology of the heterosexual romance. Consequently, lesbian sexuality is seen as deviant and transgressive "The emphasis on the primacy of the man-woman relationship precludes the development of any bonds of sisterhood between women." p 137
Gyn/Ecology - Mary Daly (1928-2010) was a radical feminist philosopher and theologian. In 1973 she published God the Father, in which she maintained that the function of God in all religions is to 'act as a legitimating paradigm for the institution of patriarchy' "If men's claim to personhood is based on the assumption that they have been created in the image of God, then through the process of power-over they marginalize women as non-persons, impersonal objects, Other. // I advise feminists to advocate the notion of God as Immanence and to detach God from gender." // In her most famous book, Gyn/Ecology (1978), she rejected the term "God" altogether. She urged women to access the "wild woman" within them who will liberate them from social restrictions of feminine behaviours. Daly advocated revising language, which mainly represents men's experience of the world. She published a feminist dictionary, Webster's First New Intergalactic Wickedry of the English Language (1987). p 138
These ideas are illustrated in Audre Lorde's explanation that, as a 'forty-nine-year-old Black lesbian feminist socialist, mother of two, including one boy, and a member of an interracial couple', she did not want to divorce herself from any aspect of her identity in her feminist activism. Rather, Lorde concludes that in order to achieve a sense of Oneness, and escape the incessant feeling of Otherness ... "I will integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without restrictions of externally imposed definition." Nowadays Lorde's concerns are captured and developed in discussions on intersectionality. p 141
Popular fiction in the 1980s - In the Female Eunuch, Germaine Greer famously proclaimed that novels were the "opiate of the supermenial" and described the romantic hero as the "invention of women cherishing the chains of their own bondage." Romance stories published in women's magazined and in Mills and Boon novels generated a great deal of debate in the 1980s. // Ann Douglas dubbed the phenomenal increase in mass-market romance a symptom of "soft-porn culture." She thinks the increase in the popularity and availability of these novels can be correlated with concerted efforts to undermine the rise of the women's movement. p 154
The women's movement encouraged women to see themselves as individuals, not as types: Angel, Madonna, Mother, Prostitute, Dutiful Daughter, Etc. Mass market romance was part of the backlash against feminist activities to free women from the stereotypes which had been perpetuated about them for centuries. // However, other feminist critics questioned women's passivity as readers and refused to believe the suggestion that women believed and adopted the stereotypes offered to them in romance novels. Tania Modleski (b. 1949) is a Marxsist feminist who writes about the representation of women in the popular media. Her first book, 'Loving with a Vengeance' (1982), scrutinized traditional forms of writing which were aimed at women, such as Harlequin novels, Gothic romance and television soap operas. p 155
We distinguish between Erotica, which depicts women enjoying sexual encounters and finding fulfillment in them, and Thanatica which denotes sexually explicit images of women being involuntarily physically possessed and dismembered in sexually coercive situations. // ... Nancy Friday is one critic who made a career out of compiling and examining women's sexual fantasies. ... Recent scholarship on "feminist queer pornographies" has questioned mainstream pornography's representation of behaviour that is cis-identified, heteronormative and predominantly capitalist lifestyles. To learn more about this topic, look up Courtney Trouble's visual and critical work. p 158
Fat is a political issue. Rich societies value thinness in women, poor societies value plumpness in women, but all male dominant societies value weakness in women. Beauty is not about how we look; it is about getting us to do whatever society wants us to do. - Gloria Steinem p 161
Judith Butler argues that gender distinctions are valid only if we accept a social system based on Binary Oppositions: i.e. seeing woman as opposed to man; "feminine" as the opposite of "masculine". p 165
January 11, 2022
To see more reviews check out MI Book Reviews.
I grabbed this the second I knew it was a thing. Not only am I a huge nerd when it comes to the feminist movement, but I love graphic novels. So this was surely going to be perfect for me. And it sorta was, but sorta wasn’t.
The good: I learned quite a lot about the first wave of feminism. When I was getting my degree in Women and Gender Studies, we focused mainly on second and third wave feminism. First wave was covered here and there, but it was never the focus of a class. So getting that introduction was quite wonderful. I enjoyed that section, with less issues than I had with other sections. There were a lot of feminist named and a lot of books named. There was room to continue off of this volume.
The bad: the book jumped around a lot. There would be a jump from the 70s to 2017, then back to the 70’s with little structure. There were times when those jumps were pushed off by referencing future pages and then other times when that jump had a weird little chapter, then back to the timeline. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason behind which would happen. It was often disorienting. It was also disappointing, because it kept raising my hopes that there would be some critical looks at things, when there really wasn’t any.
There really was no critical look at some of the feminist icons. There was little to no mention of race before it was the sole focus. This lack of coverage really highlighted the issue with racism and how the movement has been historically white, yet it felt more like an accident that this was highlighted considering it was done at the expense of actually covering it. There were multiple times in the first wave section that this could have been talked about, yet it was saved for its own section, which was really aggravating. There was little to no place for women of color in this book. There was even less room for queer people in this book. There was a lot more coverage on the Lesbian Continuum than I expected, especially since it is not named in the book. Most of the coverage for queer people was the lesbian continuum and how others accuse feminists of being gay. Trans people are mentioned only in passing, despite being a huge topic both socially and theoretically in the moment.
The weird: Gloria Steinem was not given her own section despite all that she has done for second wave feminism in particular. She was draw in two or three times and referenced here or there, but not given any real air time. While I am excited that a book didn’t glorify her to the detriment of others, it was also really weird that she was almost erased from feminist history.
Maybe my degree has spoiled me. My program was heavily queer and black. There was room for critiques of what was said and happening. There was room for manifestos. SCUM was something that we all read and had long discussions on, yet there didn’t seem to be any room in this book for manifestos. So many things that read as basic feminism to me were not mentioned at all. I was going to throw a fit from the lack of Crenshaw and hooks, but finally near the end they were given some time. I can’t imagine a functioning feminism without them, yet they were absent for the majority of the book and were only mentioned once race was allowed a spot.
If this book becomes a series and there is more exploration of the history of feminism, then I will gladly change this to a higher rating. I can respect there is only room for so much in a book. I can only hope there are more books. It was such an accessible way to learn.
I grabbed this the second I knew it was a thing. Not only am I a huge nerd when it comes to the feminist movement, but I love graphic novels. So this was surely going to be perfect for me. And it sorta was, but sorta wasn’t.
The good: I learned quite a lot about the first wave of feminism. When I was getting my degree in Women and Gender Studies, we focused mainly on second and third wave feminism. First wave was covered here and there, but it was never the focus of a class. So getting that introduction was quite wonderful. I enjoyed that section, with less issues than I had with other sections. There were a lot of feminist named and a lot of books named. There was room to continue off of this volume.
The bad: the book jumped around a lot. There would be a jump from the 70s to 2017, then back to the 70’s with little structure. There were times when those jumps were pushed off by referencing future pages and then other times when that jump had a weird little chapter, then back to the timeline. There didn’t seem to be a rhyme or reason behind which would happen. It was often disorienting. It was also disappointing, because it kept raising my hopes that there would be some critical looks at things, when there really wasn’t any.
There really was no critical look at some of the feminist icons. There was little to no mention of race before it was the sole focus. This lack of coverage really highlighted the issue with racism and how the movement has been historically white, yet it felt more like an accident that this was highlighted considering it was done at the expense of actually covering it. There were multiple times in the first wave section that this could have been talked about, yet it was saved for its own section, which was really aggravating. There was little to no place for women of color in this book. There was even less room for queer people in this book. There was a lot more coverage on the Lesbian Continuum than I expected, especially since it is not named in the book. Most of the coverage for queer people was the lesbian continuum and how others accuse feminists of being gay. Trans people are mentioned only in passing, despite being a huge topic both socially and theoretically in the moment.
The weird: Gloria Steinem was not given her own section despite all that she has done for second wave feminism in particular. She was draw in two or three times and referenced here or there, but not given any real air time. While I am excited that a book didn’t glorify her to the detriment of others, it was also really weird that she was almost erased from feminist history.
Maybe my degree has spoiled me. My program was heavily queer and black. There was room for critiques of what was said and happening. There was room for manifestos. SCUM was something that we all read and had long discussions on, yet there didn’t seem to be any room in this book for manifestos. So many things that read as basic feminism to me were not mentioned at all. I was going to throw a fit from the lack of Crenshaw and hooks, but finally near the end they were given some time. I can’t imagine a functioning feminism without them, yet they were absent for the majority of the book and were only mentioned once race was allowed a spot.
If this book becomes a series and there is more exploration of the history of feminism, then I will gladly change this to a higher rating. I can respect there is only room for so much in a book. I can only hope there are more books. It was such an accessible way to learn.
January 8, 2021
Cercavo una risorsa che mi desse un’infarinatura generale sulla cronologia del movimento femminista, ed è esattamente ciò che ho trovato in questo libro. Perfetto per chi è alle prime armi nello studio dei movimenti femministi (quindi sia adolescenti sia persone come me che purtroppo sono cresciute in ambienti digiuni di femminismo e stanno cercando di rimediare). Chiaramente necessita di ulteriore approfondimento, ma so già che tornerò presto a sfogliare questa guida per orientarmi nelle mie letture future. Sono curiosa di vedere se, nel leggere altre fonti o le opere originali delle femministe citate, mi troverò d’accordo con la visione data da questo libro.
Il libro è incentrato sui paesi anglofoni e mi ha lasciata con un gran desiderio di poter leggere una guida simile sulla storia del femminismo in Italia. (Fa sorridere come molte lettrici anglofone diano per scontata l’esistenza di un libro simile!)
Lo stile delle immagini mi ha colpita. Di primo acchito mi è sembrato strano e un po’ grezzo, ma mi sono presto abituata. Anzi, ho finito per apprezzarlo per il suo essere fuori dai soliti canoni di immagini patinate e preconfezionate.
Ci sono stati dei punti (molto pochi, a onor del vero) in cui ho storto il naso, perché mi è parso che la scelta delle parole portasse con sé un’opinione da parte dell’autrice. Ho avuto quest’impressione soprattutto nelle pagine su Frances Harper, ma ammetto che potrebbe benissimo essere una mia “misinterpretation”. Anche la scelta di dilungarsi più sulla prima ondata di femminismo rispetto alla seconda e soprattutto alla terza mi ha lasciata un po’ perplessa. Con 20/30 pagine in più si sarebbe potuto dare più spazio ai problemi delle donne nel mondo attuale ed ai femminismi degli ultimi anni con le loro rispettive figure di spicco.
Il libro è incentrato sui paesi anglofoni e mi ha lasciata con un gran desiderio di poter leggere una guida simile sulla storia del femminismo in Italia. (Fa sorridere come molte lettrici anglofone diano per scontata l’esistenza di un libro simile!)
Lo stile delle immagini mi ha colpita. Di primo acchito mi è sembrato strano e un po’ grezzo, ma mi sono presto abituata. Anzi, ho finito per apprezzarlo per il suo essere fuori dai soliti canoni di immagini patinate e preconfezionate.
Ci sono stati dei punti (molto pochi, a onor del vero) in cui ho storto il naso, perché mi è parso che la scelta delle parole portasse con sé un’opinione da parte dell’autrice. Ho avuto quest’impressione soprattutto nelle pagine su Frances Harper, ma ammetto che potrebbe benissimo essere una mia “misinterpretation”. Anche la scelta di dilungarsi più sulla prima ondata di femminismo rispetto alla seconda e soprattutto alla terza mi ha lasciata un po’ perplessa. Con 20/30 pagine in più si sarebbe potuto dare più spazio ai problemi delle donne nel mondo attuale ed ai femminismi degli ultimi anni con le loro rispettive figure di spicco.
Read
February 9, 2024"Nesse aspecto, ensinar as meninas a ler romances, tocar música, cantar e recitar poesia cultivaria sua sensibilidade às custas da razão. Meninas educadas nessas "atividades frívolas", concluía ela, têm maior probabilidade de se tornarem emocionalmente dependentes, de se furtarem aos deveres domésticos e de se entregarem a atitudes "moralmente repreensíveis". Mulheres racionais e independentes, por outro lado, desenvolvem capacidades morais que lhes permitem tornarem-se "filhas obedientes", "irmãs afetuosas", "mães sensatas" e "esposas fiéis"
"Acusava as líderes do movimento de serem lésbicas que seduziam moças para convertê-las ao feminismo. A correlação entre feminismo e lesbianidade tinha o objetivo de assustar as mulheres e afastá-las do movimento. Elas eram alertadas de que se matricular em faculdades que enfatizassem o atletismo e oferecessem "cursos feministas" asseguraria a "homossexualidade vitalícia"
"Em seu livro Of Woman Born (Nascidos de mulher, 1976), Rich observou que a experiência feminina da gestação, do parto e da criação dos filhos era cada vez mais controlada por médicos homens, que vinham substituindo as parteiras. Esse controle da reprodução e do corpo da mulher permite a perpetuação dos princípios patriarcais que ditam às mulheres quando comer, dormir, exercitar-se, fazer sexo, amamentar, sentir prazer e suportar a dor."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 8, 2023
Sometimes these graphical guides provide a great introduction or review and sometimes they don't.
The presentation of the history of feminism here left me with the impression of a history of feminist thinkers talking past and over each other. I'm sure that is not a truly accurate portrait. Perhaps the error lies in trying to include every possible strand of thought that could be construed as feminist.
It is subtitled a "graphic guide" rather than a "graphic history" and I suppose that explains why it is not presented as a history showing how ideas progress through dialectical engagement alongside changing historical events. That was more of what I was looking for. In this graphic guide I got the sense that all of the ideas are being spoken at the same time and with no sense of development.
Although the book isn't what I had hoped for, there were interesting ideas presented. Key ideas of feminism are included in bits and bites. There is the continuing question of what it means to be a woman, essentialism vs. social constructivism is a thread throughout. Other ideas are at least presented so that an interested reader could follow up later, which is one of the book's strengths.
The presentation of the history of feminism here left me with the impression of a history of feminist thinkers talking past and over each other. I'm sure that is not a truly accurate portrait. Perhaps the error lies in trying to include every possible strand of thought that could be construed as feminist.
It is subtitled a "graphic guide" rather than a "graphic history" and I suppose that explains why it is not presented as a history showing how ideas progress through dialectical engagement alongside changing historical events. That was more of what I was looking for. In this graphic guide I got the sense that all of the ideas are being spoken at the same time and with no sense of development.
Although the book isn't what I had hoped for, there were interesting ideas presented. Key ideas of feminism are included in bits and bites. There is the continuing question of what it means to be a woman, essentialism vs. social constructivism is a thread throughout. Other ideas are at least presented so that an interested reader could follow up later, which is one of the book's strengths.
November 17, 2020
The cover deceives any kind of vivid artwork inside. There are some black and white sketches, either images of important female figures, historical snapshots, or quotes/conversations interspersed with awkwardly-placed words. Sometimes it finishes the thought at the bottom of the page, sometimes it said that it needed to say. Sometimes it does it with the images and speech bubbles and sometimes it's narrative.
Though, the book does discuss many vocabulary terms and for teen readers (my target audience) I can see the vocabulary being the biggest lesson as it's woven in to short bursts of descriptions of feminism over time/through history. While it's not well-paced (the end seemed rushed?), again the substance of the discussion of woman as part back as the 1800s helps understand the journey over time. It includes writings and works that should be looked up to see how they were embedded into a specific wave of feminism. It explains contemporary conversations like #metoo, politics, pornography, being transgender, feminism across the globe and in the media.
I tolerated it but didn't love it. There's a place for it but it's not one I'd share widely just to read.
Though, the book does discuss many vocabulary terms and for teen readers (my target audience) I can see the vocabulary being the biggest lesson as it's woven in to short bursts of descriptions of feminism over time/through history. While it's not well-paced (the end seemed rushed?), again the substance of the discussion of woman as part back as the 1800s helps understand the journey over time. It includes writings and works that should be looked up to see how they were embedded into a specific wave of feminism. It explains contemporary conversations like #metoo, politics, pornography, being transgender, feminism across the globe and in the media.
I tolerated it but didn't love it. There's a place for it but it's not one I'd share widely just to read.
November 6, 2020
The Queer Graphic Guide by the same organization changed my life, so this one was slightly disappointing. It's a comprehensive guide on the history of feminism and where the movement stands today, including tensions and intersections, but the beginning is a bit dry, perhaps just because of the slow unfolding of women's rights in the modern era was very long and drawn out. I didn't get too much out of this, but it is a great introduction to the unfamiliar reader. One thing I did learn is Vatican City is the only country currently without universal suffrage.
February 18, 2023
I preferred this book much more than the book about gender because it is more neutral and starts at the beginning of American feminism until today. It is very informative and lists many feminist names who spoke up for women's rights over the years.
However, I was no fan of the graphics, because the pictures were not really well drawn or aesthetic. In addition it should also have listed how feminism escalated over the years and how men are now sometimes socially discriminated. I know it was not the original idea of feminism but that is not the way to come to a point of equality.
However, I was no fan of the graphics, because the pictures were not really well drawn or aesthetic. In addition it should also have listed how feminism escalated over the years and how men are now sometimes socially discriminated. I know it was not the original idea of feminism but that is not the way to come to a point of equality.
July 9, 2021
This graphic novel is a summary of feminist activity in the Western world over the last few hundred years. This book is full of information about specific people and ideas related to the movement. I am not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it kind of fell flat for me. It felt like it was lacking something "actionable." If you are looking for an overview, then this book would be great, especially as an introduction feminist terminology and notable people. 3.5 ⭐️
December 11, 2021
A good introductory book to feminisms, focusing mostly on 1st and 2nd wave and very vaguely presenting 3rd wave. I did learn new things, especially about some activists of the 1st and 2nd wave, that I have not been aware of.
I would not say though that the book is exciting. It feels quite dry, a writing style is a bit encyclopedia-like. Sometimes it was also not informative enough, like after reading a page called "Subaltern" I did not learn what it means as there was no explanation.
I would not say though that the book is exciting. It feels quite dry, a writing style is a bit encyclopedia-like. Sometimes it was also not informative enough, like after reading a page called "Subaltern" I did not learn what it means as there was no explanation.
December 13, 2019
Icon Books graphic guides' are a must if you want to introduce anyone (or yourself) to any topic.
Here, the topic of Feminism is widely explained, touching on many aspects - historical, social, political - which enriches this simple-looking guide and elevates it to a strong foundation on the subject.
Here, the topic of Feminism is widely explained, touching on many aspects - historical, social, political - which enriches this simple-looking guide and elevates it to a strong foundation on the subject.
March 6, 2021
Was often very dry, and most of the illustrations were so-so. I also felt that it presented some ideas uncritically that could have really used a more critical lens. Was disappointed it didn’t call out TERFs or SWERFs specifically. Also the framing of the Black feminism stuff was... questionable, if not outright revisionist.
April 15, 2020
Not quite as engaging as Queer: A Graphic History, but I will definitely try and incorporate some of this into my classes. A decent primer for an overview of feminist history. I just would have liked a deeper exploration of feminist theory.
August 1, 2020
Kniha je především super pro ty, co se chtějí o feminismu dozvědět více, či jsou naprostí začátečníci. Velmi chválím rozsáhlý popis feminismu u černošských komunit. Také se mi líbilo to, že se kniha zaměřovala i na méně profláklé teorie či aktivisty.
November 2, 2020
Good introduction and recollection of events and important figures, to start dealing with this subject. Could've been a little more detailed and comprehensive. I dont know if it was this edition l, but I didn't enjoy the graphics and fonts.
July 18, 2021
it's more of an introduction to feminism. the book felt like a high school presentation. each page has a topic and a short paragraph about it. If you want to know about feminism and have a book that goes into detail you should pick up a different book.
August 21, 2023
Thought it was great for an overview, it was very USA central but touched on movements from other places in the world. I learnt a lot that I hadn't known and it was interesting. Would recommend to anyone wanting to understand where feminism came from
October 16, 2020
Me ha gustado mucho como para conocer a las mujeres a las que tenemos que agradecer cosas y para ver, que realmente es hasta hace nada cuando se ha empezado a luchar.
April 13, 2021
Overview para principiantes
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