Books by Jennifer Baumgardner
Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics
"A necessary read for those looking to expand their understanding of both bisexuality and the contributions of Third Wave feminism."―Rebecca Walker, Bookforum
"Revealing, smart, titillating . . . Look Both Ways [cuts] straight to the heart of many young women's fraught relationship to both feminism and their own femininity." ―Jessica Clark, In These Times
"Baumgardner's voice remains as compelling as ever, not only because she writes with the candor of your closest friend, but because she herself appears to be learning and questioning along with the reader." ―Fiorella Valdesolo, Nylon
"Baumgardner is generally thoughtful and honest, with a refreshing sense of humor about herself and her politics. . . . Baumgardner's prose, at its best, is warm, unpretentious and funny . . . And as a memoirist, she is impressively willing to make herself vulnerable. . . . Her arguments for sexual complexity and openness are compelling, as are her claims that bisexual experiences can supply a kind of stereoscopic vision."― Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, Salon
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Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics
For the acclaimed author and activist Jennifer Baumgardner, bisexuality has always been more than the “sexual non-preference of the ’90s.” In Look Both Ways, Baumgardner takes a close look at the growing visibility of gay and bisexual characters, performers, and issues on the national cultural stage. Despite the prevalence of bisexuality among Generation X and Y women, she finds that it continues to be marginalized by both gay and straight cultures, and dismissed either as a phase or a cop-out. With intimacy and humor, Baumgardner discusses her own experience as a bisexual, and the struggle she’s undergone to reconcile the privilege she’s garnered as a woman who is perceived as straight and the empowerment and satisfaction she’s derived from her relationships with women.
Part memoir, part pop-culture study, Look Both Ways connects the prominent dots of a bisexual community (Alix Kates Shulman, Ani DiFranco, Rebecca Walker, and, of course, Anne Heche) that Baumgardner argues have bridged feminist aims with those of the gay rights movement. Look Both Ways is a compelling and current study in bisexual lives lived secretly and openly, and an exploration of the lessons learned by writers, artists, and activists who have refused the either/or paradigm defended by both gay and straight communities.
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What Was The Hipster?: A Sociological Investigation
by Margo Jefferson, Patrice Evans, Jennifer Baumgardner, Mark Greif, Dayna Tortorici, n+1, Christian Lorentzen, Jace Clayton, Reid Pillifant, Rob Horning, Rob Moor, Christopher Glazek
Who was the turn-of-the-century hipster? Who is free enough of the hipster taint to write its history without contempt or nostalgia? Why do we want to declare the neo-hipster moment over, when the hipster's "global brand" has just reached apotheosis?
A panel of writers invited the public to join an investigation into the rise and fall of the contemporary hipster. Their debate took place at the New School University in New York City.
In addition to the panel transcript, the book includes responses from critics Jennifer Baumgardner, Patrice Evans aka The Assimilated Negro, and Margo Jefferson, as well as essays on douchebags, Hasidism versus hipsters, the Hipster Feminine, and the sneaker shop Alife Rivington.
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$10.00
F 'em!: Goo Goo, Gaga, and Some Thoughts on Balls
From Jennifer Baumgardner, one of the leading voices of Third Wave feminism, comes this provocative, thoughtful, often funny collection of essays and interviews that offers a state of the union on contemporary feminist issues.
F 'em! is a mix of old and new essays by Baumgardner, ranging in tone from laugh-out-loud confessional to sobering analysis. She investigates topics as varied as purity balls, sexuality, motherhood, and shared breastfeeding; rape, reproductive rights, and the future of feminism. The essays in F 'em! are rounded out by candid one-on-one interviews with leading feminists who have influenced Baumgardner's perspectives—including Riot Grrrls' Kathleen Hanna, Native American activist Winona LaDuke, transgender activist Julia Serano, and artists like Ani DiFranco, Björk, and Amy Ray. At turns intimate, fierce, philosophical, and funny, they are an intimate window into the minds and hearts of Third Wave pioneers. Holding it all together is Baumgardner's insightful thinking about what it means to be a feminist today, as she answers frequently-asked questions: What does it mean to be a woman today? Do we even need feminism anymore?
Thought-provoking and cutting-edge, F 'em! provides a clearer and more complete understanding of feminism—its past, its present, and its future.
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Manifesta (20th Anniversary Edition, Revised and Updated with a New Preface): Young Women, Feminism, and the Future
by Jennifer Baumgardner, Amy Richards
The twentieth anniversary release of a groundbreaking feminist text: a powerful indictment of the current state of feminism, and a passionate call to arms
Today, people of all genders strive to uphold the goals of feminism and proudly embrace the term, but the movement itself is often beset with confusion and questions. Does personal empowerment happen at the expense of politics? Is feminism for the few―or does it speak to the many as they bump up against daily injustices? What does it mean to say "the future is female"?
In 2000, Jennifer Baumgardner and Amy Richards’s Manifesta set out to chronicle the feminism of their generation. They brilliantly revealed the snags in various hubs of the movement―from antipathy to the term itself to the hyped hatred of feminism’s imperfect spokespeople―and showed that these snags had not imperiled the feminist cause. The book went on to inspire a new generation of readers and has become a classic of contemporary feminist literature.
In the decades since Manifesta was published, the world has changed in ways both promising and terrifying. This twentieth anniversary edition of Manifesta features an updated bibliography, timeline, and resources, as well as a new introduction by the authors. Expertly unpacking both early women’s history and the Third Wave feminism that seeded the active righteous intersectionality we see today, Manifesta remains an urgent and necessary tool to make sense of our past, present, and future.
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