The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women’ by Naomi Wolf
Amazon description: ‘In the struggle for women's equality, there is one subject still shrouded in silence - women's compulsive pursuit of beauty. The myth of female beauty challenges every woman, every day of her life.
Naomi Wolf exposes the tyranny of the beauty myth through the ages and its oppressive function today, in the home and at work, in literature and the media, in relationships between men and women, between women and women. With pertinent and intelligent examples, she confronts the beauty industry and its advertising and uncovers the reasons why women are consumed by this destructive obsession.’
- I have chosen this book as I think it will provide a great background for speaking on feminism and why it is still relevant and necessary. This book was published in 1990, so is significantly outdated and not contemporary, but I believe that the core of the book and the issues it raises will still be relevant to my EPQ question.
‘Full Frontal Feminism’ by Jessica Valenti
Amazon description: ‘Feminism isn't dead. It just isn't very cool anymore. Enter Full Frontal Feminism, a book that embodies the forward-looking messages that author Jessica Valenti propagates on her popular website, Feministing. com. Covering a range of topics, including pop culture, health, reproductive rights, violence, education, relationships, and more, Valenti provides young women a primer on why feminism matters. Valenti knows better than anyone that young women need a smart-ass book that deals with real-life issues in a style they can relate to. No rehashing the same old issues. No belaboring where today's young women have gone wrong. Feminism should be something young women feel comfortable with, something they can own. Full Frontal Feminism is sending out the message to readers yeah, you're feminists, and that's actually pretty frigging cool.’
- I have chosen this book because it is fairly contemporary (2007), and it appears to cover a lot of issues within feminism which are still being tackled right now. It also seems that this book will try to reinforce the fact that feminism is relevant - therefore directly giving a lot of information on my EPQ question.
‘The Equality Illusion’ by Kat Banyard
Amazon Description: ‘In The Equality Illusion, 'the most influential young feminist in the country' (Guardian) and UK Feminista founder Kat Banyard argues passionately and articulately that feminism continues to be one of the most urgent and relevant social justice campaigns today.
Women have made huge strides in equality over the last century. And yet:
Women working full-time in the UK are paid on average 17% less an hour than men
1 in 3 women worldwide has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused because of her gender
Of parliamentary seats across the globe only 15% are held by women and fewer than 20% of UK MPs are women
96% of executive directors of the UK's top hundred companies are men
Structuring the book around a normal day, Banyard sets out the major issues for twenty-first century feminism, from work and education to sex, relationships and having children. She draws on her own campaigning experience as well as academic research and dozens of her own interviews. The book also includes information on how to get involved in grassroots action.’ (2011)
Experts:
Laura Bates - Founder of Everyday Sexism project, feminism writer for The Guardian, and author of the book ‘Everyday Sexism’
Contact: laura@everydaysexism.com
Lori Adelman - Executive Director of feministing.com
Contact: lori@feministing.com
Kat Banyard - Director of UKFeminista and author of The Equality Illusion
Contact: katbanyard@yahoo.co.uk
Kat Lazo - Feminist Vlogger, gave a TED talk on feminism
Contact: http://www.katlazo.com/contact/
Marianne Schnall - Founder of Feminist.com and feminist author
From my initial research into feminism (http://laurenwakeling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/update-10514-initial-research.html) areas I think I am most interested in are the following:
Violence against women/rape culture: This involves domestic abuse, sexual harassment, rape. Rape culture also known as victim blaming. This is a large issue in contemporary society.
Representation in the media: Women being portrayed as the inferior sex, female characters having less speaking or major roles, female characters used only as love interests or being quickly killed off, the lack of complex characters. There are also less female news reporters, issues such as page 3 and ‘lads magazines’, further, the amount of coverage that women's issues receive in the media and the use of women as sex objects in advertising.
Everyday Sexism: This is important to contemporary sexism, as it illustrates the behaviours that have been normalised in society but are occurring everyday. Researching into this will reinforce the relevance of contemporary feminism.
Women and work: Gender gap in pay, the amount of women in top business roles, treatment of women in the workplace, all issues that are very current and important in progressing with equality.
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