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Feminist Literature

 - 17 items found in your search
Feminist Literature

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1 Airless Spaces Shulamith Firestone
Semiotext(e) 1570270821 / 9781570270826 Paperback New 
In 1970, at the age of twenty-five, Shulamith Firestone wrote andpublished The Dialectic of Sex, immediately becoming a classic of second wavefeminism across the world to this very day. It was one of the few books that daredto look at how radical feminism could and should shape the future; and one whosepredictions (the cybernetic revolution, for example) proved startlingly prescient ofissues today.Published by Semiotext(e) in 1998, Airless Spaces, Firestone's firstwork of fiction, is a collection of short stories written by Firestone as she foundherself drifting from the professional career path she'd been on and into what shedescribes as a new "airless space." These deadpan stories, set among the disappearedand darkened sectors of New York City, are about losers who fall prey to anincreasingly bureaucratized poverty and find themselves in an out of (mental)hospitals. But what gives characters such as SCUM-Manifesto author Valerie Solanastheir depth and charge, is their the small crises that trigger an awareness thatthey're in trouble.Some time later, after I had moved to St. Mark's Place, I sawValerie in the street. She asked me for a quarter, and I saw that she was begging.She had lost her apartment, and presumably her welfare. Later, a friend of mine whoran a store on St. Mark's Place said that Valerie had approached him for shelter.She was covered with sores, and wearing only a blanket to beg in. She had been outon the street approximately three months without shelter. Not long after that, shedisappeared from the street entirely. 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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2 At The Heart Of Freedom Drucilla Cornell
University Presses of California, Columbia and Princeton 0691028966 / 9780691028965 Paperback New 
How can women create a meaningful and joyous life for themselves? Is it enough to be equal with men? In this provocative and wide-ranging book, Drucilla Cornell argues that women should transcend the quest for equality and focus on what she shows is a far more radical project: achieving freedom. Cornell takes us on a highly original exploration of what it would mean for women politically, legally, and culturally, if we took this ideal of freedom seriously--if, in her words, we recognized that "hearts starve as well as bodies." She takes forceful and sometimes surprising stands on such subjects as abortion, prostitution, pornography, same-sex marriage, international human rights, and the rights and obligations of fathers. She also engages with what it means to be free on a theoretical level, drawing on the ideas of such thinkers as Kant, Rawls, Ronald Dworkin, Hegel, and Lacan.
Cornell begins by discussing what she believes lies at the heart of freedom: the ability for all individuals to pursue happiness in their own way, especially in matters of love and sex. This is only possible, she argues, if we protect the "imaginary domain"--a psychic and moral space in which individuals can explore their own sources of happiness. She writes that equality with men does not offer such protection, in part because men themselves are not fully free. Instead, women must focus on ensuring that individuals face minimal interference from the state and from oppressive cultural norms. They must also respect some controversial individual choices. Cornell argues in favor of permitting same-sex couples to marry and adopt children, for example. She presses for access to abortion and for universal day care. She also justifies lifestyles that have not always been supported by other feminists, ranging from staying at home as a primary caregiver to engaging in prostitution. She argues that men should have similar freedoms--thus returning feminism to its promise that freedom for women would mean freedom for all.
Challenging, passionate, and powerfully argued, Cornell's book will have a major impact on the course of feminist thought. 
Price: 44.95 AUD
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3 Backlash Susan Faludi
Three Rivers Press 0307345424 / 9780307345424 Paperback New 
Opting-out, "security moms," "desperate housewives," "the new baby fever"--the trend stories of 2006 leave no doubt that American women are still being barraged by the same backlash messages that Susan Faludi brilliantly exposed in her 1991 bestselling book of revelations. Now, the book that reignited the feminist movement is back in a fifteenth anniversary edition, with a new preface by the author that brings backlash consciousness up to date.
When it was first published, "Backlash" made headlines for puncturing such favorite media myths as the "infertility epidemic" and the "man shortage," myths that defied statistical realities. These willfully fictitious media campaigns added up to an antifeminist backlash. Whatever progress feminism has recently made, Faludi's words today seem prophetic. The media still love stories about stay-at-home moms and the "dangers" of women's career ambitions; the glass ceiling is still low; women are still punished for wanting to succeed; basic reproductive rights are still hanging by a thread. The backlash clearly exists.
With passion and precision, Faludi shows in her new preface how the creators of commercial culture distort feminist concepts to sell products while selling women downstream, how the feminist ethic of economic independence is twisted into the consumer ethic of buying power, and how the feminist quest for self-determination is warped into a self-centered quest for self-improvement. "Backlash" is a classic of feminism, an alarm bell for women of every generation, reminding us of the dangers that we still face. 
Price: 29.95 AUD
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4 Beauty Myth Naomi Wolf
Harper Perennial 0060512180 / 9780060512187 Paperback New 
In today's world, women have more power, legal recognition, and professional success than ever before. Alongside the evident progress of the women's movement, however, writer and journalist Naomi Wolf is troubled by a different kind of social control, which, she argues, may prove just as restrictive as the traditional image of homemaker and wife. It's the beauty myth, an obsession with physical perfection that traps the modern woman in an endless spiral of hope, self-consciousness, and self-hatred as she tries to fulfill society's impossible definition of "the flawless beauty." 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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5 Cunt: A Declaration Of Independence Inga Muscio, Betty, Ph.D. Dodson
Seal Press (WA) 1580050751 / 9781580050753 Paperback New 
An ancient title of respect for women the word cunt long ago veered off this noble path. Inga Musico traces the road from honor to expletive giving women the motivation and tools to claim cunt as a positive and powerful force in their lives. With humor and candor she shares her own history as she explores the cultural forces that influence women's relationships with their bodies. Sending out a call for every women to be the Cuntlovin' Ruler of Her Sexual Universe Musico stands convention on its head by embracing all things cunt-related. 
Price: 29.95 AUD
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6 Female Eunuch Germaine Greer
Harper Perennial 006157953X / 9780061579530 Paperback New 
The publication of Germaine Greer's "The Female Eunuch" in 1970 was a landmark event, raising eyebrows and ire while creating a shock wave of recognition in women around the world with its steadfast assertion that sexual liberation is the key to women's liberation. Today, Greer's searing examination of the oppression of women in contemporary society is both an important historical record of where we've been and a shockingly relevant treatise on what still remains to be achieved. 
Price: 29.95 AUD
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7 Feminism Is For Everybody: Passionate Politics Bell Hooks
South End Press 0896086283 / 9780896086289 Paperback New 
In this engaging and provocative volume, Bell Hooks introduces a popular theory of feminism rooted in common sense and the wisdom of experience. Hers is a vision of a beloved community that appeals to all those committed to equality, mutual respect, and justice. Hooks applies her critical analysis to the most contentious and challenging issues facing feminists today, including reproductive rights, violence, race, class, and work. With her customary insight and unsparing honesty, Hooks calls for a feminism free from divisive barriers but rich with rigorous debate. In language both eye-opening and optimistic, Hooks encourages us to demand alternatives to patriarchal, racist, and homophobic culture, and to imagine a different future. Hooks speaks to all those in search of true liberation, asking readers to take look at feminism in a new light, to see that it touches all lives. Issuing an invitation to participate fully in feminist movement and to benefit fully from it, Hooks shows that feminism--far from being an outdated concept or one limited to an intellectual elite--is indeed for everybody. 
Price: 19.95 AUD
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8 Gender Trouble Judith Butler
Taylor & Francis 0415389550 / 9780415389556 Paperback New 
One of the most talked-about scholarly works of the past fifty years, Judith Butler 's Gender Trouble is as celebrated as it is controversial. Arguing that traditional feminism is wrong to look to a natural, 'essential' notion of the female, or indeed of sex or gender, Butler starts by questioning the category 'woman' and continues in this vein with examinations of 'the masculine' and 'the feminine'. Best known however, but also most often misinterpreted, is Butler's concept of gender as a reiterated social performance rather than the expression of a prior reality. Thrilling and provocative, few other academic works have roused passions to the same extent. 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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9 Girls To The Front: The True Story Of The Riot Grrrl Revolution Sara Marcus
Harper Perennial 0061806366 / 9780061806360 Paperback New 
"Girls to the Front" is the epic, definitive history of Riot Grrrl--the radical feminist uprising that exploded into the public eye in the 1990s and included incendiary punk bands Bikini Kill, Bratmobile, Heavens to Betsy, and Huggy Bear. A dynamic chronicle not just a movement but an era, this is the story of a group of pissed--off girls with no patience for sexism and no intention of keeping quiet. 
Price: 29.95 AUD
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10 Means Of Reproduction Michelle Goldberg
Penguin 0143116886 / 9780143116882 Paperback New 
Award-winning journalist Michelle Goldberg shows how the emancipation of women has become the key human rights struggle of the twenty-first century in "The Means of Reproduction." Deeply reported across four continents, the book explores issues such as abortion, female circumcision, and Asia's missing girls to dramatize the connections between international policymaking and individual lives. Goldberg demonstrates how women's rights are key to addressing both overpopulation and rapid population decline, reducing world poverty, and retarding the spread of AIDS. Sweeping and ambitious, this is a must-read book for feminists, health and policy workers, and anyone concerned about the future of our world. 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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11 Memoirs Of A Beatnik Diane Di Prima
Penguin 0140235396 / 9780140235395 Paperback New 
Long regarded as an underground classic for its gritty and unabashedly erotic portrayal of the Beat years Memoirs of a Beatnik is a moving account of a powerful woman artist coming of age sensually and intellectually in a movement dominated by a small confederacy of men many of whom she lived with and loved. Filled with anecdotes about her adventures in New York City Diane di Prima's memoir shows her learning to raise her rebellion into art and making her way toward literary success. Memoirs of a Beatnik offers a fascinating narrative about the courage and triumphs of the imagination. 
Price: 26.95 AUD
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12 Pin-up Grrrls Maria Elena Buszek
Duke University Press 0822337460 / 9780822337461 Paperback New 
Subverting stereotypical images of women, a new generation of feminist artists is remaking the pin-up, much as Annie Sprinkle, Cindy Sherman, and others did in the 1970s and 1980s. As shocking as contemporary feminist pin-ups are intended to be, perhaps more surprising is that the pin-up has been appropriated by women for their own empowerment since its inception more than a century ago. "Pin-Up Grrrls" tells the history of the pin-up from its birth, revealing how its development is intimately connected to the history of feminism. Maria Elena Buszek documents the genre's 150-year history with more than 100 illustrations, many never before published.
Beginning with the pin-up's origins in mid-nineteenth-century "carte-de-visite "photographs of burlesque performers, Buszek explores how female sex symbols, including Adah Isaacs Menken and Lydia Thompson, fought to exert control over their own images. Buszek analyzes the evolution of the pin-up through the advent of the New Woman, the suffrage movement, fanzine photographs of early film stars, the Varga Girl illustrations that appeared in "Esquire" during World War II, the early years of "Playboy" magazine, and the recent revival of the genre in appropriations by third-wave feminist artists. A fascinating combination of art history and cultural history, "Pin-Up Grrrls" is the story of how women have publicly defined and represented their sexuality since the 1860s. 
Price: 39.95 AUD
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13 Purity Myth Jessica Valenti
Avalon Pfeminine m Group 1580053149 / 9781580053143 Paperback New 
The United States is obsessed with virginity -- from the media to schools to government agencies. In"The Purity Myth, "Jessica Valenti argues that the country's intense focus on chastity is damaging to young women. Through in-depth cultural and social analysis, Valenti reveals that powerful messaging on both extremes -- ranging from abstinence-only curriculum to "Girls Gone Wild" infomercials -- place a young woman's worth entirely on her sexuality. Morals are therefore linked purely to sexual behavior, rather than values like honesty, kindness, and altruism. Valenti sheds light on the value -- and hypocrisy -- around the notion that girls remain virgins until they're married by putting into context the historical question of purity, modern abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex."The Purity Myth"presents a revolutionary argument that girls and women are overly valued for their sexuality, as well as solutions for a future without a damaging emphasis on virginity. 
Price: 32.95 AUD
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14 Sexual Personae Camille Paglia
Vintage Books 0679735798 / 9780679735793 Paperback New 
From ancient Egypt through the nineteenth century, Sexual Personae explores the provocative connections between art and pagan ritual; between Emily Dickinson and the Marquis de Sade; between Lord Byron and Elvis Presley. It ultimately challenges the cultural assumptions of both conservatives and traditional liberals. 
Price: 29.95 AUD
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15 Sexual Politics Kate Millett
University of Illinois Press 0252068890 / 9780252068898 Paperback New 
Sexual Politics laid the foundation for subsequent feminist scholarship by showing how cultural discourse reflects a systematized subjugation and exploitation of women. Millett demonstrates in detail how patriarchy's attitudes and systems penetrate literature, philosophy, psychology, and politics. Her incendiary work rocked the foundations of the literary canon by castigating time-honored classics -- from D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover to Norman Mailer's The Naked and the Dead -- for their use of sex to degrade and undermine women. 
Price: 39.95 AUD
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16 Staying Alive Vandana Shiva
South End Press 089608793X / 9780896087934 Paperback New 
A feminist and environmental justice classic, with a new introduction by Vandana Shiva
" Extraordinary in the ease of its global and historical scopes and the clarity of its arguments." --"Women's Review of Books"
Since at least the days of Francis Bacon, the dominant view in the western world has framed technological and economic development as progress and championed that same narrow vision of "progress" as inherently benevolent and inevitable. Multinational corporations, the IMF and World Bank, national governments, and humanitarian organizations regularly promote development as the only road to security--but those being "developed" know otherwise.
"Staying Alive" makes clear why this development paradigm--implemented through enclosure, privatization, corporate piracy, marginalization, and violence--is more accurately characterized as maldevelopment, and how it is inexorably dragging the world down a path of self-destruction. Prescient and fiercely relevant, this pioneering work illuminates how women, more than surviving the crises brought on by development, are creating and safeguarding vital sources of knowledge and vision on not only how to stay alive, but why we should in the first place.
" Vandana Shiva is one of the world's most prominent radical scientists...in "Staying Alive" she defines the links between ecological crises, colonialism, and the oppression of women." --"Guardian"
A world-renowned environmental leader and thinker, Vandana Shiva is the author of many books, including "Stolen Harvest," "Earth Democracy," and "Soil Not Oil." She is the founder of Navdanya and a leader in the International Forum on Globalization (IFG) and the Slow Food movement. 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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17 Transgender History Susan Stryker
Seal Studies 158005224X / 9781580052245 Paperback New 
Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, "Transgender History" takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. Chapters cover the transsexual and transvestite communities in the years following World War II; trans radicalism and social change, which spanned from 1966 with the publication of "The Transsexual Phenomenon, " and lasted through the early 1970s; the mid-'70s to 1990--the era of identity politics and the changes witnessed in trans circles through these years; and the gender issues witnessed through the '90s and '00s.
"Transgender History" includes informative sidebars highlighting quotes from major texts and speeches in transgender history and brief biographies of key players, plus excerpts from transgender memoirs and discussion of treatments of transgenderism in popular culture. 
Price: 24.95 AUD
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