The Feminist Utopia Project

August 15, 2015
A few dozen writers envision a more balanced world. This collection illuminates a potential new environment in which women, girls, and the entire realm of feminism are subjects that are revered and honored instead of denigrated and/or pushed into the background. As editors Brodsky and Nalebuff write, "it's so easy to internalize the limitations imposed on us by American electoral politics today. Our hopes for progress are confined by what (usually male) politicians tell us we can and can't have." In order to define what a better realm might look like if women had more influence on the ways their lives are governed and treated, the editors offer these essays, interviews, and art, which explore a vast array of topics concerning inequality, the present-day norm. In these optimistic viewpoints, women can take up to five years of parental leave after the birth of a child, the Constitution is rewritten to reflect a female perspective, boys can wear pink, teen moms can attend high school while their child is enrolled in the on-campus day care, and transgender people are accepted like everyone else. Some of the pieces look far into the future, showing that a certain amount of time has passed before government and society have advanced enough to embrace these ideas, while other thoughts could be easily obtained if given enough support. The editors have done a solid job balancing the seemingly impossible with ideas that should already be in place, which only emphasizes how important it is that women continue to speak their minds in defense of their bodies and beliefs. The contributors include Jill Soloway, Sheila Heti, Janet Mock, Maya Dusenbery, Jenny Trout, and Julie Zeilinger. Wildly creative ideas from intelligent writers who want more for women, regardless of race, religion, or sexual preference.

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October 15, 2015

The slow, uneven, and labor-intensive process of social change can often leave those on the front lines of a movement vulnerable to disillusionment. Realities involved in negotiating pragmatic compromises and shoring up incremental victories often leaves little time to look toward the horizon and contemplate where the journey will lead. This volume seeks to provide just such a glimpse into the future as imagined by 57 individuals who took a step back from their present-day struggles to explore how feminist activism could lead to a more humane world. Coeditors Brodsky (Know Your Title IX; Feministing) and Nalebuff (My Little Red Book) bring us a joyful cacophony of voices offering playful, earnest, challenging, and hopeful versions of our collective future in the form of creative nonfiction, fiction, visual art, poetry, and more. Like many futuristic visions, the project turns a discerning and often discomfiting mirror on our unjust present-day circumstances, prompting us to consider why we do not dare to dream (and demand) more boldly. VERDICT Assembled with great energy and care, this volume will be read and passed among those keen to explore how feminist dreaming may advance a more feminist reality.--Anna J. Clutterbuck-Cook, Massachusetts Historical Soc. Lib., Boston

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2015
Mapping out a perfect world created for feminists and by feminists would result in a Venn diagram with overlapping wants and needs, goals and ideals. Although it can certainly be argued that what's good for the female portion of the population is also good for it in its entirety, there is a significant difference when one analyzes essential issues as if they were developed from the get-go with women in mind. The 57 intense and inventive essays, poems, drawings, and interviews gathered here cover everything from body image to constitutional law, sexual orientation to economic justice, race relations, and language variations. The result is a collection that offers a vision for a feminist-friendly future world by deconstructing the failures of the past and acknowledging the realities of the present. Born of a collaboration between two recent college graduates, the Feminist Utopia Project is less than three years old; yet in that short time, Brodsky and Nalebuff have captured the vibrancy that is currently infusing a new generation of feminists, while challenging the limitations still informed by politics and history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)