what i read on my winter vacation:
"development, sexual rights and global governance", edited amy hunt, 2010
anthology: some good stuff, some whatever stuff, as you'd expect. an interesting article about ngos as erotic sites (ara wilson), two articles that worked well set against each other- one about ways a world bank-funded project in the flower industry in ecuador enforced certain ideas about gender and relationships (by kate bedford), another about ways that various different kinds of family models are promoted by different groups in bolivia (susan paulson).
"beyond the pale", elana dykewomon, 1997.
yeah, i know it came out a million years ago. and i have to say, i didn't like it as much as i thought i was going to- i think maybe because it spawned a mini-genre (lesbian shtetl/coming-to-america nostalgia) that improved on the original? or maybe some of the others were earlier and this one's just not so great. i mean, it's totally a good read: i cried repeatedly.
girls to the front: the true story of the riot grrrl revolution, sara marcus, 2010
this was interesting, particularly reading it through my own experience of riot grrl; i read zines, did one, listened to riot grrl music, but never went to meetings or anything called riot grrl, though i was part of my highschool's feminist club: this circa 1995-1998. but anyway: this was great. smart journalism about music and culture and social movements that also takes time to have some analyisis of what was going on.
an intimate affair: women, lingerie, and sexuality, jill fields
the kind of interesting book you are also not surprised to learn is someone's dissertation: meaning, it is a very specific topic expanded on, interestingly, but could also use some more editing. a lot that was both interesting and predictable in this, some that was neither, a few things i'm still turning over in my head- but all of it needed more pictures.
unheroic conduct: the rise of heterosexuality and the invention of the jewish man, daniel boyarin, 1997
another "finally!" not that i read every last bit of it (i'm not interested enough in the freudian stuff to give it a ton of energy), but this was great. all about traditional jewish ashkenaz ideas of appropriate gender roles, which are not the typical western ones. some talmudic stuff, some eastern europe, some reactions to the both those roles and their dissonance with non-jewish culture's gender roles (namely, herzl's and bertha pappenheim (aka anna o of freudian fame.) yeah.
birthing the nation: strategies of palestinian women in israel, rhoda kanaaneh, 2002
we read the article in class: this is the book. more detailed on various fronts, and interesting, but not NEW. but totally solid, smart, self-reflective. was interestingly resonating in my head while i saw the new elia sulieman movie - "the time that remains"- both being about palestinian-israelis in the north of israel.
just kids, patti smith, 2010
still not totally done. totally enjoying reading about her and robert mapplethorpe and various famous people hanging out, though her writing style is a little annoying to me sometimes. oh, patti smith.
death without weeping, nancy scheper-hughes, 1992
not even halfway through- granted this is a 500+ page brick of a work- but this book is intense and awesome and great. ethnography of sickness and death and bodies and the ways all those are understood in a poor hillside community (aka favela) in brazil's northeast. super politically grounded in looking at the way both systems of production and systems of thought create super intensely fucked up situations. i am thinking about hunger now way more than i have before.
anthology: some good stuff, some whatever stuff, as you'd expect. an interesting article about ngos as erotic sites (ara wilson), two articles that worked well set against each other- one about ways a world bank-funded project in the flower industry in ecuador enforced certain ideas about gender and relationships (by kate bedford), another about ways that various different kinds of family models are promoted by different groups in bolivia (susan paulson).
"beyond the pale", elana dykewomon, 1997.
yeah, i know it came out a million years ago. and i have to say, i didn't like it as much as i thought i was going to- i think maybe because it spawned a mini-genre (lesbian shtetl/coming-to-america nostalgia) that improved on the original? or maybe some of the others were earlier and this one's just not so great. i mean, it's totally a good read: i cried repeatedly.
girls to the front: the true story of the riot grrrl revolution, sara marcus, 2010
this was interesting, particularly reading it through my own experience of riot grrl; i read zines, did one, listened to riot grrl music, but never went to meetings or anything called riot grrl, though i was part of my highschool's feminist club: this circa 1995-1998. but anyway: this was great. smart journalism about music and culture and social movements that also takes time to have some analyisis of what was going on.
an intimate affair: women, lingerie, and sexuality, jill fields
the kind of interesting book you are also not surprised to learn is someone's dissertation: meaning, it is a very specific topic expanded on, interestingly, but could also use some more editing. a lot that was both interesting and predictable in this, some that was neither, a few things i'm still turning over in my head- but all of it needed more pictures.
unheroic conduct: the rise of heterosexuality and the invention of the jewish man, daniel boyarin, 1997
another "finally!" not that i read every last bit of it (i'm not interested enough in the freudian stuff to give it a ton of energy), but this was great. all about traditional jewish ashkenaz ideas of appropriate gender roles, which are not the typical western ones. some talmudic stuff, some eastern europe, some reactions to the both those roles and their dissonance with non-jewish culture's gender roles (namely, herzl's and bertha pappenheim (aka anna o of freudian fame.) yeah.
birthing the nation: strategies of palestinian women in israel, rhoda kanaaneh, 2002
we read the article in class: this is the book. more detailed on various fronts, and interesting, but not NEW. but totally solid, smart, self-reflective. was interestingly resonating in my head while i saw the new elia sulieman movie - "the time that remains"- both being about palestinian-israelis in the north of israel.
just kids, patti smith, 2010
still not totally done. totally enjoying reading about her and robert mapplethorpe and various famous people hanging out, though her writing style is a little annoying to me sometimes. oh, patti smith.
death without weeping, nancy scheper-hughes, 1992
not even halfway through- granted this is a 500+ page brick of a work- but this book is intense and awesome and great. ethnography of sickness and death and bodies and the ways all those are understood in a poor hillside community (aka favela) in brazil's northeast. super politically grounded in looking at the way both systems of production and systems of thought create super intensely fucked up situations. i am thinking about hunger now way more than i have before.