Jessa Crispin: Why I Am Not a Feminist

Jessa Crispin has made her name as a contrarian.

Founder of the uncompromising review blog Bookslut and editor of literary magazine Spoila, she’s railed against comfortable consensus in American publishing, burning bridges and throwing grenades at holy grails. Crispin fights on the side of literary ambition, experimentation, rigour and intellectual independence.

Her new book, by its very name, is a provocation. It’s called Why I Am Not a Feminist and it’s a spiky, scholarly critique of the compromises inherent in American feminism today. Crispin reveres unfashionable, radical Second Wave feminist writers and believes contemporary mainstream feminism has sold women out for something banal, corporate, unimaginative and exclusive. Why I Am Not a Feminist imagines a new kind of feminism and calls for upheaval.

Join this razor-sharp polemicist in an idea-rich conversation with Celeste Liddle, recorded on International Women's Day 2017. Following a short presentation from Crispin, the pair discuss representation, the Second Wave, sexuality, ageism, beauty and much more.