So I haven't posted in a while, but I kept meaning to. First I was going to post about feminism and gender egalitarianism and whether or not they're mutually inclusive, but I sort of lazed out on that one. Then I was going to post about white toilet paper, but I figured there are only, like, two people on my friends list who can relate to that
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But, yeah...I can't imagine that an egalitarian can't be a feminist in today's society. But I bet that there were people in the past (and I wouldn't be surprised if such people exist still in some places) who considered themselves egalitarian but still thought of women as a different species/inferior class. History is full of texts where lower classes are going insane over the injustice of the upper classes or other races while the men writing these texts are the very people who are trying to suppress women in their own racial/social group. I know that Zora Neale Hurston faced sexism from within her community when she assumed that equality for the African Americans meant equality for men and women of their race. Her writings were suppressed and fell out of canon partly because men of her own community contributed to keeping it that way.
Also? Interesting question. Before I started answering, I actually assumed that it was impossible to be for an egalitarian to not be a feminist, but having thought of examples from history, I see that that's not the case. Unfortunately. Of course, such people, in our opinion, would not be egalitarian at all. It's really hard for me to understand how a person who can see that it's wrong for a certain kind of inequality and injustice to exist can't see the wrongess in all kinds of inequalities among people.
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Do you have any good reading recommendations for me?
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As for recommendations, I can't recommend Willa Cather's "A Lost Lady" enough. It has very familiar themes of the time, but it features a fallen heroine who is a survivor and wants to live despite the disgrace (unlike all the other feminists heroines who are running off to kill themselves). Additionally, Scott F. Fitzgerald was a big Cather fan and read "A Lost Lady" while he was working on his "Great Gatsby". He said that "The Great Gatsby" would've been a very different book had he not been influenced by "A Lost Lady." Really, when I read "The Great Gatsby" after having read "A Lost Lady," my perception of all the characters changed slightly and I realized many things that I never would've considered otherwise.
And Tanith Lee's "White as Snow" (not a Classic) is also really fun. It's a dark, creepy retelling of the Snow White story that goes to some very uncomfortable places. Not a happy book, but it's good.
And Pike's (since I already know that you kind of like him) "Final Friends" series, which I think I mentioned before. Not highly literary, but it's fun and a good mystery. His "Listerners" is also good and a bit like "Season of Passage" in its creepiness.
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