I just joined a new book club. It’s different in a lot of ways for me. First of all, it’s completely online. Second of all, it’s feminist.
So what does it mean to read like a feminist? Well, here’s the criteria we’re using to choose our monthly books (each book must fit at least one):
1) Written by a feminist and/or a woman
2) Aims to advance women’s rights and/or gender equality
3) Looks at the intersection of gender with race, class, sexuality, (dis)ability, ethnicity, trans identity, nationality, etc.
4) Has a strong female character as one of the main characters and/or contains several female characters
5) Sparks conversations about social justice and gender equality, without necessarily adhering to one of the aforementioned criteria
Here’s something I don’t tell too many people: For years, for my personal reading pleasure, I’ve been deliberately seeking out only women authors who write about women. When I go to the bookstore or library, I bypass male authors, go right to female authors, check the story summaries to see that the main character is a woman, and then decide if I’m interested.
Why? Because at some point I realized that the vast majority of viewpoints I received were from men – mostly white males. Almost all of the books I’ve read in school, the TV shows I’ve watched, the movies I’ve seen – not to mention the business practices, laws and policies I live under – were created from the male perspective related to male experiences.
I want to see the world in ways I can relate to and I want to understand the world from different perspectives, so I have to choose carefully because the default is usually the male perspective.
This isn’t to say that I never read or listen to men. Logistically, that would be near impossible anyway, unless I lived as a hermit. Many of my personal and business relationships are with (white) men. And any time I read a newspaper or magazine, or watch TV or movies, it’s likely dominated by male perspectives and stories. (Even when I choose ‘progressive sources” such as the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Sun magazine.) And, of course, for business purposes or professional assignments, I seek out the best materials I can find, regardless of the author’s sex or gender.
I often read male authors who have been highly recommended or who cover a specific issue I really want or need to learn about. Books such as Cradle to Cradle, by William McDonough and Michael Braungart, Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser, and The Mayor of Castro Street (about Harvey Milk), by Randy Shilts, all had a tremendous influence on me and I deeply appreciate the points of view of these authors.
But for my personal reading, it’s more important to me to hear from voices that are usually ignored, marginalized or silenced. So I seek out female authors of different backgrounds and ethnicities to learn from. (I’m excited that our first book club selection is Persepolis, which I’ve been meaning to read for ages!)
How about you – how do you choose books? Do you look for diverse voices or choose solely based on stories or topics? Or a combination of both? Do your favorite books include perspectives from authors of different genders, ethnicities, nationalities, etc.? Do you think it matters one way or another?
