25
I like ordering from Powell’s and visiting when I’m nearby. Being as they are in Portland, I was pleasantly surprised to find 25 actual women on their list for IWD, no shoehorning in Jan Morris or C Jenner or the Detransition Baby guy. Many of my favorites are here. Yours?
[Edit for readers who are unfamiliar: Powell’s City of Books is the largest independent bookstore in the US, except maybe for the Strand in NYC, and they’re a great place to order used and new books. They even delivered to a military address for me, and not too many businesses that aren’t Amazon do that anymore.]
I'm absolutely astounded that Powell's didn't include any TIMs on the list. Portland is TIM town, so someone will get mad soon enough. But A for effort, Powell's. I just wish you didn't always smell like wet dog.
Will be interesting to see if this list survives the day without pressure from the usual parties to add a TIM.
You’re right, but who would they add? No TiM is good enough to sniff these women’s farts.
Oh that’s rich.
Last time I went to Powell’s on Burnside their Women/LGBT/Gender section was all in the same spot and most of the titles were incredibly misogynist and about 75% of the books were about being trans or having a gender lmfao.
Haven’t been there since. I wrote the store an email detailing my experience and my anger at seeing powerful memoirs by Latina & Black lesbian activists in completely irrelevant departments when the spot I mentioned above would have been most appropriate and allow for visibility of the books.
I left still (somewhat) happy with my copy of Irreversible Damage, but even that was in the politics section alongside books by Ben Shapiro. Though that doesn’t surprise me as much because it’s a Portland based company.
I did get a response saying they would be passing along my message to the store manager and would consider “my concerns” when displaying books.
I was shopping with my son who’s only 2 so he can’t read, but reading and libraries are our favorite way to bond so what happens when he’s 7 and we go to a bookstore, only for him to see words like “bitch”, “slut” and “cunt” on covers of books meant to empower and uplift women?
Ouch. Honestly it surprised me to find a TIM-free list of women, and that they had Irreversible Damage. Your story is much more what I would expect. And while they do carry Abigail Shrier, they don’t sell Trans by Helen Joyce or Material Girls by Kathleen Stock the way Barnes & Noble does.
I’m glad you shared the list, thank you for that. It’s just funny to me because of my own experience there last time.
For sure, I have had absolutely no luck finding radical-leaning feminist literature at Powell’s.
I would not pick a Polish poet out of the Nobel laureates when Doris Lessing is available.
So, who would you add to the list?
Top of my mind is Ursula Le Guin.
Great choice.
Also:
Mary Renault. Not because she particularly wrote about women's issues, but just because she's such a wonderful writer. Doris Lessing. A great activist and philosophical thinker. Stella Gibbons. Because she's so funny, and clear-eyed.
Apparently I'm a 40's-writers-fangirl (sounds legit). That period in the first half of the century really threw up some strong personalities
Jeanette Winterson