05 Jun 2009 - Cinema Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye

A collection of articles from the first 100 issues of the marvellous Spare Rib magazine. Apparently the magazine ran until 1993 but I didn't see it in the early 90s and it's always been something I knew about but was too young/ isolated in a small fairly conservative village to find and read. The articles are divided into subject areas such as work, state, education etc and are a mix of editorial, pieces by journalists and vox pop pieces by women on the front line of 2nd wave feminism. Some of the concerns and attitudes seem a bit dated, but many of them are, sadly, still relevant today - equal pay etc. I'm not sure that blatant sexism and harrassment on the street are still so common, but women are probably far more objectified and have more difficult images to live up to - as, indeed, have men.

A walk down memory lane as I looked at the concerns and language of my own early feminism, and some genuinely good and interesting reading too. ( )

I found this really interesting. For some reason my girlfriend brought it for me because she thought I should find out more about The Woman's Movement. ( )

A gift from my Girlfriend, it made me all outraged on behalf of women for a week or so.

If you are the sort of person who thinks that Feminists don't really have anything to complain about you should read this and remind yourself that the movement was once very strong. ( )