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OSCBC: Our Self Care book club
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Our Self Care Magazine's weekly book club looks at literature's depiction of femme/wom*n's mental health and how writers have successfully undermined the norm and stigma while humanizing a very common human experience.
The first book is "Wide Sargasso Sea" (1966) by Jean Rhys.
This is a small community meet-up of book lovers that happen to self-identify as femme/womxn persons living with mental health challenges. Wide Sargasso Sea (1966) is a feminist, anti-colonial, and anti-sanism response to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847). WSS is the first book for the OSCBC because it is a direct and early example of reclaiming identity and changing narratives around stereotypes (be it mental health, race, love, etc.). The book is a good portrayal of the intersectionality of women's mental health, and a subtle yet thought-provoking critique of the "madwoman in the attic" trope while demonstrating actionable anti-sanism in media. Additionally, it is important that WSS is a rebuttal of a woman's (basically one of the most famous western women writers ever) work, because Our Self Care mag won't shy away from correcting the misconceptions perpetuated by our fellow women and holding the mental health community accountable, and is about intersectional, transformative, equitable art.