Jessica Valenti

Jessica Valenti (born November 1, 1978) is an American blogger and feminist writer, founder of the Feministing blog in 2004. She is the author or co-author of six books on women's issues: Full Frontal Feminism (2007),^{[lower-alpha 1]} Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape (2008) with Jaclyn Friedman,^{[lower-alpha 2]} He's a Stud, She's a Slut (2008),^{[lower-alpha 3]} The Purity Myth (2009),^{[lower-alpha 4]} Why Have Kids (2012),^{[lower-alpha 5]} and Sex Object: A Memoir (2016).^{[lower-alpha 6]}

Her work has appeared in Ms.,^[3] The Nation,^{[lower-roman 1]} The Washington Post,^{[lower-roman 2][lower-roman 3]} TPMCafe,^{[lower-roman 4]} Alternet^{[lower-roman 5]} and The Guardian.^{[lower-roman 6]} In 2011, The Guardian, where Valenti works as a daily columnist, named her as one of their "top 100 women" for her work to bring the feminist movement online.^[4]

Background

Jessica Valenti in 2007

Valenti was raised in Long Island City, Queens in an Italian American family. Her father was a Buddhist. Valenti graduated from Stuyvesant High School.^{[lower-greek 1]} She received her master's degree in Women's and Gender Studies from Rutgers University.^{[lower-greek 2]} On October 3, 2009, she married Andrew Golis, the deputy publisher of Talking Points Memo.^[2]

Writing and blogging

Valenti founded Feministing in 2004,^{[lower-greek 3]} while she was working at the National Organization for Women's legal defense fund (now Legal Momentum)^{[lower-greek 3]} Homa Khaleeli writes in The Guardian's top 100 women that the site shifted the feminist movement online, triggering the creation of blogs and discussion groups, creating a heyday for feminism just as its death was being announced, as Khaleeli puts it. She writes that Valenti "felt the full force of being a pioneer," her involvement with the site attracting online abuse, even threats of rape and death.^[4]

Kymberly Blackstock included Feministing in her review of feminist blogs, praising them for being "successful in giving a new generation the chance to engage with as well as begin to direct which topics will rise to the top of the feminist agenda". While she criticized Valenti for the blog's lack of involment in global issues. She also writes that blogs like Feministing are helpful in encouraging activism in young people, and allow them to see current events with a feminist lens.^[5]

University of Wisconsin–Madison law professor Ann Althouse criticized Feministing in 2006 for its sometimes sexualized content. Erin Matson of the National Organization for Women's Young Feminist Task Force told The Huffington Post the controversy was "a rehashing of a very old debate within the feminist community: is public sexuality empowering or harmful to women?"^[6]

Valenti decided to leave the site in February 2011, saying she wanted it to remain a place for younger feminists.^[7] Before this, she had been a contributing author to Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan's books Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists (2010),^{[lower-alpha 7]} Melody Berger's We Don't Need Another Wave (2008)^{[lower-alpha 8]} and Diane Mapes's Single State of the Union (2007).^{[lower-alpha 9]}

In 2007, Valenti wrote "Full Frontal Feminism", where she discusses the ways in which readers can benefit from being feminists. Melinda Lewism, of the University of Kansas notes how the book "gives women the license to feel great and do amazing things". She also compliments her in the way she presents feminism as accessible to men and women.^[8] In 2014 a second edition of the book was published that included a new foreword.^[9]

Valenti authored and self-published "The Purity Myth" in 2009 about the way ideals about women's sexuality are being used to weaken women's rights. A documentary film based on the book was released in 2011.^[10] The book also won Valenti an Independent Publisher Award.^[11]

In 2008 she co-authored a Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape with Jaclyn Friedman, in 2012 she published Why Have Kids, and in 2016 she published Sex Object: A Memoir.

In the October 2016 Wikileaks release of John Podesta emails, it was revealed that the Hillary Clinton campaign had said they were working with Valenti to write a post criticizing Bernie Sanders in his primary campaign against Clinton.^[12] Days later, Valenti began publishing anti-Sanders op-eds in her column in The Guardian, the first being titled "Bernie Sanders must deliver more than platitudes about abortion."^[13][14] In response to the email leaks, Valenti issued a statement saying there had not been collusion, stating: "Like many reporters, I talk to campaign officials but don't coordinate with them."^[13]

Cyberbullying

Valenti has been the target of online threats throughout her career. In a 2006 blog article by The Huffington Post, Liz Funks wrote about the small controversy that generated attacks toward Valenti, after being invited to a luncheon with former President Bill Clinton for bloggers like herself when she was still part of feministing.com. There, she took a group picture, which was subsequently criticized by commenters online due to her outfit. Valenti defended herself in a separate post calling out commenters for focusing on her outfit since she was a young woman.^[6]

In July 2016 Valenti announced she was taking a break from social media after receiving rape and death threats aimed at her 5-year-old daughter. In a tweet on July 27, 2016 Valenti recalled the event and denounced it as an unacceptable part of her job. Immediately after that Valenti made her Instagram account private.^[15][16]

Works

Books

Interviews

Contributions to websites

References

External links

• Official website