Anti-sexism resources: educate yourself
Wednesday 24-03-2021 - 11:11
Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen an outpouring of women sharing their stories. We’ve heard women talking about the misogyny they have experienced throughout their lives, from casual jokes to horrific violence.
Education is often one of the first steps to change, so we have pulled together these resources to help you, and the people around you, understand more about sexism today. Misogyny doesn’t exist in a vacuum – often it intersects with other marginalised identities. Many of these resources explore the connection between misogyny and other identities, including race.
You’ll be able to find many of these resources in the University Library, and if not, you could request them using the Liberate My Library scheme
Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks
This book is a great practical example of how education and educational practice can be used as a way of unlearning, challenging and dealing with aspects of sexism and racism that impact people’s lives.
Find the book here
All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
hooks interrogates ideas of romantic love from a feminist perspective and looks at how patriarchy in (predominantly heterosexual) relationships makes healthy love and relationships very difficult to achieve.
Find the book here
Lean Out by Dawn Foster
This short read is really helpful to understand how “GirlBoss” feminism and more corporate approaches to women’s empowerment aren't in fact empowering but instead reinforce the status quo.
Find the book here
Women, Race & Class by Angela Davis
Charting the ways that the modern feminist movement and anti-racist and anti-slavery movements have intersected in the US, this is a collection of essays about how both movements have (not) helped to liberate each other. It also underlines the ways that capitalist structures create divides in order to maintain hegemony.
Find the book here
Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi
Deconstructing the women’s liberation movement and trying to bring back the radical centre of feminism, Olufemi argues that feminism still has uses in the context of grassroots organising, but has failed itself by being co-opted and commodified for profit.
Find the book here
The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
Even if you just read the first chapter, you’ll get a really useful account of how nebulous a concept “womanhood” is, and how that makes organising difficult.
Find the book here
The Feminist Present by Clayman Institute for Gender Research (podcast)
If you’d prefer listening to lots of different voices, this podcast’s for you. The hosts interview a range of feminists from academia, journalism, activism and more.
Unfinished Business by British Library (podcast)
Interviews with a wide range of people talking about the future of feminism, especially where it intersects with other social justice movements.
