5 books to get started in feminism

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If you want to approach feminism, we recommend 5 books that will help you understand how it came about, what it consists of and what types of feminisms there are

Why is it necessary that today we talk about feminism? Why is there no longer talk about a feminism but about 'feminisms'? This movement has grown exponentially in recent years and more and more women (and even men) come together to look with critical eyes on the world in which we live and the long way to go to reach equality and close all gaps that still remain in force.

Leer en español: 5 libros para iniciarte en el feminismo

If you have been curious about this movement, if you do not fully understand what it is, if you already consider yourself a feminist but want to delve into the subject or if you simply want to read about it, we recommend these five books:

Feminism for beginners (Feminismo para principiantes), Nuria Valera

As its name suggests, this book will help you to understand feminism in its most basic form with a simple and didactic language, since Nuria Valera seeks to bring her readers closer to the movement in a way that does not entangle.

The book tells in a brief but substantial way, how the movement has developed for three centuries to what it is today. In addition, it is a guide of the concepts and categories of feminism that you will find in other books. This book has been edited several times and its last edition was in collaboration with the illustrator Antonia Santolaya, collaboration from which came a comic, if you want to approach the book in an even more friendly.

Dear Ijeawele, or a feminist manifesto in fifteen suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author recognized for becoming one of the most important cultural figures in recent years. Hier literature is accurate, but in addition to her works of fiction has essays and reflections around feminism.

Dear Ijeawele, or a femenist manifesto in fifteen suggestions is a very short book in which she talks to a mother who has just given birth and gives her fifteen tips to educate her children from love and respect towards others and towards origins and roots. This book is an invitation to form a more just society in which women have a place and a voice based on what really changes a society: education.

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Bad feminist, Roxane Gay

If at any time you have been afraid to approach feminism because you have heard comments like "you cannot like reggaeton and be a feminist", this is the book for you. Roxane Gay, from an acid humor and a satirical language, explains why she is a bad feminist and why that does not make her less feminist. Bad feminist shows what the contradictions of feminism are and shows you the movement using pop culture and its stereotypes to lead you to reflections on respect and equality.

Men explain things to me, Rebecca Solnit

Rebecca Solnit writes this series of essays in order to show that talking about feminism and being a feminist is still necessary, especially in an area in which men explain things to women in a condescending way because, independently of the woman with whom they are talking, they assume that they know more than she does about the subject.

It also problematizes the fact of the normalization that has historically been given to this and that women have accepted for centuries. In the essays, Solnit also tells personal experiences, such as an occasion when a man started talking to her about a book he had read without even knowing that she was the one who wrote it, even though she had already mentioned the information during dinner.

The second sex, Simone de Beauvoir

Simone de Beauvoir is one of the writers you have to read at least once in your life. Her work was extremely important in the consolidation of a theory of feminism and this book, published in 1949, is one of the pillars for the feminism of the second wave.

If you want to understand why the feminist struggle began and the role that has been given to women historically, defining it from another and not from itself, this book is for you. You must bear in mind that for this moment feminism was not problematized from other theories and movements, as it is done now, so you will surely be surprised.

LatinAmerican Post | Vanesa López Romero

Translated from "5 libros para iniciarte en el feminismo"