Being originally from the Middle East, I experienced misogyny on a daily basis. Instead of submitting to the idea that “this is just how things are,” my fervent anger towards gender discrimination led me to feminism. Through the writings of Audre Lorde, bell hooks, Kimberle Crenshaw, Mona Eltahawy, Nawal Elsaadawi, Janice Kaplan, Carol Hay, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Margaret Fuller, I understood that I wasn’t alone in my anger. My anger is a necessary tool to dismantle sexism and the patriarchy, and that misogyny is a toxic social system that harms women, men, and nonbinary individuals alike and must be fought and changed. This reading class on feminism will give participants the ability to put untold experiences into words so that they may have meaning, relevance, and be understood across different languages and cultures. We will be reading selected essays by various feminists, discussing their relevance to our own personal everyday lives, and finding empowerment in language that turns into ideas and actions.
In this class, we will be reading selected essays by various feminists, discussing their relevance to our own personal everyday lives, and finding empowerment in language that turns into ideas and actions.