Many of the available resources for teaching courses on feminist spirituality either come from the 1980s to 1990s or are written by the same authors as those earlier texts, thus showing us a progression of spiritual beliefs and practices of 'second-wave' feminists. This is useful, but when addressing this topic with university students it is also important to show the ways in which spirituality has been rethought by 'third-wave' feminists. This rethinking can be found in various small circulation 'zines, but these are not always accessible to a wide audience. This anthology addresses the experiences of third-wave feminists in the construction and reformulation of spirituality. It examines the experiences of young feminists and others who have been influenced by second-wave feminist spirituality and engaged in developing and critiquing themes of Goddess religion, queer theory, protest movements, and popular culture.

A "Washington Post Book World" Best Book of the Year
When her carriage first crossed over from her native Austria into France, fourteen-year-old Marie Antoinette was taken out, stripped naked before an entourage, and dressed in French attire to please the court of her new king. For a short while, the young girl played the part.
But by the time she took the throne, everything had changed. In "Queen of Fashion, " Caroline Weber tells of the radical restyling that transformed the young queen into an icon and shaped the future of the nation. With her riding gear, her white furs, her pouf hairstyles, and her intricate ballroom disguises, Marie Antoinette came to embody--gloriously and tragically--all the extravagance of the monarchy.

A humorous yet poignant take on the issues and attitudes that encumber today's women. "Divalution" is full of quips and short stories based on the author's personal experiences and observations, some are funny, others sad, all will touch you. Deborah shares her insight on how women have failed themselves and each other. She offers "The Divalution" as a way to unite and grow. It is a must read if you have ever had a mother, raised a child, had a friend or been in a relationship.

This second of two volumes continues the exploration of the history of Virginia women through the lives of exemplary and remarkable individuals. Seventeen essays written by established and emerging scholars recover the stories and voices of a diverse group of women, from the transition from slavery to freedom in the period following the Civil War through the struggle to secure rights for gay and lesbian women in the late twentieth century. Placing their subjects in their larger historical contexts, the authors show how the experiences of Virginia women varied by race, class, age, and marital status, and also across both space and time. Some essays examine the lives of well-known women-such as Ellen Glasgow and Patsy Cline-from a new perspective. Others introduce readers to historical figures who are less familiar: freedmen schoolteacher Caroline Putnam; reformer Orra Gray Langhorne; Sadie Heath Cabaniss, the founder of professional nursing in Virginia; and Marie Kimball, an early preservationist. Essays on cotton textile workers in the late nineteenth century and home demonstration agents in the early twentieth examine women's collective experiences in these important areas. Altogether, the essays in this collection offer readers an engaging and personal window into the experiences of women in the Old Dominion.

Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory is a six-chapter manuscript which offers an important critique of "power feminism." The latter, having produced such spinoffs as "grrrl power," "choice," "babe," "lipstick," and "stiletto" feminisms, encourages women to be strong, self-sufficient, feisty, and independent. While I have no argument with much of that tough-minded ideal, I ask whether this "brave new girl" doesn't too readily acquiesce in a neo-liberal ideology whose underlying tenets derive from American rugged individualism. At its worst, this strain within Third Wave feminism contains no critique of capitalism, no distance on neoliberal theory, no effort to address the injustices contained in globalization's asymmetries and the industrialized North's exploitation of developing countries. Feminism and Power: the Need for Critical Theory therefore argues that the critical theories of Theodor Adorno and Jacques Derrida have much to offer feminism, and a feminist understanding of female empowerment. Its pages rely on Adorno's assertion that it is only by allowing the sufferer to speak that we can unveil social truth rather than be duped by the bravado of victory culture. Similarly, it demonstrates how Derrida's insistence on the trace, as well as the asymmetries of friendship and hospitality, lead feminism away from the perils of contented triumphalism. The book promotes listening as a paradigmatic feminist gesture, rather than always speaking up and out.

Seguramente, una nueva mama se siente preparada con guias, manuales, conferencias y cursos. Pero quiza aun asi, los cambios que llegaran a su vida la tomaran por sorpresa. Ha cambiado su papel en el mundo, y tambien lo que el mundo espera de ella y eso es lo que no te dicen en los otros libros sobre la maternidad: al convertirse en madre, la mujer pasa de ser hija, hermana, esposa, amiga o companera para volverse la cuidadora del bienestar no solo de un bebe, sino de toda la familia. Que ocurre entonces con la persona que eras antes? Este es un libro de compania, con los testimonios de muchas mujeres que nos cuentan sus experiencias, en un momento en el que probablemente vas a necesitar compania, comprension y por supuesto, reirte un poco.

Jiggle: (Re)Shaping American Women explores the relationship between American women and their bodies as mediated by both traditional and contemporary foundation garments. This post-corsetry study begins in the 1930s with a discussion of traditional foundation garments and continues with an analysis of contemporary shapewear as these garments shape women physically, culturally, and socially. Jiggle focuses on the corporate, cultural, and individual practices and meanings of women's experiences with foundation garments. Referencing trade journals, industry data, statistics, advertisements, and telephone surveys and interviews with women, author Wendy Burns-Ardolino examines how the contested terrain of fashion and beauty culture reflect larger cultural power struggles. Jiggle argues that women should not be complicit in alienating themselves from their bodies, but rather should embrace their bodies' multiple capacities as they practice fasion, femininity, and gendered performatives.

Roxane Head Dinkin, PhD, a clinical psychologist practicing in Bradenton, Florida, who has long dealt with the problems of infertile women, and history professor Robert J. Dinkin have created an informative book showcasing seven prominent women who struggled with infertility and became creative powerhouses in a variety of fields. Unable to have children themselves, the Dinkins utilized their combined expertise and discovered how these seven women had worked through their infertility issues and honed their creativity to more fully utilize their talents: Juliette Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA Joy Adamson, wildlife conservationist and author of "Born Free" Josephine Baker, entertainer and adoptive mother of twelve Frida Kahlo, innovative artist Emma Goldman, anarchist and birth-control advocate Ruth Benedict, leading anthropologist Marilyn Monroe, film star and sexual icon

Infertility produces a profound loss for women who hold the expectation that they will reproduce. "Infertility and the Creative Spirit" clearly illustrates the connection between the desire and inability to have children and lasting accomplishments in other areas of life, showing how infertile women contribute to the next generation.

Each morning we establish an image and an identity for ourselves through the simple act of getting dressed. Why Women Wear What they Wear presents an intimate ethnography of clothing choice. The book uses real women's lives and clothing decisions-observed and discussed at the moment of getting dressed - to illustrate theories of clothing, the body, and identity. Woodward pieces together what women actually think about clothing, dress and the body in a world where popular media and culture presents an increasingly extreme and distorted view of femininity and the ideal body. Immediately accessible to all those who have stood in front of a mirror and wondered 'does my bum look big in this?', 'is this skirt really me?' or 'does this jacket match?', Why Women Wear What they Wear provides students of anthropology and fashion with a fresh perspective on the social issues and constraints we are all consciously or unconsciously negotiating when we get dressed.

Feminist Ecocriticism examines the interplay of women and nature as seen through literary theory and criticism, drawing on insights from such diverse fields as chaos theory and psychoanalysis, while examining genres ranging from nineteenth-century sentimental literature to contemporary science fiction. The book explores the central claim of ecofeminism that there is a connection between environmental degradation and the subordination of women with the goal of identifying and fostering liberatory alternatives. Feminist Ecocriticism analyzes the work of such diverse women writers as Rachel Carson, Barbara Kingsolver, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Mary Shelley. By including chapters from a comparable number of women and men, this book dispels the notion that ecofeminism is relevant to and used by only female scholars. After uncovering the oppressive dichotomies of male/female and nature/culture that underlie contemporary environmental problems, Feminist Ecocriticism focuses specifically on emancipatory strategies employed by ecofeminist literary critics as antidotes, asking what our lives might be like as those strategies become increasingly successful in overcoming oppression. Thus, ecofeminism is not limited to the critique of literature, but also helps identify and articulate liberatory ideals that can be actualized in the real world, in the process transforming everyday life. Providing an alternative to rugged individualism, for example, ecofeminist literature promotes a more fulfilling sense of interrelationship with both community and the land. In the process of exploring literature from ecofeminist perspectives, the book reveals strategies of emancipation that have already begun to give rise to more hopeful ecological narratives. Feminist Ecocriticism provides a novel integration of two important strands of contemporary literary criticism that have often failed to make contact: feminist criticism and ecocriticism. The openness of both feminist criticism and ecocriticism to multiple, even incompatible perspectives, without the insistence on unitary definitions of their fields, has given rise to a new hybrid discipline: feminist ecocriticism."

This book describes southern womanhood and liberal northern education.From the end of Reconstruction and into the New South era, more than one thousand white southern women attended one of the Seven Sister colleges: Vassar, Wellesley, Smith, Mount Holyoke, Bryn Mawr, Radcliffe, and Barnard. Joan Marie Johnson looks at how such educations - in the North, at some of the country's best schools - influenced southern women to challenge their traditional gender roles and become active in woman suffrage and other social reforms of the Progressive Era South.Attending one of the Seven Sister colleges, Johnson argues, could transform a southern woman indoctrinated in notions of domesticity and dependence into someone with newfound confidence and leadership skills. Many southern students at northern schools imported the values they imbibed at college, returning home to found schools of their own, women's clubs, and woman suffrage associations. At the same time, during college and after graduation, southern women maintained a complicated relationship to home, nurturing their regional identity and remaining loyal to the Confederacy.Johnson explores why students sought a classical, liberal arts education, how they prepared for entrance examinations, and how they felt as southerners on northern campuses. She draws on personal writings, information gleaned from college publications and records, and data on the women's decisions about marriage, work, children, and other life-altering concerns.In their time, the women studied in this book would eventually make up a disproportionately high percentage of the elite southern female leadership. This collective biography highlights their important role in forging new roles for women, especially in social reform, education, and suffrage.

View the Table of Contents
Read the Preface

"The result of Miller's information lode is aa]sometimes uplifting book. It is possible for government and private-sector programs to alleviate the violence against females, Miller believes--but not if those in charge lack the will and refuse to allocate the resources."
--"St. Louis Post Dispatch"

aMiller gives us a detailed examination of the violence experienced by Black inner city girls whose victimization is based on multiple dimensions of their lives: because they are Black, because they live in extremely disadvantaged neighborhoods, and because they are women. Milleras careful, rich, detailed field work documents and analyzes the complex realities of these young womenas lives that set the context for the struggles they routinely contend with. The voices of these young people have been ignored for too long. Getting Played has given them an opportunity to be heard that is long overdue.a
--Robert Crutchfield, University of Washington

aGetting Played shows powerfully how gender, class, and race inequality expose girls in disadvantaged urban communities to violent and sexual victimization, both in neighborhoods and in schools. Miller expertly analyzes how extreme social and economic disadvantage combine with pervasive normative codes to create a context in which girls face high risks of victimization at the hands of boys and men. Getting Played is masterful.a
--Karen Heimer, co-editor of "Gender and Crime: Patterns in Victimization and Offending"

aBy giving us a better understanding of how the neighborhoods and the peer culture of poor African American youth increase the risk of agendered victimization, a GettingPlayed challenges both academics and policymakers to face the role of structured discrimination in the perpetuation of violence toward women.a
--Candace Kruttschnitt, co-author of "Marking Time in the Golden State: Womenas Imprisonment in California"

aThis is a significant and timely book. Miller has taken on a vitally important, but understudied, topic--violence against young Black girls in economically depressed urban settings.a
--Dana M. Britton, author of "At Work in the Iron Cage: The Prison as Gendered Organization"

aMiller grabs readers' attention with the stark reality of the widespread occurrence of violent victimization among the girls she studies.a
--From the Foreword by Ruth D. Peterson, Distinguished Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences, The Ohio State University

Much has been written about the challenges that face urban African American young men, but less is said about the harsh realities for African American young women in disadvantaged communities. Sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating violence, and even gang rape are not uncommon experiences. In Getting Played, sociologist Jody Miller presents a compelling picture of this dire social problem and explores how inextricably, and tragically, linked violence is to their daily lives in poor urban neighborhoods.

Drawing from richly textured interviews with adolescent girls and boys, Miller brings a keen eye to the troubling realities of a world infused with danger and gender-based violence. These girls are isolated, ignored, and often victimized by those considered family and friends. Community institutions such as the police and schools that are meant to protect them often turn a blind eye, leaving girls to fend for themselves. Miller draws a vivid picture of the race and gender inequalities that harm these communities--and how these result in deeply and dangerously engrained beliefs about gender that teach youths to see such violence--rather than the result of broader social inequalities--as deserved due to individual girlsa flawed characters, i.e., ashe deserved it.a

Through Milleras careful analysis of these engaging, often unsettling stories, Getting Played shows us not only how these young women are victimized, but how, despite vastly inadequate social support and opportunities, they struggle to navigate this dangerous terrain.

When Lydia Rychner-Reich took her first breath in 1927, no one could have predicted the horrors she would face in her life. Born just before the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, she personally experienced the atrocities of the time and shares them in this memoir for the whole world. In "Desperation," Lydia recounts the harrowing story of her life under Nazi rule. The torment began in 1938 when, at the age of eleven, the Nazis deported Lydia and her family to Poland, where they struggled daily to survive in a Jewish ghetto. In 1943, the Nazis tore Lydia away from her parents, sending her to detention centers and later to toil in a slave labor camp. It was at the end of 1944 that Lydia was truly tested. The Nazis forced her and the other prisoners on the Death March to Bergen-Belsen, where she spent the remainder of her imprisonment and where she met and befriended Anne Frank. While at Bergen-Belsen, Lydia wrote and hid notes to document the horrors she witnessed. This heart-wrenching account includes photos and official documentation from the Nazi era. Of her family, Lydia alone survived the concentration camps; her parents and sisters died there. She tells her tale so the world won't forget the innocent victims.

Challenging Reproductive Control and Gendered Violence in the Americas: Intersectionality, Power, and Struggles for Rights utilizes an intersectional Chicana feminist approach to analyze reproductive and gendered violence against women in the Americas and the role of feminist activism through case studies including the current state of reproductive justice in Texas, feminicides in Latin America, raising awareness about Ni Una Mas and anti-feminicidal activism in Ciudad Juarez, and reproductive rights in Latin America amidst the Zika virus. Each of these contemporary contexts provides new insights into the relationships between and among feminist activism; reproductive health; the role of the state, local governments, health organizations, and the media; and the women of color who are affected by the interplay of these discourses, mandates, and activist efforts.