Palgrave MacMillan

The Cuban Revolution (1959-2009): Relations with Spain, the European Union, and the United States

admin — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0000

Joaquín Roy’s study is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive attempt to define Cuba’s relationship to the Western World (Europe and the U.S.) in the past fifty years. There is no question of its timely publication—to coincide with the fifty year anniversary of the Cuban Revolution (1959-2009). Indeed, this is a moment when the world is questioning the ability of this small island nation to remain independent and politically isolated while in permanent conflict with the most powerful nation in the world and only 90 miles from its coast. How on earth did Castro’s Cuba survive? Why hasn’t it, like many other Latin American nations fallen prey to either an insidious or explicit United-States sponsored decline? In Nicaragua, the Sandinistas certainly did (1990), and in Chile, Salvador Allende did, almost twenty years before (1973). What specifically makes Cuba exceptional?

Roy is very well placed to deal with these questions since he is the author of more than thirty books on the European Union (EU), Cuba, and the U.S.’ diplomatic relations and policies. His study Cuba, the United States, and the Helms-Burton Doctrine: International Reactions previously explored some of the larger points that he develops in this more recent tome.

At a time when left-leaning governments are being elected in many Latin American countries and seemingly coming together, Roy’s analysis is precious. It details the ebb and flow of an ever-shifting diplomacy in great detail, ranging from the specifics of economic aid from individual countries or from the EU, to the intricate rapport between high level officials, the “butterfly-effects” of diplomacy—if ever there was one in the political sphere.

Roy’s study reviews the notorious aspects of the Cuban diplomacy, such as the Helms-Burton Law (Cuban embargo, or “blockade” [bloqueo] as the Cubans call it), and adds detail to this bigger picture. Because Cuba’s independence is such a novelty (it was the last Latin American colony to achieve sovereignty in 1898 after more than four centuries of colonial rule), the analysis goes back to the beginning of the island, providing much detail on the rocky foundations of the autonomous country, a period which lasted about 50 years before the Revolution. Roy also delves into more complex aspects of Cuba’s relations with Spain after the signing of the Treaty of Paris and the “end” of the Spanish Empire, navigating the contrasts and parallels between the Franco and post-Franco relations.

Of course, Roy’s attempt to separate the analyses of each country in individual chapters is futile since the aforementioned “butterfly effect” makes all diplomacy unavoidably intertwined. Many decisions are entangled and, especially in recent years, reactions to any statement are instantaneous. The rotating presidency of the EU is one of the most convoluted examples of this; each country has its diplomacy, and the EU has its own relations, but since the presidency is revolving, this provokes knotting and redundancies. Yet, while reading Roy’s text, one is never lost in his analysis and this despite the detail it contains. Because it synthesizes many different points of view, this work is essential to anyone endeavoring to understand just why the Cuban Revolution is still alive. Of course, Roy doesn’t provide us with the answer to that question, but then again, neither does (or can?) anyone else.

Written by: Sophie M. Lavoie, February 2nd 2010

Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York City

admin — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0000

By Jane Latour

Palgrave MacMillan

The concept for Jane Latour’s book, Sisters in the Brotherhoods: Working Women Organizing for Equality in New York, was initially a brochure. While serving as the director of the Women’s Project of the Brooklyn-based Association for Union Democracy (AUD), Latour had the opportunity to interview women who were working in non-traditional blue-collar trades. Watching women who were contesting the inequalities in the workplace, organizing, and supporting each other, the author seized the chance to record their voices and experiences. The idea to comprise the oral histories into a book evolved following the favorable response her paper received at a labor history conference held in Detroit. Latour, a labor activist, not only chronicled this facet of the feminist movement in the last quarter of the twentieth century, she worked on the assembly lines in Philadelphia and Newark and later as a sorter on the night shift at United Parcel Service.

The format of this literary work includes quotes from the interviewees and documentation of the labor situation in the United States during the last thirty years. These women were pioneers on the frontier of the skilled, blue-collar employment. Early in the book, Latour refers to Rosie the Riveter and the encouragement women received to enter the workforce during World War II and fill the vacated positions in blue-collar industries. That climate changed after the war ended. Sisters in the Brotherhoods draws attention to the link between the feminist fight for equality in employment and the similar battle which was being fought by minority males and the double burden which minority women faced. As Latour writes, “The further out one was from that norm, the more resistance it generated.”

The women are diverse in their levels of education, racial background, and choices of occupation but they shared the common threats of sexual harassment, unfair hiring practices, and the corruption of the trade unions. Latour’s documentation of the experiences of these forerunners in notational, blue-collar jobs is a testament to their legacy to the young women of the next and future generations.

The feminist movement of the 1970s was the backdrop of my adolescence. Personally, I knew women who occupied traditional female roles and I chose a traditionally female occupation, nursing. So I found this book enlightening and empowering. Battles have been fought but the war has not yet been won.

Written by: Maryann Gromisch, November 30th 2009

Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton

admin — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:01:00 +0000

By Duchess Harris

Palgrave MacMillan

There has to be something said for being able to succeed in concisely communicating the issue of Black feminism and politics, but I think Duchess Harris has done just that. In Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton, Harris has touched on so many issues within the arena of Black feminism without scattering both her and the reader’s thought process.

Harris opens with a history of Black American feminism with the organizations of the National Black Feminist Organization and the Combahee River Collective She sets the scene with the social, economic, and political climate of the late 1960s. With the advent of the Civil Rights Movement, the War on Poverty, and the focus on welfare, the Democratic Party would become the welcoming committee for racial liberation. The Republican Party, however, would be seen as the home of racial conservatism.

The Aid to Families with Dependent Children program shifted the social consciousness, thus shifting perceptions of the single Black woman as the typical welfare recipient. With the 1968 presidential election involving Richard Nixon, the opportunity to further capitalize on the concept of the welfare queen took prominence in order to further divide both political parties. In further dividing Democratic and Republican Parties, the continuance of that division spread to the White ethnic and working class groups, whose courtship was heavily sought by Nixon for political coalitions. Adding insult to injury came with the use of the 1965 Moynihan Report in which, Senator Moynihan correlated welfare dependency with the behavior of the “poor” (i.e., Black women).

The Combahee River Collective can be said to have been a direct result of this dominant political theme and its exclusion of Black women in their assertions. Having broken away from the National Black Feminist Organization on issues of sexuality and economic development, the group provided the legitimacy of the need to address the social, economic, and political oppression of Black women. Prominent members of the Collective included, Barbara Smith, Cheryl Clarke, Margo Okizawa Rey, Demita Frazier, Gloria Akasha Hull, and Sharon Paige Ritchie.

Harris takes us into the artistic address of Black feminism through Alice Walker’s The Color Purple and The Third Life of Grange Copeland and Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf, all of which address Black relationships through a patriarchal lens. She also presents Black feminist perspectives from other notable people, such as Lorraine Hansberry, Shirley Chisholm, Anita Hill, and Paula Giddings.

Harris includes appendices that contain questions she asked various women throughout the text, the President’s Commission on the Status of Women (Executive Order 1098), and members of this Commission, along with its committees and consultations. Harris does an exceptional task of providing a foundation with which to address the Black feminist perspective in this era, the events which led to this movement, and a critical analysis of a diverse group of scholars and scholarly thought. And, she does this in a competently succinct and unpretentious way.

Written by: Olupero R. Aiyenimelo, November 5th 2009

Feminist and Queer Performance: Critical Strategies

admin — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:35:00 +0000

By Sue-Ellen Case

Palgrave MacMillan

Feminist and Queer Performance is a collection of eleven previously published essays by Sue-Ellen Case, a Professor of Theatre and Critical Studies at UCLA. Exploring topics as diverse as butch-femme aesthetics, cyber-minstrelsy, W.O.W. Café, and performance artists Kate Bornstein, Annie Sprinkle, and Split Britches; Feminist and Queer Performance illustrates the history and breadth of Case’s scholarship and sustained engagement with feminist politics and lesbian cultures. In her introduction Case describes the intellectual and political “climate changes” that influenced her thinking about identity and performance. This personal narrative also functions as a history lesson, tracing the evolution of Case’s writing from 1989-2007—when the essays were originally published in various journals and anthologies—and her emerging interest in self-representation, bodily knowledge, and new technologies.

Case is invested in methodological forms that challenge the “objective” and universalizing voice of history–such as performative language and identificatory speech (“I” statements). She argues for writing practices that disrupt the unmarked, patriarchal voice of research, and embarks on a journey to find a “lesbian voice.” In fact, Case compares writing lesbian theory to hanging out in lesbian bars. In “Making Butch: An Historical Memoir of the 1970s,” she evokes the first-person to produce a campy critique of masculinity. Case foregrounds “everyday” performances like bar culture, clothing, and attitude to theorize lesbian culture and identity, especially butch-femme aesthetics.

The voice of Feminist and Queer Performance is an inviting one–curious, self-reflexive, and hopeful. Case is no doubt committed to bridging the divide between theoretical language and political praxis, and easily mixes anecdote and activism into her scholarship. Although not exactly “jargon” free, Feminist and Queer Performance is accessible to a diverse readership. It’s essential reading for burlesque dancers, radical cheerleaders, drag kings, and anyone else interested in the performance of feminist and queer politics.

Written by: Jeanne Vaccaro, April 30th 2009

Love All

admin — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 10:21:00 +0000

By Elizabeth Jane Howard

Palgrave MacMillan

Fans of Elizabeth Jane Howard won't be disappointed with Love All, her first novel since 1999's Falling. Set in London and the fictional village of Melton in the late 1960's, the novel's title is a bit odd, considering that none of the characters can seem to find the love they are looking for.

As usual, Howard's strongest and most likable main characters are female. There's 23-year-old Percy, who is drifting between unsatisfying romances and office jobs; her feisty aunt Floy, who is determined to keep up with her house and her garden design business despite health problems that are taking their toll; and long-suffering Mary, who steps in to raise her niece and rescue her brother Thomas from despair and alcoholism after his wife is killed in a car accident. All of these characters meet up when one of Floy's clients, the rich, brash businessman Jack, hires Floy to reconstruct the splendor of Melton, which used to be Thomas and Mary's family home.

Leave it to some more minor, but no less well-drawn characters, to romantically complicate what begins as a mere landscaping assignment: Thomas' brother-in-law Francis, whom Mary has pined after for years; Jack's alcoholic, aging secretary, who in turn pines after Jack and nearly burns down his house; Reggie, Francis' spoiled, self-important father, who expects Mary to be his maid; Thomas, who fancies himself to be in love with Percy; and Hugh, the ne'er -do-well youngest brother in a local aristocratic family, who can't seem to tell the truth or keep it in his pants. Thomas' 10-year-old daughter, Harriet, is far and away the most sensible of the lot; her caustic and grown up exchanges are some of the book's most delightful moments.

Howard’s characters are portrayed so well that you actually find yourself making a real connection with them, to the point of getting pissed off at them once in awhile. On that note, the book's sole disappointment is Mary's domestic martyrdom to Thomas and his self-absorbance. After more than 400 pages, you really want to throttle her and tell her to get on with her life, rather than catering to his every whim.

Written by: M.L. Madison, March 15th 2009

Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship: Maria de Luna

admin — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:30:00 +0000

By Nuria Silleras-Fernandez

Palgrave MacMillan

In Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship, Nuria Silleras-Fernandez examines the life of the Spanish queen, Maria de Luna, from her childhood amongst the sons and daughters of the royal court, to her successes and failures as queen in the Crown of Aragon until her death in 1406. Silleras-Fernandez systematically demonstrates how “in an age in which queens were expected to act as no more than intersectors between supplicant subjects and the authority of the king, Maria [de Luna] was an active and independent political agent.”

Maria de Luna understood that the source of her power as queen was inextricably tied to the success of her husband’s rule as king, but she also had an understanding of the measures necessary to ensure the preservation of his power, an understanding that was, many times, far superior than her husband’s. She had great foresight for the implications of and potential repercussions from political and military actions, and she took the reins when she saw her husband or son acting in ways that might jeopardize their hold on the crown. Through the course of this book, Silleras-Fernandez shows how Maria de Luna manipulated all aspects of her life to serve her power-hungry agenda, particularly those of patronage and piety. Her acts of sponsorship were used to make loyal dependents out of her subjects, while her pious acts toward the Christian clergy and her husband were used to portray a queenly image that would win the support and respect of those over whom she ruled.

Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship demonstrates how exceptional Maria de Luna was at navigating the politics of the fourteenth century, and I believe that she would be a skilled politician according to today’s standards as well. Unfortunately, that is because she managed to use her relationships to further her political aims and maintain power. She was by no means a feminist, and her patronage was extended to the women in her court insofar as she could help educate and refine them so the could be strategically married off to suitors who would fortify certain political bonds.

Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship offers interesting insight into the life of an exceptional woman, who had an understanding of the politics of power far superior to that of most men of her time, but she relied on and clung to the power of her husband all the same. Thankfully, the past few years in Chilean, Israeli, and American politics (to name a few examples), have proven that women have come a long way from the days where their power was only derived from their male counterparts.

Written by: Rebecca McBride, October 12th 2008

Sisterhood Interrupted: From Radical Women to Girls Gone Wild

admin — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:45:00 +0000

By Deborah Seigel

Palgrave MacMillan

As if we needed more proof of the very existence of feminism—and how it has been interpreted through the mainstream culture—Deborah Seigel has handed us a history lesson wrapped in a hot pink love letter. In her nonfiction book, Sisterhood Interrupted, Seigel imparts that not only has feminism had its mis-steps, it's fallen clear away from its foundation. But maybe that foundation needs a shake.

Don't misunderstand me: Seigel's words aren't an attack on the "f-word." Rather, she's building that tenuous bridge between the young and seemingly unmotivated, feminists and their burnt-out mothers. As a twenty-six-year-old, self-identified woman in America, I can look around and see where the American feminist movement has failed my generation more than I can see it's successes, at times. And that's where Seigel makes her best historical point. I, with all my privilege, have the power of choice based on the historical outcomes of the movement. And I have feminists—past and present—to thank for that choice.

Sisterhood Interrupted is a quick and exciting read; Seigel exposes knowledge on where (and why) the movement split, between the more highly profiled Betty Freidan and Gloria Steinem, as well as the justification for retiring some words, like, "sisterhood." "But now I realize that sisterhood is phony. Even when there's consensus, there isn't," says Amy Richards, co-author of ManifestA, in a conversation with Seigel. "I think younger women have a better sense that it is a big façade." This 'façade' is not a backlash, or an attempt to dis-empower feminism, it's just a reality of the movement. We're not sisters based on gender alone or simply based on feminist history. I believe opening the discussion to a few things that have been deemed ‘sacred’ isn't such a terrible thing at all.

Written by: Courtney Ham, September 17th 2007

Third Wave Feminism: A Critical Exploration

admin — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:09:00 +0000

Edited by Stacey Gillis, Gillian Howie, Rebecca Munford

Palgrave MacMillan

Third Wave Feminism opens with not only a foreword by Imelda Whelehan and introduction by the editors, but with note on the individual essayists included in the book. This design is indicative of the “wave principle” associated with feminism, especially third wave feminism, which emphasizes uniqueness of varying perspectives.

The introduction is just that: a short introduction to feminist theory in general and a brief history of the first, second and third waves. The introduction mentions the “tensions” over who is and who is not a part of the contemporary feminist movement. “The essays collected here explore the possibilities, as well as the limitations, of both third wave feminism and the wave metaphor,” say the editors. The introduction defines the purpose of the book as asking “how and whether another wave contributes to the future of feminism.”

The body of the work is a series of essays and interviews by and with contemporary feminists, many of whom contradict and negate ideas prevalent in second wave feminism, as well as the ideas of one another. This negation and “tension” between the individual essayists are overwhelming. Yet while the contradictions and almost hostile arguments make the book a difficult read, this is exactly the difficulty of the culture of third wave feminism itself. As a person who strives to reconcile ideas and definitions, I was often distracted by my ignorance regarding who to believe and who to “follow.” Again and again, I was reminded that it is almost impossible to define or understand a movement through which you are living. It takes the perspective of time and distance to better understand the nuances and larger picture. I wondered if this book, though a second edition, came much too early?

Part III of the book is called “Politics and Popular Culture.” This was my favorite part of the book. The theory was used as a filter to draw conclusions, and (whew) finally reconcile some ideas on a concrete level. “There is confusion over what it means to be a feminist as well as what it means to be a successful woman,” says Kristyn Gorton in her essay (Un)fashionable Feminists: The Media and Ally McBeal. And in that sentence, the entire truth of the book is stated.

The essays are well written and well chosen. The difficulty of the book is not within the writing, but within the philosophy and theory of third wave feminism, both perhaps exploited too early. I believe the book is successful in achieving its aims, but the book is not for a person who does not have previous knowledge of feminism.

Written by: Amy Lynn Hess, August 30th 2007

Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism

admin — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 13:22:00 +0000

By Linda M. Scott

Palgrave MacMillan

Madonna was once “willfully out of step with the times.” When she started her career in the early ‘80s, her body was fleshy and voluptuous. In a word: natural. She was a “model of resistance,” wrote Susan Bordo in her landmark book, Unbearable Weight. But succumbing to mainstream pressure, she “normalized” her body shortly after marrying Sean Penn in 1987, becoming lean and muscular.

Madonna was then in her mid-twenties. Now, at forty-eight years old, she can still easily stir insecurity in women her own age, not to mention women in their twenties. “Look at her ass,” a friend remarked recently while we were watching her latest “Hung Up” video. Bordo might wonder whether or not Madonna had work done.

Linda M. Scott, however, would not. Judging by her book, Fresh Lipstick: Redressing Fashion and Feminism, Scott would not care whether Madonna’s alleged plastic surgery raised the bar for average women who measure themselves against such an icon. She would just want to indulge in Madonna’s triumphs – her rise to stardom, her ability to stay on top, her talent to reinvent her look, her overall fabulousness. “Isn’t she pretty and stylish,” she might ask instead. It is a fun idea, but ultimately not that satisfying.

In Fresh Lipstick, Scott argues that the anti-beauty ideology of ‘second wave’ feminists, advanced by women such as Bordo, Naomi Wolf and Susan Faludi, is self-serving and elitist. Unwittingly reversing the argument that mainstream imagery promotes normative beauty standards, Scott says this feminist bias is “a compulsion to enforce homogeneity.” But an oppressed group trying to dominate, she recognizes to her credit, is indeed a counterintuitive argument.

As long as we ignore the fact that all women belong also to other groups – different classes, races, religions – we can turn a blind eye to the reality that some women have advantages over others and have, in the past, acted alongside the men of their own group to ensure the continuation of their privileges. By asserting that women must all dress the same way – conform to the same “ideal” – we make a space where we can overlook their unequal access to the goods used in grooming and dress, as well as the ethnic differences that cause each group to view particular items or colors as acceptable, beautiful, or immoral.

Comprised of a slew of anecdotal evidence demonstrating this thesis, Fresh Lipstick starts with Susan B. Anthony rebuffing the fashionable Elizabeth Oakes Smith at the 1852 Women’s Convention. As another example, she claims the legacy of Victoria Woodhull is omitted from contemporary feminist history because “Woodhull’s life story was a Whig-Republican’s nightmare.” And she celebrates the Gibson Girl – a cartoon published in Life magazine – as did Charlotte Perkins Gilman, for her beauty, independence, and low esteem of “Puritan moralists.” According to Scott, feminists take a dim view of the Gibson Girl as an icon, and as such, Scott rhetorically asks: “is it possible that Charlotte Perkins Gilman, one of the most brilliant and unorthodox minds feminism has ever produced, was simply so enthralled by the power of this mass image that she couldn’t see what it was really doing?”

Despite Scott’s posture of arguing from the fringe reacting to feminists – whom she portrays as being full-fledged members of the mainstream (and that some feminists may be is beside the point) – she actually argues from the center. She calls attention to the fact that fewer than thirty percent of Americans have finished college, and claims that just because Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique and Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex sell at college bookstores due to the proliferation of Women’s Studies Departments, they’re part of the establishment. Scott writes as though the beauty and fashion industries are suffering because of this so-called anti-beauty ideology, when in fact they’re flourishing. This is an oddity of the text that might have something to do with her status as an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois, which may keep her a little out of touch.

Deliberately contrasting the well-educated pedigrees of Friedan and Beauvoir, Scott tells the up-by-the-bootstraps tale of Helen Gurley Brown. Brown couldn’t go to college because she had to work to support her mother and sister, and worked for seventeen years as a secretary. Being given the opportunity to write an ad opened a door into a career as a successful copywriter. Shortly thereafter, at thirty-seven-years old, Brown married a famous film producer who encouraged her to write a book about being a single working woman. Brown’s Sex and the Single Girl was a bestseller, and within two years it went into paperback and was optioned as a film. Brown then went on to become the editor of Cosmopolitan, garnering praise for turning it around.

Scott faults Brown’s detractors as being elitist and classist because of the scathing reviews Sex and the Single Girl received in the press. “Even those who disagreed with the Beauvoir and Friedan books treated them respectfully,” writes Scott. However, she also calls attention to its “light style” and “simple vocabulary,” and to the fact that Brown openly encouraged single working women to have affairs with married men. Scott does not argue that Brown flouted marriage as a patriarchal institution, but rather makes the false comparison that she was transgressing taboos analogous to “an act against the prevailing kinship system of dressing like a butch lesbian.” She doesn’t read Brown’s survivalist instincts and exhortations to women to “do your own work… don’t live off anybody else” alongside her ruthless pursuit of married men as a response to a cultural climate that produced images of sex and free-love for men as flight from the stark reality of breadwinning.[1]

Scott’s biggest gripe is the condescension and arrogance attributed, sometimes accurately, to some major ‘second wave’ thinkers toward working-class women. For example, she objects to the portrayal of some women as submissively internalizing ideals presented in the media because, she argues, women read more widely than men. But reading more mainstream media doesn’t mean you automatically become more discerning, in fact, it may merely engender facility with these images and messages without distance. [2]

Susan Faludi’s Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women chronicles the beauty industry’s destructive presence in women’s lives. Anti-wrinkle treatments were carcinogenic, acid-face peels burned women’s faces, silicone injections left painful deformities, and liposuction led to infections and even death. In spite of this glaring reality, the Economist reported in 2003 that the beauty business – “encompassing make-up, skin and hair care, fragrances, cosmetic surgery, health-clubs and diet pills” – is a $160 billion-dollar-a-year global industry which is based, obviously, on female insecurity.

Faludi also cited a study by Wells Rich Greene on women’s fashion-shopping habits in the early 1980s, which found that the more confident and independent a woman became, the less she cared about her clothes. The fashion industry discovered it needed to prey on the young and the unhappy. That is the great thing about beauty – its redemptive quality. In fact, it is probably not a coincidence that so many people are diagnosed with depression in this country while the beauty industry thrives. Grooming oneself, as a ritual, fosters joy.

Arguing as a feminist at odds with overarching feminist ideas is a lonely pursuit. Scott’s book is exhaustively researched, and her dramatizations of the lesser-prominent characters in the ongoing tale of feminism’s history are entertaining. Her objection to the unspoken classism among some of the most influential feminist leaders is admirable, but she has no real problem with hierarchies. Finally, her bold claim to take on Faludi and Bordo, among others, ultimately falls flat. It is a shame that it comes back to the lack of seriousness that she talks about throughout her book: that feminists inevitably deem fashionistas as frivolous. But ignoring eating disorders is an egregious mistake. Charting dress and the ‘second wave’ without addressing this does, unfortunately, make one seem shallow. Scott seems to write from an idyll where feminism has done its work and can wash its hands and move on. But from where other writers sit, Madonna has an enviable ass, the gendered wage gap is lower than the publicized seventy-eight percent, mothers are discriminated against as a group, and the fashion and beauty industries are doing just fine thank you.

Written by: Jeanine Plant, December 15th 2006

Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist Voices for a New Generation

admin — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 13:45:00 +0000

Edited by Shamillah Wilson, Anasuya Sengupta, Kristy Evans

Palgrave MacMillan

Identifying as a feminist has never been easy, and being a young feminist is even more difficult. Ever present is the threat of being attacked for failing to acknowledge the efforts our foremothers of the second wave, as well as criticism of those who see young feminists as third wave "fuck-me" feminists, asserting a gender-normative femininity at the expense of coalescing to male-dominated notions of sexuality. What does it mean to call yourself, or in this case, your book, the voice of a new feminist generation? What does it mean to attempt to do this on a global scale? Who is included? Who remains on the margins? One thing it means is you have your work cut out for you. In a world where most college sophomores have the tools to deconstruct one’s work and offer their own post-structuralist critique of who is and isn’t being spoken for, what one has and hasn’t accomplished, a book like Defending Our Dreams: Global Feminist Voices for a New Generation is a daring feat. Wilson, Sengupta and Evans live up to the challenge.

The refreshingly open introduction catches readers, especially those who are young feminists themselves, in its honesty, insight and reflexivity in articulating the authors’ mission and their experiences. While avoiding any sort of rhetoric about an all-encompassing umbrella of sisterhood, Wilson and Sengupta speak of their own hopes, dreams, and inadvertent entry into the leadership of a fledgling international young feminist movement. They are activists who thrive in and rely upon the second homes of the communities of conscience they have formed. They have carved out "spaces in between" for themselves when they have felt intellectually and ideologically displaced. They have maintained these spaces and flourished in them, despite the challenges of time and distance and questions whose answers they are still working through for themselves. They have created a dialogue across borders, a trajectory across identities and issues. And most of all, they have created momentum for a movement that spans these divides.

This collection of essays acknowledges the multiplicities of the lives of young women from across the globe. Issues discussed in Defending our Dreams range from the use and misuse of identity politics to the realities of living with and fighting against racial and gender stereotypes as an Asian adoptee in the U.S. Writers discuss myths about women and the symbolism embedded in them, as well as offering a fictive account of life after the abolition of money and capitalist injustices. The range of vision and voices is both impressive and inspiring, and readers are able to weave a web of women’s experiences from essays that remain accessible while not sacrificing academic merit. Defending our Dreams far surpasses both the pop-culture feminist writing that hopes to sell itself as a new, more stylish version of feminism with a muted call to arms, and the dry, historical accounts of women’s movements that read like an eighth grade text book. This is a book for us, that truly feels as though it is by us, and that we have a community of conscience in which we can thrive.

Written by: Terri Bennett, December 13th 2006