Rebellion in words: Contemporary feminist books

Women have been fighting for their rights for centuries now, and the world is yet to facilitate that kind of equality. But it has not stopped them from trying to bring down the shackles of patriarchy and liberate themselves, and what better way to do that than through words?

A GIRL IS A BODY OF WATER 
Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Tin House Books, 2020

This coming of age work of fiction by Jennifer Makumbi gracefully paints the landscape of a girl's curious soul. The protagonist, Kirabo, has been raised by women in the small Ugandan village of Nattetta, never knowing her birth mother. Her journey to reconcile with her powerful undiscovered feelings alongside her desire to reconnect with her mother and honour her family's expectations, is a captivating exploration of what it means to be a woman in a world that seems determined to silence them. 

FEMINISTS DON'T WEAR PINK (AND OTHER LIES): AMAZING WOMEN ON WHAT THE F-WORD MEANS TO THEM 
Scarlett Curtis (Curated)
Penguin UK, 2018

Published in partnership with Girl Up and curated by writer and Pink Protest founder Scarlett Curtis, this book is a collection of writings by extraordinary women—from Hollywood actresses to teenage activists. The list boasts some celebrated personalities, ranging from Bridget Jones to Emma Watson, Saoirse Ronan, Olivia Perez, and many more. Often refreshingly lighthearted, sometimes startling, and inspiring throughout, this book aims to clear the misinterpretations around "the modern feminist" hashtag and breaks down  hard to decipher scholarly texts by giving women a space to explain how they actually feel about feminism.

HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES: STORIES 
Carmen Maria Machado
Graywolf Press, 2017

In her provocative debut collection of short stories, Machado has bent genres to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. She has demolished the arbitrary borders between psychological realism and science fiction, comedy and horror in her work with ease, in a voice beaming with individuality.

BAD FEMINIST: ESSAYS 
Roxanne Gay
Harper Perennial, 2014

The book explores delightful yet full of self-doubting evaluations of being a feminist while loving things that seem at odds with feminist ideology. The author said in an interview with The Guardian, "I am failing as a woman. I am failing as a feminist. To freely accept the feminist label would not be fair to good feminists. If I am, indeed, a feminist, I am a rather bad one. I am a mess of contradictions." Her quote may resonate with a lot of women who struggle with self-sabotaging and have difficulty narrating where they stand in the parameter.

FEMINISM IS FOR EVERYBODY: PASSIONATE POLITICS
bell hooks
South End Press, 2000

bell hooks is renowned for her approach to making feminism a common concept to understand through an intersectional approach. In this book, in an engaging and provocative style, hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism that is rooted in the wisdom of experience. hooks' optimistic narration of the burning issues is rather inspiring and may encourage the reader to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic cultures, and to imagine a different future.

BREAST STORIES 
Mahasweta Devi (Trans. Gayatri Chakravarti Spivak)
Seagull Books, 1997

A collection of short fiction by Mahasweta Devi, the stories have one common string connecting them—breasts. The writer focuses on the breast as more than just a symbol of beauty, eroticism, or motherhood. Instead, it is seen as the harsh indictment of an exploitative social system and a weapon of resistance. At a time when violence towards women in India and South Asia escalated exponentially, Devi's sardonic writing exposed the inherently vicious systems in Indian society. The heart-wrenching reality of the most marginalised of women and the exploitations they have endured and still are going through is vividly portrayed in this book in Devi's razor-sharp storytelling.

Tahseen Nower Prachi is a writer whose head is a koi pond of micro tales too scattered to come down to her keyboard For more of her little pieces follow The Minute Chronicles on Facebook.