Feminism

In After #MeToo, Gerard Casey provides a critical assessment of the #MeToo movement, situating it in the context of the radical feminism of which it is just the latest manifestation. Apart from its legitimating an indiscriminate attack on men and masculinity, Casey argues that the #MeToo movement has exposed a conceptual fault-line in radical feminist anthropology. Are women fully-developed moral agents, able to exercise moral choice and to take responsibility for what they do; or are women elements of a collective made up of the victims of sexual crimes, whose suffering is not just that of any one individual woman but of the group as a whole? Casey's analysis of the #MeToo movement is prefaced by a brief typology of forms of feminism and by an account of the supposedly universal oppression of women by a malign patriarchy. He argues that if there is such a thing as the patriarchy, it is singularly and spectacularly ineffectual in its operation inasmuch as women, on the whole, are not only not oppressed in comparison to men but are rather the beneficiaries of legal and social privileges. After #MeToo concludes with a consideration of the changing legal definitions of rape. Once understood to be essentially a crime of violence, rape has now come to be regarded as a violation of personal autonomy. In common law systems, a certain conception of consent is now central to the definition of rape, a conception that, Casey argues, is unworkable, at once infantilising women and, at the same time, potentially criminalising every sexual encounter in which a man is involved.

Part of the Gibbs Smith Women's Voices series: A collection of literary voices written by, and for, extraordinary women--to encourage, challenge, and inspire. By the matriarch of feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Womentackles womens-rights-as-human-rights decades before the women's suffrage movement began. In what is widely considered the very first feminist manifesto, Wollstonecraft argues on behalf of women's natural intellect and character--considered radical at the time, her writing has paved the way of progress for generations to come.

New aspects of the misogyny that impacts girls and women worldwide continue to emerge every day. However, recent movements (e.g., #MeToo, Time's Up, the Women's March) indicate a strong hunger for a meaningful resource for thoughtful activists. Impassioned but practical, this book discussesthe social contexts of misogyny, such as toxic masculinity and rape culture. It traces the history of misogyny and considers its meaning today - what is new and what is old. The author also proposes strategies for effective feminist action. Written for advocates of gender equality who are alreadyaware of misogyny, the book includes Action Steps as tools for activism on both the individual and political levels. Misogyny is a timely text that offers concrete guidance as we strive for the egalitarian society that, despite all setbacks, we are capable of achieving.

From Hilary Clinton to Ivanka Trump and from Emma Watson all the way to Beyonce, more and more high-powered women are unabashedly identifying as feminists in the mainstream media. In the past few years feminism has indeed gained increasing visibility and even urgency. Yet, in her analysis ofrecent bestselling feminist manifestos, well-trafficked mommy blogs, and television series such as The Good Wife, Catherine Rottenberg reveals that a particular variant of feminism - which she calls neoliberal feminism - has come to dominate the cultural landscape, one that is not interested in amass women's movement or struggles for social justice. Rather, this feminism has introduced the notion of a happy work-family balance into the popular imagination, while transforming balance into a feminist ideal. So-called "aspirational women" are now exhorted to focus on cultivating a felicitousequilibrium between their child-rearing responsibilities and their professional goals, and thus to abandon key goals that have historically informed feminism, including equal rights and liberation.Rottenberg maintains that because neoliberalism reduces everything to market calculations it actually needs feminism in order to "solve" thorny issues related to reproduction and care. She goes on to show how women of color and poor and immigrant women most often serve as the unacknowledgedcare-workers who enable professional women to strive toward balance, arguing that neoliberal feminism legitimates the exploitation of the vast majority of women while disarticulating any kind of structural critique. It is not surprising, then, that this new feminist discourse has increasinglydovetailedwith conservative forces. In Europe, gender parity has been used by Marine Le Pen and Geert Wilders to further racist, anti-immigrant agendas, while in the United States, women's rights has been invoked to justify interventions in countries with majority Muslim populations. And thoughcampaigns such as the #MeToo and #TimesUp appear to be shifting the discussion, given our frightening neoliberal reality, these movements are currently insufficient. Rottenberg therefore concludes by raising urgent questions about how we can successfully reorient and reclaim feminism as a socialjustice movement.

What is feminism? How has the global fight for women's rights changed from the time of suffragettes to the women's marches held around the world in 2017? As readers explore the answers to these questions, they discover the challenges women have faced in their quest for equality. With annotated quotes, sidebars, and primary sources enhancing the engaging main text, readers are given a comprehensive look at how women in various countries have fought for equal rights. A detailed timeline highlights crucial dates in feminist history, helping provide context as readers gain a deeper appreciation for this timely topic.

In the late 2010s, the United States experienced a period of widespread silencing. Protests of unsafe drinking water have been met with tear gas; national park employees, environmentalists, and scientists have been ordered to stop communicating publicly. Advocates for gun control are silenced even as mass shootings continue. Expressed dissent to political power is labeled as "fake news." DREAMers, Muslims, Trans military members, women, black bodies, the LGBTQI+ community, Latina/o/x communities, rape survivors, sex workers, and immigrants have all been systematically silenced. During this difficult time and despite such restrictions, advocates and allies persist and resist, forming dialogues that call to repel inequality in its many forms. Addressing the oppression of women of color, white women, women with (dis)abilities, and LBTQI+ individuals across cultures and contexts remains a central posit of feminist struggle and requires "a distinctly feminist politics of recognition." However, as second wave debates about feminism have revealed, there is no single way to express a feminist politic. Rather, living feminist politics requires individual interpretation and struggle, collective discussion and disagreement, and recognizing difference among women as well as points of convergence in feminist struggle.   Badass Feminist Politics includes a diverse range of engaging feminist political projects to not only analyze the work being done on the ground but provide an overview for action that can be taken on by those seeking to engage in feminist activism in their own communities.

In Black Trans Feminism Marquis Bey offers a meditation on blackness and gender nonnormativity in ways that recalibrate traditional understandings of each. Theorizing black trans feminism from the vantages of abolition and gender radicality, Bey articulates blackness as a mutiny against racializing categorizations; transness as a nonpredetermined, wayward, and deregulated movement that works toward gender's destruction; and black feminism as an epistemological method to fracture hegemonic modes of racialized gender. In readings of the essays, interviews, and poems of Alexis Pauline Gumbs, jayy dodd, Venus Di'Khadija Selenite, and Dane Figueroa Edidi, Bey turns black trans feminism away from a politics of gendered embodiment and toward a conception of it as a politics grounded in fugitivity and the subversion of power. Together, blackness and transness actualize themselves as on the run from gender. In this way, Bey presents black trans feminism as a mode of enacting the wholesale dismantling of the world we have been given.

Feminist psychology developed as a reaction to historical psychological thought, initiated by men who controlled the theory and research of the field. By holding all of society to "norms" based in male behavior, this so-called masculine psychology effectively assigned women lower societal status than men and had disturbing effects on women's health and self-esteem. Feminist Psychology focuses on gender differences, social structure, and the values and principles of women's rights within the world's individual, social, and political spheres. Contrary to popular notion, feminist psychology does not involve man-hating, but instead focuses on loving the concept that women have equal potential to set and achieve goals and to contribute to society. In this volume, psychologist Vera Maass explains the history, theory, research, and current state of this growing field, becoming increasingly popular as colleges offer majors or concentrations in feminist psychology, and argues that women are both different from and equal to men.

This book makes the case for an inclusive form of socialist feminism that puts women with multiple disadvantages at its heart. It moves feminism beyond contemporary disputes, including those between some feminists and some trans women. Combining academic rigour with accessibility, the book demystifies some key feminist terms, including patriarchy and intersectionality, and shows their relevance to feminist politics today. It argues that the analysis of gender cannot be isolated from that of class or race, and that the needs of most women will not be met in an economy based on the pursuit of profit. Throughout, the book asserts the social, economic and human importance of the unpaid caring and domestic work that has been traditionally done by women. It concludes that there are some grounds for optimism about a future that could be both more feminist and more socialist.

Two pioneering feminists present a groundbreaking collection recovering a generation's revolutionary insights for today When Betty Friedan published The Feminine Mystique in 1963, the book exploded into women's consciousness. Before the decade was out, what had begun as a campaign for women's civil rights transformed into a diverse and revolutionary movement for freedom and social justice that challenged many aspects of everyday life long accepted as fixed: work, birth control and abortion, childcare and housework, gender, class, and race, art and literature, sexuality and identity, rape and domestic violence, sexual harassment, pornography, and more. This was the women's liberation movement, and writing--powerful, personal, and prophetic--was its beating heart.  Fifty years on, in the age of #MeToo and Black Lives Matter, this visionary and radical writing is as relevant and urgently needed as ever, ready to inspire a new generation of feminists. Activists and writers Alix Kates Shulman and Honor Moore have gathered an unprecedented collection of works--many long out-of-print and hard to find--that catalyzed and propelled the women's liberation movement. Ranging from Friedan's Feminine Mystique to Backlash, Susan Faludi's Reagan-era requiem, and framed by Shulman and Moore with an introduction and headnotes that provide historical and personal context, the anthology reveals the crucial role of Black feminists and other women of color in a decades long mass movement that not only brought about fundamental changes in American life--changes too often taken for granted today--but envisioned a thoroughgoing revolution in society and consciousness still to be achieved.