January Book Club: Women and Other Monsters

We will gather and introduce ourselves and then spend about 70 minutes talking about the book. We try to bring a feminist perspective to every book discussion. And yes, it's OK if you didn't finish the book.

At the end of our time, we'll hold a vote for the book we'll be reading two months from now. Please bring books that you think might be interesting for the group or that you've been hoping to read!

Folks that have the time are welcome to join for a social beverage at a nearby venue.

We are an inclusive group that welcomes everyone who identifies as feminist or is curious about feminism or at least wants to read feminist books.

For this month, we will be reading Women and Other Monsters: BUilding a New Mythology by Jess Zimmerman.

Location: We will be in the back room of Wild Sister's Book Company.

Book description:
A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism

The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough—aren’t just outside the norm. They’re unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we’ve been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths.

Through fresh analysis of 11 female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match.

Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we’re told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters—damsels, love interests, and even most heroines—do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us—harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators—women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.