EEDA Newsletter Vol 6, Res 14: Portable Feminist
This is a public issue of Enthusiastic Encouragement & Dubious Advice. Feel free to share it!
Hi friends! This week contains our wedding anniversary (yay!), my mother’s birthday (not yay!) and mother’s day (boooo!). So, it’s a bit of a roller coaster to say the least. I’m doing my best to stay distracted with work and projects. Sunday I’ll be trying my hand at making shelf-stable strawberry jam because while my allergies have been wrecking me, my tastebuds are absolutely thrilled this season. I ate some blueberries and cried because they were so good. We’ll go cherry picking soon as well and I’m looking forward to that.
It’s another resource week and I’ve decided to share one really good one. It’s a book recommendation I first published with Book Riot.
Resource: The Portable Feminist Reader Edited by Roxane Gay
Today’s book recommendation is a substantial read, clocking in at over 670 pages. This is not a book to read all in one go; it’s one to return to, read a section, then ruminate for a while. I remember getting readers from my college professors and looking back, I don’t think I appreciated them enough for the wealth of content and information they provided as well as the huge amount of labor they probably took to compile. Yes, please, someone collect the most quintessential essays and excerpts I need to read to get a solid understanding of a subject or concept. That today’s book recommendation is regular book price and not textbook price is an absolute steal. There are so many subjects now that I would pay real money for a reader and this is one of them.
Roxane Gay could give a masterclass on writing well-crafted introductions. The one for this book in particular is excellent and I especially appreciate the short discussion of canon, the idea of canon, the problems with canon, and trying to apply a lens of canon to the curation feminist works while acknowledging that canon can and should evolve over time.
I know this is a ridiculous way to describe the portable feminist reader but look: this book has some bangers. The structure is incredibly thoughtful and deliberate so I do recommend going through it in the order in which things appear. Having the context and concepts discussed in works like Kimberlé Crenshaw’s “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex” and Peggy McIntosh’s “White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack” are necessary for getting the most out of subsequent pieces.
The book is divided into sections—the two pieces I just mentioned are in the first section focused on laying a foundation. Other sections include multicultural texts (I actually squealed when I saw Mona Eltahawy’s inclusion), a Black feminism section, a portion on sexual politics, and more. Authors span multiple genders and orientations, ethnicities, races, classes, disability, and beyond. The timeline of pieces included in this book spans hundreds of years. There are some really familiar names like Leslie Feinberg, Ida B. Wells, Rebecca Solnit, Angela Y. Davis, Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Tressie McMillan Cottom, Brittney Cooper, and Samantha Irby and plenty of other names that are new to me. Before most pieces, Gay includes a statement and once again, I’m deeply appreciative that though she includes Susan B. Anthony, she acknowledges her racism.
Not only are there dozens of pieces included but there are pages of lists of further reading, watching, and listening including recommendations for anthologies, movies, music albums, fiction, nonfiction, memoir, short stories, and poetry.
I know that I don’t need something else on my plate but I keep thinking about a long-running book club where we read not only this but go through all the lists in the appendix…
Recent & Current Reads
Inclusion of a book in this section is not necessarily a recommendation and these books won’t necessarily be added to my Bookshop. Links are affiliate links.
Recently Read:
Currently Reading:
Amplitudes: Stories of Queer and Trans Futurity edited by Lee Mandelo (out 5/27)
Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson by Tourmaline (out 5/20)
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds by Adrienne Maree Brown
That’s it for this week! You can shop many books I’ve mentioned in this newsletter at my affiliate shop, The Infophile’s Bookshop, and support independent bookstores. In fact, any Bookshop, Amazon, or Etsy links in this newsletter are affiliate links so if you shop through those, it helps support my work. Or you can leave me a tip on Ko-fi, Paypal, or Venmo.
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