Published in 2016
625 pages
Ruth Barrett, anthology editor and contributor, has dedicated her life to stopping gender oppression and providing safe, sacred, female-sovereign spaces for women and girls. She is an ordained elder priestess, ritualist, and teacher of the Dianic tradition. Barrett graduated from the University of California at Santa Cruz with a degree in folklore. She went on to co-found the Temple of Diana, Inc., a nationally recognized Dianic temple, with her life partner, Falcon River. Barrett received the L.A.C.E. Award for outstanding contributions in the area of spirituality from the Gay and Lesbian Center in Los Angeles. She has written Women’s Rites, Women’s Mysteries: Intuitive Ritual Creation, and she has contributed to multiple anthologies about women’s spirituality. Barrett is also a goddess-centered folk musician, mountain dulcimer artist, and singer. She received the Jane Schliessman Award for outstanding contributions to women’s music. She directed the Candlelight Concert at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival for twenty-two years.
What is this book about?
(I dunno, just putting this book here to show another side of what some women are feeling, but overall this comes off as TERF, IMO. The review below from goodreads by Elsie is helpful to keep in mind that we all would be best off if we read about the concerns of TERFs and try to understand the fear these other women are feeling on their journey. And it’s good to keep in mind what they’re feeling when/if they come for you. Even if they’re not understanding, kind, or informed, you can be.)
There are definitely some important topics in this book. Did I feel like some of it was angry TERF propoganda? Yeah. Did I develop a new understanding of TERFs? I did. The dialogue behind the anger is legit and this book helps articulate the voices of those who are shut down because they’re shunned as transphobic. It also surfaces medical concerns that, in my experience, does not get enough dialogue regarding medically altering one’s body.)
Female Erasure examines the harmful impact transgender ideology is having on the lives of women and children, exposing the current trend of gender identity politics as a continuation of female erasure and silencing.
This anthology comes at a time when gender identity politics and profits from an emerging medical transgenderism industry for children, teens, and adults inhibit our ability to have meaningful discussions about sex, gender, changing laws that have provided sex-based protections for women and girls, and the re-framing of language referring to females as a distinct biological class.
Standing strongly against gender stereotypes, female oppression, and the sexual violence prevalent in all levels of society, women’s voices celebrate their lives and examine their struggles through articles, essays, firsthand accounts, and verse. Lesbian feminists, political feminists, spiritual feminists, heterosexual-womanist women, mothers, scholars, attorneys, poets, medical and mental health professionals, educators, environmentalists, and detransitioning women all boldly vocalize their unique perspectives and universal experiences.
The contributors to Female Erasure know that their views are controversial, but they refuse to be silenced by critics, striving instead toward deep, meaningful discussion with readers about the biases of modern society and the future of women’s rights.
