book reviews 2009

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Book Review 2009 – Candy Girl

Tuesday 6th January, 2009 in Movies, Popular Culture, book reviews 2009, sex by Suzi | No comments

Candy Girl- Diablo Cody
Ok- let’s first get out the way that this is the women who wrote ‘Juno’ which is one of the best damn movies I have EVER seen, a woman who is so hip it hurts and who I am thus inclined to adore.

BEFORE  she went and wrote Juno, Diablo spent a year being a stripper and Candy Girl talks quite frankly about how she got into stripping – if you want a tale of childhood abuse, drugs and male violence then go somewhere else- Diablo has a college education, appears to be/or to have identified as a  feminist and has a perfectly happy nuclear family which contains both her birth parents and grew up in a perfectly nice middle class setting. The book is an all nighter- I couldn’t put it down. It’s well written, funny and full of dry wit and sarcasm which I like, and chocka with rock/punk/alternative references (she stripped to Aerosmith, Def Leppard and the Pixies!), although the hipster slang does get a little wearing in places. I’d recommend it as a pop corn read- won’t tax your brain or make you fat, but it is interesting and representative of the bubblegum pink hair and Suicide Girls era. I may just have to add Diablo Cody to my hero’s list.

Book Reviews 2009 – Manifesta

Tuesday 6th January, 2009 in Education, Politics, Popular Culture, book reviews 2009, feminism by Suzi | No comments

Manifesta – Jennifer Baumgardner & Amy Richards

A staple book for anyone with an interest in Third Wave Feminism, this book is, in a word AMAZING|!! Whilst I’ve tried reading the big Second Wave books (The Feminine Mystique, Of Woman Born, The Female Eunuch etc,) , they don’t speak to me because well, Second Wave is a generation behind me and whilst I’m interested in the history of it, it doesn’t make much sense to me in a contemporary political sort of way. Manifesta does , and includes brilliant examples of young women and their activism as well as pointing out things that just don’t work in a Second Wave context- Riot Grrrls and the Pro Girlie movement as an example. I’d reccomend this book to anyone who thinks they might be a feminist, but isn’t sure and to anyone else who wanted to know more and the Third Wave movement. I’d also recommend it to all those Second Wavers who like to inform the world that young women today aren’t activists or that young women can’t possible be feminist becase ‘insert reason here’.

I could rave about this book all night long. In the same way I read Backlash and had an OMG moment, reading Manifesta was a like a series of OMG moments that all led into each other. Manifesta has helped me re-analyze my feminism as valid and placed it in the context of my life and background. As a book it places Third Wave strongly into context. Yes we need to remember and respect the work our foremothers did- but we also need to respectfully remind them that we too are feminists and activists who have a different cultural and political experience and timeline and thus we will have a different feminism and a different activism.

If you haven’t read Manifesta I do strongly urge you to go forth and read it immediately!!!

More information about the book and it’s authors can be found here

Ch-Ch-Changes………..

Tuesday 6th January, 2009 in Uncategorized by Suzi | No comments

Right then bloggery peeps- as it’s a new year and all, there are going to be some changes around here!! The first one is the introduction of some regular features. At the moment one of these will be a book review- one of my New Years resolutions is to LJ review every book I read, and I’ll be posting reviews on here too. I’m not about to share with you all some of the quite frankly dire trashy literature I read, but I will be sharing my thoughts on books which generally fit with the site.These posts are unlikely to be longer than a paragraph or so, but I am hoping as always that they will kick start discussion!

I’ve also decided to run a few post series- one of the ideas I currently have is to run a series called ‘Icons’ which will be about Feminist icons, and generally people who are pro woman or pro feminism or who have been iconic figures to whoever writes the post.

Thirdly we do now have another contributor and I’ll be unveiling her identity officially, at some point this week!! We are on the look our for more bloggers, and the wider a spread of ideologies and stances we can get the better!! All pro-woman views welcome! If you are interested in contributing, whether in a one off/sporadic or regular capacity please do email suzi@femacadem.net.

My Christmas holiday officially ends tomorrow- I’m back to work and university tomorrow, so I’m not sure how regularly posts will be going up, but I am attempting this year to be stricter with myself about sitting down at least once a week and writing all the things that float around my head all week. Come April when I upgrade my phone I’ll be able to blog on the move, but at the moment I cannot access the blog unless using my laptop, so until April, I remain a sporadic but contemplative blogger!