The · Screeds · of · Terri

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER:

Luce Irigaray: Speculum of the Other Woman. Topics: philosophy, psychoanalysis.

Irigaray is the mad philosopher of feminism, and this book will show you how, and why. It starts somewhere mid-point in a crazed debate she is having with Plato, Descartes, Kant, Freud and Jacques Lacan all at once over the abandoned territory of the feminine in epistemology. And then it just gets wackier. I've read this text about six times and only understand parts of it. And yet, I keep quoting her, again and again. Essential essentialism for feminists.

Teresa DeLauretis: Technologies of Gender: Essays on Film, Theory, Fiction. Topics: film, psychoanalysis.

One of the most important feminist books on film in two decades, I think. This is the book to read after you've read Focault on sexuality, Laura Mulvey on "the gaze" in film, and Umberto Eco's stuff on semiotics. It challenges all these over-used paradigms, as only a genius Italian lesbian can do.

Patricia Williams: Alchemy of Race and Rights. Topics: Race, legal studies.

Though her focus is on law and race, Williams draws most of her stories from her life experience as an educated, articulate black woman in a country that isn't particularly interested in black women to begin with. One of the best examples of "academic memoir" in existence, and huge influence on my own writing style.

Linda Williams: Hard Core. Topics: film, pornography, Marxism, psychoanlysis.

Many people know that this is the only rigorous book written on the topic of, well, hard core pornography. What many people don't know is that this is also probably the most useful explication of classic Marxism as it applies to feminist theories of representation, as well. I've used this book countless times: some of them involve a discussion of Deep Throat, true. Mostly though, I use it when a clear explanation of terms like "commodity fetishism" is needed.

Drucilla Cornell:The Imaginary Domain: Abortion, Pornography and Sexual Harrassment.Topics: law, philosophy

I think Cornell is the smartest feminist living today. Her grasp of philosophy, law and psychoanalysis is staggering, evidenced by the fact that she can take on three of the biggest hot botton topics in feminism and kick ass with them. The concept of the "imaginary domain" should be mandatory for any discussion on women's issues henceforth.

Gayatri Spivak: Outside in the Teaching Machine. Topics: international politics, Marxism, psychoanalysis

If you had to read just one book on the promises and perils of "international feminism" , this would be the one to read. Gayatri Spivak has made a life's work of complicating the ridiculous sexism and racism that fuels "do-good" programs like forced sterilization. She also makes you think twice about wife burning, bonded prostitution and other issues that seem to never be discussed in a rational way outside the pages of her books.

Judith Butler: Bodies the Matter. Topics: Queer theory.

Skip the now-famous Gender Trouble. This is the Judith Butler book you should read. Butler is unparralled in the area of queer theory, and every chapter in this book is mind blowing. Even if it is written in that infamous Butlerian prose.

Anne Fausto Sterling: Sexing the Body. Topics: biology, medical history.

Ever wonder how a medically trained feminist deals with the question"What is Gender"? Fausto-Sterling's essays span such enormous range--from discussions on brain chemistry, to medical debates regarding intersexuality, to historical models of endricinology--that she is a veribable one stop shop.

Donna Haraway: Modest_Witness@Second_Millennium.FemaleMan?_Meets_OncoMouse? Topics: Bio-ethics, cyberculture.

Yes, the title is ridiculous. Yes, the artwork is ridiculous. Yes it sprawls. But WHO ELSE is going to take on genetic engineering, sweatshop laborers and interace theory for feminists? Donna Haraway is smarter than all of us combined, and the things she writes that are mocked now are quoted like scripture ten years later. Mark my words.