When Esquire magazine put up a list of 75 Books Every Man Must Read (which you can find here in the form of a rather lovely slideshow) Jezebel.com found the list "extremly myopic" relying as it does on the "old white dude cannon" with the token great Russian thrown in and only one female author (Flannery O'Connor). So they invited readers to help them compile a list 75 Books Every Woman Should Read.
And here 'tis. Enjoy!
[Found via Conversational Reading]
And here 'tis. Enjoy!
[Found via Conversational Reading]
3 comments:
I am inspired by Flannery O'Connor, in part because she was a fellow lupus sufferer.
"The old white dude cannon"
*giggles*
-Jen
Am always a tad amused (or irritated, depending on my frame of mind at that point)when you hear of these "Must Read" books, especially since it evokes rarely pleasant memories of being forced to pick up that dreary academic text (you MUST REVISE) in school when you'd rather spend that time unravelling that "Mysterious Affair At Styles" or just out kicking a soccer ball with your mates.
And when you add a "gender divide" to that whole exercise, it makes me wonder even more:
Books every Man should read- Why? Because it makes me a better man? For some spellbinding insights into the Male Psyche? A Rite Of Passage thingy alongside the Spartan Agoge or popping your cherry that initiates you into the world of fully fledged "Male Readership"?
If that's the case, as a man, I'd rather cross the gender divide and pick up one of those book "Every Woman Should Read" instead, as some pointers into the Female Mind is what I need, assuming those books even fulfill that purpose:-)
These sort of lists should be done away with altogether if we are to encourage a "non-Sexist" reading culture where a book's content, rather than it's writer's sex, is of more value.
Post a Comment