Reading Women: How the Great Books of Feminism Changed My Life (edition 2011)

I stumbled across this book at the library, and ended up buying a copy for myself because I want to refer back to it. Staal's "Reading Women" was one I really identified with. Life does change after becoming a wife and mother, and Staal acknowledges this. While struggling to deal with these changes, she decides to audit classes in feminist texts at her alma mater. There's much insight in this book, and I have already started reading, and looking for, many of the texts she refers to and discusses. ( )

though this book has great promise, i ultimately found it very disappointing. while the writer is contemplating a feeling of her identity being subsumed by the roles of mother and wife, she decides to retake women's studies 101 courses at her alma mater.

while she discusses the texts at length and their relevance to her, this book ended up being a retread of feminist theory for white women of privilege.

never once in the book does the writer acknowledge her own position of privilege (first of having the privilege of time, then the privilege of money, race, sexuality, etc.), or examine works by women of color, women who aren't (assumed) straight, or women in a different socioeconomic bracket than herself.

for someone searching for a new sense of self through self-awareness, this author is sadly (willfully?) oblivious to the ways in which feminism has been intrinsically changed and influenced by women who are not white, upper class, straight, able-bodied, etc.

while some may argue that the texts which were read in the classes were to blame for the narrow focus of the author, i disagree. there is so much more room for investigation into the many ways that these texts influence and interact with latter day feminisms, and the extent to which this affects not only the author's life and conception of herself but the larger world of which she is a part.

could have been so much more. ( )

I loved this book for many reasons- the authors voice was clear and genuine, and having several texts summarized and explained was great. I loved how she tied her personal story and reflections in. I am going to explore a few of the books she discussed. ( )

Stephanie Staal, finding herself in an Annapolis, MD suburbia and a husband and chlid, decides to retake feminist literature courses at Barnard, where she obtained her undergraduate degree. She reflects on the changes the years have wrought upon her as well as, to a lesser degree, the less passionate nature of feminist men and women today and the stigma attached to be called a feminist.

It is a well written book. Her thoughts are coherent and the conversations included as examples relevant. I don't think it's whiny as one reviewer suggested, why would it be curlish to complain when there are revelations of how the media subtly (and not so subtly) prepetuate stereotypes about women and what they should be able to do/put with? ( )

This book reminded me a lot of Reading Lolita in Tehran. With both books I loved the concept and the books that were being discussed, but I found the authors' voices grating and and as hard as I tried I couldn't make myself finish them.
I found Staal whiny (which was especially off-putting for a woman with her obvious advantages) and there wasn't enough interesting discussion (at least in the first few chapters which was as much as I could stand) to make up for that.