Feminism isn't dead. It just isn't very cool anymore. Enter Full Frontal Feminism, a book that embodies the forward-looking messages that author Jessica Valenti propagated as founder of the popular website, Feministing.com. This revised edition includes a new foreword by Valenti, reflecting upon what's happened in the five years since Full Frontal Feminism was originally published. With new openers from Valenti in every chapter, the book covers a range of topics, including pop culture, health, reproductive rights, violence, education, relationships, and more. Chapters include: You're a Hardcore Feminist. I Swear. Feminists Do It Better (and Other Sex Tips) Pop Culture Gone Wild The Blame (and Shame) Game If These Uterine Walls Could Talk My Big Fat Unnecessary Wedding and Other Dating Diseases "Real" Women Have Babies I Promise I Won't Say "Herstory" Boys Do Cry Beauty Cult Sex and the City Voters, My Ass Valenti knows better than anyone that young women need a smart-ass book that deals with real-life issues in a style they can relate to. No rehashing the same old issues or belaboring where today's young women have gone wrong.
Feminism should be something young women feel comfortable with. Full Frontal Feminism is sending out the message to readers--yeah, you're feminists, and that's actually pretty frigging cool.
I read this as I was trying to find an accessible introduction to feminism to give to my sister. On that point, this succeeded, however I found myself annotating the margins furiously because a lot of what Valenti says is incredibly problematic. She mentions not judging other feminists for how they choose to act as feminists, yet she criticises women who take their husband's surname. She complains about ableism (very briefly in chapter 13) but the entire book is littered with ableist slurs. She also comes across as very partisan - 'don't fuck Republicans', she says, and whilst I agree with the sentiment it's alienating to young women who are republicans, often those who we really want to identify as feminists.
My biggest concern was that somehow, Valenti manages to make feminism an individualistic ideology. 'Become a feminist because your sex life will improve! Feminism is cool!', but feminism is so much more than just that and this is what concerns me.
As introductions to though, this is a good one - just give it to your future feminist with a pinch of salt.
