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Jennifer Baumgardner

Forfatter af Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future

7+ Works 1,523 Members 13 Reviews 2 Favorited

Om forfatteren

Jennifer Baumgardner (pictured pregnant on the cover with director Gillian Aldrich) is the producer/creator of the award-winning film I Had an Abortion. She is the coauthor (with Amy Richards) of Manifesta: Young Women, Feminism, and the Future and Grassroots: A Field Guide for Feminist Activism vis mere (both Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Her most recent book is Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (FSG, 2007). She writes regularly for women's magazines like Glamour, Elle, and Redbook, as well as more political outlets such as the Nation, Harper's, and NPR's All Things Considered. She lives in New York City vis mindre

Værker af Jennifer Baumgardner

Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics (2007) 243 eksemplarer
Abortion & Life (2008) 71 eksemplarer
What is Feminism? 4 eksemplarer
Feminism in the 1990s (2020) 3 eksemplarer

Associated Works

The Essential Feminist Reader (2007) — Bidragyder — 316 eksemplarer
Dirty Blonde: The Diaries of Courtney Love (2006) — Efterskrift — 227 eksemplarer
My Little Red Book (2009) — Bidragyder — 163 eksemplarer
Dear John, I Love Jane: Women Write About Leaving Men for Women (2010) — Bidragyder — 99 eksemplarer
Girldrive: Criss-Crossing America, Redefining Feminism (2009) — Forord — 48 eksemplarer
Fashion: Thinking with Style (2011) — Forord — 16 eksemplarer

Satte nøgleord på

Almen Viden

Fødselsdato
1970-05-15
Køn
female
Nationalitet
USA
Land (til kort)
USA
Bopæl
Fargo, North Dakota, USA
Brooklyn, New York, USA
Uddannelse
Lawrence University (1992)
Erhverv
writer
editor
Organisationer
Soapbox Inc.

Medlemmer

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This book is written by Jennifer Baumgardner, who started the "I had an abortion" project in 2004. This book is part of that project. It starts with a brief history of abortion, a discussion of the project, an introduction to the "pro-voice" movement, and thoughts on feminism and the pro-life movement.

The most valuable aspect of the first part was the discussion of the pro-voice movement. Pro-voice is the idea that it should be okay to talk about abortion as a bad thing, as something that we should work to decrease the frequency of, without being painted as being against abortion. It should be okay for a woman to have conflicting emotions about her own abortion without being shamed for it. It should be okay to say, "I believe that the fetus is a person, but I still believe in the right to choose". In fact, not only should all of these thoughts be okay to have, discussing them out in the open is the only way to get beyond the caustic dichotomy that defines the abortion debate today. Sadly, since this discussion covered only a chapter, Baumgardner did not go into much depth.

The rest of the book is portraits and stories of women who got abortions. While not as deep as the stories in [b:Choice True Stories of Birth Contraception Infertility Adoption Single Parenthood and Abortion|1351728|Choice True Stories of Birth, Contraception, Infertility, Adoption, Single Parenthood, and Abortion|Karen E. Bender|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1336956623s/1351728.jpg|1341413] -- that would be difficult when these stories are only a few pages each -- hearing the real stories of women who chose abortion is always an important reminder of how diverse and complicated these decisions are.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
eri_kars | 1 anden anmeldelse | Jul 10, 2022 |
From my Cannonball Read V review ...

As I close in on the full Cannonball, I'm trying to wrap up a lot of books that I've put down over the course of the year. There's a science book, one of the Song of Ice and Fire series, another etiquette book, and one on goddesses (seriously). And then there’s this one, which I started way back in January. Why the ten month break between starting and finishing it? Well … I just did not like it.

Manifesta is on a lot of 'must read' feminism book lists, but I found it to be mediocre. The writing isn't bad - it's not like Cinderella's Lost Diary or whatever that unfortunate book was that Cannonballers were offered for free earlier this year. My problem is that it’s not actually what it claims to be - a feminism manifesto. It's more like a thrown-together anthology of white feminism, with some 'picture this' writing thrown in. The chapters feel disjointed, and I'm not entirely clear what the authors sought to do with this book. Were they trying to say what the 'third wave' feminists are contributing to feminism as a whole? Were they trying to explore what previous feminists did (and how that was and was not successful)? Trying to outline what we should be doing going forward? I think a book could be successful in doing all three, but that’s not this book.

In addition to the book feeling disjointed and unfocused, there were so many areas where they missed opportunities to really explore feminism - warts and all. There was even one point where I wanted to just throw the book out the window, but was nearly 200 pages in so I just stuck it out. That moment was during a discussion of toys for young girls, and the issues with Barbie, and the attempts to push Mattel to sell Barbies that look more like all girls – so not just blond, white Barbies. The authors passed that off as “PC,” and they meant that as an insult. Any book that uses the concept of "Politically Correct" as though it is derogatory just isn't a good book in my opinion. Saying something is 'politically correct' means that it's showing some empathy to people, and recognizing that straight, white, cis people aren't all who matter.

That very specific issue is one example of the larger problem with this book - it's so, very, very white. Yes, the authors mention contributions from women of color (usually in passing), but they don't acknowledge any of the larger issues with mainstream white feminism. They buy into the "women fought to join the workforce and stay there after the war" story, for example, but don't acknowledge that many women of color had already been working for decades. They don't recognize the complexity of race, gender and sexuality - it's a lot of Gloria Steinem and one reference to bell hooks.

Going forward, I'll be avoiding these generic overviews of feminism, whether targeting and young women or not. I'm more interested in learning about the full history of feminism, and womanism, and reading books that look at the bigger issues of intersectionality that mainstream feminism keeps ignoring.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
ASKelmore | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jul 8, 2017 |
Loved this. I didn't agree with everything in it, but if I did, it wouldn't be any fun to read. Well written, inspiring, and great for when you want some feminist action without reading heavy theory!
 
Markeret
shulera1 | 3 andre anmeldelser | Jun 7, 2016 |
So many people want to make change and make a difference in the world, and many turn to activism as a way to do this. But where do you begin? How can one person, or one group of people, dive into the foreign world of activism? Or, if that world is not familiar, what do you do if you want to continue making change, but are out of ideas or don’t know what path to take next? How do you become an activist or become a better one? These were some of the questions I was asking myself when I plucked Grassroots off the WC bookshelf.
As the title suggests, I was expecting to read “A Field Guide for Feminist Activism,” but found a wonderfully written book threaded with stories of real women and men who have accomplished everything from starting a small feminist club in their high school to creating a world-wide movement. The authors, Jennifer and Amy retell these stories and highlight the steps and strategy that went into making all of them possible. I think of myself as an activist, but many times begin to feel lost or that I’m not doing enough or doing anything really substantial. Jennifer and Amy were comfort and opened my eyes to so many new views and ideas. Not all activism has to consist of creating an entire movement, like Eve Ensler and the Vagina Monologues. It can be as simple as leaving your copy of a feminist magazine (like Ms. or Bust) in a public area (they suggest the dentist!), providing the opportunity for others to be introduced to those ideals.
Grassroots provides great insight and ideas whether you’re an aspiring activist or have been an activist for years. I know that I plan on getting my own copy so that I can continue to refer to it for all of my years full of activism yet to come. ~Ashley W.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
muwomenscenter | 3 andre anmeldelser | May 31, 2013 |

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Værker
7
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7
Medlemmer
1,523
Popularitet
#16,884
Vurdering
½ 3.6
Anmeldelser
13
ISBN
16
Udvalgt
2

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