To Be Real: Telling the Truth and Changing the Face of Feminism

by Rebecca Edby Walker

Overview

A revolutionary exploration of the nature of feminism today, its impact on everyday life, and its promise for the future.
 
Determined to extend the boundaries of feminism to embrace social, political and economic equality for all humanity, these exciting young activists and thinkers recast the concepts of feminism to reflect their own experiences and beliefs. Inspired by activist and writer Rebecca Walker, they speak out, challenging many of their own assumptions about the women's movement and demanding that readers recognize a new relationship between the personal and the political.
 
Black and white, male and female, gay and straight, they fearlessly describe their liberation from the feminist ideals that conflict with the reality of who they are, expose shocking secrets, and acknowledge long-hidden accommodations and anomalies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780385472623
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	10/01/1995
Edition description:	1st Anchor Books ed
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Rebecca Walker was chosen as one of Time magazine's 50 future leaders of America, one of the most influential leaders of her generation. She has made a substantial contribution to the global conversation about identity, power, culture, and the evolution of the human family through books, lectures, blogs, social networks, popular magazines, literary and academic journals, radio programs, film and television appearances, and content development. She graduated cum laude from Yale in 1992. Walker's writing has appeared in Glamour, the Washington Post, Bookforum, BOMB, Newsweek, Vibe, Real Simple, Modern Bride, Essence, and Interview, among many other magazines and literary collections. Her books include Baby Love: Choosing Motherhood After a Lifetime of Ambivalence; Black, White, and Jewish: Autobiography of a Shifting Self; and Adé: A Love Story. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, Good Morning America, Oprah, Fresh Air, BET, and dozens of blogs, sites, and other media. She lives in Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Gloria Steinam

Being Real: An Introduction
Rebecca Walker

To Be Real
Danzy Senna

Femmenism
Jeannine DeLombard

Brideland
Naomi Wolf

Kicking Ass
Veena Cabreros-Sud

An Odd Break with the Human Heart
Elizabeth Mitchell

Missionary Position
Gina Dent

Giving It Up: Orgasm, Fear, and Femaleness
Donna Minkowitz

Pushing Away the Plate
Min Jin Lee

Getting Off on Feminism
Jason Schultz

Sexism and the Art of Feminist Hip-Hop Maintenance
Eisa Davis

Identity Politics
Jennifer Allyn and David Allyn

Beauty Laid Bare: Aesthetics in the Ordinary
bell hooks

Close, But No Banana
Anna Bondoc

Motherhood
Allison Abner

Born to Dyke
Greg Tate

How Does a Supermodel Do Feminism?
An Interview with Veronica Webb

Testimony of a Naked Woman
Jocelyn Taylor

Virtual Identity
Mocha Jean Herrup

She Came With the Rodeo (An Exceprt)
Lisa Jones

Congratulations, It's a Girl
Amruta Slee

Afterword
Angela Y. Davis

Contributor Biographies
Acknowledgments

Editorial Reviews

Edited and introduced by Walker, journalist, Ms. editor, and coauthor of House and Home: Spirits of the South (Univ. of Washington Pr., 1994), this anthology adds to the growing body of work by and about younger feminists. "An eclectic gathering of folks"20 activists, academicians, artistsexplore the theme of how they define themselves as individuals, against both traditional stereotypes and the feminist ideas and ideals of their parents' generation. bell hooks's "Beauty Laid Bare" discusses the role of material objects in traditional black culture; Naomi Wolf's "Brideland" examines the enduring attraction of the bride image. Other topics include sex in cyberspace, women and aggression, the politics of taking names, feminist hip-hop, how to hold a nonsexist stag party, and the trials of an aspiring corporate attorney. On the whole, it's an energetic and original collection that belongs in most libraries.Beverly Miller, Boise State Univ. Lib., Id.

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