Book picks similar to
Black Feminist Cultural Criticism by Jacqueline Bobo
feminism
non-fiction
anti-racism
cultural-criticism
The F-Word: Feminism in Jeopardy; Women, Politics, and the Future
Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner - 2004
In addition, decades of negative campaigns, excessively "messaged" issues, and hanging chads have all combined to make political apathy appear not only smart, but sexy. The result is that while they still bemoan the state of gender politics, gender equity, and the agendas of their local, state, and national politicians, nearly 19 million young women chose not to vote in the last presidential election.Yes, the face of feminism is changing, but to what end? Is a new generation taking for granted the rights hard-won only a generation before? And by focusing on culturalnot electoralpolitics, are young women giving their power away? In this pivotal book, Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, political and environmental consultant (and wife of Washington State s Republican senate majority leader), asks these critical questions, tracing feminism s distinguished past and asking what can be done to protect and further women s rights and freedoms."
Formations of Class & Gender: Becoming Respectable
Beverley Skeggs - 1997
Formations of Class & Gender demonstrates why class should be featured more prominently in theoretical accounts of gender, identity and power. Beverley Skeggs identifies the neglect of class, and shows how class and gender must be fused together to produce an accurate representation of power relations in modern society.The book questions how theoretical frameworks are generated for understanding how women live and produce themselves through social and cultural relations. It uses detailed ethnographic research to explain how `real′ women inhabit and occupy the social and cultural posit
Plus+
Bethany Rutter - 2018
There's no longer any shame in not fitting the traditional ideals of beauty, as proven by Gabi Gregg, Tess Holliday, Beth Ditto and thousands of bloggers and models acround the world.The online plus-size fashion community is loud, international and confident. Millions of #ootd photos are shared everyday, showing off amazing style and beautiful people. Plus+ gathers together the very best, and celebrates all shapes, sizes and aesthetics - a beautiful, sharply designed, glossy collection to inspire everyone, plus-size or otherwise.
Assume Nothing: A Story of Intimate Violence
Tanya Selvaratnam - 2021
Both were Harvard alumni; both studied Chinese; both were interested in spirituality and meditation, both were well-connected rising stars in their professions—Selvaratnam in entertainment and the art world; Schneiderman in law and politics. Behind closed doors, however, Tanya’s life was anything but ideal. Schneiderman became controlling, mean, and manipulative. He drank heavily and used sedatives. Sex turned violent, and he called Tanya—who was born in Sri Lanka and grew up in Southern California—his “brown slave.” He isolated and manipulated her, even threatening to kill her if she tried to leave. Twenty-five percent of women in America are victims of domestic abuse. Tanya never thought she would be a part of this statistic. Growing up, she witnessed her father physically and emotionally abuse her mother. Tanya knew the patterns and signs of domestic violence, and did not see herself as remotely vulnerable. Yet what seemed impossible was suddenly a terrifying reality: she was trapped in a violent relationship with one of the most powerful men in New York. Sensitive and nuanced, written with the gripping power of a dark psychological thriller, Assume Nothing details how Tanya’s relationship devolved into abuse, how she found the strength to leave—risking her career, reputation, and life—and how she reclaimed her freedom and her voice. In sharing her story, Tanya analyzes the insidious way women from all walks of life learn to accept abuse, and redefines what it means to be a victim of intimate violence.
Pocket RBG Wisdom: Supreme Quotes and Inspired Musings from Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Hardie Grant Books - 2019
After a quarter century serving on the highest court in America and fighting tirelessly for gender equality and civil rights, RBG has become one of the most influential legal figures in the history of the country. From her landmark cases working with the ACLU to her brilliantly meme-worthy moments of dissent, RBG is a true American trailblazer.
The Criminal Conversation of Mrs. Norton
Diane Atkinson - 2012
It is a fine, fresh morning that will become hot as the day progresses. Crowds are gathering at the Court of Common Pleas.On trial is Caroline Sheridan, a beautiful and clever young woman who had been manoeuvred into marrying the Honourable George Norton when she was just nineteen. Ten years older, he is a dull, violent and controlling lawyer but Caroline is determined not to be a traditional wife. By her early twenties, Caroline has become a respected poet and songwriter, clever mimic and outrageous flirt. Her beauty and wit attract many male admirers, including the Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne. After years of simmering jealousy, Norton accuses Caroline and the Prime Minister of a 'criminal conversation' (adultery) precipitating 'the scandal of the century'. In Westminster Hall that day is a young Charles Dickens, who would, just a few months later, fictionalise the event as 'Bardell v. Pickwick' in The Pickwick Papers. After a trial lasting twelve hours, the jury's not guilty verdict is immediate, unanimous and sensational. Norton is a laughing stock. Angry and humiliated he cuts Caroline off, as was his right under the law, refuses to let her see their three sons, seizes her manuscripts and letters, her clothes and jewels, and leaves her destitute. The Criminal Conversation of Mrs Norton is the extraordinary story of one woman's fight for the rights of women everywhere. For the next thirty years Caroline campaigned for women and battled male-dominated Victorian society, helping to write the Infant Custody Act (1839), and influenced the Matrimonial Causes (Divorce) Act (1857) and the Married Women's Property Act (1870), which gave women a separate legal identity for the first time.
Ladies Get Paid: The Ultimate Guide to Breaking Barriers, Owning Your Worth, and Taking Command of Your Career
Claire Wasserman - 2021
Claire Wasserman has one goal for women: Rise up and get paid. As the founder of Ladies Get Paid, Claire has worked her entire adult life to promote gender equality in the workplace. If you’re looking to navigate a promotion or break the glass ceiling, Ladies Get Paid is your essential toolkit for achieving success. Filled with straightforward advice and inspiring stories, Ladies Get Paid encourages self-advocacy and activism as a way to advance your career and make more money. Covering topics as crucial and varied as how to find the perfect mentor, how to negotiate a raise, and how to become a leader, Ladies Get Paid is a reminder that you are valuable—both as an individual woman and as part of the female community. And ultimately, it’s about more than your wallet—it’s about your worth.
Black Queer Hoe
Britteney Black Rose Kapri - 2018
In this powerful debut, Britteney Black Rose Kapri lends her unmistakable voice to fraught questions of identity, sexuality, reclamation, and power, in a world that refuses Black Queer women permission to define their own lives and boundaries.
Maneuvers: The International Politics of Militarizing Women's Lives
Cynthia Enloe - 2000
They are also the employees of food companies, toy companies, clothing companies, film studios, stock brokerages, and advertising agencies. Militarization is never gender-neutral, Enloe claims: It is a personal and political transformation that relies on ideas about femininity and masculinity. Films that equate action with war, condoms that are designed with a camouflage pattern, fashions that celebrate brass buttons and epaulettes, tomato soup that contains pasta shaped like Star Wars weapons—all of these contribute to militaristic values that mold our culture in both war and peace.Presenting new and groundbreaking material that builds on Enloe's acclaimed work in Does Khaki Become You? and Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, Maneuvers takes an international look at the politics of masculinity, nationalism, and globalization. Enloe ranges widely from Japan to Korea, Serbia, Kosovo, Rwanda, Britain, Israel, the United States, and many points in between. She covers a broad variety of subjects: gays in the military, the history of "camp followers," the politics of women who have sexually serviced male soldiers, married life in the military, military nurses, and the recruitment of women into the military. One chapter titled "When Soldiers Rape" explores the many facets of the issue in countries such as Chile, the Philippines, Okinawa, Rwanda, and the United States.Enloe outlines the dilemmas feminists around the globe face in trying to craft theories and strategies that support militarized women, locally and internationally, without unwittingly being militarized themselves. She explores the complicated militarized experiences of women as prostitutes, as rape victims, as mothers, as wives, as nurses, and as feminist activists, and she uncovers the "maneuvers" that military officials and their civilian supporters have made in order to ensure that each of these groups of women feel special and separate.
Flux: Women on Sex, Work, Love, Kids, and Life in a Half-Changed World
Peggy Orenstein - 2000
Now Orenstein uses the same interviewing and reporting skills to examine the lives of women in their 20s, 30s and 40s. The advances of the women's movement allow women to grow up with a sense of expanded possibilities. Yet traditional expectations have hardly changed. To discover how they are navigating this double burden personally and professionally, Orenstein interviewed hundreds of women and has blended their voices into a compelling narrative that gets deep inside their lives and choices. With unusual sensitivity, Orenstein offers insight and inspiration for every woman who is making important decisions of her own.
Multiply/Divide: On the American Real and Surreal
Wendy S. Walters - 2015
Walters's essays deftly explore the psyches of cities such as Chicago, Detroit, New York, Portsmouth, and Washington, D.C. In "Cleveland," she interviews an African-American playwright who draws great reviews, but can't muster an audience. An on-air telephone chat between a DJ and his listeners drives a discussion of race and nutrition in "Chicago Radio." In "Manhattanville" the author, out for a walk with her biracial son, is mistaken for his nanny. Each essay explores societal questions—how eras of immense growth can leave us unable to prosper from that growth, how places intended for safety become fraught with danger, and how race and gender bias threaten our communities. Walters's haunting utterances are beautifully precise estimations of a place and its people.
Beyoncé in Formation: Remixing Black Feminism
Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley - 2018
In Beyoncé in Formation, Tinsley now takes her rich observations beyond the classroom, using the blockbuster album and video Lemonade as a soundtrack for vital next-millennium narratives.Woven with candid observations about her life as a feminist scholar of African studies and a cisgender femme married to a trans spouse, Tinsley's "Femme-onade" mixtape explores myriad facets of black women's sexuality and gender. Turning to Beyoncé's "Don't Hurt Yourself," Tinsley assesses black feminist critiques of marriage and then considers the models of motherhood offered in "Daddy Lessons," interspersing these passages with memories from Tinsley's multiracial family history. Her chapters on nontraditional bonds culminate in a discussion of contemporary LGBT politics through the lens of the internet-breaking video "Formation," underscoring why Beyoncé's black femme-inism isn't only for ciswomen. From pleasure politics and the struggle for black women's reproductive justice to the subtext of blues and country music traditions, the landscape in this tour is populated by activists and artists (including Loretta Lynn) and infused with vibrant interpretations of Queen Bey's provocative, peerless imagery and lyrics.In the tradition of Roxanne Gay's Bad Feminist and Jill Lepore's bestselling cultural histories, Beyoncé in Formation is the work of a daring intellectual who is poised to spark a new conversation about freedom and identity in America.
Pink Sari Revolution: A Tale of Women and Power in India
Amana Fontanella-Khan - 2014
This is one explanation for how Sheelu, a seventeen-year-old girl, ended up in jail after fleeing her service in the home of a powerful local legislator. In a region plagued by corruption, an incident like this might have gone unnoticed—except that it captured the attention of Sampat Pal, leader of India’s infamous Gulabi (Pink) Gang.Poor and illiterate, married off around the age of twelve, pregnant with her first child at fifteen, and prohibited from attending school, Sampat Pal has risen to become the courageous commander and chief of a women’s brigade numbering in the tens of thousands. Uniformed in pink saris and carrying pink batons, they aim to intervene wherever other women are victims of abuse or injustice. Joined in her struggle by Babuji, a sensitive man whose intellectualism complements her innate sense of justice, and by a host of passionate field commanders, Sampat Pal has confronted policemen and gangsters, officiated love marriages, and empowered women to become financially independent.In a country where women’s rights struggle to keep up with rapid modernization, the story of Sampat Pal and her Pink Gang illuminates the thrilling possibilities of female grassroots activism.
Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope
Artisan Press - 2017
president, and championed equality and justice for all. Why We March presents more than 300 of the most powerful, uplifting, clever, and creative signs from these marches. “Nasty Women Unite.” “Make America Think Again.” “Build Bridges, Not Walls.” “Girls Just Wanna Have Fundamental Rights.” “Love Trumps Hate.” “A Woman’s Place Is in the Resistance.” These images--featuring messages about reproductive rights and cabinet picks, immigration and police violence, climate change and feminism--together paint a striking portrait of resistance, despair, humor, and most of all, hope. This book will serve as a rallying cry for this burgeoning movement, and a valuable and timely encapsulation of an unprecedented moment in political history. All royalties from the sale of this book will be donated to Planned Parenthood.
Unscrewed: Women, Sex, Power, and How to Stop Letting the System Screw Us All
Jaclyn Friedman - 2017
In Unscrewed, Friedman brings her sharp expertise and incisive observations on the state of sexual politics to the fore, sparking a culture-wide rethink about sex, power and what we accept. With reportage and verve, Unscrewed builds a searing investigation into the state of sexual power in America, and outlines how to make real progress toward equality. Friedman reveals that the anxiety and fear women in our country feel around issues of their sexuality are not, in fact, their fault, but instead are side effects of what she calls our "era of fauxpowerment," wherein women have the illusion of sexual power, with no actual power to support it. Exploring the fault lines where media, religion, politics, and education impinge on our intimate lives, Unscrewed breaks down the causes and signs of fauxpowerment, then gives readers tools to take it on themselves.