Episodes
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Life has been busy but we came out of hibernation to release this fall reading list! We'll be back in a few weeks with more episodes.
Show notes:
Books-
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, by Andrea Lawlor
How to do Nothing, by Jenny Odell
Females, by Andrea Long Chu
Once and Future Feminist, edited by Merve Emre
A Certain Hunger, by Chelsea G. Summers
Podcasts-
Novara FM
You're Wrong About - Online Shopping
Articles of Interest
TV Shows-
I May Destroy You, written/directed by Michaela Coel
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, directed by Laura Poitras
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In the FINAL episode of porn month, we interview Maggie MacDonald, a 4th year PhD student who studies the platformization of porn. We talk porn platforms, deepfakes, and anti-sex work policy in Canada.
To read all the articles discussed in this episode, head to Maggie's website: https://www.internetmaggie.com
Check out the Maggie's Toronto Sex Work Action Project here: https://www.maggiesto.org
Gender Troubles will be taking a little break over the summer to rest and write more great episodes! Thanks for listening and we'll be back in September with lots more content <3
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Missing episodes?
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Emma and Eva talk about the sex wars (also known as the porn wars), a time in the 1980s when debates on sexuality, pornography and kink dominated the feminist conversation.
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reading list:
Diary of a Conference on Sexuality
Pleasure and danger : exploring female sexuality (Gayle Rubin's "Thinking Sex" starts on page 267)
Against Sadomasochism: A Radical Feminist Analysis
Off our backs, "towards a politics of sexuality"
Juggling : a memoir of work, family, and feminism
Explanation of the Dworkin-MacKinnon Ordinance
Dworkin's "Against the Male Flood" and MacKinnon's "Only Words
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From Pompeii to Pornhub, Eva & Emma discuss the long history of porn.
Show notes:
https://www.filmsite.org/sexinfilms1.html
https://www.proquest.com/openview/31a0431f5269893f8a5632a062bf0a46/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=18750
https://susannapaasonen.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/01pornification23-32.pdf
https://monoskop.org/images/e/e7/Williams_Linda_Hard_Core_Power_Pleasure_and_the_Frenzy_of_the_Visible.pdf
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/how-the-internet-changed-porn-201674/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/30/internet-porn-says-more-about-ourselves-than-technology
https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2021/06/16/the-shady-secret-history-of-onlyfans-billionaire-owner/?sh=1b1496085c17
Staying power: The mainstreaming of the hard -core pornographic film industry, 1969–1990 Johnson, Stephen Patrick. University of Maryland, College Park ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2009. 3359387.
https://archive.org/details/historyofpornogr0000unse/page/2/mode/1up?view=theater
Pornography: A Secret History of Civilisation. TV Mini Series. 1999. -
We kick off Porn Month with a conversation with Kyla Hewson and Kristen Pue, of the podcast Pullback! Pullback investigates the ethical issues behind everyday goods and services. Kyla and Kristen help us work through the issues around the ethical consumption of pornography. What does it look like to be an ethical porn consumer? What are the best ways to directly support porn creators? Is OnlyFans like farm-to-table cuisine? Listen now to find out.
You can find Pullback here and follow them on Instagram Twitter Facebook
The book we discuss, "Porn Work: Sex, Labor and Late Capitalism" can be found here
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Support us on Patreon
We are a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network
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This episode, we talk through our thoughts about the leaked Supreme Court draft decision on Roe v. Wade.
Readings and Recommendations
Interrupting Criminalization, Abortion Decriminalization is Part of the Larger Struggle Against Policing and Criminalization
Reproaction, Understanding and Advocating for Self-Managed Abortion
Plan C, A Guide to Abortion Pills Online
Evan Greer, digital security thread
Caroline Duble, resource thread
Melissa Gira Grant, The Real Fight for Abortion Rights Is Not in the Courts or Congress
Jenny Brown, Without Apology: The Abortion Struggle Now (free ebook)
Science Vs, The Abortion Underground
5-4 Podcast, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health: The End of Roe
K. Adetoyin, No More Coat Hanger Imagery tiktok
Some lists of Abortion Funds: here, here, here, and here
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This week, Eva and Emma talk about surrogacy. They discuss different feminist perspectives on the topic and consider how we can expand the definitions of "parenthood" and "family" beyond the nuclear model.
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Support us on Patreon
We are a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network
READING LIST:
Anita L. Allen, "The Black Surrogate Mother"
Elizabeth S. Scott, "Surrogacy and the Politics of Commodification"
Radiolab, "Birthstory"
Angela Davis, "Surrogates and Outcast Mothers: Racism and Reproductive Politics in the Nineties"
Katherine B. Lieber, "Selling the Womb: Can the Feminist Critique of Surrogacy Be Answered?"
Barbara Katz Rothman, "Reproductive Technologies and Surrogacy: A Feminist Perspective"
Sophie Lewis, "Full Surrogacy Now: Feminism Against Family" \
Sophie Lewis, "What is Family Abolition?"
"Baby M" Surrogate Mother who fought for custody, video
Cover image: Louise Bourgeois, "The Family" (2007)
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What's postmodern feminism? In this episode we desperately try to answer that question!
Show notes:
"Explainer: What is Postmodernism" by David Palmer, 2014
Artland "What is Dadaism?"
"On Judith Butler & Performativity" by Sarah Salih, 2007
Feminist thought : a comprehensive introduction" by Rosemarie Tong, 1989
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 3. Feminist Postmodernism
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, 1999.
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Eva and Emma talk about the male gaze, from its origins in feminist film criticism to how the concept gets used today. They also discuss what is often left out from the discourses around the male gaze... (hint: it's capitalism) and also get interrupted by Emma's lovey, loud cat!
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Support us on Patreon
We are a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network
READING LIST:
Big Mama, tiktok
Issues in Feminist Film Criticism (includes 'Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema' and 'Women and Representation')
Janell Hobson, 'Viewing in the Dark: Toward a Black Feminist Approach to Film'
Caroline Evans and Lorraine Gamman, 'The Gaze Revisited, or Reviewing Queer Viewing'
John Berger, 'Ways of Seeing' show and book
Laura Mulvey, 'Afterthoughts on ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’'
Guerrilla Girls, archive
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 'The Female Gaze' video series
Molly Moss, 'thoughts on a queer gaze'
Eliza McDonough, 'Radical Queer Gazes'
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In this episode, Eva & Emma discuss the history of gender discrimination within the Canadian Indian Act, and the Indigenous women who have been fighting to overturn this sexism since the 1960's.
Show notes:
Indigenous authors and organizations:
Settee, Priscilla. “Indigenous Women Charting Local and Global Pathways Forward.” The English Journal, vol. 106, no. 1, National Council of Teachers of English, 2016, pp. 45–50 Collaborative Process on Indian Registration, Band Membership, and First Nation Citizenship Fact Sheet, Government of Canada, Mohawk Council of Akwesasne Ontario Native Women's Association, Feathers of Hope Simpson, Audra. Mohawk Interruptus: Political Life Across the Borders of Settler States. Durham ; London: Duke University Press, 2014. Gehl, Lynn. 2000. “The Queen and I: Discrimination Against Women.” Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers De La Femme Volume 20, Number 2 Borrows, John. 2016. “Unextinguished: Rights And The Indian Act”. University of New Brunswick Law Journal Volume 67. The Indian Act Said What?, Native Women's Association of Canada Ongoing Indian Act Inequity Issues- Enfranchisement & Marital Status, Native Women's Association of Canada Presentation to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Indigenous and Northern Affairs Re: Bill S-3 – An Act to amend the Indian Act (elimination of sex- based inequities in registration) Submitted by Dr. Pamela D. PalmaterOther sources:
Gender discrimination persists in Canada’s Indian Act, United Nations committee rules, APTN National News Bill C-31, Indigenous Foundations, First Nations & Indigenous Studies, UBC https://www.sac-isc.gc.ca/eng/1467214955663/1572460311596 Milloy John. 1991. “The Early Indian Acts: Developmental strategy and constitutional change.” In Sweet Promises: A Reader on Indian-White Relations in Canada, edited by J.R. Miller. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. Day, S. (2019). Equal Status for Indigenous Women— Sometime, Not Now : The Indian Act and Bill S-3. Canadian Woman Studies, 33(1-2). Retrieved from https://cws.journals.yorku.ca/index.php/cws/article/view/37770 Indian Act Sex Discrimination, Gwen Brodsky Women in Canadian History: Mary Two-Axe Earley, Rise Up Feminist Archive -
In the late 1800s, both First-wave feminism and the women-lead Temperance Movement were gaining steam in North America. But why did so many more women join the temperance movement than the suffrage cause? Eva tells Emma about the different strategies both movements used to recruit members, focusing in on the ways christian morality and fears over family safety helped (white, Protestant) women conceive of themselves as political participants.
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FacebookSupport us on Patreon
We are a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network
Reading List:
Sophie Lewis, Shebeen Queens
Elizabeth K. Churchill, article in The Women’s Journal
Mother Stewart, Memories of the crusade; a thrilling account of the great uprising of the women of Ohio in 1873, against the liquor crime
Criminal, ep 73 Carry A. Nation
Suzanne M. Marilley, Frances Willard and the Feminism of Fear
The Canadian Encyclopedia, Temperance Movement in Canada
Frances Willard, Hints and Helps in our Temperance Work
Jack S. Blocker, Jr., Separate Paths: Suffragists and the Women's Temperance Crusade
OSU, Woman's Crusade of 1873-74
Cover Image: "A woman's liquor raid - how the ladies of Fredericktown, O. abolished the traffic of ardent spirits in their town" from The National Police Gazette, Nov. 8 1879
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In this week's episode, Emma tells Eva about the history of domestic work, and the patterns of colonialism and racism that still permeate this area of employment. Plus, a rundown of some major successes in domestic worker collective organizing that have resulted in better wages, better working conditions, and more rights for these workers.
Cover image: Colonial Dining by William Henry Jackson, 1895
Show notes:
Modigliani, Kathy. “BUT WHO WILL TAKE CARE OF THE CHILDREN? CHILDCARE, WOMEN, AND DEVALUED LABOR.” The Journal of Education, vol. 168, no. 3, Trustees of Boston University, 1986, pp. 46–69, http://www.jstor.org/stable/42741755.
MATHER, CELIA. “Domestic Workers: Their Time Now.” International Union Rights, vol. 17, no. 4, International Centre for Trade Union Rights, 2010, pp. 17–19, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41937560.
Parreñas, Rhacel Salazar. “The Indenture of Migrant Domestic Workers.” Women’s Studies Quarterly, vol. 45, no. 1/2, The Feminist Press at the City University of New York, 2017, pp. 113–27, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44474112.
Nanny Knows Best: The History of the British Nanny, Katherine Holden, History Press, 2013
https://www.domesticworkers.org/about-domestic-work/domestic-worker-history/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/03/hellraiser-juana-nicolas/
https://canadianlabour.ca/canadas-unions-call-for-recognition-of-the-importance-of-domestic-workers/
https://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:12100:0::NO::P12100_ILO_CODE:C189
https://www.ryerson.ca/socialjustice/social-justice-week/2020/10/united-for-domestic-workers-rights/
https://www.cbc.ca/archives/entry/daycare-during-wartime
https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2009-09-06-0909050150-story.html
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/legal-scholar-fights-to-protect-domestic-workers-from-exploitative-conditions-1.5893958
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/advocates-call-for-changes-to-ottawa-s-nanny-program-1.527167
https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/campaigns/foreign-worker-rights.html
https://www.vox.com/2018/4/26/17275708/housekeepers-nannies-sexual-harassment-laws
https://fee.org/articles/unionizing-nanny/
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/20/obituaries/dorothy-bolden-overlooked.html
https://ca.talent.com/salary?job=nanny
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This week: a celebration of the life and work of bell hooks, who died last week at the age of 69. bell was an unparalleled writer, poet, and theorist, and was incredibly influential in the feminist movement. In this episode, Eva & Emma discuss some of their favourite pieces by bell.
Please read the following pieces of writing about bell, written by Black folks and people of colour.
Hua Hsu: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/postscript/the-revolutionary-writing-of-bell-hooks
Arabelle Sicardi: https://arabellesicardi.substack.com/p/bell-hooks-will-live-forever
Maiysha Kai: https://www.theroot.com/bell-hooks-author-educator-and-feminist-icon-dead-at-1848220902
Tao Leigh Goffe: https://www.vulture.com/2021/12/bell-hooks-books-essays-to-read.html
Lynnée Denise:https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2021-12-19/appreciation-bell-hooks
Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés: https://twitter.com/CeciliaMilanes/status/1471238070653657096
A compilation of people:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/dec/16/bell-hooks-remembered-she-reminded-us-of-the-better-world-we-were-working-towards
Read full books and articles by bell hooks online. Please consider donating to Bilphena’s library! https://www.bilphenaslibrary.com/books
Show notes:
https://blackrosefed.org/intersectionalism-bell-hooks-interview/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLMVqnyTo_0
http://artsites.ucsc.edu/faculty/gustafson/FILM%20165A.W11/film%20165A%5BW11%5D%20readings%20/hooksparis.pdf
https://www.uwyo.edu/aded5050/5050unit12/theory%20as%20liberatory%20prac.pdf
https://savedbythe-bellhooks.tumblr.com
Cover image by. James Keyser, 1992
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In this episode, Eva tells Emma about the 1970's "Wages for Housework" movement, an international campaign calling for housework and care work to be compensated. They discuss the movement's radical grassroots origins, different feminist perspectives on the gendered division of labour, and the legacy of the movement in today's working and home life. Digressions include conversations about training squirrels and cleaning up roommate's beard hair.
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We are a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network
Reading List:
Wendy Edmond, All Work and No Pay : women, housework, and the wages due
Silvia Federici, Wages Against Housework
Ruth Schwartz Cowan, More Work For Mother
Louise Toupin, The History of Wages for Housework
Gender difference in housework stats
Mariarosa Dalla Costa, Women and the Subversion of the Community
image: poster from the See Red Women's Workshop
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This week, Eva and Emma get into an introduction to Postcolonial Feminism. They discuss the origins of postcolonial theory, examine how Western feminists frame so-called "third world" women and highlight the ways in which feminist rhetoric gets weaponized to perpetuate colonialism.
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Reading List:Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
Routledge’s The post-colonial studies reader
Chandra Mohanty, “Under Western Eyes”
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak”
Sara Ahmed, excerpt from Strange Encounters: Embodied Others in Post-Coloniality
Lila Abu‐Lughod, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?"
Angela Y. Davis, Freedom Is a Constant Struggle
Rich, Janine, “"Saving" Muslim Women: Feminism, U.S Policy and the War on Terror”
image: Leyly Matine-Daftary, PORTRAIT OF FARIDEH GOUHARI
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In this episode, Emma tells Eva about the early roots of Ecofeminism and its strange, essentialist solutions to fighting patriarchy and capitalism. Side-tangents include Aristotle, The Giving Tree, and mind-body dualism.
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Support us on Patreon
General Overview of Ecofeminism by Laila Fariha Zein & Adib Rifqi Setiawan
Reading List:
Feminist Environmental Philosophy, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2015 Edition) by Warren, Karen J., edited by Edward N. Zalta
The Paradox of Gendering Nature by G. Brach
Feminism, Western Culture, and The Body, in Unbearable Weight by Susan Bordo
The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution by Carolyn Merchant
Ecofeminism by Vandana Shiva and Maria Mies
Women and Life on Earth records (WLOE)
Climate Change and Gender Justice: International Policy and Legal Responses by Kameri-Mbote, Patricia
Grassroots Activism: An Exploration of Women of Color’s Role in the Environmental Justice Movement by Rainey, Shirley A., and Glenn S. Johnson
The store of early ecofeminist action regarding the Love Canal neighbourhood built on a toxic dump site
"Columbus thought the world was shaped like a titty" article
Image described in opening
Ecofeminism diagrams by Sarah Davis
Cover image from The Minnesota Women's Press -
Eva gets into Adrienne Rich's 1976 book "Of Woman Born" and talks about radical feminist approaches to motherhood. We discuss the narrow definition of Rich's "mother" figure, Black feminist responses to her concepts, and the Texas abortion ban. Plus, a rundown on the censored Judith Butler interview in the Guardian.
*Content warning*: This episode contains discussion of abortion, infanticide, and mental health struggle.
Cover image painting by Chantal Joffe, 2004
Reading List:
Judith Butler Interview with Jules Gleeson https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/sep/07/judith-butler-interview-gender; The portion of the Interview that was deleted by The Guardian https://www.patreon.com/posts/55912898
Of Woman Born: Motherhood as Experience and Institution, Adrienne Rich, 1976 https://archive.org/details/ofwomanbornmothe00rich/page/n7/mode/2up
From Motherhood to Mothering: The Legacy of Adrienne Rich's Of Woman Born, edited by Andrea O'Reilly, 2004 https://www.scribd.com/document/336903061/Andrea-O-Reilly-From-Motherhood-to-Mothering-Th-BookZZ-org
The Meaning of Motherhood in Black Culture and Black Mother-Daughter Relationships, Patricia Hill Collins, 1987 https://www.proquest.com/docview/1300131753?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true
Motherhood Reconceived: Feminism and the Legacies of the Sixties, Lauri Umansky, 1996 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Motherhood_Reconceived/_7IUCgAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0
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This week, Eva talks to Emma about the origins of the term “intersectionality”, how the definition has changed, and the importance of crediting and centring Black feminists. Plus-- a rant about the upcoming OnlyFans pornography ban.
Reading List:Kimberle Crenshaw, “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics and Violence against Women of Color”:
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/critique1313/files/2020/02/1229039.pdf
Kimberle Crenshaw, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics”
http://blogs.law.columbia.edu/critique1313/files/2020/02/1229039.pdf
Alex Kirshner, for Slate:
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://slate.com/technology/2021/08/onlyfans-porn-ban-cruel.html&sa=D&source=editors&ust=1629763228495000&usg=AOvVaw0d-owS6fv4uSJO_8kHcAHm
Tilly Lawless’s instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/tilly_lawless/?hl=en
Intersectionality Venn diagram/Wheel:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/sylviaduckworth/50245846893
Jane Coaston, for Vox:
https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination
Crenshaw interview with Columbia Law School:
https://www.law.columbia.edu/news/archive/kimberle-crenshaw-intersectionality-more-two-decades-later
Sojourner Truth’s 1851 speech:
https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/sojtruth-woman.asp
Photograph used in cover image by Miranda Barnes, https://www.mirandabarnes.com
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In this episode, Emma provides an overview of second wave, radical feminism. What does it mean to be a radical feminist, and is this term still useful today? Listen to find out!
Reading list:Nachescu, Voichita. “Radical Feminism and the Nation: History and Space in the Political Imagination of Second-Wave Feminism.” <i>Journal for the Study of Radicalism</i>, vol. 3, no. 1, 2009, pp. 29–59. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/41887617
Leigh Miller, A History of Radical Feminism https://www.sutori.com/story/a-history-of-radical-feminism–Pf5HsUfrBG26boQJdwtLbWUS
Kathie Sarachild, Conciousness Raising Groups: A Radical Weapon, https://vrrws.seriousotters.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Feminist-Revolution-Consciousness-Raising-A-Radical-Weapon-Kathie-Sarachild.pdf
Carol Hanisch, The Personal is Political, https://webhome.cs.uvic.ca/~mserra/AttachedFiles/PersonalPolitical.pdf
Gillette, Meg. “Modern American Abortion Narratives and the Century of Silence.” Twentieth Century Literature, vol. 58, no. 4, 2012, pp. 663–687. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/24247022
***Trigger Warning: This article is explicit, and speaks about sexual violence***
Andrea Dworkin, Prostitution and Male Supremacy, http://www.nostatusquo.com/ACLU/dworkin/MichLawJourI.htmlErica West, The Pitfalls of Radical Feminism, https://jacobinmag.com/2017/07/radical-feminism-second-wave-class
Roz Kaveney, Woman Enough, https://www.advocate.com/print-issue/current-issue/2014/07/16/woman-enough
Audre Lorde, The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House, from the book Sister Outsider, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32951.Sister_Outsider
Barry, Kathleen. “The Underground Economic System Of Pimping.” <i>Journal of International Affairs</i>, vol. 35, no. 1, 1981, pp. 117–127. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/24357006
Barry, Kathleen. “Female Sexual Slavery: Understanding the International Dimensions of Women’s Oppression.” <i>Human Rights Quarterly</i>, vol. 3, no. 2, 1981, pp. 44–52. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/761856
Crenshaw, Kimberle. “Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color.” <i>Stanford Law Review</i>, vol. 43, no. 6, 1991, pp. 1241–1299. <i>JSTOR</i>, www.jstor.org/stable/1229039. Accessed 20 Aug. 2021.
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In this episode, Eva talks about the first birth control clinic in the US and the different tactics feminists of this time used to spread their message.
Reading List:
Ellen Chesler, Woman of valor: Margaret Sanger and the birth control movement in America.
https://archive.org/details/womanofvalormar000ches/page/n11/mode/2up
Margaret Sanger, An Autobiography.
https://archive.org/details/margaretsangerau1938sang/page/n1/mode/2up
Jill Lepore, The secret history of Wonder Woman.
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780804173407
Peter C Engelman, A history of the birth control movement in America.
https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780313365096
Emma Goldman. Marriage and love.
https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/goldman/works/1914/marriage-love.htm
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