Disclaimer: some content is marked with DE and contains German content, as my background is Austrian and I follow german-speaking feminist movements, too. This is experimental and work in progress.

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  • DE: One of my favourite feminist authors is Emilia Roig. I just finished the book "Das Ende der Ehe" (The end of marriage, it's brand-new and unfortunately not (yet?) available in English). It is a fantastic read on the institution of marriage and the structural issues, and made me reflect a lot on the system I have been brought up in. It challenges core beliefs, it's meant to be activist writing so it is to be taken with a grain of salt. I admire her views on love (more on this podcast for example), and the quest to rethink love. Just as Bell Hooks does, in the book "All about love" that I yet need to read.
  • Thanks to Teresa Buecker for pointing out this text by Bell Hooks on the nature of work, triggered by Germany's recent legislature on reducing parental allowance for high earners. This remarkable text is from the 80's and it is very timely. It analyses some of the reasons why there is still not enough progress in feminist movements, and that this is due to ignoring the class bias. The majority of women don't see work as liberation, but rather as exploitative and dehumanizing. Working conditions for all women need to improve, and there need to be better paying jobs for women of all classes. Nowadays some divorced middle-class women face poverty, because their prior marriages with high-earning men allowed them to upgrade their lifestyle, but not gaining economical independence on the long run. There is a fear of losing material privilege, and hence a need to critisize capitalism, that is built upon the exploitation of underclass groups.
  • I currently enjoy reading another book by Bell Hooks: The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love.