Category: literature

Among the things that don’t count …

[Bernadette Powell, a black woman from Ithaca, New York, is now serving a 15-year-to-life sentence … because in 1978 she shot and killed her ex-husband.] [T]he Tompkins county prosecutor … argued … that [she] had no reason to fear bodily harm from her ex-husband because although the man admittedly had committed many violent acts against …

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from Jack Holland’s A Brief History of Misogyny

(All quotes are from Jack Holland’s A Brief History of Misogyny) “It was a battle for the ultimate mechanism of control within a woman’s body—her reproductive cycle. For a woman, this right is the most crucial of all, and the key to achieving real autonomy.  Misogyn denies her autonomy; her subordination depends on the lack …

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John Varley’s Dark Lightning

It’s just space opera, but I love that the girls kick ass and the prettyboy hunk is pretty much useless.

Women’s Work, Kari Aguila

An interesting novel, worth the read! “Think about how different our world is going to be when this generation of boys grows up, having been allowed to grow into whole, good, decent men. Nobody is going to tell them that they have to go through life being some stupid caricature of masculinity anymore. They can …

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What harm does it do?

So I’ve received a 1/5 review of Gender Fraud: a fiction at Goodreads by someone claiming, basically, TERF!!! Expected. Sigh. But the reviewer did ask a question that I should have been able to answer, which was ‘What harm does it do if a transwoman wants to call herself a woman?’ Well, here’s the answer:

The Assistants by Camille Perri – highly recommended!

Just finished reading Camille Perri’s The Assistants — highly recommended! It’s Nine to Five updated and with a great moral element; better than any nonfiction book about the income inequity between the top 1% and the rest of us … With attitude, to boot! “Robert had tie-clips that cost as much as those [student loan] …

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The Privilege of Men, Judith Mazzucco

The Privilege of Men by Judith Mazzucco starts as an unremarkable novel about the meat industry, but then WHAM! the metaphor in chapter 16—  At least I think, I hope, it’s a metaphor and not something that’s actually happening somewhere right now.  Though—and I’m not sure whether this is Mazzucco’s point or whether she’s ‘just’ …

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The End of Men – Christina Sweeney-Baird

Just read The End of Men, Christina Sweeney-Baird – well worth the read, one of several notable bits: [She pretends to be infected] “I have never felt so powerful.  This must be what men used to feel like.  My mere physical presence is enough to terrify someone into running.  No wonder they used to get …

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“Men need Sex” — a story about a story

So I wrote a story, “Men Need Sex.”  I started with the mistaken, but wide-spread, belief that men need sex (PIV).  Mistaken because, unlike food, water, and oxygen, without sex, you don’t die.  Then, ‘inspired’ by Roger Elliott, I thought, ‘What if?’  What if men really did die if they didn’t get sex.  I postulated …

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The Authority Gap, Mary Ann Sieghart – A MUST READ

As I was reading this book, I realized right away I wanted to post about it, so I started making a list of bits to mention, but very quickly there were just too many!!  So – A MUST READ.  This book is FULL of all the stats you ever wanted to support your personal experience: …

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