Feminism is for Everybody by bell hooks!

Welcome to feminism! My best piece of advice would be to talk to the professor who is teaching the Psych of Women Class. She'll probably have a whole reading list of her own. Additionally, look around on google and find some alternative news sources that might offer a new viewpoint. If you read an article or book that interests you, look for other things from that author. Also, take note of the publisher because you'll probably find similar topics covered by other authors by the same publisher. Seal Press is great for that. Good luck!

Ain't I A Woman by bell hooks. Another, to understand the role of women of color in the movement, is Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice.

Also, I find Toni Morrison's fiction, particularly The Bluest Eye, to be transformative.

For reading, I recommend an anthology, so that you can read many short pieces by different writers. I particularly love Oppression, Privilege, and Resistance: Theoretical Perspectives on Racism, Sexism, and Heterosexism, edited by Lisa Heldke and Peg O'Connor.

As for getting involved, I'd recommend looking for a community production of the Vagina Monologues once V-season rolls around. A great community of women!

Read 'Grassroots: A Field Guide to Feminist Activism" by Jennifer Baumgardner & Amy Richards! I loved it; it includes lots of stories about people who wrote messages like yours, wondering what to do, and tells you what they went on to do. A great inspiration for getting out there and doing stuff!

I just finished Jessica's book as well! It's fantastic and I'm reacting the same way. Since I'm dying to start my feminist volunteer efforts, I've researched organizations in my area that I can get involved with. I looking into interning for a career center that specializes in helping domestically abused women find jobs and gain independence from their abusers. I am constantly on Feministing, looking for other ways to get involved.

I think the most important way I've expressed my feminism is by starting discussions. I had a talk with my boyfriend about how he and his friends' jokes perpetuate sexist stereotypes. And I'm working on convincing girls in my sorority house to stop referring to each other as sluts. Just making small changes in our everyday lives can make a huge impact.

The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women are not the Better Sex, Inferior Sex or the Opposite Sex by Carol Tavris!

I would add "Manifesta" by Richards and Baumgardner to this list, as well as "It's a Jungle Out There" by Amandam Marcotte and "bitchfest" by Jervis and Zeisler. Happy reading!

These are all fabulous suggestions. I say anything bell hooks and for non-fiction, anything Toni Morrison or Zora Neale Hurston are great! ("they're eyes are watching god" is one of my favs) i also recently was told to check out "Home Girls make some Noise. An Anthology of Hip-Hop Feminism" but I havent read it yet! GOOD LUCK and HAVE FUN!!!

woops, that should have been anything FICTION... sorry!

Don't limit yourself to books either; check out Ms. Magazine, Bitch magazine, and/or Bust. Keep up on feministing also! I've learned so much here.

A book that really changed my feminist outlook and helped me understand so many nuances of feminism is the book "Female Chauvinist Pigs" By Ariel Levy. I have another friend that keeps it in her car all the time for those random moments when she wants to lend it to someone she feels will get a lot out of it.

The idea someone posted here about finding a local campus feminist chapter is a great idea. There are also tons of NOW chapters out there if you want to get politically as well as socially active. I would even check to see what kind of classes your college offers in women's studies - those were absolutely my favorite classes in college (I was a Marketing major!).

Hope these ideas help!

Borderlands by Gloria Anzaldua is also very good.

I'd recommend Woman: An Intimate Geography by Natalie Angier, which I am in the process of re-reading; The Whole Woman by Germaine Greer;
Just Like a Woman by Dianne Hales.

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir is usually recognized as a seminal work (largely originates the use of the term 'othering' you may hear in a lot of feminist discussions) I highly recommend it to anyone trying to wrap their heads around feminist concepts.

The book that gave me my feminist light bulb moment was Where the Girls Are: Growing Up Female with the Mass Media by Susan J. Douglas. Though the book only goes up til the mid-1990s chronologically, it outlines the complicated relationship that feminism has with pop culture. It made me completely re-evaluate all the movies and TV shows I watched as a child and teenager and think WAY more critically about the portrayal of women and girls, which in turn led me to feminist academia and activism. Good luck!

Some random advice:
I've finally come to terms with the fact that although feminists are united behind one cause, we tend to disagree on many things. If you ever find yourself in the minority opinion, you should still express yourself in a calm and respectful manner.

I second 'Backlash', I just finished reading it and I think it's an awesome start.
I would add "A Room of One's Own" by Virginia Woolf as well as "She's Not There" by Jennifer Finney Boylan (it's about her journey as a trans woman); excellent books to start out with which we read in my Women's Studies courses include "The Montgomery Bus Boycott and the Women Who Started It: The Memoir of Jo Ann Gibson Robinson" by Jo Ann Robinson; "Tales from the Boom-Boom Room: Women vs. Wall Street" by Susan Antilla; and the short novel "Property" by Valerie Martin.

If you'd like to read some scholarly essays, I can recommend Martha Nussbaum's "Women’s Bodies: Violence, Security,Capabilities" and "Serving Apartheid? Domestic Workers and the Racial Geographies of White Suburban Households, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1960s-1970s" by Rebecca Ginsburg.

Have fun!

I agree with Backlash, The Beauty Myth, and Manifesta, and I have to add The Feminine Mystique into the mix. It's tedious at times, but it really gives a lot of perspective about what women's lives were like just a few generations ago. Some of the information about advertising to women still rings true today.

Looks like I forgot to close an italics tag somewhere...

Godesses and Monsters and The Age of Sex Crime - Caputi. I also like Backlash, The Beauty Myth, and for fiction; The Handmaid's Tale.

As a fellow baby feminist, I have learned so MUCH from reading feminist blogs, especially Feministing. I've created a "feminist blogs" bookmarks folder that I read every day to keep myself updated on what's going on.

Great comments! As for getting involved and meeting other people, an easy way to find out what's going on in your area is to check Meetup.com and search by keyword(s) for groups: feminist, women, activism, etc. I moved at the start of the year from Chicago to NYC and I immediately hooked up with my new location of the Younger Women's Task Force and found other great groups (women in film, feminist book club groups, cafe dwellers, Bitch mag enthusiasts..the whole nine!). So there's that. Also, blogs, Twitter accounts and other media that "cross-pollenate" causes and interests regarding equality and human rights is a good way to expand your information on how feminism meets at several (if not all)of these intersections. =)

A few suggestions. Two are third-wave feminist books.

"Listen Up: Voices From the Next Feminist Generation" is decent at bringing together the various feminist thoughts and challenges of young, third-wave feminists. It's an anthology.

"To Be Real" compiled by Rebecca Walker, is a feminist primer that deals with a lot of the personal is political issues writers and posters talk about here on Feministing. My favorite piece out of there is called, "Getting Off on Feminism," by Jason Schulz.

On a more academic side, if you want to read bits and pieces from the various waves, and get into theory and feminist history, I suggest:

"Feminist Theory: A Reader." It was used in my feminist theory class and I still bust it out now and then. You can get it used on Amazon for as little as $10.

Enjoy!

Subscribe to Ms. and Bitch magazines! Seriously! Awesome, on-going feminist publications that you can pass around to friends! And they're really accessible, by which I mean you can keep them in your bag and read them all the time. There are plenty of feminist works that are great but also require more of an investment to read.

Julia Serano's Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity is not just a great piece of writing on the decidedly un-feminist tactics used to marginalize trans women, but it looks deeper, to our cultural antipathy for femininity, and how trans women are openly targeted by groups who can no longer directly comment so hatefully on cisgender women without reprisals (including many who identify as feminists themselves, sadly).

A point to consider: While there is a great diversity of feminists and feminist voices, like any other cultural movement it is dominated by white, cisgender (aka not transgender) people of privileged social classes. In my opinion some of the best writing on feminism being done these days is happening on the blogs by women who do not fit the white, privileged model, but who would otherwise not be heard due to any of the barriers created to silence them (academia, publishers, racism, transmisogyny, those white cisgender feminists who make every discussion about them, etc.).

Also, as far as getting involved locally... I'd suggest asking any organizer their policy on trans women. If they don't want trans women to come to their group, then give that a long think: Do you want to be part of an inclusive feminism or not?

I had a very similar experience a couple of years ago. I started reading a selection of books that have already been mentioned by my fellow feminists, and I started discussions amongst my group of friends to get others thinking about the same issues. I would definitely look to see what kinds of feminist/activist groups there are at your school (create one if you can't find what you're looking for!). I also suggest (if you're interested in continuing a career in feminism) getting your feet wet in the industry. I did this by getting an internship at a pro-choice organization. It gives you a chance to experience the industry and immerse yourself in feminist politics. It's amazingly exciting, and you get to meet tons of inspirational women. Good luck!

As for what to do next that isn't reading, you can look into feminist organizations around where you live and look into volunteering. But really, I find a lot of "what to do next" is personal change. Don't underestimate the effect you can have on others. For example, maybe you already don't shame others about weight but maybe you don't yet make a comment when someone else does. People's thoughts and actions are often affected by other people's thoughts and actions. Since labeling myself a feminist, I have become less judgmental of teen mothers, fat people, and mothers. I have become more outspoken about equality and in encouraging women to do what makes them happy. Reading IS great because it'll change how you think about things and likely eventually change what you say to others and could also improve your confidence.

"Why So Slow? Notes on the Progress of Women" is a great one. It talks about how gender is shaped in very young children and how subtle bias influnces out perceptions of women in power.

Any thing by Naomi Wolf is great. "The Beauty Myth" is a classic.

I like Gloria Steinm's essay "I Was a Playboy Bunny." It is old, but very relevent.

"Global Women" is another good book about women in the international labor force.

Here is an advice, do not tell your dates you are a feminist, they will have enough opportunity to find out on their own.

I dig the reading lists, great stuff, but another really good way to expand your knowledge base or get involved is to talk a lot. It's also a great way to develop ideas. I find that I learn a lot about what I believe and why I believe it when I have to field questions or answer them (and be nice about it). That doesn't mean you should expect tons of people to agree with you, but I think it's also really productive to see why someone would disagree with you... weather it's because of some bias on their part or maybe because your argument's aren't entirely well reasoned or presented. Conversation as a personal growth exercise. It's also really stellar when you meet someone who's on the same page or who can turn you on to something really engaging. To be fair, running my mouth has occasionally gotten me into trouble at parties.... but that's never really bothered me :-) That being said I also wanna respectfully disagree with proudfeminist about not telling your dates you're a feminist... I don't necessarily bring it up right away, but if the discussion turns to politics it usually gets worked in. If I'm into someone that thinks being a feminist is somehow unpalatable I'd rather know sooner than later.

Oh yeah, also 'BITCHFest' is really fun if nobody's mentioned it yet. I know the magazine came up already...

Coming late to the party, here, but, if you're a student in college, there should be lots of professors willing to do an independent study with you on feminism. Many professors are happy to work with undergrads on topics dear to their hearts; a semester working one-on-one with a professor can be a challenging and rewarding experience. Besides women studies departments, look in the philosophy, history, political science departments, and lots of others...

bell hooks! bell hooks bell hooks.