Tough titties

Jessica Valenti, author of the new book "Full Frontal Feminism," discusses sex positivity, activism and boob flashing as a feminist statement.

By Rebecca Traister

Read more: Feminism, Rebecca Traister, Life

April 24, 2007 | As far as explosive signifiers go, there are few more combustible than the word "feminism." It was forged through suffrage and the ERA and Roe v. Wade, and has survived through first and second and third waves to the tunes of Helen Reddy and Ani DiFranco. Dogged by the image of a spectral harpy with hairy legs and an apocryphal burned bra in her hand, it has been declared dead, then resurrected, then declared dead again. But god bless it, there's life in feminism yet.

Salon readers may recognize the name Jessica Valenti; she has been an oft-quoted source and a contributor to this magazine. The 28-year-old New York native is the founder of 3-year-old Feministing.com, and arguably the most prominent young feminist online today. Her combination of brains, charisma and a willingness to mix it up with critics has already brought her attentions both flattering and horrifying.

This week brings Valenti's first book, the energetic "Full Frontal Feminism" (Seal Press), a scrappy ode to the movement to which she's dedicated herself, designed to win over young women she fervently believes are feminists but just don't know it yet.

"Full Frontal Feminism" is not your mother's "Our Bodies, Ourselves," unless your mom's copy was annotated with phrases like "I shit you not" and "Tell me that's not royally fucked up." (Which it might reasonably have been.) Valenti's message is very much of its time: She is trying to win over a population of women she believes might think to themselves, "I'm not a feminist, but it is total bullshit that Wal-Mart won't fill my birth control prescription."

"Full Frontal Feminism" takes the antiseptic (though invaluable) language of holding the hand mirror between your legs and spices it up; reading it can be a bit uncomfortable. Her book is not prescriptive, proper or particularly polite. But it also has little in common with the angry riot grrrl attitudes of 15 years ago. Instead, Valenti writes slangy, profane and disconcertingly funny prose. She's like the Fran Lebowitz of women's rights, wondering reasonably, "Who the hell wants their hymen back?" and surmising, "Whether we're married, single, gay, young, whatever -- we all want to have orgasms. Unless you're Alan Keyes, I guess."

And here is Valenti's quiz about feminism: "Do you think it's fair that a guy will make more money doing the same job as you? Does it piss you off and scare you when you find out about your friends getting raped? Do you ever feel like shit about your body? Do you ever feel like something is wrong with you because you don't fit into this bizarre ideal of what girls are supposed to be like? Well, my friend, I hate to break it to you, but you're a hardcore feminist. I swear."

"Full Frontal" is more like a one-woman show than a book. But it's an attention-getting and smart one-woman show, the kind of performance that could help catapult Valenti to a position of visibility with the swelling numbers of young people who seem finally to be stirring to political action.

Valenti talked to Salon about the tone of her book, the sticky arguments surrounding sex positivity, and her ever-thickening skin that, if she manages to tone it into a solid suit of armor, just might protect her on a journey to becoming feminism's newest spokeswoman.

Who are you trying to reach with this book?

It's for girls who are teenagers to early 20s. I think older people will pick it up as well, but it's mostly for younger women who aren't necessarily political and are probably a little afraid to call themselves feminists.

Have you encountered a lot of these women?

I encountered a lot of them growing up and being friends with them. I wrote the book because there are cool ways women can come to feminism. There have been women who stumbled across Feministing randomly, through a bizarre Google search or something, and had no idea what feminism was. They thought it was something older women do, or bought into the hairy bra-burning man-hating stereotype 100 percent. Anything that deviates from that is very exciting for them. I think younger women are feminists; they either don't have the language for it or are afraid to use the word.

Do you get mad when you hear the "I'm not a feminist, but..." line?

I don't anymore, because I feel like younger women are quick to realize it's not true once you talk to them. The reason they buy into the idea that they're not feminists is that anti-feminist myths are so pervasive, and I don't think feminists have been very good at combating them.

You write that the battles of the women's movement are not yet won. Which battles haven't been won?

On the top of my list is violence against women, and how almost expected it is that we're still having conversations about whether it's OK to rape someone because they're drunk. That's especially important for young women with drinking and college culture. But I think we're fighting a lot of the same battles that we were, about equal pay and reproductive rights. There's this attitude, "Yeah, we fought those battles," but there isn't really an awareness that we haven't won them.

Do you think young women are about to care a lot more about abortion in light of Wednesday's Supreme Court decision upholding the ban on "partial-birth" abortion?

I think most young women care about reproductive rights. There's this myth that they're not as aware of them as older women, or that they take them for granted, but I don't think that's true. What happened on Wednesday is rolling back reproductive rights, as are the challenges to getting contraception. Once you start telling women that they want to take away your birth control pills, too, then they definitely care even more.

Are you concerned that the profanity in your book might alienate some young women?

I'm trying to speak in a certain language. There's always a chance someone will be turned off by it, or will think it's undermining my message. But there's already mild stuff out there. I don't think I'm saying all that much that hasn't been said before, but it's the way I'm saying it that's different. We keep repeating the same messages over and over again in the same way, for good reason: Feminists are so used to backlash in the media that we like to stick to the same message. But we've been putting out the same press release for 30 years. We need to change a bit, even if changing it opens us up for more criticism.

Next page: Young women have enough people calling them stupid whores without feminists doing it too