A study of the impact of sexism on black women during slavery, the historic devaluation of black womanhood, sexism among black men, racism within the women's movement and the black woman's involvement with feminism. Hooks refutes the antifeminist claim that black women have no need for an autonomous women's movement. She pushes feminist dialogue to new limits by claiming that all progressive struggles are significant only when they take place within a broadly defined feminist movement which takes as its starting point the immutable facts of race, class and gender.

This issue of Meridians looks at the expansive domains of transnational feminism, considering its relationship to different regions, historical periods, fields, and methodologies. Through scholarship and creative writing, contributors showcase populations often overlooked in transnational feminist scholarship, including Africa and its diaspora and indigenous people in the Americas and the Pacific. Understanding that transnational feminism emerges from multiple locales across the Global South and North, this group of contributors, working in exceptionally diverse locations, investigates settler colonialism, racialization, globalization, militarization, decoloniality, and anti-authoritarian movements as gendered political and economic projects.Working with manifestos, archives, oral histories, poetry, visual media, and ethnographies from across four continents, the contributors offer a radically expanded vision for transnational feminism. Contributors. Elisabeth Armstrong, Maile Arvin, Maylei Blackwell, Laura Briggs, Ginetta E. B. Candelario, Ching-In Chen, Tara Daly, Nathan H. Dize, Deema Kaedbey, Nancy Kang, Rosamond S. King, Karen J. Leong, Brooke Lober, Neda Maghbouleh, Melissa A. Milkie, Nadine Naber, Laila Omar, Ito Peng, Robyn C. Spencer, Stanlie James, Evelyne Trouillot, Denisse D. Velazquez, Mandira Venkat, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu

This special issue, edited by the co-directors of the African Feminist Initiative (AFI) at Pennsylvania State University, is a partnership between Meridians and the AFI. The issue builds on the AFI's work to promote the study of African feminist thought and activism within the U.S. academy and to create equitable partnerships between scholars and practitioners of African feminism. Through the multiplicity of feminisms theorized in this issue, contributors challenge patriarchal ideologies and structures on myriad fronts, both on the African continent and beyond. The issue includes poetry, memoirs, essays, interviews, reflections, and testimonials on African feminisms, addressing such topics as hip hop, ethnography, secessionist movements, "saving" Nigerian girls, and women's writing. Contributors. Gabeba Baderoon, Abena P. A. Busia, Ginetta E. B. Candelario, Msia Kibona Clark, Alicia C. Decker, Chipo Dendere, Abosede George, Tsitsi Jaji, Selina Makana, Patricia McFadden, Anne Moraa, Jacqueline-Bethel Tchouta Mougoue, Neo Sinoxolo Musangi, Wambui Mwangi, Aziza Ouguir, Charmaine Pereira, Fatima Sadiqi, Toni Stuart, Makhosazana Xaba, Ntokozo Yingwana

A Feminist Mythology takes us on a poetic journey through the canonical myths of femininity, testing them from the point of view of our modern condition. A myth is not an object, but rather a process, one that Chiara Bottici practises by exploring different variants of the myth of "womanhood" through first- and third-person prose and poetry. We follow a series of myths that morph into each other, disclosing ways of being woman that question inherited patriarchal orders. In this metamorphic world, story-telling is not just a mix of narrative, philosophical dialogues and metaphysical theorizing: it is a current that traverses all of them by overflowing the boundaries it encounters. In doing so, A Feminist Mythology proposes an alternative writing style that recovers ancient philosophical and literary traditions from the pre-Socratic philosophers and Ovid's Metamorphoses to the philosophical novellas and feminist experimental writings of the last century.

Whose job is it to teach the public about sex? Parents? The churches? The schools? And what should they be taught? These questions have sparked some of the most heated political debates in recent American history, most recently the battle between proponents of comprehensive sex education and those in favor of an "abstinence-only" curriculum. Kristy Slominski shows that these questions have a long, complex, and surprising history. Teaching Moral Sex is the first comprehensive study of the role of religion in the history of public sex education in the United States. The field of sex education, Slominski shows, was created through a collaboration between religious sex educators-primarily liberal Protestants, along with some Catholics and Reform Jews-and "men of science"-namely physicians, biology professors, and social scientists. She argues that the work of early religious sex educators laid the foundation for both sides of contemporary controversies that are now often treated as disputes between "religious" and "secular" Americans. Slominski examines the religious contributions to national sex education organizations from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first. Far from being a barrier to sex education, she demonstrates, religion has been deeply embedded in the history of sex education, and its legacy has shaped the terms of current debates. Focusing on religion uncovers an under-recognized cast of characters-including Quaker and Unitarian social purity reformers, military chaplains, and the Young Men's Christian Association- who, Slominski deftly shows, worked to make sex education more acceptable to the public through a strategic combination of progressive and restrictive approaches to sexuality. Teaching Moral Sex highlights the essential contributions of religious actors to the movement for sex education in the United States and reveals where their influence can still be felt today.

Overworked and Undervalued: Black Women and Successin America is a collection of essays written by Black female scholars, educators, and students as well as public policy, behavioral, and mental health professionals. The contributors' share their experiences and frustrations with White America which continues to demand excessive labor and one-sided relationships of Black women while it simultaneously diminishes them. The book describes the ongoing struggle for women of color in general, but Black women in particular, which derives from the experience that only certain parts of our identities are deemed acceptable. The essays reflect on the events of the last few years and the toll the related stress has taken on each author. As a whole, the book offers its readers an opportunity to gain insight into these women's experiences and to find their place in supporting the Black women in their lives.

When opposition to gender equality and LGBTQIA+ policies is growing in both Europe and at a global scale with increasing attacks on gender and sexuality norms and violations of women's and other minority groups' rights, it is crucial to further improve the feminist scholarly understanding of opposition to gender+ equality in times of de-democratisation. Gender and the Politics of Crises in Times of De-Democratisation seeks to broaden the current scope of literature on opposition to gender+ equality towards democracy, laws, politics and policymaking procedures. The book focuses on ten case studies, comprising opposition to gender+ equality policies at the EU, regional, local and national levels. With its strong interdisciplinary and original focus on bringing together distinct scholarships and the variety of topics covered, starting from employment policies through gender and representation to gender-based violence, the book is beneficial for not only gender studies students and scholars, but also for feminist activists, political and policy actors and anyone who is interested in achieving social justice.