***Online event - Zoom link will be sent to you on the day of the event***
Cliterature, the Vagina Museum's book club, offers you a generous and satisfying fingering through the feminist pages. We’ll include a mixture of fiction, non-fiction, essays and poetry. Everyone is welcome. Our book club is led by former trustee, Niharika Jain.
About the book:
Not only a dazzling analysis of the workings of sexism, but a balm for the soul. It will teach you how to survive and how to transform the world' Hannah Dawson
We have to keep saying it because they keep doing it.
Do colleagues roll their eyes in a meeting when you use words like sexism or racism? Do you refuse to laugh at jokes that aren't funny? Have you been called divisive for pointing out a division? Then you are a feminist killjoy, and this handbook is for you.
The term killjoy has been used to dismiss feminism by claiming that it causes misery. But by naming ourselves feminist killjoys, we recover a feminist history, turning it into a source of strength as well as an inspiration.
Drawing on her own stories and those of others, especially Black and brown feminists and queer thinkers, Sara Ahmed combines depth of thought with honesty and intimacy. The Feminist Killjoy Handbook unpicks the lies our culture tells us and provides a form of solidarity and companionship that can be returned to over a lifetime.
About the author:
Sara Ahmed was a feminist academic for over 20 years before she resigned in 2016 in protest at the failure of her university to address the problem of sexual harassment. Since then, she has been working as an independent scholar. Sara has published 10 academic books including the award winning, The Promise of Happiness (2010), which included her first sustained discussion of the figure of the feminist killjoy; Living a Feminist Life (2017), which has been translated into numerous languages and was Duke University Press’ best-selling book in the decade in which it was released and, most recently, Complaint! (2021), which offers a sharp critique of power in the academy. Sara continues to update her blog, feministkilljoys.com and is now working on handbooks intended to bring her work to a wider audience.
How to get the book:
If you can, try to get your hands on a copy via your local independent bookshop or library as a physical book, e-book or audiobook.
As this is a participatory event by nature, not a performance, anyone who doesn't engage - which can via audio, text, or any method accessible to you - will be automatically removed to ensure safety of all participants. Don’t worry if you’ve not finished the book in time for the session, having read some or most of it will help you take part in our discussion.
Live transcription will be enabled on Zoom for all our events. If you need a transcript after the event, please email us at info@vaginamuseum.co.uk to get a copy.
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