We Were Feminists Once

Feminism has sold out, or so argues Andi Zeisler, the founding editor and creative director of Bitch magazine: Today's feminism is a choose-your-own adventure story. Women can choose which aspects of feminist empowerment sound the sexiest, and hype those to the exclusion of more urgent political concerns.

Today, feminism is no longer a dirty word, and women purporting to stand up for women's equality now include high-powered names like Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, and Emma Watson. Hip underwear lines sell granny pants with "feminis" emblazoned on the back. In every bookstore, there are scores of seductive feminist how-to business guides telling women how to achieve "it all." In fact, it's the same kind of sloganeering and wishful thinking that sells low-fat yogurt on TV commercials: get a gym membership, get a job, get a husband, wear a power suit, enter the boardroom. Meanwhile, access to abortion clinics is growing ever more difficult for many women across the country, and Arizona has passed a law requiring doctors to tell women undergoing an abortive procedure about a junk science method of "reversing" abortion espoused by the Tea Party right. Feminism has gone mainstream, but true equality is never an easy sell.

Drawing on almost 20 years of experience covering popular culture from the frontlines of the feminist movement, Andi Zeisler will tell a cultural history through the stories of institutions and real women, feminists and otherwise, in America. She exposes how feminism has transformed into something barely warranting the name, ignoring the many for the one, shamelessly colluding with market forces and popular culture. This kind of feminism is not particularly nuanced, and it does't challenge identities and hegemonies as much as it offers nips and tucks. It is no longer a collective action on behalf of all women and those traditionally marginalized, but more about self-actualization of the few. Witty and fearless, We Were Feminists Once is story of how we could have let this happen, and where we go from here.

"With delightfully dry wit, Zeisler carries the discussion of the portrayal of women in advertising, movies, television, and fashion both in the present day and recent history....This thought-provoking yet sobering consideration of the current state of feminism emphasizes the need to continue to fight for full equality. Highly recommended for readers with an interest in women’s studies, pop culture, and the media." Library Journal, Editors’ Spring Pick 2016

"As one of our most passionate and important feminist voices, Andi Zeisler takes on ‘marketplace feminism,’ a feel-good, newly cool and media-friendly phenomenon disengaged from the reality of our ongoing and deeply entrenched forms of gender inequality. Engaging, smart and provocative, We Were Feminists Once challenges us to take on the gap between glitzy media appropriations of feminism and the significant unfinished business of the women’s movement." Susan J. Douglas, award-winning author of Where the Girls Are and Enlightened Sexism

"Extremely insightful…One cannot quarrel with [Zeisler’s] conclusion that the actual term FEMINISM, once freighted with images of bra-burning, hairy-legged harridans has now become so lightweight as to be meaningless." Jane Hailé, New York Journal of Books

"Spirited, witty, and ferociously incisive." Kirkus Reviews

Andi Zeisler is a writer, editor, and cultural critic. She is the co-founder of Bitch Media, the nonprofit best known for publishing the award-winning quarterly magazine Bitch: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, which has over 50,000 subscribers. Zeisler is extremely plugged into the community of feminist bloggers, her writing on feminism, popular culture, and media has appeared in newspapers and magazines including Ms., Mother Jones, BUST, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and the Washington Post. She regularly speaks at colleges and universities and holds interviews in various national publications and radio programs around the country. She has been featured and interviewed in publications like the New York Times, among others.

We Were Feminists Once is a book about pop culture, and it explores some of the ways music and female musicians have been central to feminism’s mainstream popularity — as well as some places where music was turned into a vehicle for commodified feminism (*cough*SPICE GIRLS*cough*). But when I was putting together this playlist...

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