Happy National Read a Book Day! Celebrate by picking up Whipping Girl.

On the first day of my New Testament Class at Candler School of Theology, our professor began by passing around a box of chocolates. No Forest Gump jokes were even made! Now, a box of chocolate for over 100 students was more over a cardboard box filled with a variety of beloved Ghirardelli squares most likely purchased from Amazon. He shared that it was national chocolate day and so he wanted us all to celebrate together. I’m not 100% sure if this moment served any other teaching purpose because all I remember is the chocolate and our laughter. 

I share this story because today I found it was National Read a Book Day. Who knew there was such a thing! But, there is so here I am handing around a metaphorical cardboard box of chocolates to you readers with an option for you to kick-off this day! This fall we are starting a series of book studies with accompanied field trips as a way to enrich our experience reading narratives that are not always shared in Church and ones that often go unacknowledged in Portland. 

For book discussions we will gather every other month at Laughing Planet in Woodstock at 6:30, starting September 17. In September we will be reading Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Feminity. Serano writes on the book’s title, “I have called this book Whipping Girl to highlight the ways in which people who are feminine, whether they are female, male, and/or transgender, are almost universally demeaned compared to their masculine counterparts” (5). As a cis-female this book has further opened my eyes to the the atrosities of misogyny while also taking me out own limiting viewpoint so I can see how misogyny effects way more than just ciswomen but goes beyond this one group of people to men, transwomen, transmen, and nonbinary people. 

So, why not read this book to kick off your National Read a Book Day celebration! All that said, I hope that you will join us Tuesday at Laughing Planet as we gather to discuss Whipping Girl and learn from Serano and those around the table with us.