Are Women Human?

Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues by Catharine MacKinnon
2006 Weight: 2 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donation

 

In college, I did an independent study on Catharine MacKinnon, and I have never been able to give up the books from that course.  We studied them closely and constantly.  There were only three of us, working with our professor, to discuss and understand the work.  MacKinnon argued that pornography should be illegal and that it subordinates women.  I am not anti-pornography, but she is one smart woman and has some powerful ideas.  It was powerful to have someone pushing me and teaching me, constantly. If nothing else, you could use her work to make a strong argument for sex industry reform, and people have.  She has done incredible work on sex equality and the law, impacting sexual harassment, prostitution, rape, war crimes.  It is really impressive stuff.

Reading MacKinnon and reading the feminist scholars that tried to tear up her work made me terrified of ever trying to write or publish anything in the field of Women's Studies.  There are a lot of smart people out there, and there is a lot of anger and complexity to the ways people are oppressed.

I have read and re-read my MacKinnon books, and I know it is time for someone else to have them.  I am still not brave enough.  

You gotta love the title of this book though, right?  

 

 

Black Ice

Black Ice by Lorene Cary
2010
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Lending Library

I have no idea where I got this book.  Another lending library?  I am glad I grabbed it from wherever I did.  It is an autobiography about a woman I knew nothing about before reading it, but I cared about her right away.  She is a bright and motivated young girl that grew up in Philadelphia and went to an elite school in New Hampshire in the 70's.  The school was predominantly white, but it had begun accepting black students before she attended.  She got there and was tokenized but also taught and encouraged.  She found close friends and attempted to find herself.  Ultimately, she would become a teacher at that same school.  She clearly has conflicting emotions and feelings about her time there, understandably.  A teenager would anyway, but with being transplanted from one city and experience to another city and experience, while feeling the pressure to perform above average as a black teenage girl on a scholarship, it would have been overwhelming.  Lorene strives and succeeds and then she allows us into her private thoughts during that time.  It is great all around.























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March: Book One

March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell
2013
Weight: 1 lb
Method of Disposal: Gave to my friend, Deanie

  

I recently visited my Alma Mater for a career/volunteer fair--representing the animal shelter I manage, but I quickly became distracted, leaving the table with two very capable non-alums and meandered down to the bookstore.  I had heard it would be closing soon, and I thought I might want to buy a t-shirt or something one last time.  As I looked around, I realized that what I really wanted was all those really great recommendations (once requirements) you get from college professors.

I started to look by class at the rows of reading lists.  I found classes I would want to take and then checked out the books necessary for that class.  I couldn't really justify spending the money, but I bought March.  Reading a graphic novel really appealed to me at the time and John Lewis had been popping up everywhere since the dreadful day President Trump was elected president.  I need some inspiration.  I did end up enjoying it, though I got to the end quickly and was pretty disappointed not to have book 2 on hand.

I learned something I never knew about John Lewis--chickens.  My heart broke to see that little boy, scared, stoic in the car driving through Tennessee, to see those young men and women beaten with the permission of the police, to think of the death threats.  I could only imagine being a young boy riding on an old bus watching the money of the white schools shine as he drifted further away to a hand-me-down school with old books--though clearly with a librarian who had a lot of heart.

It sounds like this book is being used in schools, and I hope it reaches people who might be less likely to read a long novel.  The drawings are great and the story is moving no matter how you tell it, though everyone did a good job.