Mi amiga Daniela, neurocientífica brillante, me pidió hace unas semanas recomendaciones de literatura feminista. Me emocioné con la petición y con la humildad de mi amiga. Sentí que a veces me pongo tan perdida en sofisticaciones filosóficas que se me olvida lo más básico: todas esas autoras fantásticas gracias a las que estoy donde estoy.
Así que pongo acá las recomendaciones que hice para que no se me olviden nunca <3
Dear Daniela,
Sorry it took me so long but here is my list of my essential feminist readings:
-
-
- Simone De Beauvoir works. She is definitely the fundamental author of feminism. You know that she died the exact day at the same time I was born? It’s so obvious I’m her reincarnation. The Second Sex is probably the most important book of the discipline, it is very long but the chapter on biology is pure gold. Maybe you can start with her novel The Woman Destroyed.
- Silvia Federici is another fantastic author, and she is Italian <3. She is very famous for her work about domestic labour and how that constitutes a severe gender inequality. I just read Witches, Witch-Hunting and Women by her and it was amazing and a super fun historic revision on the criminalization of womanhood.
- bell hooks is an amazing author too and has lots of books about black feminism. A book I totally recommend is The Will to Change because she writes about masculinities in a very compassionate way, also it is super easy to read.
- Audre Lorde’s essay The Master’s Tools Will Never Destroy the Master’s House is really important in feminism, also super short, inspiring and a direct criticism to structural racism and sexism.
-
I also like to read Reductress a hilarious satire feminist blog and gal-dem which has articles about being a young woman of color. There are amazing feminist filmmakers too, my favourite feminist films are Vagabond by Agnès Varda, The Piano by Jane Campion and Girlhood by Céline Sciamma.
I have to recommend too a fundamental feminist reggaeton song: Yo Quiero Bailar by Ivy Queen, to me it is a fantastic anthem against harassment and it’s also perfect for the dance floor!
Those I think are my basics, if you feel motivated and want to keep exploring the topic I can recommend authors as Gloria Anzaldúa scholar of chicana feminism, Patricia Hill Collins who wrote Black Feminist Thought and Rosi Braidotti, my lesbian idol and pioneer of posthumanism. You can also read The Cyborg Manifesto by Donna Haraway, which is a revolutionary work on feminism and machines that I use a lot on my research.
That’s it sister! Hope we can see each other in the future, meeting you has been amazing and I’m super thankful for all the energy you brought into all the Mozilla meetings. If you happen to be in Rotterdam some day please let me know!
xx
danae
*I think it is possible too to consider some works done by men, I can recommend the following exceptions because of the strong feminist narratives they have: Madame Bovary, novel by Gustave Flaubert; Gertrud, film by Carl Theodor Dreyer (I feel totally identified with the main character); and the song Corazones Rojos by the best Chilean person that has ever existed, Jorge González.