Susan Brownmiller - Paperback Publisher: Fawcett Columbine Publishing - (1984) ISBN-10: 0449901424 ISBN-13: 978-0449901427

Natalie Angier A Pulitzer Prize-winner offers a book about femaleness —- in body and mind —- that could prove as important as The Second Sex or Our Bodies, Our Selves and as fresh as Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom. With the clarity, insight, and sheer joy of language that has secured her reputation as one of the New York Times's premier stylists, Natalie Angier lifts the veil of secrecy from that most enigmatic of evolutionary masterpieces, the female body, exploring the essence of what it means to be a woman. Angier's thoughts on everything from organs to orgasm evince her famously playful originality, yet stand their ground in scientific fact. She also dives into hot topics such as menopause and evolutionary psychologists' faddish views of "female nature," creating a sparkling, fresh vision of womanhood.

Lonnie Garfield Barbach

Regina Barreca Artfully combining sociology, psychology, and feminist theory, here is a fascinating and entertaining look at how women can use humor to their advantage. This witty—and at times deliciously ribald—book examines women's humor and shows how the proper punchline can work wonders on the street, in the bedroom, and even in the corporate boardroom.

Simone de Beauvoir Newly translated and unabridged in English for the first time, Simone de Beauvoir’s masterwork is a powerful analysis of the Western notion of “woman,” and a groundbreaking exploration of inequality and otherness.  This long-awaited new edition reinstates significant portions of the original French text that were cut in the first English translation. Vital and groundbreaking, Beauvoir’s pioneering and impressive text remains as pertinent today as it was sixty years ago, and will continue to provoke and inspire generations of men and women to come.

Karen E. (EDT)/ Gramont, Nina De (EDT) Bender, Karen E. Bender, Nina De Gramont CHOICE explores the one of the most polarizing political issues of our time reproductive choice.

CHOICE attempts to raise the discourse on reproductive choice, which often devolves to clichés and name-calling, by posing the question—what is it like to make any sort of reproductive choice? What is it truly like to use birth control, the morning after pill, use a sperm bank, have an abortion, adopt a child, give a child up for adoption, bring a pregnancy to term?

In these 22 stunningly honest essays, writers describe their experiences making some of these decisions, as well as many others. Established writers such as Francine Prose, Jaquelyn Mitchard, Pam Houston, Carolyn Ferrell, Ann Hood, Deborah Macdowell, and Sarah Messer contribute essays, along with emerging writers such as Kimi Faxon Hemingway, Stephanie Anderson, and Ashley Talley.

The essays in CHOICE explore the complexities inherent in every reproductive decision, whether it is to choose to have a child or terminate a pregnancy; the guiding philosophy of the book is that this issue is too complex and individual to be legislated, and the writers honesty about their experiences will humanize this issue, no matter what the reader s stand on it.

Dr. Jennifer Berman, Dr. Laura Berman, Elisabeth Bumiller A groundbreaking book by the co-directors of one of the country's first women's sexual health clinics-destined to be an essential resource for women throughout the country.

According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, 43 percent of American women suffer from some kind of sexual dysfunction. And though the introduction of Viagra has increased attention to male sexual concerns, the problems women face are often ignored. For Women Only is the first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of female sexual dysfunction.

The co-directors of the Women's Sexual Health Clinic at Boston University Medical Center — Jennifer Berman, a urologist, and her sister, Laura Berman, a sex therapist-draw on research and clinical findings to show that many of the physical problems that cause impotence in men can cause sexual dysfunction in women. In addition, many women experience diminished sexual response as they age, go through menopause, and after hysterectomies or other pelvic surgery.

Covering both physiological and psychological issues in a straightforward, sympathetic style, the Bermans provide authoritative, easy-to-understand information on the medical breakthroughs and treatments that can help women of all ages enjoy more fulfilling sex lives.

Jane Billinghurst According to Jane Billinghurst, men created the idea of the temptress - an irresistible woman bent on bringing them down - to justify the fact that they so often surrender to women, especially in the bedroom. In this fascinating study, she examines this vision in history, mythology, in the Bible, artwork, and film. She traces the evolution of the temptress from an almost demonic presence in folklore to current in-your-face performers like Madonna. The changing image of the temptress reflects the ebb and flow of men's fears and fantasies, as well as women's self-possession and power. When men feel threatened by women's control, temptresses are seen as dangerous. When there is a lull in the battle of the sexes, these women become objects of fantasies. Billinghurst makes the case that when men begin to accept women as equals, the figure of the temptress will serve to accommodate both male and female desires.

Bea Campbell

Rebecca Chalker The Clitoris has been dismissed, undervalued, unexplored, and misunderstood for hundreds of years, but the truth is out there, and internationally celebrated sex educator Rebecca Chalker has found it. InThe Clitoral Truth, Chalker offers the only mainstream, in-depth exploration devoted solely to women's genital anatomy and sexual response. Women readers everywhere-be they straight, gay, or bisexual-will learn about the countless sexual sensations and discover how to enhance their sexual responses in a more concrete way than ever before.The Clitoral Truthalso examines the ways in which women are enhancing their sexual response through masturbation, the use of sex toys, videos, books, workshops, individual coaching sessions, and the Internet.For more than 2,500 years, the clitoris and the penis were presumed to be equivalent in all respects. After the 18th century, however, this knowledge was gradually suppressed and forgotten, and the definition of the clitoris as an extensive organ system all but disappeared. During Chalker's tenure as a member of the Federation of Feminist Women's Health Centers, the group helped further the study of the clitoris to unprecedented anatomic precision.The Clitoral Truthinvestigates every aspect of this magnificent organ to see how its many parts work together to produce orgasms.The Clitoral Truthalso delves into the feminist and sexologist controversy over female ejaculation and surveys the numerous ways that women have begun to transform the deeply entrenched male-centered model of sexuality to redefine their sexuality to emphasize full-body pleasure. Enhanced with personal accounts, comprehensive illustrations, and a thorough appendix of female sexuality resources, this book helps women and their partners understand and expand their sexual potential and work toward becoming independent sexual beings

Katie Conboy, Nadia Medina, Sarah Stanbury In many fields, the body is the topic generating exciting new research and interdisciplinary inquiry. Feminist theorists, in particular, have focused on the female body as the site where representations of difference and identity are inscribed. Drawn from a broad range of disciplines, explores the tensions between women's lived bodily experiences and the cultural meanings inscribed on the female body. The volume includes classic and contemporary essays on rape, pornography, eroticism, anorexia, body building, menstruation, and maternity, and challenges racial, class, and sexual categories. Complemented by the editor's introduction, is a comprehensive sourcebook on the major theoretical positions and critical trends surrounding the female body.

Jill Corral, Lisa Miya-Jervis The term “wife” is fraught with conflicting connotations for many young women today. Although the word suggests companionship and commitment, it’s weighted with the knowledge that marriage is a male-dominated institution in which women have been subservient for centuries. In this provocative collection of essays, writers in their twenties and thirties discuss how they’re navigating the waters of sanctified long-term relationships. Juhu Thukral speaks of marrying to please her traditional Indian parents; Rachel Fudge wonders whether alternative ceremonies can lead to greater equality in marriage; Kate Epstein tries to balance motherhood with a career; Kristy Harcourt, a lesbian, discusses her ambivalence about marriage ceremonies; and Leslie Miller struggles with being identified as half of a couple.

Mary Daly In her signature style, revolutionary Mary Daly takes you on a Quantum leap into a joyous future of victory for women. Daly, the groundbreaking author of such classics as Beyond God the Father and The Church and the Second Sex, explores the visions of Matilda Joslyn Gage, the great nineteenth-century philosopher, and reveals that her insights are stunningly helpful to twenty-first-century Voyagers seeking to overcome the fascism and life-hating fundamentalism that has infused current power structures. Daly shows us once again that Wild, Wise Women can learn to take charge of the current destructive patriarchal forces and use this as an Outlandish opportunity for change.

Angela Y. Davis A powerful study of the women's movement in the U.S. from abolitionist days to the present that demonstrates how it has always been hampered by the racist and classist biases of its leaders.

Dr. Carol Livoti Dr., Elizabeth Topp An engaging, thorough, and much-needed explanation of the working vagina, Vaginas is a book of accessible facts written by down-to-earth authors whose only agenda is female education. The authors (the mother is an ob/gyn, the daughter a writer) avoid the flowery language and feminist agenda of other books on the subject. They take readers from the mood swings of puberty to the hot flashes of menopause with warmth, humor, and candor. Subjects include the lowdown on hymens, a word on waxing, tips on retrieving lost items, heavy periods, working out the vagina, significant problems (STDs, ectopic pregnancies, fibroids, yeast infections, herpes), ways to keep an aging body performing, and the fun stuff — sex.

Andrea Dworkin

Andrea Dworkin Andrea Dworkin, once called “Feminism’s Malcolm X,” has been worshipped, reviled, criticized, and analyzed-but never ignored. The power of her writing, the passion of her ideals, and the ferocity of her intellect have spurred the arguments and activism of two generations of feminists. Now the book that she’s best known for-in which she provoked the argument that ultimately split apart the feminist movement-is being reissued for the young women and men of the twenty-first century. Intercourse enraged as many readers as it inspired when it was first published in 1987. In it, Dworkin argues that in a male supremacist society, sex between men and women constitutes a central part of women’s subordination to men. (This argument was quickly-and falsely-simplified to “all sex is rape” in the public arena, adding fire to Dworkin’s already radical persona.) In her introduction to this twentieth-anniversary edition of Intercourse, Ariel Levy, the author of Female Chauvinist Pigs, discusses the circumstances of Dworkin’s untimely death in the spring of 2005, and the enormous impact of her life and work. Dworkin’s argument, she points out, is the stickiest question of feminism: Can a woman fight the power when he shares her bed?

Eve Ensler "I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them. . . . So I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues. I talked with over two hundred women. I talked to old women, young women, married women, single women, lesbians, college professors, actors, corporate professionals, sex workers, African American women, Hispanic women, Asian American women, Native American women, Caucasian women, Jewish women. At first women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them."

So begins Eve Ensler's hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the forbidden zone at the heart of every woman. Adapted from the award-winning one-woman show that's rocked audiences around the world, this groundbreaking book gives voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and thoroughly human stories, transforming the question mark hovering over the female anatomy into a permanent victory sign. With laughter and compassion, Ensler transports her audiences to a world we've never dared to know, guaranteeing that no one who reads The Vagina Monologues will ever look at a woman's body the same way again.

Eve Ensler "I was worried about vaginas. I was worried about what we think about vaginas, and even more worried that we don't think about them. . . . So I decided to talk to women about their vaginas, to do vagina interviews, which became vagina monologues. I talked with over two hundred women. I talked to old women, young women, married women, single women, lesbians, college professors, actors, corporate professionals, sex workers, African American women, Hispanic women, Asian American women, Native American women, Caucasian women, Jewish women. At first women were reluctant to talk. They were a little shy. But once they got going, you couldn't stop them."

So begins Eve Ensler's hilarious, eye-opening tour into the last frontier, the forbidden zone at the heart of every woman. Adapted from the award-winning one-woman show that's rocked audiences around the world, this groundbreaking book gives voice to a chorus of lusty, outrageous, poignant, and thoroughly human stories, transforming the question mark hovering over the female anatomy into a permanent victory sign. With laughter and compassion, Ensler transports her audiences to a world we've never dared to know, guaranteeing that no one who reads The Vagina Monologues will ever look at a woman's body the same way again.

Eve Ensler In this daring, provocative, and insightful book, bestselling author and internationally acclaimed playwright Eve Ensler writes fictional monologues and stories inspired by girls around the globe. Moving through a world of topics and emotions, these voices are fierce, alive, tender, complicated, imaginative, and smart. Girls today often find themselves in a struggle between remaining strong and true to themselves and conforming to society’s expectations in an attempt to please. They are taught not to be too intense, too passionate, too smart, too caring, too open. They are encouraged to shut down their instincts, their outrage, their desires and their dreams, to be polite, to obey the rules. I Am an Emotional Creature is a celebration of the authentic voice inside every girl and an inspiring call to action for girls everywhere to speak up, follow their dreams, and become the women they were always meant to be.

Among the girls Ensler creates are an American who struggles with peer pressure in a suburban high school; an anorexic blogging as she eats less and less; a Masai girl from Kenya unwilling to endure female genital mutilation; a Bulgarian sex slave, no more than fifteen, a Chinese factory worker making Barbies; an Iranian student who is tricked into a nose job; a pregnant girl trying to decide if she should keep her baby.

Through rants, poetry, questions, and facts, we come to understand the universality of girls everywhere: their resiliency, their wildness, their pain, their fears, their secrets, and their triumphs. I Am an Emotional Creature is a call, a reckoning, an education, an act of empowerment for girls, and an illumination for parents and for us all.

Eve Ensler, Joyce Tenneson This book is a unique collaboration between photographer Joyce Tenneson and activist/performer Eve Ensler, creator of The Vagina Monologues. It is also the title of a major campaign to promote V-Day (February 14th), an annual event designed to combat violence against women and girls worldwide. The V-Day movement, which raises awareness and funds through benefit productions of The Vagina Monologues and other events, is growing rapidly throughout the world. In its first 5 years, V-Day has raised over USD20 million and was named as one of Worth magazine's 100 Best Charities. The book features Tenneson's portraits of these activists, many of them well-known celebrities, alongside powerful statements and quotations. Ensler has dubbed these women, and many other non- celebrities who are part of the movement, 'Vagina Warriors'. Celebrities featured include Glenn Close, Salma Hayek Gloria Steinem and Isabella Rossellini and many others and Tenneson's photos form the centrepiece of a V-Day advertising campaign

Shulamith Firestone Beginning with the premise that there is a fundamental biological inequality in the sexes, the author presents her classic blueprint for social revolution. Reissue. 25,000 first printing.

Deirdre Fishel, Diana Holtzberg An inspiring look into the lives of older women. Based on research and extensive interviews, Still Doing It explores the lives of daring, outspoken, and sensual women of an older generation who actively embrace new romantic relationships and sexual experiences. Here is a beacon for women of all ages—partnered, single, straight, gay, black, or white—who look forward to reinventing themselves, enjoying their bodies, and taking risks at all stages in life. As women continue to live longer, healthier lives, their appetite for sex is slow to fade. For the women profiled in this work, sex is not optional but an essential part of their wellbeing. Yet, in our culture, sex for older women is considered taboo. Our society prefers grandmothers in frumpy sweaters, knitting on the front porch, not buying sex toys or going on hot dates. But the boomers are the generation who demanded equal rights in their youth—will they not demand sexual freedom later in life?

Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over Sixty is the first book to send out the battle cry, take on the myths and misconceptions, and provide women of all ages with the tools and the inspiration to demand nothing but the best for themselves, whatever the age. It lets everyone know that sex does not need to end when you hit sixty (or seventy . . . or ninety!). In fact, the good stuff is often just beginning.

Filled with great personal stories, advice from experts, eye-opening facts and statistics, Still Doing It will change the way we think about sensuality, intimacy, and identity.

Deirdre Fishel, Diana Holtzberg An inspiring look into the lives of older women. Based on research and extensive interviews, Still Doing It explores the lives of daring, outspoken, and sensual women of an older generation who actively embrace new romantic relationships and sexual experiences. Here is a beacon for women of all ages—partnered, single, straight, gay, black, or white—who look forward to reinventing themselves, enjoying their bodies, and taking risks at all stages in life. As women continue to live longer, healthier lives, their appetite for sex is slow to fade. For the women profiled in this work, sex is not optional but an essential part of their wellbeing. Yet, in our culture, sex for older women is considered taboo. Our society prefers grandmothers in frumpy sweaters, knitting on the front porch, not buying sex toys or going on hot dates. But the boomers are the generation who demanded equal rights in their youth—will they not demand sexual freedom later in life?

Still Doing It: The Intimate Lives of Women Over Sixty is the first book to send out the battle cry, take on the myths and misconceptions, and provide women of all ages with the tools and the inspiration to demand nothing but the best for themselves, whatever the age. It lets everyone know that sex does not need to end when you hit sixty (or seventy . . . or ninety!). In fact, the good stuff is often just beginning.

Filled with great personal stories, advice from experts, eye-opening facts and statistics, Still Doing It will change the way we think about sensuality, intimacy, and identity.

Jo (Ed.) FREEMAN

Nancy Friday When it first appeared, My Secret Garden created a storm of outrage and exhilaration. Women who read it were astonished to find in its pages the hidden content of their own sexual fantasies. More outspoken, graphic, and taboo-shattering than any book before its time, My Secret Garden quickly became the classic study of female sexuality. Today, millions of women have made Nancy Friday's groundbreaking bestseller a mainstay of feminist literature — a liberating force that adds a sensational new dimension to their sexual fantasies and lives.

Nancy Friday Welcome to Nancy Friday's secret garden, a hidden place where ordinary women are free to express the sexual dreams they have never dared to confide before. Safe behind the walls of anonymity, hundreds of real women responded to Nancy Friday's call for details of their own most private fantasies. My Secret Garden is the daring compilation of those fantasies. When it first appeared, it created a storm of outrage in the media...and an equal sense of exhilaration for those women who finally were able to share their sisters' most intimate thoughts. Even now, in a new millennium, over then thousand women each year buy a new copy of this astounding classic of feminist literature. Join them in their exploration of the meaning of desire. Dare to read, dare to dream, and dare to discover the beautiful blossoms, the winding paths, and the hidden nooks of female sexuality.

Nancy Friday Today, women everywhere clamor for the latest erotic bestselling novels—their scenes of daring sexual exploits have fired up our collective imagination. But before we turned to fiction for our turn-ons, Nancy Friday unleashed a sexual revolution with her collections of uninhibited writings—the real fantasies of real women, in books that broke all the rules. . . .

FORBIDDEN FLOWERS

After My Secret Garden, Nancy Friday’s first boundary-shattering collection, rocked America and freed women to put their most private longings and secret desires into words for all to read, hundreds more were inspired to do just that: From the seeds sown in My Secret Garden grew Forbidden Flowers, an even more explicit and colorful gathering of daring imaginings, uninhibited dreamings, and real-life experimental encounters experienced by women just like you. More fun than fiction, more supremely sexy than you ever imagined, here are the kinds of fantasies that dare you to cross a line and pluck some forbidden flowers of your very own.

Betty Friedan First published in 1963, The Feminine  Mystique ignited a revolution that  profoundly changed our culture, our conciousness, and our  lives. Today it newly penetrates to the heart of  isuues determining our lives — and sounds a call to  arms against the very real dangers of a newe  feminine mystique in the economic and political  turbulence of the 1990s.

Three decades later,  the underlying issues raised by Betty Friedan strike  at the core of the problems women still face at  home and in the marketplace. As women continue to  struggle for equality, to keep their hard-won gains,  to find fulfillment in their careers, marriage and  family, The Feminine Mystique  remains the seminal conciousness-raising work of  our times.

Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti In this groundbreaking new look at rape edited by writer and activist Jaclyn Freidman and Full Frontal Feminism and He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut author Jessica Valenti, the way we view rape in our culture is finally dismantled and replaced with a genuine understanding and respect for female sexual pleasure. Feminist, political, and activist writers alike will present their ideas for a paradigm shift from the “No Means No” model—an approach that while necessary for where we were in 1974, needs an overhaul today.

Yes Means Yes will bring to the table a dazzling variety of perspectives and experiences focused on the theory that educating all people to value female sexuality and pleasure leads to viewing women differently, and ending rape. Yes Means Yes aims to have radical and far-reaching effects: from teaching men to treat women as collaborators and not conquests, encouraging men and women that women can enjoy sex instead of being shamed for it, and ultimately, that our children can inherit a world where rape is rare and swiftly punished. With commentary on public sex education, pornography, mass media, Yes Means Yes is a powerful and revolutionary anthology.

Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti In this groundbreaking new look at rape edited by writer and activist Jaclyn Freidman and Full Frontal Feminism and He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut author Jessica Valenti, the way we view rape in our culture is finally dismantled and replaced with a genuine understanding and respect for female sexual pleasure. Feminist, political, and activist writers alike will present their ideas for a paradigm shift from the “No Means No” model—an approach that while necessary for where we were in 1974, needs an overhaul today.

Yes Means Yes will bring to the table a dazzling variety of perspectives and experiences focused on the theory that educating all people to value female sexuality and pleasure leads to viewing women differently, and ending rape. Yes Means Yes aims to have radical and far-reaching effects: from teaching men to treat women as collaborators and not conquests, encouraging men and women that women can enjoy sex instead of being shamed for it, and ultimately, that our children can inherit a world where rape is rare and swiftly punished. With commentary on public sex education, pornography, mass media, Yes Means Yes is a powerful and revolutionary anthology.

Jaclyn Friedman, Jessica Valenti In this groundbreaking new look at rape edited by writer and activist Jaclyn Freidman and Full Frontal Feminism and He’s A Stud, She’s A Slut author Jessica Valenti, the way we view rape in our culture is finally dismantled and replaced with a genuine understanding and respect for female sexual pleasure. Feminist, political, and activist writers alike will present their ideas for a paradigm shift from the “No Means No” model—an approach that while necessary for where we were in 1974, needs an overhaul today.

Yes Means Yes will bring to the table a dazzling variety of perspectives and experiences focused on the theory that educating all people to value female sexuality and pleasure leads to viewing women differently, and ending rape. Yes Means Yes aims to have radical and far-reaching effects: from teaching men to treat women as collaborators and not conquests, encouraging men and women that women can enjoy sex instead of being shamed for it, and ultimately, that our children can inherit a world where rape is rare and swiftly punished. With commentary on public sex education, pornography, mass media, Yes Means Yes is a powerful and revolutionary anthology.

Guerrilla Girls Whatever life a woman leads, from biker chick to society girl, there's a stereotype she'll have to live down. The Guerrilla Girls, notorious for their outrageous take on women's issues, now tackle the maze of stereotypes that follow women from cradle to grave. With subversive use of information-and great visuals-they explore the history and significance of stereotypes like Old Maid, Trophy Wife, and Prostitute with a Heart of Gold. They tag the Top Types, examine sexual slurs, explain the evolution of butches and femmes, and delve into the lives of real and fictional women who have become stereotypes, from Aunt Jemima to Tokyo Rose to June Cleaver. The Guerrilla Girls' latest assault on injustice towards women will make people laugh, make them mad, and maybe even make them change their minds.

Michelle Goldberg A groundbreaking new work on the global battle over reproductive rights by the author of The New York Times bestseller Kingdom Coming

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.

Ariel Gore, Bee Lavender In this ground-breaking anthology, Ariel Gore and Bee Lavender ask real moms — from Web site designers to tattoo-clad waitresses — to laugh, cry, scream, and shout about motherhood. Allison Crews fights to have a voice and be recognized as a teen mother. Angela Morrill eschews both doctors and midwife and gives birth at home. Kimberly Bright draws compelling comparisons between “raising a toddler and having a psychotic boyfriend.” For every young mom, Breeder offers inspiration, strength, wisdom, and humor. Contributors include Allison Crews, Beth Lucht, Ayun Halliday, Katie Granju, Peri Escarda, Allison Abner, and Kimberly Bright.

Judy Grahn "Blood, Bread, and Roses" reclaims women's myths and stories, chronicling the ways in which women's actions and the teaching of myth have interacted over the millenia. Grahn argues that culture has been a weaving between the genders, a sharing of wisdom derived from menstruation. Her rich interpretations of ancient menstrual rites give us a new and hopeful story of culture's beginnings based on the integration of body, mind, and spirit found in women's traditions. "Blood, Bread, and Roses" offers all of us a way back to understanding the true meaning of women's menstraul power.

Foreword by Charlene Spretnak

"[Grahn's] intriguing excursion through folklore, myth, religion, anthropology and history bespeaks a feminist conviction that male origin stories must be balanced by a recognition of women's central role in shaping civilization."
-Publishers Weekly

Germaine Greer 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.

Dianne Hales In recent years researchers in many scientific fields have actively focused on what being female really means. Their startling conclusion: Almost every assumption made about women—physical, medical, historical, psychological—turns out to be untested, unproven, or untrue.

Stereotypes about women are as old as time—and as current as still-too-prevalent beliefs based on male models. Acclaimed health writer Dianne Hales brings together the cutting-edge research in anthropology, physiology, psychology, neuroscience, endocrinology, and medicine in a book that reveals the complex interconnections between all aspects of a woman's life from infancy to old age. Gender science is now clearly demonstrating that women are not the second sex but a separate sex, unique in body, mind, and spirit.

Just Like a Woman explains what it means to live in a woman's body, think with a woman's brain, drink in the world with a woman's senses, and react with a woman's sensibility to the stresses and elations of her multiple roles. Refreshingly free of ideology, this meticulously documented book offers a stunningly liberating message that expands our concept of human potential—and will forever change the way every woman views herself.

Cathi Hanauer Women in the 21st century have more than ever before, yet many find themselves angry, dissatisfied and stressed. This book explores these issues, with 26 women inviting readers into their lives, minds and bedrooms to talk about the choices they've made. They discuss their relationships, families, frustrations and hopes. For some, the conflicts involve the stresses of juggling motherhood and a career; for others, the feeling of not wanting children - or fear that they've left it too late.

Boston Womens Health The 20th-anniversary edition of the book hailed as the "most important work to come out of the women's movement" (Ellen Frankfurt) contains updated information on breast cancer, AIDS, and other vital contemporary health concerns. Illustrations throughout. Index.

Bell Hooks In this attractive South End Press Classics edition, featuring a new preface, hooks maintains that mainstream feminism's reliance on white, middle-class, and professional spokeswomen obscures the centrality of women of color and poor women in the movement for women's liberation.

Lisa Jervis, Andi Zeisler In the wake of Sassy and as an alternative to the more staid reporting of Ms., Bitch was launched in the mid-nineties as a Xerox-and-staple zine covering the landscape of popular culture from a feminist perspective. Both unabashed in its love for the guilty pleasures of consumer culture and deeply thoughtful about the way the pop landscape reflects and impacts women's lives, Bitch grew to be a popular, full-scale magazine with a readership that stretched worldwide. Today it stands as a touchstone of hip, young feminist thought, looking with both wit and irreverence at the way pop culture informs feminism—and vice versa—and encouraging readers to think critically about the messages lurking behind our favorite television shows, movies, music, books, blogs, and the like. BITCHFest offers an assortment of the most provocative essays, reporting, rants, and raves from the magazine's first ten years, along with new pieces written especially for the collection. Smart, nuanced, cranky, outrageous, and clear-eyed, the anthology covers everything from a 1996 celebration of pre-scandal Martha Stewart to a more recent critical look at the "gayby boom"; from a time line of black women on sitcoms to an analysis of fat suits as the new blackface; from an attempt to fashion a feminist vulgarity to a reclamation of female virginity. It's a recent history of feminist pop-culture critique and an arrow toward feminism's future.

Alfred Kinsey, Wardell Pomeroy, Clyde Martin, Paul Gebhard

Vicki Leon Men weren't the only explorers between the early 1500s and the 1800s. This book recounts the adventures of over 200 of history's forgotten female pioneers, including France's Jeanne Baret, the first person to circumnavigate the globe.

Harriet Lerner "Anger is a signal and one worth listening to," writes Dr. Harriet Lerner, in her renowned classic that has transformed the lives of millions of readers.While anger deserves our attention and respect, women still learn to silence our anger, to deny it entirely, or to vent it in a way that leaves us feeling helpless and powerless. In this engaging and eminently wise book, Dr. Lerner teaches women to identify the true sources of our anger and to use anger as a powerful vehicle for creating lasting change.

Denise Linn Secrets and Mysteries will give you a profound understanding of what it means to be a woman. Full of passion, mysticism, and practical information, it will tap in to the source of your power at the depths of your soul. Through her own extraordinary life experience and her knowledge of native cultures round the world, Denise Linn reveals how you can activate ancient wisdom to become a magnificent woman of strength and grace—in other words, how you can become a Glorious Woman!

This unusual and indispensable book will show you:

•the invisible patterns that shape a woman’s life;

•how to nurture and replenish your body and soul;

•how to discover the mysteries of the Goddess;

•how to activate a radiant confidence and self-esteem;

•the pleasure of outrageous orgasms;

•how to awaken you inner warrior woman;

•the art of sacred sexuality;

•how to initiate and celebrate your ecstatic life force; and

•the secrets of a shamaness’s power

Each chapter offers a rich tapestry of information, ritual, story, and meditations: a combination of timeless lore and the majesty of the feminine experience. With a strong voice and powerful images relevant to women of all ages and backgrounds, Denise Linn has compiled a remarkable handbook for any Goddess-in-the-Making.

Christiane Northrup M.D. A groundbreaking book on women's physical and emotional well-being, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom has become a classic, with more than 270,000 copies in print in the four years since its initial publication. Now it has been completely revised, offering the most up-to-date information available on women's health issues.

Christiane Northrup's vision of mind-body wellness has received an extraordinary response from women all over the world. Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom powerfully demonstrates that when women change the basic conditions of their lives that lead to health problems, they heal faster, more completely, and with far fewer medical interventions.

Now Dr. Northrup brings us vital new information about the best techniques of Western medicine and the best alternative therapies, showing how to incorporate both into a complementary whole. She guides readers through the entire range of women's health problems, and offers strikingly new, positive perspectives on normal processes, such as menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. This edition includes:

• An all-new nutrition chapter emphasizing individual dietary needs and body chemistry

• New information on improving fertility after age 35—and how to cut the risk of C-section by 50 percent

• A completely updated program for menopause, including how to decide whether natural hormone replacement is right for you

• Holistic ways to prepare and heal faster if surgery is necessary

• Plus dozens of new natural treatments and a wealth of hard-to-find health care resources

Filled with dramatic case histories from the famed Women to Women health care center, Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom is contemporary medicine at its best, combining new technologies with natural remedies and the miraculous healing powers within the body itself.

Wendy Maltz, Suzie Boss In this groundbreaking book, Wendy Maltz, a leading expert on women's sexuality, and journalist Suzie Boss guide us through the fascinating world of women's sexual fantasies, expanding the boundaries of what we know about female desire. In the Garden of Desire reveals how sexual fantasies, much like dreams, can be seen as gateways to our inner selves. Drawing on insights from sexuality experts, workshop participants, and interviews with more than one hundred women who share their own deliciously original, sensuous, and provocative erotic stories, the authors inspire each of us to take a closer look at our own sexual imaginations and the roles fantasies play in ou lives.

In the Garden of Desire takes women on a journey of passion, pleasure, and self-discovery as it:

* Describes women's most common fantasy roles and the powerful yet little understood sensory styles of lovemaking women find most arousing.

* Illuminates the diverse functions of sexual fantasies in women's lives, from stimulating orgasm to improving one's self-image.

* Helps women to discover their own sexual styles and to evaluate the pros and cons of how particular fantasies operate in their lives.

* Offers straightforward advice for when and how to talk about fantasies with one's lover.

An unprecedented guide to using the power of the imagination to heighten sexual expression, this intimate exploration will enable every woman to choose her
fantasy life more fully, freely, and deliberately, for her own personal pleasure and lasting satisfaction.

Enter the fascinating and uncharted territory of women's sexual fantasies:

* Our Most Private Thoughts
* Describing Our Fantasy Style
* Where Sexual Fantasies Come From
* How Fantasies Help Us
* Recognizing Fantasy Traps
* Deep Discoveries
* Guided Explorations
* Healing and Changing Unwanted Fantasies
* Sharing Fantasies with Lovers
* Creating Favorite Fantasies

Wendy McElroy While unflinchingly and unapologetically debunking anti-pornography feminist arguments, McElroy builds a sensible and broad-minded testimony for tolerance, and for the right of women everywhere to enjoy their sexuality.

Wendy McElroy While unflinchingly and unapologetically debunking anti-pornography feminist arguments, McElroy builds a sensible and broad-minded testimony for tolerance, and for the right of women everywhere to enjoy their sexuality.

Susan M. Love MD Dr. Susan Love’s Breast Book has long been the bible for the newly diagnosed. In this completely revised fifth edition, it also becomes a guide for those at risk of getting breast cancer, survivors interested in the consequences of their treatment, and anyone who wants to understand the new research about how the local environment influences the manifestations and treatments of many different kinds of breast cancer. Major advances being made in genetic research today mean that prevention and treatment can work not only to get rid of mutated cells (through chemo or surgery), but also to change the environment around the cells (through hormone therapy, exercise, and stress reduction). Among other promising developments discussed are advances in imaging, recognition of breast density as a risk factor, and a section focused on “personalized medicine” to help determine what kind of cancer you have and how best to treat it.

Any woman facing a diagnosis, decisions about treatment, or concerns about prevention will find in Dr. Love’s book the information, guidance, and reassurance she needs.

Cindy M. Meston, David M. Buss Do women have sex simply to express love, experience pleasure, or reproduce? When clinical psychologist Cindy M. Meston and evolutionary psychologist David M. Buss, both at the University of Texas at Austin, joined forces to investigate women's underlying sexual motivations, what they found astonished them.

Using women's own words, and backed by extensive scientific evidence, the authors delve into the use of sex as a defensive tactic against a mate's infidelity, a ploy to boost social status, a barter for household chores, and even as a cure for a migraine headache. Meston and Buss offer a revelatory examination of the deep-seated psychology and biology that often unwittingly drive women to have sex, sometimes in pursuit of joy, and sometimes for darker, more disturbing reasons.

Why Women Have Sex stands as the richest and deepest psychological understanding of women's sexuality yet achieved and promises to inform every woman's (and her partner's) awareness of her relationship to sex.

Rosalind Miles A lively, opinionated and engrossing look at women's roles throughout history and across the globe. Miles looks at women's contributions to the evolution of the human race on every level—cultural, commercial, domestic, emotional, social, and sexual.

Kate Millett

Victoria Morhaim

Inga Muscio An ancient title of respect for women, the word “cunt” long ago veered off this noble path. Inga Muscio 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. In this fully revised edition, she explores, with candidness and humor, such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the Cuntlovin’ Ruler of Her Sexual Universe, Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing all things cunt-related. This edition is fully revised with updated resources, a new foreword from sexual pioneer Betty Dodson, and a new afterword by the author. “Bright, sharp, empowering, long-lasting, useful, sexy....”—San Francisco Chronicle “... Cunt provides fertile ground for psychological growth.”—San Francisco Bay Guardian “Cunt does for feminism what smoothies did for high-fiber diets—it reinvents the oft-indigestible into something sweet and delicious.”—Bust Magazine

Inga Muscio An ancient title of respect for women, the word “cunt” long ago veered off this noble path. Inga Muscio 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. In this fully revised edition, she explores, with candidness and humor, such traditional feminist issues as birth control, sexuality, jealousy between women, and prostitution with a fresh attitude for a new generation of women. Sending out a call for every woman to be the Cuntlovin’ Ruler of Her Sexual Universe, Muscio stands convention on its head by embracing all things cunt-related. This edition is fully revised with updated resources, a new foreword from sexual pioneer Betty Dodson, and a new afterword by the author. “Bright, sharp, empowering, long-lasting, useful, sexy....”—San Francisco Chronicle “... Cunt provides fertile ground for psychological growth.”—San Francisco Bay Guardian “Cunt does for feminism what smoothies did for high-fiber diets—it reinvents the oft-indigestible into something sweet and delicious.”—Bust Magazine

Barbara J. Nelson, Najma Chowdhury This is the first book to analyse the complexities of women's political participation on a cross-national scale and from a feminist perspective. Surveying forty-three countries, chosen to represent a variety of political systems, regions, and levels of economic development, questions of women's status, power, means, and methods of reform, are addressed on a global scale.

Peggy Orenstein Peggy Orenstein’s bestselling Schoolgirls is the classic study of teenage girls and self-esteem. Now Orenstein uses the same interviewing and reporting skills to examine the lives of women in their 20s, 30s and 40s.

The advances of the women’s movement allow women to grow up with a sense of expanded possibilities. Yet traditional expectations have hardly changed. To discover how they are navigating this double burden personally and professionally, Orenstein interviewed hundreds of women and has blended their voices into a compelling narrative that gets deep inside their lives and choices. With unusual sensitivity, Orenstein offers insight and inspiration for every woman who is making important decisions of her own.

Camille Paglia The bestselling author of Sexual Personae and Sex, Art, and American Culture is back with a fiery new collection of essays on everything from art and celebrity to gay activism, Lorena Bobbitt to Bill and Hillary. These essays have never appeared in book form, and many will be appearing in print for the first time.

Camille Paglia The bestselling author of Sexual Personae and Sex, Art, and American Culture is back with a fiery new collection of essays on everything from art and celebrity to gay activism, Lorena Bobbitt to Bill and Hillary. These essays have never appeared in book form, and many will be appearing in print for the first time.

Kathy Peiss How did powder and paint, once scorned as immoral, become indispensable to millions of respectable women? How did a Victorian "kitchen physic," as homemade cosmetics were called, become a multi-billion-dollar industry? In Hope in a Jar, historian Kathy Peiss gives us a vivid history in which women, far from being pawns and victims, used makeup to declare their freedom, identity, and sexual allure as they flocked to enter public life. She highlights the leading role of black and white women-Helena Rubenstein and Annie Turnbo Malone, Elizabeth Arden and Madame C. J. Walker-in shaping a unique industry that relied less on advertising than on women's customs of visiting ("Avon calling") and conversation. From New York's genteel enameling studios to Memphis's straightening parlors, Peiss depicts the beauty trades that thrived until the 1920s, when corporations run by men entered the lucrative field, creating a mass consumer culture that codified modern femininity. Replete with the voices and experiences of ordinary women, Hope in a Jar is a richly textured account of how women created the cosmetics industry and cosmetics created the modern woman.

Elizabeth Prioleau In this road map to restoring feminine sexual power, Betsy Prioleau introduces and analyzes the stories and stratagems of history’s greatest seductresses. These are the women who ravished the world—from such classic figures as Cleopatra and Mae West to such lesser-known women as the infamous Violet Gordon Woodhouse, who lived in a ménage with four men. Smarts, imagination, courage, and killer charm helped these love maestras claim the men of their choice and keep them fascinated for life. Through an exposé of their secrets, Seductress provides an authoritative, empowering guide to erotic sovereignty.

Nancy Amanda Redd “You’d think a Miss America swimsuit winner would feel completely confident about her body, right? Not always! So I decided to write the book I wish I’d had as a teen and in college— an honest, funny, practical, medically accurate, totally reassuring guide to how women’s bodies actually look, smell, feel, behave, and change. Alongside real-deal photographs of women just like you and me (no airbrushing, no supermodels, no kidding) you’ll find medical pictures of things you need to be able to recognize, true confessions by yours truly, and the encouragement you need to appreciate the uniqueness, strength, and beauty of your body. What are you waiting for?”
–Nancy Redd

From fashion magazines to taboo Web sites, curious young women have access to tons of old wives’ tales about and thousands of airbrushed and inaccurate images of the female body—misinformation and harmful portrayals that can lead to low self-esteem, self-destructive acts, or even disturbing plastic surgery procedures. Teaming up with a leading physician specializing in adolescent health issues, Harvard graduate and former Miss Virginia Nancy Redd now offers a down-to-earth, healing, and reassuring response to those damaging myths. In Body Drama, Redd gives girls insight into the issues they’re often too ashamed to raise with a doctor or parent. She also reveals her own experiences with the culture of “American beauty,” and shows readers all the many versions of “normal.” From body hair and bras, to acne and weight issues, along with crucial issues such as the importance of a healthy self image, Body Drama is a groundbreaking book packed with informative fast facts, FYIs, how-tos, and moving personal anecdotes as well as hundreds of un-retouched photographs. A highly visual book, it’s the first of its kind for women: filled with real information and real photographs of real bodies, to celebrate all our different shapes and sizes.

Named by Glamour magazine as one of America’s top-ten college women “most likely to succeed—at anything,” Redd has spent the most recent years of her life on a mission to tackle the issues least discussed but most significant in young women’s lives. Celebrating the many versions of “normal,” and replacing seriously erroneous information with the honest, medically proven truth in a language all girls can understand, Body Drama dares to empower a new generation—with facts instead of fantasies, and the priceless gift of self-knowledge.

William J. (William Josephus) Robinson This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Karen Salmansohn Penis envy? P'shaw. From the bestselling author of How To Make Your Man Behave In 21 Days Or Less Using The Secrets Of Professional Dog Trainers comes (ahem) The Clitourist, a witty and empowering guide to the hottest spot on a woman's body. For something so important to so many, there is a shocking lack of information available on the clitoris. An intimate biography of a gal's best friend, The Clitourist boldly attempts to fill that void, educating and entertaining the reader on every level, from structure and function to care and upkeep, not to mention handy dandy arousal methods. And though funny, The Clitourist is not afraid to tackle the really tough questions like, if we can put a man on the moon, why not on a woman's clitoris during intercourse? As revolutionary in subject matter as The Vagina Monologues, as frank as Sex and the City, The Clitourist is a celebration of the female body as well as just a plain hoot that women will delight in buying for themselves, their sisters, and their friends (and heck, maybe even their moms and grandmothers, too). It's a gift for anyone who has a clitoris, and for anyone who loves someone who has one. (And that's a lot of people!)

Test your cliteracy:

True or false:
* The clitoris is the only organ found on either men or women that exists for pleasure alone, hence many scientists' belief that women's genitals are more highly evolved than men's.

* Vibrators were invented in the 1800s by Dr. Joseph Mortimer Granville as a psychological cureall for women.

Answers: All too true!

Rosemarie Santini

Lithe Sebesta, Maura Spiegel Introducing the chunky, obsessive book of Breasts.

Using over 600 illustrations and photographs, The Breast Book is about changing social mores and attitudes, from classical Greek statuary to the Victorian corset to Twiggy to Pamela Lee. The Breast Book is about envy and etiquette, differences-why 90 percent of French women do not breastfeed, for example-and adornment, including make-up, tattooing, nipple rings, and more. Breasts is about politics, art, religion, kitsch, and burning the bra. About perceptions-90 percent of men prefer a size C over a D. About high art-whether the humanist breast in Renaissance painting or its feminist send-up by photographer Cindy Sherman-and pop art, from Vargas girls to World War II bomber mascots to Madonna. The Breast Book is about getting them right-falsies, bust improvers, gadgets, pumps, and creams-and showing them off, like Jayne Mansfield's, immortalized in cement in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater.

A work of pop culture in itself, The Breast Book includes recurring visual elements like Time Lines and Great Moments of the Breast, plus Titbits-fascinating trivia running throughout.

HITE SHERE Shere Hite, the best-selling author of The Hite Report on Male Sexuality brings you the nationwide study on Female Sexuality.

HITE SHERE Shere Hite, the best-selling author of The Hite Report on Male Sexuality brings you the nationwide study on Female Sexuality.

Rachel Simmons When boys act out, get into fights, or become physically aggressive, we can't avoid noticing their bad behavior. But it is easy to miss the subtle signs of aggression in girls—the dirty looks, the taunting notes, or the exclusion from the group-that send girls home crying.
In Odd Girl Out, Rachel Simmons focuses on these interactions and provides language for the indirect aggression that runs through the lives and friendships of girls. These exchanges take place within intimate circles—the importance of friends and the fear of losing them is key. Without the cultural consent to express their anger or to resolve their conflicts, girls express their aggression in covert but damaging ways. Every generation of women can tell stories of being bullied, but Odd Girl Out explores and explains these experiences for the first time.

Journalist Rachel Simmons sheds light on destructive patterns that need our attention. With advice for girls, parents, teachers, and even school administrators, Odd Girl Out is a groundbreaking work that every woman will agree is long overdue.

Christina Hoff Sommers

Gloria Steinem This phenomenally successful book, that has sold nearly a half a million copies since its original publication in 1983, is Gloria Steinem's most diverse and timeless collection of essays.

Wilhelm Stekel

Wilhelm Stekel

Miriam Stoppard

Leora Tanenbaum Girls may be called "sluts" for any number of reasons, including being outsiders, early developers, victims of rape, targets of others' revenge. Often the labels has nothing to do with sex — the girls simply do not fit in.  An important account of the lives of these young women, Slut! weaves together powerful oral histories of girls and women who finally overcame their sexual labels with a cogent analysis of the underlying problem of sexual stereotyping.

Author Leora Tanenbaum herself was labeled a slut in high school.  The confessional article she wrote for Seventeen about the experience caused a sensation and led her to write this book.

Christina Henry De Tessan For generations, literary figures from Ernest Hemingway to Frances Mayes have fueled our fantasies about the romance of expatriate life. But it’s one thing to dream about living abroad and quite another to actually do it. In Expat a diverse group of women explores in vivid detail how the reality of life abroad matches up to the fantasy. Tonya Ward Singer craves a roasted chicken in China and must buy it alive and kicking. Karen Rosenberg reevaluates both her family’s Judaism and her own when invited to a Passover seder in a remote Japanese village. Mandy Dowd tries to teach the French about Thanksgiving. Emily Miller admits that in Italy she craves the Hollywood entertainment she generally deplores when on U.S. soil. Tall and fair, Meg Wirth tries hard to blend in, in Borneo—to no avail. Expat taps into the bewilderment, joys, and surprises of life overseas, where challenges often take unexpected forms and overcoming obstacles (finding Drano in Ukraine, shrimp paste in Prague) feels all the more triumphant. Featuring an astonishing range of perspectives, destinations, and circumstances, Expat offers a beautiful portrait of life abroad.

Jessica Valenti 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 propagates on her popular website, Feministing.com.

Covering a range of topics, including pop culture, health, reproductive rights, violence, education, relationships, and more, Valenti provides young women a primer on why feminism matters.

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. No belaboring where today's young women have gone wrong. Feminism should be something young women feel comfortable with, something they can own. Full Frontal Feminism is sending out the message to readers — yeah, you're feminists, and that's actually pretty frigging cool.

Jessica Valenti Double standards are nothing new. Women deal with them every day. Take the common truism that women who sleep around are sluts while men are studs. Why is it that men grow distinguished and sexily gray as they age while women just get saggy and haggard? Have you ever wondered how a young woman is supposed to both virginal and provocatively enticing at the same time? Isn’t it unfair that working moms are labeled “bad” for focusing on their careers while we shake our heads in disbelief when we hear about the occasional stay-at-home dad?

In He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, Jessica Valenti, author of Full Frontal Feminism, calls out the double standards that affect every woman. Whether Jessica is pointing out the wage earning discrepancies between men and women or revealing all of the places that women still aren’t equal to their male counterparts—be it in the workplace, courtroom, bedroom, or home—she maintains her signature wittily sarcastic tone. With sass, humor, and in-your-face facts, this book informs and equips women with the tools they need to combat sexist comments, topple ridiculous stereotypes (girls aren’t good at math?), and end the

Jessica Valenti 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.

Jessica Valenti 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.

Jessica Valenti 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.

Varla Ventura Profiling 200 real and fictional women who dared, women who rock, and women who rule, this book features the low-down on Dana Scully, Rosa Parks, Foxy Brown, Wonder Woman, Emma Peel, Thelma and Louise, Mary Richards, and Eleanor Roosevelt, among others. 40 photos.

Barbara G. Walker Do You Know...

where the legend of a cat's nine lives comes from?

why "mama" is a word understood in nearly all languages?

how the custom of kissing began?

whether there really was a female pope?

why Cinderella's glass slipper was so important to the Prince?

The answers to these and countless other intriguing questions are given in this compulsively readable, feminist encyclopedia. Twenty-five years in preparation, this unique, comprehensive sourcebook focuses on mythology anthropology, religion, and sexuality to uncover precisely what other encyclopedias leave out or misrepresent. The Woman's Encyclopedia presents the fascinating stories behind word origins, legends, superstitions, and customs. A browser's delight and an indispensable resource, it offers 1,350 entries on magic, witchcraft, fairies, elves, giants, goddesses, gods, and psychological anomalies such as demonic possession; the mystical meanings of sun, moon, earth, sea, time, and space; ideas of the soul, reincarnation, creation and doomsday; ancient and modern attitudes toward sex, prostitution, romance, rape, warfare, death and sin, and more.

Tracing these concepts to their prepatriarchal origins, Barbara G. Walker explores a "thousand hidden pockets of history and custom in addition to the valuable material recovered by archaeologists, orientalists, and other scholars."

Not only a compendium of fascinating lore and scholarship, The Woman's Encyclopedia is a revolutionary book that offers a rare opportunity for both women and men to see our cultural heritage in a fresh light, and draw upon the past for a more humane future.

Robin Warshaw The classic book that broke new ground by thoroughly reporting on the widespread problem of date and acquaintance rape has now been completely updated to include recent studies, issues, current events, and controversies.

Robin Warshaw The classic book that broke new ground by thoroughly reporting on the widespread problem of date and acquaintance rape has now been completely updated to include recent studies, issues, current events, and controversies.

Cathy Winkler One night, anthropologist Cathy Winkler awoke from a deep sleep to discover a rapist standing by her bed. For the rest of that night, she lived a woman's worst nightmare as she was repeatedly raped and beaten by the stranger. The event changed her life into something resembling a Kafka novel: a justice system that bungled the case then blamed the victim, a social service system that provided no services or comfort, uneasy and awkward friends, exploitative media, and insensitive university administrators and colleagues. The pain of those four hours was dwarfed by the frustration of her decade-long fight to find the rapist and bring him to justice, ultimately through one of the first successful uses of DNA evidence in a rape case. Winkler, a brilliant observer and ethnographer, chronicles this struggle here-including her own growing awareness of her power to stare down district attorneys, to use the media to her own ends (including segments on 48 Hours and Court TV), and, ultimately through her persistence, to put the rapist behind bars for life. As a story of triumph over adversity, One Night is an inspirational work. And it provides a model of how researchers can turn the lens inward and incisively examine ourselves and our own world.

Naomi Wolf The author of the best-selling The Beauty Myth argues that today's feminism is far out of sync with women's lives and offers a guide toward revitalization and inclusion. 100,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Naomi Wolf The author of the best-selling The Beauty Myth argues that today's feminism is far out of sync with women's lives and offers a guide toward revitalization and inclusion. 100,000 first printing. $75,000 ad/promo. Tour.

Naomi Wolf The bestselling classic that redefined our view od the relationship between beauty and female identity.

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."

Naomi Wolf In The Beauty Myth the fearless Naomi Wolf revolutionized the way we think about beauty. In Misconceptions, she demythologizes motherhood and reveals the dangers of common assumptions about childbirth. With uncompromising honesty she describes how hormones eroded her sense of independence, ultrasounds tested her commitment to abortion rights, and the keepers of the OB/GYN establishment lacked compassion. The weeks after her first daughter’s birth taught her how society, employers, and even husbands can manipulate new mothers. She had bewildering post partum depression, but learned that a surprisingly high.percentage of women experience it.
Wolf’s courageous willingness to talk about the unexpected difficulties of childbirth will help every woman become a more knowledgeable planner of her pregnancy and better prepare her for the challenges of balancing a career, freedom, and a growing family. Invaluable in its advice to parents, Misconceptions speaks to anyone connected–personally, medically, or professionally–to a new mother.

Elizabeth Wurtzel No one better understands the desire to be bad than Elizabeth Wurtzel.

Bitch is a brilliant tract on the history of manipulative female behavior. By looking at women who derive their power from their sexuality, Wurtzel offers a trenchant cultural critique of contemporary gender relations. Beginning with Delilah, the first woman to supposedly bring a great man down (latter-day Delilahs include Yoko Ono, Pam Smart, Bess Myerson), Wurtzel finds many biblical counterparts to the men and women in today's headlines.

In five brilliant extended essays, she links the lives of women as demanding and disparate as Amy Fisher, Hillary Clinton, Margaux Hemingway, and Nicole Brown Simpson. Wurtzel gives voice to those women whose lives have been misunderstood, who have been dismissed for their beauty, their madness, their youth.

She finds in the story of Amy Fisher the tragic plight of all Lolitas, our thirst for their brief and intense flame. She connects Hemingway's tragic suicide to those of Sylvia Plath, Edie Sedgwick, and Marilyn Monroe, women whose beauty was an end, ultimately, in itself. Wurtzel, writing about the wife/mistress dichotomy, explains how some women are anointed as wife material, while others are relegated to the role of mistress. She takes to task the double standard imposed on women, the cultural insistence on goodness and society's complete obsession with badness: what's a girl to do? Let's face it, if women were any real threat to male power, "Gennifer Flowers would be sitting behind the desk of the Oval Office," writes Wurtzel, "and Bill Clinton would be a lounge singer in the Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock."

Bitch tells a tale both celebratory and cautionary as Wurtzel catalogs some of the most infamous women in history, defending their outsize desires, describing their exquisite loneliness, championing their take-no-prisoners approach to life and to love. Whether writing about Courtney Love, Sally Hemings, Bathsheba, Kimba Wood, Sharon Stone, Princess Di—or waxing eloquent on the hideous success of The Rules, the evil that is The Bridges of Madison County, the twisted logic of You'll Never Make Love in This Town Again—Wurtzel is back with a bitchography that cuts to the core. In prose both blistering and brilliant, Bitch is a treatise on the nature of desperate sexual manipulation and a triumph of pussy power.