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I was an avid reader as a child, and I have been trying to reconnect with my inner child's curiosity lately so I have been reading more books by feminist authors. I have halfway through Dworkin's bibliography, but also read Julie Bindel's Feminism for Women and Kathleen Stock's Material Girls. I like to keep up with contemporary work, but the two that have really stayed with me was Helen Joyce's Trans and Louise Perry's The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.
Here are my overarching thoughts, and I would love to hear from others who have also read the book.
- I agree with Louise but i think she is simplistic in thinking everyone can marry because there just isn't enough eligible men to go around. Countries like Korea have low birth rates because the women are tired of misogyny. India and China have a surplus of men so they will never get married anyway, should women be collateral damage?
- The trans movement is the sneakiest male movement in history, it has allowed men to gain access to our spaces without consequence and is DARVO happening on the public sphere. we must protect women's single sex spaces across the board. Men are starting to dehumanize us just down to body parts.
- liberal feminism is toxic cancer and just pink patriarchy, we will need to fight it aggressively by allying across political spectrum
- we have to incentivize men to treat us better and the only way they will do that is if we don't kowtow to everything they want. We have to be the choosers.
What did you think about the books?
I liked Louise Perry's book enough to start listening to her podcast, and i think she identifies real problems, but a lot of her views leave me undecided. I definitely agree with her 100% that we should recognise the spiritual and psychological significance of love and sexuality more than we do, and also that women with children should have more of a political voice.
But still, whenever I hear about Christian morals combined with women's sexuality at the back of my mind I also think of the Magdalene Laundries....... and the reasons why it was necessary for society to become more secular in the first place. It sometimes seems like her train of thought might ultimately take choices away from women again, rather than offer them more.
I do agree with her that young women have been essentially sold a myth, that men and women are the same - and we do women a disservice by pretending that's the case. Rather than encouraging women to wait a specific time before they have sex, it would be nice to have initiatives like better education around things like abusive and manipulative relationships (which I think many fwbs are).
I read Louise Perry's The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. I enjoyed it. The one thing I didn't agree with was she implied that all women should marry and have kids but I agreed with everything else which was about 80-90% of it. It's a good book to read if you're very against porn and the sex trade because she makes some excellent points on those topics.
Louise Perry’s was one of the first feminist books I read when I got back into reading. Her dedication to “all the women who learned it the hard way” genuinely makes me tear up and I ugly cried when I first opened the book. How I wish I knew these things before I let men use me as a young 19 year old girl. I participated in hook up culture and situationships from 19-20. Thank god it was only a short amount of time because the experiences I had traumatized me for a long time. For Christmas, I bought every woman in my life a copy. Even if they’re not super into feminist media, I know the message will serve them. As the other comments said, I agree with most of what Louise Perry said. She makes a lot of good points. Casual sex harms women and we are risking so much by participating in it. Birth control has fucked up our health. Now I wanna give her the benefit of the doubt when she talks about marriage. I really wanna believe that she obviously means find a GOOD, HVM to have children with…..but as we all know, good men are becoming increasingly rare and there just aren’t many to go around. But I think saying women should have children isn’t being realistic. Motherhood is not all sunshine and rainbows. There’s a reason more and more of us are opting out of it. Because we see it for what it is. And then there’s the fact that many mothers regret having their children, their lives are awful. But she likes to say that it’s the best thing in the world and nothing else we do would ever compare. She’s said in many many interviews, you should have children so you’re not alone when you grow old……well that is not a good enough reason to birth a whole ass person ma’am. She also talks a lot about divorce and how terrible it is on children and you should always try to stay together with your spouse for the sake of the children…well sure, in a perfect world. But nobody’s divorcing just because. Better two happy homes than one broken. Or better yet, sometimes having your abusive/toxic parent not be in your life is the most beneficial. So to wrap my comment up, I think she means well…..but is very naive. I’ve listened to many interviews with Helen Joyce, she is a fabulous woman. Very smart, no bullshit lady. I could listen to her for hours. I will be reading Trans soon as I’m done what I’m currently reading ❤️ (which is In Defense of Witches which has been fantastic btw)
I just finished Louise Perry’s book, and I loved it! As a woman not interested in having children, some of her material didn't connect with me. However, overall, it was a phenomenal book! I strongly agree that women should wait to have sex. Not for a moral reason but because most men are misogynistic, violent, or won't care to satisfy you. It's best to weed these men out before anything physical happens. I hate how libfem women will agree that there is an issue with cultural misogyny but then co-sign casual sex.
Any time anybody is talking about women's sexuality as anything other than what is HERS, up to and including restrictions "for her benefit" deserves the side-eye.
I haven't read these books, but I am adding them to my list.