Feminism is for Everybody: Further Discussion

I’m  not sure about anyone else but I’ve been slowly working my way through the book and while finding it a bit repetitive in parts, am still finding it interesting. It’s not quite what I was expecting, but am still happy that we chose it as our first read. I thought I’d post a few discussion questions today that I’ve been thinking about.

First off I want to ask – do you think this book would convince someone who didn’t identify as a feminist why it is important to do so / that they might want to do so?

hooks defines feminism simply as:

“A movement to end sexist oppression”

What do you think of that definitely? Personally I love the definition, especially when we get into her supporting ideas behind it, but I want to know what others think of it. Does it work? Why or why not?

Introduction to Feminism is for Everybody

Each time I leave one of these encounters, I want to have in my hand a little book so that I can say, read this book, and it will tell you what feminism is, what the movement is about. I want to be holding in my hand a concise, fairly easy to read and understand book; not a long book, not a book thick with hard to understand jargon and academic language, but a straightforward, clear book – easy to read without being simplistic.

As hooks explains in the introduction, this book is for all of us who have had questions about why we identify as feminist directed at us. It is also for those of us who may wonder what feminism is all about. I’ve often wanted a book like this and so personally I’m really looking forward to reading what she has to say. I’m hoping that this book is indeed all that she says it will be, if so I may be bulk ordering it to lend to many family, friends, and co-workers.

We chose to start with this book, this year, because we want to highlight that feminism, and this project, is for everyone. All opinions (constructive and with no personal attacks, however) are welcome and we look forward to great discussion amongst all of us. I do hope that many of you will join us in this book and find out how broad feminism really is, and learn an easy way to answer some of those annoying questions.

Through the month we will be discussing the  book in more detail and talking about how feminism is, indeed, for everyone. We will be asking you what feminism is for you, as well, through a few exercises. Additionally, we will be talking about and exploring the life of bell hooks, a truly remarkable activist and author.