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Share a BookRadfem literature: When Women Were Warriors
Dear Ovarit friends: I have to recommend these books to you. I am obsessed. I bought them off of Amazon and have re-read them like 5 times in this past year. They are a trilogy:
They are written by a feminist (an actual second-waver, from the looks of it) called Catherine M. Wilson, and apparently self-published under the label 'Shieldmaiden Press', and they are TRULY AMAZING. (No spoilers follow but general ideas of what the books are about)
The story is a coming-of-age adventure of a female protagonist, Tamras, who at the beginning of the book is around 16 and ages a couple of years during the course of the story. In her world (set in ancient Celtic Britain) it's women who lead small warrior states ('Houses'), not men. Women give birth, so it's only natural the matter of death is also their main responsibility. Tamras is the heiress of one of these houses, and she leaves her home to train at another house (Merin's House), which is the tradition in this world. There, she will be given a mentor, Maara, to train her as a warrior until she can 'earn her shield'.
The story is very absorbing and the writing is beautiful (the author incorporates folk tales and oral tradition into the text, and it's clear she knows about this subject). The book also has clever political subplots and the character development of both Tamras and her mentor Maara, an outsider who hasn't fully won everyone's trust yet, are slow-paced at first but really worth it.
It's not a fantasy story, there is no magic. The story picks up pace by the end of the second book, and the third one is honestly thrilling (and the plot conflict resolution really clever).
But the most amazing thing is, in this book there are lesbians everywhere!! Lesbianism and female bisexuality are extremely normalized and romantic relationships between women are something completely normal. And no, no TIMs in sight or any other dodgy gender stuff. All normal wlw stories. And the sex is not pornified nor explicit at all! All very tasteful and honestly sweet. Which to me was just the cherry on top, as I am sick of explicit crappy pornified sex everywhere.
The variety of characters (all of the important ones are female) and the relationships they form are amazing and abundant. Not all wlw relationships in the books are positive ones, but of course the main ones are!
And men are completely secondary in the plot. No gay best friends, no male romantic interests for any of the main characters, no straight sex/love scenes. Men in this society are ironically only relevant for reproduction. They can also be warriors, and have separate barracks and their own male mentors, but they barely appear and in Tamras' world they have no political power. Other societies do exist and appear later in the story where men do have power, which is useful as a contrast to Tamras' society, and serves as feminist commentary, in my opinion.
It's such an endearing, wonderful, unique story! I had never read anything of the sort and it felt incredibly powerful to read as a radical feminist. I am in love with the characters and their stories. I really, really recommend it. If you aren't sure whether you will like it, the author gives away the first book for free on her website: http://www.catherinemwilson.com/free-ebook.html
Give them a try! And let me know if you read them. I would love to talk about them with other terfy women.
LGB Alliance is a UK org so I’m unclear on what they’re supposed to do about laws in an American state? Same for Joyce (who is Irish.)
and he’s blocked anyone in the US who as so much as politely disagreed with him. So yeah. Nice cherry picking bro 🍒
Radical Feminist ≠ Gender Critical dumbass. That's why.
Ehhhh.... I dunno, I don't think most people who aren't radical feminists or their allies are actually gender critical. More like transgender critical.
Maybe if gender ideologists hadn't overtaken feminist institutions, actual feminists could focus on women's reproductive rights. Currently, anyone who cares about women's rights is busy trying to make sure that the US government recognizes exactly what "female" means.
He’s like “they’re just mad about the pregnant people terms!!”
Um.. yeah. Because it’s a fucking waste of time while women and girls suffer. It’s a distraction from real work on abortion and allows men like you to act like this has any impact on you and force-teams your issues with real women’s problems. It’s the reason the organizations I worked for are wringing their hangs and wasting energy writing press releases that won’t offend the genderspecials. It’s not the ONLY thing I’m mad at. But it shows how idpol and men in dresses have overtaken things that used to be useful to women
Meanwhile, TiMs continue to have no actual rights to lose in this battle.
Well he obviously hasn't lurked Ovarit before because there are a ton of posts here about Texas just within the past 24 hours.
He would also see his face on /itsafetish so I see why he avoids it
Aaron, the sundress man. Well, get in line, bro. You’re not the only dude who likes looking at women in sundresses.
Weirdly here I am at Grand Terven Central and I see multiple posts and big discussion about Texas. Maybe Erin Sundresses Mom (vomit) doesn't know that the terves are largely banned from Twitter so they don't GATHER there.
It's amazing how, when you systemically shove a group out of the public discourse, they struggle to make themselves heard even on the points of agreement.
“Faux women’s advocacy”? Be quiet male.
I care about women’s reproductive rights but I can’t really do anything for American women. I also don’t think it is a fight that will be fought on Twitter.
Could say the same about TiMs though? 😂 Why are they silent if they're "women" like they claim? Dumbasses
They should be FIRST at the frontlines of supporting other women in this regard! FIRST! They're the ones with the baseball bats.
So far I've seen TRAs crying about how people need to remember it's not just women who are affected by abortion and to please use inclusive language or it's transphobic! So making it about themselves instead of caring about the issue as per usual.
Most actual TERFs have been bullied off of twitter, so not sure what this ass clown is saying.
Sounds like he's unintentionally admitting it's a WOMEN'S issue if he thinks "terfs" should be focusing on it.
Erin: Abigail Shrier isn’t a radfem. It’s pretty clear in her excellent, well-researched book that she is clearly not coming from a radfem perspective, even if we all agree that transing kids is horrific and wrong.
She’s a woman who says NO to your delusions. And that’s all that terfs are to these men. Women who say NO. I’m plenty mad and I don’t need your Twitter approval