bis eyonce a feminist? When in 2017 Adele snatches the Grammy Award for best record of the year with her album 25, declaring that she “couldn’t accept it because her heart was with Beyoncé, she had to win it”, one thing is understood: female solidarity had marked a definitive leap.
Yet the feminism of Beyoncé is definitely a pop feminism, full of facets.
The album Everything is Love with her husband (traitor) Jay-Z seemed inconsistent with female empowerment to most.
But then she in Freedom sings: “They served me lemons, and I made lemonade with them.”
That is: whatever happens in your life, the important thing is that something good, refreshing and important comes out of it. Like lemonade.
Enjoy the 4 must-read books of the week on feminism and empowerment.
1/ Books to read. Is Beyoncé a feminist?
Why read it
Do we still need feminism? To answer, we just need to ask ourselves a question: where are the women in the history books?
Is Beyoncé a feminist? (240 color illustrated pages) asks itself ten questions. And in answering she talks about the history of the feminist movement from its origins to today, why women took to the streets and what they wanted, tells the stories of Anna Maria Mozzoni and Franca Viola.
Everyday stories and news stories, some relevant others passed over in silence, which demonstrate because we still need feminism today, and what can we do.
Thanks to their experience the authors, Margaux Collet and Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu, answer these questions with facts, battles, hopes, small and big struggles, everyday history and irony. Because it is possible to build a more just and free world for everyone.
Info. Margaux Collet and Raphaëlle Rémy-Leleu. Is Beyoncé a feminist? Kiwi.
2/ Books to read. Faminism. Sexism is on the table
Why read it
«If the condition of women is inextricably linked to that of animals, can one be a feminist and a carnivore? Is reading Simone de Beauvoir over steak a betrayal of the cause?”
This is one of the questions journalist Nora Bouazzouni asks herself in Faminism. Sexism worked to be released on May 31st by Le plurali Editore.
With metaphors related to the world of cooking and an ironic and often sharp writing, Bouazzouni analyzes across the board how Sexism and patriarchy have pervaded the food sector since prehistoric times up to the aesthetic diktats of women’s magazines and the marketing of food products, passing through the kitchens of the house and those of starred restaurants.
With a structured theoretical framework, Bouazzouni sheds light on the ambiguous and destructive relationships between animal flesh, women’s bodies and between gender and gastronomy. In the end, the most indigestible ingredient remains patriarchy.
The preface is signed by chef Victoire Gouloubi.
Info. Nora Bouazzouni. Faminism. Sexism worked. The plurals editor.
3/ Books to read. The Scarlet Muse
Why read it
Paris, 1788. In a France on the brink of revolution, Olympe de Gouges goes beyond her time: she is an established and independent novelistlives alone, thanks to her words, in an attic in front of the very central Odéon theater, where her plays are staged despite the boycotts of the ComédieFrançaise.
But being the most famous and most hated writer in France is not enough for her. She feels that society needs women of her character to keep from sinking into what appears to be a chasm of blood and terror.
Thus he began to frequent the intellectual circles of the capital, and secret groups of rebellious women like her where mothers, shopkeepers and nobles dedicate themselves body and soul to the defense of the weakest and the freedom of all citizens.
The encounter with two very different men, who stand on opposite sides of the barricades, however, it puts her in front of the contradictions of an entire era: what if it were too late to save everyone?
While the city is aflame with Revolution, Olympe will move in the balance between dangerous attractions and ideals to pursue, fighting between the reasons of his heart and those of politics, between love and freedom.
Info. Sarah I. Belmonte. The Scarlet Muse. Rizzoli.
4/ Books to read. There is no going back
Why read it
Each story is personal and unique, and yet Monica J. Romano’s story is full of collective reflections and resonances.
The stages of his story, in fact, sometimes painful, often liberating and even joyful, offer us the possibility of listening to the voice of one of those people who, after all until the day before yesterday, the voice and the identity have been denied, object of ridicule, marginalization, condemnation, if not pure violence.
A firm and serene voice, which rvindicate your desires, your choices and your conquests, up to the most recent and unexpected: the election to the City Council of Milan, the first transgender woman to be elected in the public administration of the city.
At the same time his story allows us to retrace the tiring and still unfinished journey of the affirmation of the civil rights of LGBT+ people in Italy, from the 70s to today.
And again, it fulfills a fundamental task: that of providing correct information, of bringing order and precision to a debate that is too often polluted by falsehoods, preconceptions, instrumental positions.
And it does so because, as the author herself says, «oNow more than ever, we need to reach out to people and take responsibility for a universally understood language.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years it’s that when things explain themselves with understandable words and putting your face to it, fears and prejudices disappear».
Info. Monica J. Romano. There is no going back. Tea
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