Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters [Paperback]

Jessica Valenti (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 17, 2007

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 propagated as founder of the popular website, Feministing.com.

This revised edition includes a new foreword by Valenti, reflecting upon what’s happened in the five years since Full Frontal Feminism was originally published. With new openers from Valenti in every chapter, the book covers a range of topics, including pop culture, health, reproductive rights, violence, education, relationships, and more.

Chapters include:
You’re a Hardcore Feminist. I Swear.
Feminists Do It Better (and Other Sex Tips)
Pop Culture Gone Wild
The Blame (and Shame) Game
If These Uterine Walls Could Talk
My Big Fat Unnecessary Wedding and Other Dating Diseases
“Real” Women Have Babies
I Promise I Won’t Say “Herstory”
Boys Do Cry
Beauty Cult
Sex and the City Voters, My Ass

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 or belaboring where today's young women have gone wrong. Feminism should be something young women feel comfortable with. Full Frontal Feminism is sending out the message to readers—yeah, you're feminists, and that's actually pretty frigging cool.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Arresting, entertaining and serious."
—The New York Times

"If feminism is enjoying a revival among young women, much of the credit should go to women such as Jessica Valenti."
—The Guardian

"Full Frontal Feminism shows us feminism is alive and well and kicking all kinds of oppressive male ass."
—Margaret Cho

"Full Frontal Feminism is an irreverent guide to why young women should embrace the F-word."
—New York Magazine

"Full Frontal Feminism tackles serious feminist issues with a sense of humor and justified anger."
—Bitch magazine

About the Author

Jessica Valenti—called one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women in the world by The Guardian—is the author of four books on feminism, politics, and culture. Jessica is also the founder of Feministing.com, which Columbia Journalism Review called “head and shoulders above almost any writing on women’s issues in mainstream media.” Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian (UK), The American Prospect, Ms. magazine, Salon, and Bitch magazine.

Jessica received her Masters degree in Women’s and Gender Studies from Rutgers University. She lives with her husband and daughter in New York.

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Seal Press; 1St Edition edition (April 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1580052010
• ISBN-13: 978-1580052016
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (92 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #19,862 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #13 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > Feminist Theory

More About the Author

Jessica Valenti - called the "poster girl for third-wave feminism" by Salon and one of the Top 100 Inspiring Women in the world by The Guardian - is the author of three books: Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters, He's a Stud, She's a Slut...and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know, and The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women which is being made into a documentary by the Media Education Foundation. She is the editor of the anthology Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape, which was named one of Publishers Weekly's Top 100 Books of 2009. Jessica is also the founder of Feministing.com, which Columbia Journalism Review calls "head and shoulders above almost any writing on women's issues in mainstream media."

Her writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian (UK), The American Prospect, Ms. magazine, Salon and Bitch magazine. She has won a Choice USA Generation award, was featured as one of ELLE magazine's "IntELLEgentsia", and was named one of the Left's Top 25 Journalists by The Daily Beast. She has appeared on The Colbert Report, Morning Joe and the Today show, among others, and was recently profiled in The New York Times Magazine under the headline "Fourth Wave Feminism."

Jessica is also a widely sought after speaker who gives dozens of speeches annually at universities and organizations in the U.S. and abroad. She received her Masters degree in Women's and Gender Studies from Rutgers University, where she is a part-time lecturer. Jessica lives in Sunnyside, Queens with her husband, daughter, and their very cute cat and dog.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

85 of 102 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Wow, what a disappointment. July 14, 2009

By lynna2000

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

So... I kinda hate this book. I am young, feminist, type and thought I'd give this book a shot for an easy read but I cannot finish it. The jist of it is the author stating a perceived slight to women and then saying, "wow, that is really sucky right? stupid anti-sex white men telling us what to do." There is no analysis, no measured reasoning. She also has a propensity for using the lazy technique of only stating the most extreme opposing viewpoint.

I actually agree with most of the tenets of this book but the way that the author presents them infuriated me. The book is supposed to be a primer for young women who would like to learn more about feminism but as a young woman, I was offended that Valenti didn't seem to think I was bright enough to read rationale behind the ideas and would blindly follow her. Big thumbs down.

331 of 410 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars Feminist Review blog on FFF April 27, 2007

By Elevate Difference

Format:Paperback

Jessica Valenti is a part of the feminist blogger elite, and for good reason. The blog that she was part of establishing, Feministing.com, gets a lot of traffic and is well-known among internet savvy, young, hip feminists. Full disclosure: I read Feministing on a somewhat regular basis. Having read Valenti's writing on the blog - which tends to be oversimplified and, quite frankly, bratty - I was hoping her analysis in book form would show at least a tad more depth. Unfortunately for Valenti, there's a downside to fame; it opens you up for public criticism.

If Full Frontal Feminism is supposed to be the spark that ignites young women to identify as feminists and hop on the movement train, then women are in deep trouble. Valenti writes like a feminist version of Ann Coulter, and let's face it, Ann Coulter is hardly known for her intelligence. Flamboyant and egotistical, much of Valenti's commentary is trite, at best. She makes sweeping generalizations ("When you're a feminist, day to day life is better. You make better decisions. You have better sex."), repeatedly calls her opponents juvenile names [...], confuses "truth" with "opinion," and has apparently done very little actual research to prove her claims, as there is little to no citation of her assertions. At times, she doesn't feel the need to make an assertion at all, responding to the opposition with a facile yet grandiose "Puke," a deliberately ironic "Yeah" or a pithy and useless "Terrifying", as though she has made her case. And despite hackneyed attempts every now and again to mention other marginalized groups, the truth is that this book overwhelmingly reflects the viewpoint of its white, middle class, (primarily, if not entirely) heterosexual, entitled, American, liberal feminist writer....

Valenti doesn't give her readers credit that they can do the thing she most wants them to do: think, analyze, and be critical. This is apparent in the fallacious style by which she presents her perspectives. My personal favorite - taken straight from the right wing, talk radio instruction manual - is when Valenti uses the "straw man," a common misleading bait-and-switch tactic, to "prove" her point (e.g., contending that anti-abortion advocates simply hate sex). A close second is when she uses the most extreme cases as though they weren't the exception to the rule (e.g., making the case for all women to have access to Emergency Contraception because rape victims should have access to it).

Perhaps Valenti believes that young women won't be moved unless they're completely scared to death. Fear is a powerful motivator, but it belittles the audience in the process. Oh, and did I mention that she uses the book as a forum to talk public trash about petty tiffs she's had with other bloggers? If fear doesn't sell you on feminism, apparently Valenti believes taking her side in some inane, personal dispute will.

Full Frontal Feminism is written in sound bytes, each chapter being comprised of smaller (usually) page-long explanations of a given issue: sex education vs. abstinence only, virginity pledges, expensive weddings, unattainable beauty standards, and other typical feminist fare. Apparently, the television has taken its toll (or so Valenti thinks) on the public because there is no sense of organization or logic to the structure of the book. And solutions? Those must have been left for someone else to tackle because you won't find them here, at least not outside of the standard volunteer, give money, and vote.

Now I know I've pretty much run this book into the ground, but I do want to say that I get what Valenti is trying to do here. And it's a really smart idea. She wants to reach out to young women who don't yet identify as feminists and let them know that it's okay, cool even, to be down with the F-word. She wants to tell them that they already believe in feminist ideals and have benefited from the women's movement. She wants to encourage them to continue in that tradition and kick some misogynist ass. That's a really honorable goal that, unfortunately, was a victim of poor execution.

If you're truly looking to find out why feminism matters, you'd be better served to flip to the booklist in the back of Full Frontal Feminism and read some of the titles listed there - including Colonize This!, Listen Up: Voices from the Next Generation, To Be Real, and The Fire This Time - because cool packaging is really great, but if there's nothing of substance inside then what you are selling is just the packaging.

Written by Mandy Van Deven Read more ›

30 of 36 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars An Example of How Not To Get People To Agree With You January 2, 2010

By S. Kundo

Format:Paperback

While Valenti does provide good information in this book. I feel at times she does cross the border into being discriminatory towards certain people. For example, she refers to the Quiverfull religious movement as "wacky." I am a young feminist. However, I do not feel that calling a religion "wacky" is going to earn you any points. That's offensive. Whether you agree with it or not, that is their religion and people do have a choice to have one, which one to have, or to not be religious at all. I truly feel that if you want people to be more open-minded, then, you have to be open-minded as well. I also agree with another reviewer who said that she confuses truth with opinion more than once in this book. She does have a tendency to be rather immature regarding people who disagree with her.

I also agree with the reviewer when they said, "Valenti doesn't give her readers credit that they can do the thing she most wants them to do: think, analyze, and be critical. This is apparent in the fallacious style by which she presents her perspectives. My personal favorite - taken straight from the right wing, talk radio instruction manual - is when Valenti uses the "straw man," a common misleading bait-and-switch tactic, to "prove" her point (e.g., contending that anti-abortion advocates simply hate sex)." I couldn't have said that better. That is exactly how I feel. Now, I am pro-choice. I do not entirely agree with abortion, but I do believe that every woman should be able to make that choice for themselves. Do I hate sex? Hell no. Do my opinions on abortion make me against same-sex marriages (which she also implies you will be against if you don't agree with abortion)? Again, a resounding, hell no....

She makes a lot of unfair generalizations towards people she doesn't agree with, and I'm not okay with that. She is of the opinion that women don't actually want to stay at home and take care of their children, but instead a stay-at-home mom has just been filled with all of these ideas that men are more superior and should be the breadwinners. Sorry Stay-at-home Moms! She fails to realize that some women do actually want to be at home with their children, and not because their significant others or society makes them feel this way. And there ARE stay-at-home dads, as well, even though she fails to mention that and says something along the lines of, "If staying at home with the kids is so great, why aren't men doing it?" Again, just because it's something she doesn't agree with, it's crazy.

I'm not going to say don't read this book. I think that you should read it and form your own opinion on it, but I will say that it made me angrier as I read it. She does make a few valid points ... in an immature, filled-with-generalizations way. Read more ›

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Valenti's tough, but not always fair. July 23, 2011

By Maggie.Marie

Format:Kindle Edition

I have read this book several times, and I do think it is a good book. I am just the target audience Valenti seems to have in mind: young (I'm 25), female, white, single, liberal, and, yes, I do consider myself to be a feminist. This book, therefore, is perfect for a gal like me. I thought that it was relevant, thought-provoking, and actually quite entertaining to read. However, like other authors promoting political ideologies, Valenti's book fell short of perfect in more sense than one.

I'll start with the "strengths" of the book. Using wit, humor, and some nicely handled research, Valenti presents to the reader an array of reasons young women should care about feminism, discussing everything from sexuality, to sexism in the workplace and political arena, to reproductive rights, to body image, and she even dedicates a chapter to male feminism (a topic that has been shunned or minimized by other feminists). She also educates readers who might not be well-versed in feminist history about the three "waves" of feminism and the concept of "intersectionality" (thus putting her master's degree in women's and gender studies to good use). At the conclusions of each chapter (as well as at the conclusion of each book), she also suggests things that the reader could do to take action against certain issues that were raised in that chapter (e.g., boycott Abercrombie and Fitch for their sexist products and policies).

But. This book is definitely not without its flaws. Valenti may have done her homework, but there are things that she definitely could have done without. For one thing, she curses throughout the entire book-- so much that she even points out that she has a "potty-mouth" more than once.... And she's not kidding about that; there hardly seems to be any page that isn't peppered in some way with her cursing like a sailor. Personally, I am not offended by curse words. However, my concern is there are some people who might look at this book, see the amount of times Valenti drops the F-bomb, and the constant swearing could cause them to stop taking her seriously. And honestly, I can't blame them. Let's be honest... is it REALLY necessary to curse quite this much?

Also, while she seems to show great balance in her opinion in some places (e.g., when she admits that she does wear makeup and heels, but that she is aware of the harmful beauty standards promoted by society), in others she comes off as an extremist. I was quite offended when I read her chapter about relationships and marriage. While I understand that some marriage traditions do have a shady history (e.g., women as "property" to her husband), I think that she was very unfairly biased in some of her assertions against certain practices. According to Valenti, it is unfeminist and sexist to wear an engagement ring (I believe the word was "dowry") and to change your last name to your husband's (never mind that for some women, they choose to "take his name" because they *gasp!* CHOOSE to do that). When I first read this book, I was engaged at the time. I wore a pearl ring that I loved dearly AND helped pick out, and I wanted to take his last name because I have no ties to my father's family anymore. But apparently, according to Valenti, this means that I'm giving in to sexism, even though my reasons for participating were (a) my own choice and (b) for reasons that had nothing to do with feminism. I think that maybe Valenti should actually know all of the facts before she decides to lump all of the women who do these things into the same category.

As someone who also has a degree in women's studies, and has read probably about as much academic feminist theories as Valenti has, this book was a refreshing summary of feminism and how it can be applied today. Flaws aside, I do think that this book at least deserves consideration. If you totally hate it, then at least give it to someone else who might appreciate it. Read more ›