On Wednesday 26th March 2025, from 7.30-9.30pm, Stroud Radical Reading Group will host a discussion of two books looking at feminisms. The discussion will follow International Women’s Day, which is held annually on the 8th March. We suggest people pick one or other of the books to read in full, or read excerpts from both – see below for links to buy the books at a discount from the local Yellow Lighted Bookshop and a variety of free text, audio, and visual resources relevant to the books.
- Revolutionary Feminisms: Conversations on Collective Action and Radical Thought, Edited by Brenna Bhandar and Rafeef Ziadah
- Enemy Feminisms: TERFs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation, by Sophie Lewis
We will meet at Creative Sustainability’s shopfront space at 10 John St, GL5 2HA (a short distance from the town centre train or bus station, with parking available nearby at Church St).
Entry is free and everyone is welcome – you do not need to have attended previous sessions, and we do our best to make the sessions welcoming to people who have not been to reading groups or similar settings like university seminars before.
More information about the books, venue and how sessions work is below.
About the books:
Revolutionary Feminisms – “Black, anti-colonial, anti-racist feminist thought is often sidelined in mainstream discourses that transform feminism into simplistic calculations of how many women are in positions of power.
This book sets the record straight. Through interviews with key scholars, including Angela Y. Davis and Silvia Federici, [Editors of Revolutionary Feminisms, Brenna] Bhandar and [Rafeef] Ziadah present a serious and thorough discussion of race, class, gender, and sexuality not merely as intersections to be noted or additives to be mixed in, but as co-constitutive factors that must be reckoned with if we are to build effective coalitions.”
Enemy Feminisms – “In a time of rising fascism, ceaseless attacks on reproductive justice, and violent transphobia, we need to reckon with what Western feminism has wrought if we have any hope of building the feminist world we need. Sophie Lewis offers an unflinching tour of enemy feminisms, from 19th century imperial feminists and police officers to 20th century KKK feminists and pornophobes to today’s anti-abortion and TERF feminists.
Enemy feminisms exist. Feminism is not an inherent political good. Only when we acknowledge that can we finally reckon with the ways these feminisms have pushed us toward counterproductive and even violent ends. And only then can we finally engage in feminist strategizing that is truly antifascist.
At once a left transfeminist battlecry against cisness, a decolonial takedown of nationalist womanhoods, and a sex-radical retort to femmephobia in all its guises, Enemy Feminisms is above all a fierce, brilliant love letter to feminism.”
Buy the books
When looking at your “basket” enter the “couponcode” 25stroudradical for a 15% discount. Pick up book from Nailsworth, Tetbury or Chalford shops, or get books delivered to your door for £3.50 postage. If posting books, you may wish to buy other books we are reading this year.
- Buy Revolutionary Feminisms in paperback – RRP £17.99, £15,29 with discount (saving £2.70)
- Buy Enemy Feminisms in paperback – RRP £14.99, £12.74 with discount (saving £2.25)
- e-book of Revolutionary Feminisms (£10)
- e-book of Enemy Feminisms (£5.99 while 40% off)
Free Resources
Text Resources
- Read the Introduction to Revolutionary Feminisms (pages 1-27) via GoogleBooks
- Download three excerpts from Enemy Feminisms as a printable document (.doc file, 12,800 words in total), or read them online via:
- TERF Island – There Have Always Been Enemies Inside the Feminist Camp | lux-magazine.com [5,000 words]
- How the Girlboss Lost: Sophie Lewis on the Rise and Fall of a Feminist Moment – Leaning Into the Death of Lean-In Feminism and Its Many Resurrections in Our Conflicted Zeitgeist | lithub.com [3,150 words]
- Lipstick on the Pigs | Kamala Harris and the Lineage of the Female Cop | thedriftmag.com [4,600 words]
- ‘It’s a scary time’: the ‘enemy feminisms’ that enable the far right – Sophie Lewis interviewed by Julia Carrie Wong in The Guardian
- More links about Enemy Feminisms on Sophie Lewis’ website
Audio/visual resources
- Audiobook: Enemy Feminisms preview – Introduction: Women Are Not Horrible, and some of Chapter 1: The “Enslaved” Englishwoman Goes Abroad (70 minutes, embedded below)
- Podcast: Beatrice Adler-Bolton speaking with author Sophie Lewis about Enemy Feminisms on Death Panel podcast (90 minutes)
- Video: Revolutionary Feminisms Editors Brenna Bhandar and Rafeef Ziadah in conversation with contributing interviewees Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Vron Ware, hosted by the Whitechapel Gallery (65 minutes, embedded below)
About our events and the venue
Stroud Radical Reading Group events are free to attend, though we will make a collection to cover venue hire costs – please bring some cash. We try to create a comfortable discussion space for everyone, including people who have not been part of a reading group or been to university. Anyone is welcome to listen to the discussion, though we encourage contributions only from those who have read at least some of the book we are discussing. There is an opportunity for more informal discussion after the session in the Ale House pub for anyone who wants to continue their evening.
About the venue
We will meet at the Creative Sustainability shopfront space at 10 John St, GL5 2HA (round the corner from Iceland and next to the Ale House pub). This is close to the train station and not far from the bus station. There are stands to lock bikes to outside, and parking for cars nearby at Church St car park. There are no toilets at the venue. There is a small step to access the building, which is then step free). The room is well lit. Please get in touch if you’d like to get more of an idea of what the sessions are like or if you have any accessibility needs.
