Before her death in 2001, Naomi Schor was a leading scholar in feminist and critical theory and a founding coeditor of differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies. This issue takes as its starting point Schor's book Bad Objects: Essays Popular and Unpopular (1995), in which she discussed her attraction to the "bad objects" the academy had overlooked or ignored: universalism, essentialism, and feminism. Underpinning these bad objects was her mourning of the literary, a sense that her work-and feminist theory more generally-had departed from the textual readings in which they were grounded. Schor's question at the time was "Will a new feminist literary criticism arise that will take literariness seriously while maintaining its vital ideological edge?" The contributors take literariness-the "bad object" of this issue-seriously. They do not necessarily engage in debates about reading, theorize new formalisms, or thematize language; rather, they invigorate and unsettle the reading experience, investigating the relationship between language and meaning. Contributors. Lee Edelman, Frances Ferguson, Peggy Kamuf, Ramsey McGlazer, Thangam Ravindranathan, Denise Riley, Ellen Rooney, Elizabeth Weed

A new kind of manifesto for the working woman, with practical guidance on building wealth as well as inspiration for harnessing the freedom and power that comes from a breadwinning mindset. Women are now the main breadwinner in one-in-four households in the UK. Yet the majority of women still aren't being brought up to think like breadwinners. In fact, they're actively discouraged - by institutional bias and subconscious beliefs - from building their own wealth, pursuing their full earning potential, and providing for themselves and others financially. The result is that women earn less, owe more, and have significantly less money saved and invested for the future than men do. And if women do end up as the main breadwinner, they've been conditioned to feel reluctant and unprepared to manage the role. In Think Like a Breadwinner, financial expert Jennifer Barrett reframes what it really means to be a breadwinner by dismantling the narrative that women don't - and shouldn't - take full financial responsibility to create the lives they want. Featuring a wide variety of case studies from women at all stages of their careers and financial lives, Barrett shares the secrets of women who already think like breadwinners. Barrett reveals not only the importance of women building their own wealth, but also the freedom and power that comes with it. 'Barrett's manifesto is a must read for any woman at any stage of her career.' - Eve Rodsky, author of Fair Play

A DOROTHY KOOMSON BOOK OF THE YEAR AN ECONOMIST BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Such a beautiful read, like chatting to a friend over a cuppa. This is the intimate, insightful read that I didn't know I needed. Just brilliant.' Dorothy Koomson Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah spent decades talking openly and intimately to African women around the world about sex. In this book, she brings together their extraordinary stories, whilst also chronicling her own journey towards sexual freedom. From finding queer community in Egypt to living a polyamorous life in Senegal to understanding the intersectionality of religion and pleasure in Cameroon, their necessary narratives are individual and illuminating. This stunning collection provides crucial insight into our quest for sexual power and offers all women inspirational examples to live a truly liberated life. 'Touching, joyful, defiant - and honest.' Economist, Books of the Year 2021 'Fascinating.' Bernadine Evaristo 'Honest and moving. A vital treasure.' Bolu Babalola, author of Love in Colour 'Stunning. Essential read! I couldn't put it down.' Nicole Dennis-Benn, bestselling author of Patsy and Here Comes the Sun 'Leaves you feeling deliciously empowered.' Lola Shoneyin, author of The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives 'Boundary-breaking, fascinating and deeply affirming.' Otegha Uwagba, author of Little Black Book

'A robust, decolonial challenge to carceral feminism' - Angela Y. Davis ***Winner of an English PEN Award 2022*** The mainstream conversation surrounding gender equality is a repertoire of violence: harassment, rape, abuse, femicide. These words suggest a cruel reality. But they also hide another reality: that of gendered violence committed with the complicity of the State. In this book, Francoise Verges denounces the carceral turn in the fight against sexism. By focusing on 'violent men', we fail to question the sources of their violence. There is no doubt as to the underlying causes: racial capitalism, ultra-conservative populism, the crushing of the Global South by wars and imperialist looting, the exile of millions and the proliferation of prisons - these all put masculinity in the service of a policy of death. Against the spirit of the times, Francoise Verges refuses the punitive obsession of the State in favour of restorative justice.

***Winner of an English PEN Award 2021*** In this sharp intervention, authors Luci Cavallero and Veronica Gago defiantly develop a feminist understanding of debt, showing its impact on women and members of the LGBTQ+ community and examining the relationship between debt and social reproduction. Exploring the link between financial activity and the rise of conservative forces in Latin America, the book demonstrates that debt is intimately linked to gendered violence and patriarchal notions of the family. Yet, rather than seeing these forces as insurmountable, the authors also show ways in which debt can be resisted, drawing on concrete experiences and practices from Latin America and around the world. Featuring interviews with women in Argentina and Brazil, the book reveals the real-life impact of debt and how it falls mainly on the shoulders of women, from the household to the wider effects of national debt and austerity. However, through discussions around experiences of work, prisons, domestic labour, agriculture, family, abortion and housing, a narrative of resistance emerges. Translated by Liz Mason-Deese.

This book sheds new light on the ongoing fight to end prostitution through a historical study of its emotional communities. An issue that has long been the subject of much debate amongst feminists, governments and communities alike, the history of the fight to end prostitution has an important bearing on feminist politics today. This book identifies key abolitionist emotional communities, tracing their origins, interactions and evolutions with various historical and contemporary emotional styles. In doing do, Emotional Histories in the Fight to End Prostitution highlights a more nuanced view of the movement's history. From Moral Liberals in 19th century Britain to the American anti-pornography movement and Swedish 'Nordic Model', Emotional Histories in the Fight to End Prostitution shows how emotional styles and practices have influenced the evolution of the fight against prostitution in Britain, the United States and Western Europe. From the fear of sin, to maternal compassion and survivor shame and loss, Michele Greer historicizes emotions and studies them as dynamic forms of situated knowledge. In doing so, she sheds light on how women's lived experiences have been transformed and politicized, and raises important questions around how feminist emotions in social protest can not only challenge but unknowingly defend existing socio-political conventions and inequalities. Highlighting the links between past and present forms of abolitionism, it shows that this connection is more complex and far-reaching than currently assumed, and offers new perspectives on the history of emotions.

From the best-selling author of Americanah and We Should All Be Feminists comes a powerful new statement about feminism today - written as a letter to a friend. A few years ago, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie received a letter from a dear friend from childhood, asking her how to raise her baby girl as a feminist. Dear Ijeawele is Adichie's letter of response. Here are fifteen invaluable suggestions-compelling, direct, wryly funny, and perceptive-for how to empower a daughter to become a strong, independent woman. From encouraging her to choose a helicopter, and not only a doll, as a toy if she so desires; having open conversations with her about clothes, makeup, and sexuality; debunking the myth that women are somehow biologically arranged to be in the kitchen making dinner, and that men can "allow" women to have full careers, Dear Ijeawele goes right to the heart of sexual politics in the twenty-first century. It will start a new and urgently needed conversation about what it really means to be a woman today.

Contained Empowerment and the Liminal Nature of Feminisms and Activisms examines the processes by which activist successes are limited, outlines a theoretical framing of the liminal and temporal limits to social justice efforts as "contained empowerment." With a focused lens on the third wave and contemporary forms of feminism, the author investigates feminist activity from the early 1990s through responses and reactions to the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, and contrasts these efforts with anti-feminist, white supremacist, and other structural normalizing efforts designed to limit and repress women's, gendered, and reproductive rights. This book includes analyses of celebrity activism, girl power, transnational feminist NGOs, digital feminisms, and the feminist mimicry applied by practitioners of neo-liberal and anti-feminism. Victoria A. Newsome concludes that the contained nature of feminist empowerment illustrates how activists must engage directly with intersectional challenges and address the multiplicities of structural oppressions in order to breach containment.

What happens to art when feminism grips the curatorial imagination? How do sexual politics become realised as exhibits? Is the struggle against gender discrimination compatible with the aspirations of museums led by market values? Beginning with the feminist critique of the art exhibition in the 1970s and concluding with reflections on intersectional curating and globalisation after 2000, this pioneering collection offers an alternative narrative of feminism's impact on art. The essays provide rigorous accounts of developments in Scandinavia, Eastern and Southern Europe as well as the UK and US, framed by an introduction which offers a politically engaging navigation of historical and current positions. Delivered through essays, memoirs and interviews, discussion highlights include the Tate Modern hang, relational aesthetics, the global exhibition, feminism and technology in the museum, the rise of curatorial collectivism, and insights into major exhibitions such as Gender Check on Eastern Europe. Bringing together two generations of curators, artists and historians to rethink distinct and unresolved moments in the feminist re-modelling of art contexts, this volume dares to ask: is there a history of feminist art or one of feminist presentations of artworks? Contributors include Deborah Cherry, Jo Anna Isaak, Malin Hedlin Hayden, Lubaina Himid, Amelia Jones, Kati Kivimaa, Alexandra Kokoli, Kuratorisk Aktion, Suzana Milevska, Suzanne Lacy, Lucy Lippard, Sue Malvern, Nancy Proctor, Bojana Pejic, Helena Reckitt, Jessica Sjoeholm Skrubbe, Jeannine Tang and Catherine Wood.