Has evolution made men promiscuous skirt chasers? Pop-Darwinian claims about men's irrepressible heterosexuality have become increasingly common, and increasingly common excuses for men's sexual aggression. The Caveman Mystique traces such claims about the hairier sex through evolutionary science and popular culture. After outlining the social and historical context of the rise of pop-Darwinism's assertions about male sexuality and their appeal to many men, Martha McCaughey shows how evolutionary discourse can get lived out as the biological truth of male sexuality. Although evolutionary scientists want to use their theories to solve social problems, evolutionary narratives get invoked by men looking for a Darwinian defense of bad-boy behaviors. McCaughey argues that evolution has nearly replaced religion as a moral guide for understanding who we are and what we must overcome to be good people. Bringing together insights from the fields of science studies, body studies, feminist theory, and queer theory, The Caveman Mystique offers a fresh understanding of science, science popularization, and the impact of science on men's identities, making a convincing case for deconstructing, rather than defending, the caveman.

Has evolution made men promiscuous skirt chasers? Pop-Darwinian claims about men's irrepressible heterosexuality have become increasingly common, and increasingly common excuses for men's sexual aggression. The Caveman Mystique traces such claims about the hairier sex through evolutionary science and popular culture. After outlining the social and historical context of the rise of pop-Darwinism's assertions about male sexuality and their appeal to many men, Martha McCaughey shows how evolutionary discourse can get lived out as the biological truth of male sexuality. Although evolutionary scientists want to use their theories to solve social problems, evolutionary narratives get invoked by men looking for a Darwinian defense of bad-boy behaviors. McCaughey argues that evolution has nearly replaced religion as a moral guide for understanding who we are and what we must overcome to be good people. Bringing together insights from the fields of science studies, body studies, feminist theory, and queer theory, The Caveman Mystique offers a fresh understanding of science, science popularization, and the impact of science on men's identities, making a convincing case for deconstructing, rather than defending, the caveman.

The internet played a central role in some of the most memorable instances of contemporary political activism. On-line information sites enabled more than 70,000 protestors to come together to take on the World Trade Organization at the "Battle of Seattle" in 1999; similar ad-hoc groups were assembled at the April 2000 World Bank protests in Washington, D.C., at George W. Bush's inauguration, and most recently at the World Economic Forum in New York. Cyberactivism examines the growing importance of on-line activism. The contributors show how online activists have used new technologies as a tool for change, and how they have given new meaning to terms such as 'activism' and 'community'. Topics addressed include the Mexican Zapatista movement's use of the web to promote their cause globally, and the activities of 'hacktivists' who disrupt commercial computer websites.

Cyberactivism already has a rich history, but over the past decade the participatory web-with its de-centralized information/media sharing, portability, storage capacity, and user-generated content-has reshaped political and social change. Cyberactivism on the Participatory Web examines the impact of these new technologies on political organizing and protest across the political spectrum, from the Arab Spring to artists to far-right groups. Linking new information and communication technologies to possibilities for solidarity and action-as well as surveillance and control-in a context of global capital flow, war, and environmental crisis, the contributors to this volume provide nuanced analyses of the dramatic transformations in media, citizenship, and social movements taking place today.

Cyberactivism already has a rich history, but over the past decade the participatory web-with its de-centralized information/media sharing, portability, storage capacity, and user-generated content-has reshaped political and social change. This volume examines the impact these new digital technologies are having on political organizing and protest across the political spectrum, from the Arab Spring to artists to far-right groups. Contributors to this volume offer sophisticated case studies from science and technology studies, the digital humanities, communication studies, and the social sciences, examining recent developments such as the use geo-spatial software on mobile devices; the role of social media in recent democratic movements in the Middle East; the role of new media in the global environmental justice movement; and the significance of the convergence culture in which we now find ourselves.

The internet played a central role in some of the most memorable instances of contemporary political activism. On-line information sites enabled more than 70,000 protestors to come together to take on the World Trade Organization at the "Battle of Seattle" in 1999; similar ad-hoc groups were assembled at the April 2000 World Bank protests in Washington, D.C., at George W. Bush's inauguration, and most recently at the World Economic Forum in New York. Cyberactivism examines the growing importance of on-line activism. The contributors show how online activists have used new technologies as a tool for change, and how they have given new meaning to terms such as 'activism' and 'community'. Topics addressed include the Mexican Zapatista movement's use of the web to promote their cause globally, and the activities of 'hacktivists' who disrupt commercial computer websites.

An examination of women's self-defense culture and its relationship to feminism.

I was once a frightened feminist. So begins Martha McCaughey's odyssey into the dynamic world of women's self- defense, a culture which transforms women involved with it and which has equally profound implications for feminist theory and activism.

Unprecedented numbers of American women are learning how to knock out, maim, even kill men who assault them. Sales of mace and pepper spray have skyrocketed. Some 14 million women own handguns. From behind the scenes at gun ranges, martial arts dojos, fitness centers offering Cardio Combat, and in padded attacker courses like Model Mugging, Real Knockouts demonstrates how self-defense trains women out of the femininity that makes them easy targets for men's abuse.

And yet much feminist thought, like the broader American culture, seems deeply ambivalent about women's embrace of violence, even in self-defense. Investigating the connection between feminist theory and women physically fighting back, McCaughey found self-defense culture to embody, literally, a new brand of feminism.

An examination of women's self-defense culture and its relationship to feminism.

I was once a frightened feminist. So begins Martha McCaughey's odyssey into the dynamic world of women's self- defense, a culture which transforms women involved with it and which has equally profound implications for feminist theory and activism.

Unprecedented numbers of American women are learning how to knock out, maim, even kill men who assault them. Sales of mace and pepper spray have skyrocketed. Some 14 million women own handguns. From behind the scenes at gun ranges, martial arts dojos, fitness centers offering Cardio Combat, and in padded attacker courses like Model Mugging, Real Knockouts demonstrates how self-defense trains women out of the femininity that makes them easy targets for men's abuse.

And yet much feminist thought, like the broader American culture, seems deeply ambivalent about women's embrace of violence, even in self-defense. Investigating the connection between feminist theory and women physically fighting back, McCaughey found self-defense culture to embody, literally, a new brand of feminism.

When Thelma and Louise outfought the men who had tormented them, women across America discovered what male fans of action movies have long known--the empowering rush of movie violence. Yet the duo's escapades also provoked censure across a wide range of viewers, from conservatives who felt threatened by the up-ending of women's traditional roles to feminists who saw the pair's use of male-style violence as yet another instance of women's co-option by the patriarchy.

In the first book-length study of violent women in movies, Reel Knockouts makes feminist sense of violent women in films from Hollywood to Hong Kong, from top-grossing to direct-to-video, and from cop-action movies to X-rated skin flicks. Contributors from a variety of disciplines analyze violent women's respective places in the history of cinema, in the lives of viewers, and in the feminist response to male violence against women. The essays in part one, "Genre Films," turn to film cycles in which violent women have routinely appeared. The essays in part two, "New Bonds and New Communities," analyze movies singly or in pairs to determine how women's movie brutality fosters solidarity amongst the characters or their audiences. All of the contributions look at films not simply in terms of whether they properly represent women or feminist principles, but also as texts with social contexts and possible uses in the re-construction of masculinity and femininity.