Feminisms and Womanisms

Feminisms and Womanisms
Author: Althea Prince
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2004
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0889614113

This book brings together theory and praxis, so that feminist discourse interacts as a partner with the lived experience of women's social action. The selections combine classics in feminist thought with work from modern theorists and offer a solid foundation in international feminism. The conceptual understanding embedded in the terms 'feminism' and 'womanism' contributes to feminist discourse, a carefully differentiated focus on the ideological uses of language to define relationships that have been historically mired in domination. The terms also define the way gender often has been used to signify and support domination. Given that feminism and womanism are interpretative concepts, there is always a sense that knowledge-making is in progress; for there is nothing static or stagnant about feminism, feminist theory, and feminist action. The formative nature of the feminist movement has, of necessity, a parallel interpretative theory. This Reader embraces both the formative nature of the movement and the accompanying interpretative theories.It also pays attention to the chronological, cultural, geo-political, racial, and ethnic landscapes and sites where women live, carry out social action, and theorise issues of equality. For both the general and the academic reader, this book will be edifying while providing exposure to the feminist and womanist voices that inform the scholarship.

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens

In Search of Our Mothers' Gardens
Author: Alice Walker
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Total Pages: 422
Release: 2004
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780156028646

Walker's essays and articles written between 1966 and 1982 discuss the concept and influence of art and the artist's life, criticisms of authors such as Jean Toomer and Zora Neale Hurston, studies in the civil rights movement and feminist movement, and her own ideas while writing her book "The Color Purple."

Feminisms

Feminisms
Author: Lucy Delap
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-08-27
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0141985992

How has feminism developed? What have feminists achieved? What can we learn from the global history of feminism? Feminism is the ongoing story of a profound historical transformation. Despite being repeatedly written off as a political movement that has achieved its aim of female liberation, it has been continually redefined as new generations of women campaign against the gender inequity of their age. In this absorbing book, historian Lucy Delap challenges the simplistic narrative of 'feminist waves' - a sequence of ever more progressive updates - showing instead that feminists have been motivated by the specific concerns of their historical moment. Drawing on an extraordinary range of examples from Japan to Russia, Egypt to Germany, Delap explores different feminist projects to show that those who are part of this movement have not always agreed on a single programme. This diverse history of feminism, she argues, can help us better navigate current debates and controversies. A tour de force from an award-winning expert, Feminisms shows that a rich relationship to the past can infuse today's activism with a sense possibility and inspiration.

Feminisms and Womanisms

Feminisms and Womanisms
Author: Althea Prince
Publisher: Canadian Scholars’ Press
Total Pages: 579
Release: 2004
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0889614113

This book brings together theory and praxis, so that feminist discourse interacts as a partner with the lived experience of women's social action. The selections combine classics in feminist thought with work from modern theorists and offer a solid foundation in international feminism. The conceptual understanding embedded in the terms 'feminism' and 'womanism' contributes to feminist discourse, a carefully differentiated focus on the ideological uses of language to define relationships that have been historically mired in domination. The terms also define the way gender often has been used to signify and support domination. Given that feminism and womanism are interpretative concepts, there is always a sense that knowledge-making is in progress; for there is nothing static or stagnant about feminism, feminist theory, and feminist action. The formative nature of the feminist movement has, of necessity, a parallel interpretative theory. This Reader embraces both the formative nature of the movement and the accompanying interpretative theories.It also pays attention to the chronological, cultural, geo-political, racial, and ethnic landscapes and sites where women live, carry out social action, and theorise issues of equality. For both the general and the academic reader, this book will be edifying while providing exposure to the feminist and womanist voices that inform the scholarship.

Who Stole Feminism?

Who Stole Feminism?
Author: Christina Hoff Sommers
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1995-05
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0684801566

Reviewers of this book have praised Christina Hoff Sommer's well-reasoned argument against many feminists' reliance on misleading, politically motivated 'facts' about how women are victimised.

Feminism Is for Everybody

Feminism Is for Everybody
Author: bell hooks
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2014-10-10
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1317588371

What is feminism? In this short, accessible primer, bell hooks explores the nature of feminism and its positive promise to eliminate sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression. With her characteristic clarity and directness, hooks encourages readers to see how feminism can touch and change their lives—to see that feminism is for everybody.

Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption

Against White Feminism: Notes on Disruption
Author: Rafia Zakaria
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2021-08-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1324006625

A radically inclusive, intersectional, and transnational approach to the fight for women’s rights. Upper-middle-class white women have long been heralded as “experts” on feminism. They have presided over multinational feminist organizations and written much of what we consider the feminist canon, espousing sexual liberation and satisfaction, LGBTQ inclusion, and racial solidarity, all while branding the language of the movement itself in whiteness and speaking over Black and Brown women in an effort to uphold privilege and perceived cultural superiority. An American Muslim woman, attorney, and political philosopher, Rafia Zakaria champions a reconstruction of feminism in Against White Feminism, centering women of color in this transformative overview and counter-manifesto to white feminism’s global, long-standing affinity with colonial, patriarchal, and white supremacist ideals. Covering such ground as the legacy of the British feminist imperialist savior complex and “the colonial thesis that all reform comes from the West” to the condescension of the white feminist–led “aid industrial complex” and the conflation of sexual liberation as the “sum total of empowerment,” Zakaria follows in the tradition of intersectional feminist forebears Kimberlé Crenshaw, Adrienne Rich, and Audre Lorde. Zakaria ultimately refutes and reimagines the apolitical aspirations of white feminist empowerment in this staggering, radical critique, with Black and Brown feminist thought at the forefront.

Hood Feminism

Hood Feminism
Author: Mikki Kendall
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2020-02-25
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0525560556

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “The fights against hunger, homelessness, poverty, health disparities, poor schools, homophobia, transphobia, and domestic violence are feminist fights. Kendall offers a feminism rooted in the livelihood of everyday women.” —Ibram X. Kendi, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist, in The Atlantic “One of the most important books of the current moment.”—Time “A rousing call to action... It should be required reading for everyone.”—Gabrielle Union, author of We’re Going to Need More Wine A potent and electrifying critique of today’s feminist movement announcing a fresh new voice in black feminism Today's feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others? In her searing collection of essays, Mikki Kendall takes aim at the legitimacy of the modern feminist movement, arguing that it has chronically failed to address the needs of all but a few women. Drawing on her own experiences with hunger, violence, and hypersexualization, along with incisive commentary on reproductive rights, politics, pop culture, the stigma of mental health, and more, Hood Feminism delivers an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux. An unforgettable debut, Kendall has written a ferocious clarion call to all would-be feminists to live out the true mandate of the movement in thought and in deed.

Africana Womanism

Africana Womanism
Author: Clenora Hudson (Weems)
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 200
Release: 2019-10-02
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1000124169

First published in 1993, this is a new edition of the classic text in which Clenora Hudson-Weems sets out a paradigm for women of African descent. Examining the status, struggles and experiences of the Africana woman forced into exile in Europe, Latin America, the United States or at Home in Africa, the theory outlines the experience of Africana women as unique and separate from that of some other women of color, and, of course, from white women. Differentiating itself from the problematic theories of Western feminisms, Africana Womanism allows an establishment of cultural identity and relationship directly to ancestry and land. This new edition includes five new chapters as well as an evolution of the classic Africana womanist paradigm, to that of Africana-Melanated Womanism. It shows how race, class and gender must be prioritized in the fight against every day racial dominance. Africana Womanism: Reclaiming Ourselves offers a new term and paradigm for women of African descent. A family-centered concept, prioritizing race, class and gender, it offers eighteen features of the Africana womanist (self-namer, self-definer, family-centered, genuine in sisterhood, strong, in concert with male in the liberation struggle, whole, authentic, flexible role player, respected, recognized, spiritual, male compatible, respectful of elders, adaptable, ambitious, mothering, nurturing), applying them to characters in novels by Hurston, Bâ, Marshall, Morrison and McMillan. It evolves from Africana Womanism to Africana-Melanated Womanism. This is an important work and essential reading for researchers and students in women and gender studies, Africana studies, African-American studies, literary studies and cultural studies, particularly with the emergence of family centrality (community and collective engagement), the very cornerstone of Africana Womanism since its inception.

Black Feminist Thought

Black Feminist Thought
Author: Patricia Hill Collins
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 353
Release: 2002-06-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1135960135

In spite of the double burden of racial and gender discrimination, African-American women have developed a rich intellectual tradition that is not widely known. In Black Feminist Thought, Patricia Hill Collins explores the words and ideas of Black feminist intellectuals as well as those African-American women outside academe. She provides an interpretive framework for the work of such prominent Black feminist thinkers as Angela Davis, bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Audre Lorde. The result is a superbly crafted book that provides the first synthetic overview of Black feminist thought.