"In April 2011, a team of five people put together Slutwalk Toronto, a protest responding to slut shaming and victim blaming culture, exemplified by a recent event at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. In the name of campus "safety," Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti advised "women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimized." The sentiment of those in the over 3,000 crowd that day were shared by folks around the globe - leading to over 200 Slutwalks internationally and the establishment of "Slutwalk" organizing groups. This collection engenders a critical engagement with the global phenomenon of the Slutwalk Movement, considering both its strengths and limitations. The chapters take up Slutwalk through a feminist lens (broadly defined) considering Slutwalk as a successful social movement, a site of tremendous controversy, and an ongoing discussion among and between waves of feminists across the life cycle and across the globe. Through poetry, photography, scholarly articles, creative non-fiction, personal essays, the collection seeks to unpack the discursive performance of Slutwalk as well as explore the experiences of people who attended various and diverse Slutwalks marches/protests in North America and Asia."--

SlutWalk explores representations of the global anti-rape movement of the same name, in mainstream news and feminist blogs around the world. It reveals strategies and practices used to adapt the movement to suit local cultures and contexts and explores how social media organized, theorized and publicized this contemporary feminist campaign.

In April 2011, a team of five people put together SlutWalk Toronto, a protest responding to slut shaming and victim blaming culture, exemplified by a recent event at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University. In the name of campus “safety,” Toronto Police Constable Michael Sanguinetti advised “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not be victimized.” The sentiment of those in the over 3000 person crowd that day were shared by folks around the globe — leading to over 200 SlutWalks internationally and the establishment of “SlutWalk” organizing groups. This collection engenders a critical engagement with the global phenomenon of the SlutWalk movement, considering both its strengths and limitations. The chapters take up SlutWalk through a feminist lens (broadly defined) considering SlutWalk as a successful social movement, a site of tremendous controversy, and an ongoing discussion among and between waves of feminists across the life cycle and across the globe. Through poetry, photography, scholarly articles, creative non-fiction, personal essays, the collection seeks to unpack the discursive performance of SlutWalk as well as explore the experiences of people who attended various and diverse SlutWalks marches/protests in North America and Asia.

Exposing how "witch" and "slut" are used to police female sexuality, the author rehabilitates these sex positive archetypes.

“As funny as it is informative, this book will have you laughing out loud while you contemplate the revolutionary power of words.” —Camille Perri, author of The Assistants and When Katie Met Cassidy A brash, enlightening, and wildly entertaining feminist look at gendered language and the way it shapes us. The word bitch conjures many images, but it is most often meant to describe an unpleasant woman. Even before its usage to mean “a female canine,” bitch didn’t refer to women at all—it originated as a gender-neutral word for “genitalia.” A perfectly innocuous word devolving into an insult directed at females is the case for tons more terms, including hussy, which simply meant “housewife”; and slut, which meant “an untidy person” and was also used to describe men. These are just a few of history’s many English slurs hurled at women. Amanda Montell, reporter and feminist linguist, deconstructs language—from insults, cursing, gossip, and catcalling to grammar and pronunciation patterns—to reveal the ways it has been used for centuries to keep women and other marginalized genders from power. Ever wonder why so many people are annoyed when women speak with vocal fry or use like as filler? Or why certain gender-neutral terms stick and others don’t? Or where stereotypes of how women and men speak come from in the first place? Montell effortlessly moves between history, science, and popular culture to explore these questions—and how we can use the answers to affect real social change. Her irresistible humor shines through, making linguistics not only approachable but downright hilarious and profound. Wordslut gets to the heart of our language, marvels at its elasticity, and sheds much-needed light on the biases that shadow women in our culture and our consciousness.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Essays on hip-hop feminism featuring relevant, real conversations about how race and gender politics intersect with pop culture and current events. For the Crunk Feminist Collective, their academic day jobs were lacking in conversations they actually wanted. To address this void, they started a blog that turned into a widespread movement. The Collective’s writings foster dialogue about activist methods, intersectionality, and sisterhood. And the writers’ personal identities—as black women; as sisters, daughters, and lovers; and as television watchers, sports fans, and music lovers—are never far from the discussion at hand. These essays explore “Sex and Power in the Black Church,” discuss how “Clair Huxtable is Dead,” list “Five Ways Talib Kweli Can Become a Better Ally to Women in Hip Hop,” and dwell on “Dating with a Doctorate (She Got a Big Ego?).” Self-described as “critical homegirls,” the authors tackle life stuck between loving hip hop and ratchet culture while hating patriarchy, misogyny, and sexism. “Refreshing and timely.” —Bitch Magazine “Our favorite sister bloggers.” —Elle “By centering a Black Feminist lens, The Collection provides readers with a more nuanced perspective on everything from gender to race to sexuality to class to movement-building, packaged neatly in easy-to-read pieces that take on weighty and thorny ideas willingly and enthusiastically in pursuit of a more just world.” —Autostraddle “Much like a good mix-tape, the book has an intro, outro, and different layers of based sound in the activist, scholar, feminist, women of color, media representation, sisterhood, trans, queer and questioning landscape.” —Lambda Literary Review

A riveting, true-to-life play that examines rape and bullying culture, offering critical insight for survivors and bystanders.

The United States is obsessed with virginity - from the media to schools to government agencies. This panic is ensuring that young women's ability to be moral agents is absolutely dependent on their sexuality. Jessica Valenti, executive editor of Feministing.com and author of Full Frontal Feminism and Yes Means Yes, addresses this poignant issue in her latest book, The Purity Myth. Valenti argues that the country's intense focus on chastity is extremely damaging to young women. Through in depth analysis of cultural stereotypes and media messages, Valenti reveals that powerful messages - ranging from abstinence curriculum to ''Girls Gone Wild'' commercials - place a young woman's worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, as opposed to values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti approaches the topic head-on, shedding light on chastity in a historical context, abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex, among other critical issues. She also offers solutions that pave the way for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity, including a call to rethink male sexuality and reframing the idea of ''losing it.'' With Valenti's usual balance of intelligence and wit, The Purity Myth presents a powerful and revolutionary argument that girls and women, even in this day and age, are overly valued for their sexuality, and that this needs to stop.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book of 2021 Hip-hop and feminism combine in this empowering guide with attitude, from best-selling author Brittney Cooper and founding members of the Crunk Feminist Collective. Loud and rowdy girls, quiet and nerdy girls, girls who rock naturals, girls who wear weave, outspoken and opinionated girls, girls still finding their voice, queer girls, trans girls, and gender nonbinary young people who want to make the world better: Feminist AF uses the insights of feminism to address issues relevant to today’s young womxn. What do you do when you feel like your natural hair is ugly, or when classmates keep touching it? How do you handle your self-confidence if your family or culture prizes fair-skinned womxn over darker-skinned ones? How do you balance your identities if you’re an immigrant or the child of immigrants? How do you dress and present yourself in ways that feel good when society condemns anything outside of the norm? Covering colorism and politics, romance and pleasure, code switching, and sexual violence, Feminist AF is the empowering guide to living your feminism out loud.