Intersectional feminism resources: getting started

All About Love, by bell hooks
All About Love offers radical, feminist new ways to think about love by showing its interconnectedness in our private and public lives. In eleven concise chapters, hooks explains how our everyday notions of what it means to give and receive love often fail us, and how these ideals are established in early childhood. She offers a rethinking of self-love (without narcissism) that will bring peace and compassion to our personal and professional lives, and asserts the place of love to end struggles between individuals, in communities, and among societies. Moving from the cultural to the intimate, hooks notes the ties between love and loss and challenges the prevailing notion that romantic love is the most important love of all. Visionary and original, hooks shows how love heals the wounds we bear as individuals and as a nation, for it is the cornerstone of compassion and forgiveness and holds the power to overcome shame.

Caleidoscopische visies: De zwarte, migranten- en vluchtelingen- vrouwenbeweging in Nederland, redactie door Nancy Jouwe, Maayke Botman, en Gloria Wekker
Caleidoscopische visies, voor het eerst gepubliceerd in maart 2001, was het eerste en enige boek in zijn soort in Nederland. Het stelde de prominente en initiërende rol centraal die zwarte, migranten- en vluchtelingenvrouwen (ZMV-vrouwen) hebben gespeeld in het nieuwe denken over gender en etniciteit in de late twintigste eeuw. De auteurs belichtten de met elkaar verweven uitsluitingspraktijken die ZMV-vrouwen tegenkwamen op meerdere plaatsen in de maatschappij op basis van gender, etniciteit, ‘ras’ of seksualiteit, en toonden daarmee de noodzaak aan voor intersectioneel denken en doen. Deze hernieuwde uitgave maakt de klassieker die de kijk op het feminisme en de vrouwenbeweging in Nederland heeft veranderd op veler verzoek weer beschikbaar. Ze bevat een geactualiseerde reflectie op de relevantie van intersectionaliteit in het licht van recente maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen, waarmee de activiteiten en het gedachtegoed van ZMV-vrouwen in Nederland nog prominenter op de kaart worden gezet. Samengesteld door Nancy Jouwe, Maayke Botman & Gloria Wekker Met bijdragen van Maayke Botman, Sarah Bracke, Esther Captain, Amalia Deekman, Halleh Ghorashi, Mariëtte Hermans, Isabel Hoving, Nancy Jouwe, Troetje Loewenthal, Helma Lutz, Gabbi Mesters, Nawal Mustafa, Ann Phoenix en Gloria Wekker.

Feminism for the 99%: A Manifesto, by Cinzia Arruza, Tithi Bhattacharya, and Nancy Fraser
Unaffordable housing, poverty wages, inadequate healthcare, border policing, climate change—these are not what you ordinarily hear feminists talking about. But aren’t they the biggest issues for the vast majority of women around the globe? Taking as its inspiration the new wave of feminist militancy that has erupted globally, this manifesto makes a simple but powerful case: feminism shouldn’t start—or stop—with the drive to have women represented at the top of their professions. It must focus on those at the bottom, and fight for the world they deserve. And that means targeting capitalism. Feminism must be anticapitalist, eco-socialist and antiracist.

Feminism is for Everybody, by bell hooks
Acclaimed cultural critic bell hooks offers an open-hearted and welcoming vision of gender, sexuality, and society in this inspiring and accessible volume. In engaging and provocative style, bell hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work. With her customary insight and unsparing honesty, hooks calls for a feminism free from barriers but rich with rigorous debate. In language both eye-opening and optimistic, hooks encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future.

Fugitive Feminism, by Akwugo Emejulu
What does existence mean for Black women without the anchor of humanity and the struggle to inhabit it? How can one be oneself without being human? What is it to become a fugitive from the confines of ‘the human’? Humanity has always excluded Others on the basis of race and gender; this is a book about studying the contours of Black women’s non-humanity, to ask what people might become if they chose to flee, following the footsteps of those who resisted enslavement. This audacious manifesto investigates Black women’s processes of divesting from humanity, drawing on the legacies of bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Angela Davis and others in the pantheon of Black feminism. Sociologist Akwugo Emejulu combines the concepts ‘fugitive’ and ‘feminism’ to signal that Black women’s becoming must be grounded in a collective process of speculative dialogue and action for liberation. Fugitive Feminism speculates about an emancipated new world to prefigure another mode of living and being.

Feminisme: Terug van nooit weggeweest, door Anja Meulenbelt
In 1976 schopte Anja Meulenbelt De schaamte voorbij de wereld in, een autobiografisch verhaal over liefde, seks en de beginjaren van de Amsterdamse vrouwenbeweging. Het boek werd in elf talen vertaald, ging meer dan een half miljoen keer over de toonbank en joeg een schokgolf door Vlaanderen en Nederland. Minder geweten is dat Meulenbelt in datzelfde jaar ook Feminisme en socialisme publiceerde, een pamflet waarin ze uitlegt dat het feminisme socialistisch zal zijn of niet zal zijn. En omgekeerd. In Feminisme. Terug van nooit weggeweest doet Meulenbelt die oefening nog eens over. Met verbazing stelt ze vast dat een groot deel van de feministische bewustwording van toen vervlogen is. Meulenbelt sloopt de heilige huisjes. Gaat feminisme écht over de gelijkheid tussen man en vrouw? Moeten feministen blij zijn met vrouwelijke politici en bedrijfsleiders die zich als cheerleaders van het neoliberalisme gedragen? ‘Voor feministen’, schrijft ze, ‘is dé hamvraag niet langer alleen: wat is goed voor vrouwen? We moeten ons ook afvragen in wat voor wereld we willen leven.’

A Feminist Theory of Violence: A Decolonial Perspective, by Françoise Vergès
The mainstream conversation surrounding gender equality is a repertoire of harassment, rape, abuse, femicide. These words suggest a cruel reality. But they also hide another that of gendered violence committed with the complicity of the State. In this book, Françoise Vergès denounces the carceral turn in the fight against sexism. By focusing on ‘violent men’, we fail to question the sources of their violence. There is no doubt as to the underlying racial capitalism, ultra-conservative populism, the crushing of the Global South by wars and imperialist looting, the exile of millions and the proliferation of prisons – these all put masculinity in the service of a policy of death. Against the spirit of the times, Françoise Vergès refuses the punitive obsession of the State in favour of restorative justice.

Greater than the Sum of Our Parts: Feminism, Inter/Nationalism, and Palestine, by Nada Elia
An inspiring and intersectional re-imagining of the path to liberation in Palestine ‘An inspiring call to action that deconstructs the many oppressive systems we currently find ourselves struggling against’ – Adam Horowitz, Mondoweiss How is the struggle for Palestinian freedom bound up in other freedom struggles, and how are activists coming together globally to achieve justice and liberation for all? In this bold book, Palestinian activist Nada Elia unpacks Zionism, from its hyper militarism to incarceration, its environmental devastation, and gendered violence. She insists that Palestine’s fate is linked through bonds of solidarity with other communities crossing racial and gender lines, weaving an intersectional feminist understanding of Israeli apartheid throughout her analysis. She also looks deeper into the interconnectedness of Palestine with Black, migrant, and queer movements, and with other indigenous struggles against settler colonialism, including that of Native Americans. Greater than the Sum of Our Parts is a powerful and hopeful account, highlighting the role of the Palestinian diaspora, youth, and women, and inspired by activists across the world.

Hood Feminism, by Mikki Kendall
Today’s feminist movement has a glaring blind spot, and paradoxically, it is women. Mainstream feminists rarely talk about meeting basic needs as a feminist issue, argues Mikki Kendall, but food insecurity, access to quality education, safe neighborhoods, a living wage, and medical care are all feminist issues. All too often, however, the focus is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. That feminists refuse to prioritize these issues has only exacerbated the age-old problem of both internecine discord and women who rebuff at carrying the title. Moreover, prominent white feminists broadly suffer from their own myopia with regard to how things like race, class, sexual orientation, and ability intersect with gender. How can we stand in solidarity as a movement, Kendall asks, when there is the distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others? (Good books review).

Men Explain Things to Me, by Rebecca Solnit
In her comic, scathing essay “Men Explain Things to Me,” Rebecca Solnit took on what often goes wrong in conversations between men and women. She wrote about men who wrongly assume they know things and wrongly assume women don’t, about why this arises, and how this aspect of the gender wars works, airing some of her own hilariously awful encounters. She ends on a serious note— because the ultimate problem is the silencing of women who have something to say, including those saying things like, “He’s trying to kill me!” This book features that now-classic essay with six perfect complements, including an examination of the writer Virginia Woolf ’s embrace of mystery, of not knowing, of doubt and ambiguity, a highly original inquiry into marriage equality, and a terrifying survey of the scope of contemporary violence against women.

Sister Outsider, door Audre Lorde
In Sister Outsider neemt Audre Lorde seksisme, racisme, leeftijdsdiscriminatie, homofobie en klassenwaan onder de loep. Haar essays laten zien hoe ingewikkeld identiteit is. Aan de hand van voorbeelden en anekdotes uit haar eigen leven onderzoekt ze welke barrières vrouwen tegenkomen en hoe daarmee om te gaan. Lorde geloofde in het erkennen en begrijpen van verschillen als drijvende kracht voor de vrouwenbeweging. De zwarte, feministische, lesbische schrijver en dichter had een uitzonderlijk talent om haar hoop en dromen om te zetten in heldere, krachtige taal. Haar essays ademen doortastendheid, onverschrokkenheid en bevlogenheid uit. Na bijna dertig jaar hebben ze nog niets aan zeggingskracht en actualiteit ingeboet. Sister Outsider, verschenen in 1984, is nog altijd een baanbrekend boek voor de ontwikkeling van het hedendaagse feminisme. Audre Lorde (1934-1992) was hoogleraar, dichter, schrijver en een revolutionaire zwarte feminist. Ze publiceerde zowel poëzie als proza en was politiek actief in burgerrechten-, pacifistische en feministische bewegingen. Lorde ontving diverse onderscheidingen, waaronder eredoctoraten van Hunter, Oberlin en Haverford Colleges, en kreeg de titel New York State Poet (1991-1993). Ze was een zelfbenoemde ‘zwarte lesbische feministische krijgsdichter’.

White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color, by Ruby Hamad
This explosive book of history and cultural criticism argues that white feminism has been a weapon of white supremacy and patriarchy deployed against Black and Indigenous women and all colonized women. It offers a long-overdue validation of the experiences of women of color. Taking us from the slave era—when white women fought in court to keep “ownership” of their slaves—through the centuries of colonialism—when they offered a soft face for brutal tactics—to the modern workplace, White Tears/Brown Scars. Examining subjects as varied as The Hunger Games, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the viral BBQ Becky video, and nineteenth-century lynchings of Mexicans in the American Southwest, Ruby Hamad builds a powerful argument about the entrenched systems of white supremacy that we are socialized within, a reality that we must apprehend in order to fight

Women, Race & Class, by Angela Davis
Angela Davis provides a powerful history of the social and political influence of whiteness and elitism in feminism, from abolitionist days to the present, and demonstrates how the racist and classist biases of its leaders inevitably hampered any collective ambitions. While Black women were aided by some activists like Sarah and Angelina Grimke and the suffrage cause found unwavering support in Frederick Douglass, many women played on the fears of white supremacists for political gain rather than take an intersectional approach to liberation. Here, Davis not only contextualizes the legacy and pitfalls of civil and women’s rights activists, but also discusses Communist women, the murder of Emmitt Till, and Margaret Sanger’s racism. Davis shows readers how the inequalities between Black and white women influence the contemporary issues of rape, reproductive freedom, housework and child care in this bold and indispensable work.

The Unscripted Revolution Podcast
Nikita Ramkisson covers intersectional feminism, journalism, mental health, and leftism. Raised in an anti-apartheid activist household, Nikita grew up with a love for human rights and good books. Being a survivor of childhood sexual assault, she developed bipolar disorder and wishes to debunk myths about mental illness and shed light on survivor issues through her writing. Some might call her a raging feminist and she is. Guided by bell hooks, Angela Davis, and other black feminists, Nikita wishes to uplift the voices of women of color in media spaces.

Undistracted
Brittany Packnett Cunningham is an activist, educator, and popular TV commentator—and a trusted voice for millions of people interested in social justice. Now, with UNDISTRACTED—an original podcast from The Meteor and Pineapple Street Studios—she aims her focus on the most pressing issues of our time through the lens of intersectional feminism. From the latest headlines to deep-dives with today’s most fascinating changemakers, UNDISTRACTED is your weekly guide to the revolution. 

Intersectionality Matters! is a podcast hosted by Kimberlé Crenshaw, and brought to you by The African American Policy Forum (AAPF), which is an innovative think tank. The Policy Forum is dedicated to advancing and expanding racial justice, gender equality, and the indivisibility of all human rights. 

Dismantled is a podcast for intersectional environmentalists. “We believe conversations about the climate crisis must center, and be led by, those most impacted by it: Black, Indigenous and POC communities.”

A Black trans Podcast. Marsha’s Plate is a lively podcast where three friends – Diamond Collier, Bre Starr, and Lee “LJ” Williamscome – come together every Thursday to share opinions and perspectives that centers the black perspective. Hosted by trans digital strategists, black feminists, civil right advocates, and pro Black ninjas. We explore topics of gender, current events, politics, and scumbags all around the world upholding systems of oppression from a black trans feminist lens.  With our funny no-holds-barred style we introduce you to new perspectives, stories that connect you to transness, and trans community leaders around the US.

The Guilty Feminist is a feminist comedy podcast hosted by Deborah Frances-White. Created by Frances-White and Sofie Hagen in 2015, the podcast features guests on a panel to discuss topics on and related to feminism, and is recorded in front of a live audience.

The Bechdel Cast is a weekly podcast about the representation of women in film. It is named after the Bechdel test. The Bechdel Cast is hosted by Los Angeles–based comedians Caitlin Durante and Jamie Loftus.

The Feminist Present is a podcast from the Clayman Institute for Gender Research at Stanford University. Hosts Adrian Daub and Laura Goode welcome a range of feminist scholars, journalists, creators, activists, and more. “Please join us as we use the gift of feminism to figure out what’s going on right now.”