Queen of the Ring

I'm a bit late on reviewing this book as I was having personal problems so here goes!  I think this is one of those books where you gotta be a wrestling fan in order to fully appreciate it.  The book is about not only the story of Mildred Burke but about the history of women's wrestling in the United States.  Author Jeff Leen has done his research on the sport of professional wrestling.  I seriously admire his research skills as he has gone out of his way to verify facts by checking IRS records for wrestler's earnings during the 20th century, verifying marriage licenses, birth records, addresses and so on.  He talks about the importance of showmanship in professional wrestling, especially in women's wrestling. Mildred Burke wanted to convey the idea that she was a woman first and wrestler second.  She dressed glamorously, coming to the ring decked out in diamonds, a fur coat, a manicure, make up and coiffed hair.  Leen didn't just write about Burke's wrestling career but about her personal life, as well.  These two are intertwined as Burke married her first wrestling manager, Billie Wolfe.  These two together were responsible for the creation of women's wrestling as a respectable sport.  Billie Wolfe was a savvy businessman who, with Burke, created a thriving business.  Their marriage, however, was purely business as Burke had no love or attraction to Wolfe due to his abusive and womanizing ways.  Leen then points out how American women's wrestling was the reason why joshi puroresu (Japanese women's pro wrestling) became such a huge thing in Japan following the American tour of women wrestlers that included Burke and Johnnie Mae Young (who studied at Wolfe's wrestling school).  Leen also included the FBI investigation of the National Wrestling Alliance and Burke's involvement in that and the seeming decline of not just women's wrestling but pro wrestling as a whole (women's wrestling soared during the Golden Age of Wrestling).  This is a book that I would highly recommend to any wrestling fan.

Introducing Feminism: A Graphic Guide

I quite literally just finished reading this book.  I obviously know quite a bit about feminism (slut shaming, rape culture, wage gap, gender equality) but I wanted to learn more about it.  Specifically, I wanted to learn about the history of feminism, who were/are key players in the movement and important milestones.  I admit that when I started reading this book, I thought it was going to focus on mainstream feminism and completely ignore the contributions made by women of color.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that they included the likes of Sojourner Truth, Alice Walker and bell hooks (among others).  Heck, it mentions the origin of the term "womanist".  The book also mentions feminism in developing countries and how it clashes with western feminism (reading this, I thought of the debate surrounding the hijab.  Muslim women fighting with Western feminists - specifically, white Western feminists - over the right to cover themselves up).  It's a pretty good introduction to feminism.  The thing that bugged me, though, is the exclusion of latin@s.  Latin@s did play a huge role in feminism.  I feel that the book should have at least mentioned Gloria Anzalduas. :/

The Baby Boon

I just recently finished reading "The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless" by Elinor Burkett.  How can I describe this book aside from "I really, really liked it"?  This book perfectly describes the discrimination faced by the childless and childfree and how the U.S.  Burkett goes into how society slowly changed to accomodate the "needs" - and I do use that term loosely - of upper middle class parents and how companies sought to become more "family-friendly" by accomodating working parents - nay, working mothers - so they can juggle both work and family.  She points out how mainstream feminism neglected those who have chosen to not have children by focusing primarily on working mothers and using the terms "women" and "mothers" interchangeably.  They are NOT the same thing!  Not all women are mothers or want to be mothers.  One thing that I loved about this book is that Burkett pointed out that these tax credits and tax cuts only aid upper middle class families and not families that truly need it: the poor.  As someone who lives in the third poorest region in the United States, tax cuts for the poor is a major issue for me and my loved ones and it pisses me off that the government is giving all these tax breaks to people who don't really need it (no, yuppie parents, you DON'T need that 4,000 sq. ft. house or that brand new lexus.  You'll do just fine in a smaller home and driving a used vehicle).  There was something in this book that really stood out to me and that was what Pat Schroeder had said about pregnancy being a voluntary disability that I found ridiculous.  She said that pregnancy is like a sports injury or a venereal disease - it's voluntary.  I found the comparison completely ridiculous.  Nobody chooses to get a venereal disease and athletes don't choose to get a sports injury.  Incidentally, not everybody chooses to get pregnant.  Pregnancy is only a voluntary disability if the person actually wants to be pregnant.  It is in no way comparable to VD or an injury.  Those are things NOBODY wants.  Burkett closes the book detailing all the things that every CFer is already familiar with: bingoes, preferential treatment shown to parents, and the reactions the CF receive when they make their frustrations known.

The Childless Revolution

I've started reading more and more books on childfreedom and decided to start with Madelyn Cain's "The Childless Revolution: What it Means to be Childless Today".  I thought it was a pretty interesting book that outlined the three types of childless women: childless by chance (those who are unable to have children), childless by choice (AKA childfree) and childless by environment (those who wanted kids but never had the opportunity).  I admit I found it hard to relate to some of these women.  I got the CFers but I didn't really get some of the women who wanted to have kids but couldn't for one reason or another.  All I kept thinking was "those are the kodak moments you're seeing.  That's not the reality".  I noticed that only one of these women was told the truth: that parenting is hard work and not all sunshine and rainbows.  This book also made me realize just how ingrained the idea "it's different when it's your own!" is in our society. We really need to do away with it.  Just because a person gives birth doesn't mean that they'll develop this ~*magical bond*~ with their child or...heck, even if the kid loves the parent doesn't mean it's gonna stay that way forever (when I was a kid I absolutely loved my mom and thought she was the greatest ever and now...I definitely don't think that).  Hell, I'm willing to wager that this kind of thinking is partly why so many kids are stuck in the foster system*.  With that said, I would recommend the book.  Next CF book I'm reading: "The Baby Boon: How Family-Friendly America Cheats the Childless" by Elinor Burkett.


*There are a bunch of reasons why this is, mainly having to do with race and sex.

The Hunger Games

So, I've been hearing all this hoopla about the Hunger Games movie and decided to read the book series to see what it's all about.  Well, I just finished the series not too long ago and, honestly, I can see why people love these books.  It's not great literature by any means but it's a pretty good series nonetheless. I found the series entertaining (who doesn't love a post-apocalyptic setting?) and, in a way, I can relate to Katniss Everdeen.  She's an awesome character who doesn't take shit from people and I like that about her.  I was hoping she would remain childfree, though.  It just bugged the fuck out of me that Peeta pestered her for years and years until she caved and had kids.  Oh, and that's another thing: I preferred Katniss with Gale instead of Peeta.  It just made more sense to me.  But given what happened in the series, Katniss had no choice but to be with Peeta.