Happy Pride Month! 🏳️🌈 We’re back with the June issue of Equality Now Recommends in partnership with No Nonsense. Get inspired by our favourite books, movies, podcasts, TV shows, and music that showcase women’s leadership, storytelling, and talent from around the world. 📚🎥🎧 Want to read more? Head to our Feminist Culture Club archive.
Books
I am Because We Are by Chidiogo Akunyili-Parr
I Am Because We Are illuminates the role of kinship, family, and the individual’s place in society while revealing a life of courage, how community shaped it, and the web of humanity that binds us all.
Breaking the Maafa Chain by Anni Domingo
This book is a richly imagined story of two sisters’ struggle for true freedom in the mid-nineteenth century as their paths diverge in the middle passage—one to the court of Queen Victoria, the other to an American plantation.
Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldúa
This 1987 semi-autobiographical work examines the Chicano and Latino experience through the lens of issues such as gender, identity, race, and colonialism.
The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
Published in 1952, The Price of Salt defies cultural perceptions of female queerness and emphasizes the importance of staying true to oneself, even against dismal odds.
Weeping Under the Same Moon by Jana Laiz
This is a story of cultural discovery and friendship. Mei, an artist whose life is disrupted by the Vietnam War, leaves her home and parents to make a dangerous journey by boat to safety.
TV Programs
The Diplomat
If you’re into political intrigue, drama, and intense twists and turns, you’ll probably fall in love with The Diplomat. In the political thriller, Keri Russell stars as Kate Wyler, a talented diplomat who has historically worked in war-torn areas. But when she’s called upon to serve as the US ambassador to the UK to help navigate a potential international crisis, she finds it’s a whole new ballgame.
On the Verge
Created, written and directed by Julie Delpy, On the Verge attempts to take a look at four forty-something women trying to recapture the lives they treasured before families, work, and other commitments got in the way. It’s a unique look at how women deal with their midlife crises; they don’t go buy sports cars as men might do, but nearing or passing the half-century mark is still jarring to them.
Madam Secretary
Madam Secretary stars Tèa Leoni as Elizabeth McCord, the shrewd, determined Secretary of State who drives international diplomacy, battles office politics and circumvents protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home.
Feel Good
Feel Good is a British comedy-drama television programme created by Mae Martin and Joe Hampson. It is a semi-autobiographical romantic comedy starring Mae Martin as a fictionalised version of themself and Charlotte Ritchie as Mae’s girlfriend George.
Films
Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
This documentary argues that even the most acclaimed classics of cinema have encouraged a culture of sexual harassment of women. Using hundreds of clips, Nina Menkes shows how female characters are consistently framed as objects by the male subject.
Woman
This 2019 film is based on interviews with 2,000 women from 50 countries and covers the status of women all over the world. The topics covered include forced marriages, sexual assault, female genital mutilation, acid attacks, motherhood, sexuality, menstruation, education and the professional success of women.
Victim/Suspect
Directed by Nancy Schwartzman, this film chronicles journalist Rae de Leon’s investigation into a shocking nationwide pattern: Young women tell the police they’ve been sexually assaulted, but instead of finding justice, they’re charged with the crime of making a false report, arrested, and even imprisoned by the system they believed would protect them.
Koromousso, Big Sister
With candor, humor and courage, a group of African-Canadian women challenge cultural taboos surrounding female sexuality and fight to take back ownership of their bodies. Co-director Habibata Ouarme explores the lifelong effects of female genital mutilation and the road to individual and collective healing, both in Africa and in Canada.
PS: Join audiences to stream the film online across the US as part of the digital festival between June 5-11. Find out more information and how to book tickets here: bit.ly/41uCnTq
Podcasts
This American Life: Jane Doe
Five years after the #MeToo explosion, what’s happened in the lives of the women who stepped forward and went public with their stories? This podcast episode tells the story of a teenager who spoke out against one of the most powerful people in her state and what happened next.
Call Your Girlfriend
Aminatou Sow, Anne Friedman and Gina Delvac explore a wide range of interests, including politics, feminism, race and power. Though the hosts are no longer producing new episodes, there is seven and a half years’ worth of episodes for you to dig into.
I Am America
I Am America, presented by Tracee Ellis Ross, is a collection of audio portraits that expand our understanding of identity, the idea of community, and the possibility of our country. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of someone searching for belonging, hope, and joy and the effect that their experience has on the people around them.
The Feminist Lens
With the support of incredible feminist guests, the hosts of this podcast, Peris Thuo and Nina de Ayala Parker, examine news stories and current affairs through an intersectional feminist lens.
Do you have any suggestions for us to share next month? Please send them to us at supporters@equalitynow.org; we’d love to hear from you!
Achieving gender equality will happen faster if everyone takes up the challenge. Equality Now is proud to stand with No nonsense in our shared commitment to enduring, inclusive equality for women & girls.
