It’s a challenge to stay current and there’s not always a lot of time for reading. However, if I gave less time to social media, perhaps I’d have more reading time. I never did get very far with Simone de Beauvoir’s, ‘The Second Sex’ even though I’m told it’s required reading. I did manage Caroline Criado Perez’, ‘Invisible Women’. What’s so striking is the overwhelming way the world assumes men as standard. It’s shocking. It’s my personal recommendation. Did you know snow clearance is a feminist issue?! Did you know police stab vests are (were, I hope) only designed for men and a smaller version rather ignores some important features. Did you know vehicle emergency air-bags are safer for men than women?!
But writing on taking men as standard, how challenging it is to be told white is standard. As much as women are ignored, people of other ethnicities are ignored – and their arguments about the implicit bias in society. The extent of US Police bias resulted in the headline, ‘Black Lives Matter’, only for it to be met by the obfuscation of, ‘All Lives Matter’ – as if we didn’t know that already. So to a book. I’ve read fewer on racism than I have on feminism but I can offer Reni Eddo-Lodge’s, ‘Why I’m no longer talking to white people about race’. Just read the Preface about her original blog. No, don’t – read the whole book. We need to learn, to change, and to be inclusive. We can afford to; it does not subtract from what I have as a white person.