publishing award-winning, innovative, and controversial feminist books since 1991
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A history of feminist and lesbian thinking from the 1970s to the present
Across almost 50 years of writing, Susan Hawthorne’s essays on lesbian culture and politics take the reader on a journey through the concerns of radical feminists engaged in the Women’s Liberation Movement. Not only does she trace the experiments of lesbians creating a vibrant woman-loving culture, but she also traces the backlash against lesbians and a history of violence perpetrated by the state, corporations and individual men.
She begins with a recollection of a rape in her pre-feminist days, followed by a critique of the institution of heterosexuality and the role of lesbian feminism as a strategy. She is soon asking questions about lesbian existence. The essays span reflections on lesbian literature and the development of lesbian culture, including the politics of physical expression in circus.
Susan Hawthorne writes about cultural appropriation, depoliticisation and the erasure of lesbian inventiveness. She researches violence against lesbians including rape, torture and murder and the way in which this violence is ignored and often distorted by the media.
Her investigations include lesbian refugees, lesbian economics, violation of lesbian human rights and the impact of the transgender industrial complex on the existence of lesbians as a political force.
SEPTEMBER 2024 | ISBN 9781925950984 | Paperback | 360 pages | 152mm x 228mm
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Statement from Spinifex Press
#WeStandWithUshaAkella
Men’s rights are alive and well in India.
We have been subject to a mass outpouring from Men’s Rights Activists who have targeted Usha Akella’s book I Will Not Bear You Sons and placing one star reviews on the Amazon India website and other sites in protest of its publication.
MRAs have taken exception to a line quoted in online book reviews (regarding aborting male fetuses) and have not looked at the poem in its full context. If they had looked at the context, it is the speaking character answering her tyrannical father-in-law who wants the speaker to have only sons.
Usha’s poetry is brave and brilliant. We stand behind this book and trust you will too.