Why I Am Not a Feminist

Are you a feminist? Do you believe women are human beings and that they deserve all the same rights as men? If so, then you are a feminist . . .

Or are you? Is it really that simple? Outspoken cultural critic Jessa Crispin says somewhere along the way, the movement for female liberation sacrificed meaning for acceptance, and left us with a banal, polite, ineffectual pose that barely challenges the status quo.

In this bracing, fiercely intelligent manifesto, she demands more: nothing less than the total dismantling of the system of oppression—and of what people currently think of as “feminism.”

‘The author’s ferocious critique effectively reframes the terms of any serious discussion of feminism. You’ll never trust a you-go-girl just-lean-in bromide again. Forget busting glass ceilings. Crispin has taken a wrecking ball to the whole structure.’ —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

‘Feminists have, in fact, become polite insiders, and Crispin is here to show them how to punch their way out. A rallying manifesto; start swinging.’ —Library Journal

‘Rabble-rousing, impolitic, and eloquent, Why I Am Not a Feminist models the latitudes and freedoms it wants us all—us women, us feminists, us humans—to embody. Enough with the safety-mongering, says Crispin: Let’s break stuff! Let’s get messy! Let’s make feminism radical again.’ —Laura Kipnis, Men: Notes from an Ongoing Investigation

Jessa Crispin is the editor and founder of the online magazine Bookslut and the online literary journal Spolia. She is the author of The Dead Ladies Project and The Creative Tarot, and has written for numerous leading publications, including the New York Times, the Guardian, the Washington Post and others.