by Jennifer Palmieri ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 23, 2020
A provocatively progressive declaration.
The director of communications for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign offers a manifesto for American women seeking empowerment outside patriarchy.
When Clinton lost the election, her setback mirrored the situation for all American women seeking to shatter professional glass ceilings. As Palmieri observes, “the professional world belongs to men, and women are only visitors.” In this follow-up to Dear Madam President (2018), the author creates a modern declaration of independence in 13 sections that draw on feminist history, current events, and her own experiences as a working woman. Each chapter begins with a “proclamation” that rejects "truths" about women created by patriarchy: for example, that only "a limited number of women…can succeed in the world and that the professional advancement of women is a zero-sum game,” or that females must silence themselves in order to be accepted. Palmieri suggests that events and trends like the 2017 Women’s March on Washington, the #MeToo movement, and the unprecedented numbers of women attaining political office in the last two years reveal an increased, vocal desire to “even out the power dynamic between men and women.” Furthermore, the rise to prominence of older, more experienced women disparaged by patriarchy (and also represented by Clinton) can only benefit society. Indeed, Palmieri asserts that midlife has been nothing but productive and “exhilarating” for her. But because American society is governed by the rules of men, women’s continued efforts to better their status have still not achieved the social parity for which such feminist foremothers as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Paul fought. Inclusivity is at the heart of Palmieri’s "declaration," which she asserts is an attack against patriarchal systems rather than individual men. Inspiring and invigorating, this brief, sharp call to action cries out for continued feminist action in order to create an American society based on “equality for all.”
A provocatively progressive declaration.Pub Date: June 23, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5387-5065-0
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: April 4, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2020
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by Alok Vaid-Menon ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 2, 2020
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change.
Artist and activist Vaid-Menon demonstrates how the normativity of the gender binary represses creativity and inflicts physical and emotional violence.
The author, whose parents emigrated from India, writes about how enforcement of the gender binary begins before birth and affects people in all stages of life, with people of color being especially vulnerable due to Western conceptions of gender as binary. Gender assignments create a narrative for how a person should behave, what they are allowed to like or wear, and how they express themself. Punishment of nonconformity leads to an inseparable link between gender and shame. Vaid-Menon challenges familiar arguments against gender nonconformity, breaking them down into four categories—dismissal, inconvenience, biology, and the slippery slope (fear of the consequences of acceptance). Headers in bold font create an accessible navigation experience from one analysis to the next. The prose maintains a conversational tone that feels as intimate and vulnerable as talking with a best friend. At the same time, the author's turns of phrase in moments of deep insight ring with precision and poetry. In one reflection, they write, “the most lethal part of the human body is not the fist; it is the eye. What people see and how people see it has everything to do with power.” While this short essay speaks honestly of pain and injustice, it concludes with encouragement and an invitation into a future that celebrates transformation.
A fierce, penetrating, and empowering call for change. (writing prompt) (Nonfiction. 14-adult)Pub Date: June 2, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-09465-5
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Penguin Workshop
Review Posted Online: March 14, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2020
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More In The Series
by Shavone Charles ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Leo Baker ; illustrated by Ashley Lukashevsky
by Judith Butler ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.
A deeply informed critique of the malicious initiatives currently using gender as a political tool to arouse fear and strengthen political and religious institutions.
In their latest book, following The Force of Nonviolence, Butler, the noted philosopher and gender studies scholar, documents and debunks the anti-gender ideology of the right, the core principle of which is that male and female are natural categories whose recognition is essential for the survival of the family, nations, and patriarchal order. Its proponents reject “sex” as a malleable category infused with prior political and cultural understandings. By turning gender into a “phantasmatic scene,” they enable those in positions of authority to deflect attention from such world-destroying forces as war, predatory capitalism, and climate change. Butler explores the ideology’s presence in the U.S., the U.K., Uganda, and Hungary, countries where legislation has limited the rights of trans and homosexual people and denied them their sexual identity. The author also delves into the ideology’s roots among Evangelicals and the Catholic Church and such political leaders as Donald Trump and Viktor Orbán. Butler is particularly bothered by trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs), who treat trans women as “male predators in disguise.” For the author, “the gap between the perceived or lived body and prevailing social norms can never be fully closed.” They imagine “a world where the many relations to being socially embodied that exist become more livable” and calls for alliances across differences and “a radical democracy informed by socialist values.” Butler compensates for the thinness of some of their recommendations with an astute dissection of the ideology’s core ideas and impressive grasp of its intellectual pretensions. This is a wonderfully thoughtful and impassioned book on a critically important centerpiece of contemporary authoritarianism and patriarchy.
A master class in how gender has been weaponized in support of conservative values and authoritarian regimes.Pub Date: March 19, 2024
ISBN: 9780374608224
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
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