Feminism is not about 'eating men for breakfast'
But what is it about? Twitter arguments? Protests? Burning bras? Maybe, but not always!
Feminism is vitally important, for everyone. It is the only way we rewrite our history and create a better world for everyone - even men., even men!
I had the privilege of speaking to visual artist, woman and feminist Sharlene Khan, in women's month and I could have spoken to her for hours.
In the podcast, you can listen to below, we spoke about the importance of mentorship. Feminism and what it is at the core but also, how we can use our varying points of privilege to uplift and change the future for our sisters, and brothers.
Listen here:
If you'd like to read some of the suggested literature by Sharlene here is her recommend reading list:
An intro to South African Feminists:
Pumla Gqola: Rape, A South African Nightmare
Reflecting Rogue, Inside the Mind of a Feminist; A Rengade Called Simphiwe
What is Slavery to Me?, Postcolonial/Slave Memory in Post-Apartheid South Africa Desiree Lewis
Living on a Horizon: Bessie Head and the Politics of Imagining (book)
Feminism in Africa (Peer reviewed bibliographical essay). Available http://www.oxfordbibliographies.co; “Representing African Sexualities” (book chapter), in Tamale, S, ed. African Sexualities: A Reader. Cape Town, Dakar, Nairobi and Oxford: Pambazuka Press), pp 119-217
Yvette Abrahams: ‘Ambiguity is my middle name: A research diary’ (article) - Available at: http://www.hsrcpress.ac.za/product.php?productid=2186&freedownload=1
‘The Great Long National Insult: 'Science', Sexuality and the Khoisan in the 18th and early 19th Century’ (article) - Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10130950.1997.9675585;‘Colonialism, Dysfunction and Disjuncture: Sarah Bartmann's Resistance (Remix)’ (article) - Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10130950.2003.9674488;
Patricia McFadden: Gender in Southern Africa: A Gendered Perspective (book); Reconceptualizing the Family in a Changing Southern African Environment" with Sara C. Mvududu (book); Sexual Pleasure as a Feminist Choice (article): http://www.agi.ac.za/sites/default/files/image_tool/images/429/feminist_africa_journals/archive/02/fa_2_standpoint_1.pdf
International Feminisms:
bell hooks: Ain't I a Woman; Feminism is for Everyone; Femininst Theory, From Margin to Centre; Talking Backing: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black; (start there and just read everything by bell hooks including her books on love)
Toni Morrison: Playing in the Dark; The Origin of Others; The Source of Self Regard
Angela Davis: Women, Race and Class; Women; Women, Culture and Politics
Patricia Hill Collins: Black Feminist Thought; Intersectionality
Sara Ahmed: Living a Feminist Life; The Promises of Happiness; Queer Phenomenology; The Cultural Politics of Emotion; Differences that Matter; On Being Included (check out her online Feminist Killjoys blog: https://feministkilljoys.com/)
Roxanne Gay: Bad Feminist; Hunger; Difficult Women
Kimberle Crenshaw: Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist: Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiractist Politics: https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1052&context=uclf
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: We should all be Feminists; Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí: The Invention of Women
Amina Mama: The Hidden Struggle; Women Studies and Studies of Women in the 1990s
Molara Ogundipe Leslie: Recreating Ourselves, African Women and Critical Transformations
Nawal al Sadawaai: Memoirs of a Woman Doctor; A Daughter of Isis
Himani Bannerji: Thinking Through: Essays on Feminism, Marxism and Anti-racism
Gayatri Spivak: Can the Subaltern Speak?
Arundhati Roy: The End of Imagination; The Algebra of Infinite justice
Judith Butler: Gender Trouble; Bodies that Matter
Audre Lorde: Sister Outsider; Uses of the Erotic
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick: Epistemology of the Closet
You can follow all the incredible women Sharlene mentioned, as well as herself here:
African Feminisms (Afems) website: https://afemsconference.wixsite.com/afems/home
https://twitter.com/afemsconference
https://www.instagram.com/afemsconference/
https://www.facebook.com/africanfeminisms/
Sharlene Khan:
https://www.facebook.com/theartistformerlyknownas.sharlenekhan