Abstract
Misogyny: The New Activism is a vibrant, practical conversation with feminist activists and those who wish to engage in feminist advocacy. It takes a conversational, illustrative, and evaluative approach to mapping the manifestation of misogyny in the context of the United States, in particular. Ukockis provides animated evaluation and commentary on how misogyny prompts the need for resilient feminist activism and movement building. In keeping with a conversational style that takes the reader easily through her text, she declares her core position, “thoughtful activism, not random actions, will help us to fight misogyny” (p. xvi). Ultimately, Ukockis makes a case for a continued commitment to feminist activism and crafts a text that functions as a handy how-to text for, as she puts it, “the positive, life-affirming women and men who live for hope” (p. 288).
Ukockis, in this second publication, focuses on women’s issues, expresses an engaging reflexivity, marking her motivations as steeped in her social work practice. Although she only introduces the reader to multiple concepts that explicate misogyny, the value of the text rests in her historicizing of the attitudes, values, and mechanisms that reproduce misogyny in American society and the demonstrative power of case studies inserted in each chapter, which elaborate the multiple examples used to clarify concepts. The author limits her scope to U.S. examples and takes an issues-based approach rather than a theory-based approach. In part, this focus leaves some concepts in need of more precise clarification. However, it also builds the basis of and provides the context for practical action by feminist activists.
The structure of the text is well summarized by Ukockis, “the first seven chapters describe the problem of misogyny, and the last three propose strategies” (p. 22). The reader will find motivating, Chapter 1, which invites feminist activists to self-reflection and establishes the relevance of misogyny in the contemporary world. Chapter 2, as the author explains, “proposes a framework for misogyny, which includes three levels: gender violence, hate speech, and mainstream culture” (p. 22). Ukockis explores the silencing of women as a manifestation of misogyny in Chapter 3, taking the reader through historical trends in media to tactics of representational politics, and reflects on how credibility is used as a criterion to grant or deny voice. She attends to the mediating power of intersectionality in Chapter 4 and the complex and complicating specter of toxic masculinity in Chapter 5, establishing in the latter how eleven masculine norms reproduce misogyny and resistances to its dismantling. Her consideration of enabling mechanisms of misogyny continues with her discussion of rape culture in Chapter 6 and of the politics of reproductive health in Chapter 7, elaborating the implications and consequences of both. Her final chapters, 8–10, reflect her calls to action to her target audience—reflexivity, action, and optimistic commitment. Ukockis reminds the reader of the necessary work needed to confront misogyny as she has mapped it in the United States. Here, her conversation with the reader becomes most direct and here she asserts her guidance.
Ukockis has designed a text for the reader who is driven to take action but in need of direction. Her summarized recommendations for action, gift for storytelling, and animated and frank commentary on events and trends, which manifest misogyny in the United States provide an easy guide for thoughtful activism.
