Bitch Doctrine

"An invaluable case for truth-telling in an age of chaos and lies." --Emily Nussbaum "[Penny] bravely keeps thinking and talking and learning and trying to make the world better." --Caitlin Moran Smart and provocative, witty and uncompromising, this collection of Laurie Penny's celebrated essays establishes her as one of the most important and vibrant political voices of our time. Bitch Doctrine takes an unflinching look at the definitive issues of our age, from the shock of Donald Trump's election and the victories of the far right to online harassment and the transgender rights movement. Penny is lyrical and passionate in her desire to confront injustice, and she's writing at the raw edge of a revolution-hungry zeitgeist, a time when it has never been more vital to actively question and fiercely dispute all forms of complacency, including social norms. This darkly comic, often biting yet empathic, revelatory collection will inform, challenge, and engage, and give readers hope and tools for change.

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018 'A blast, in all senses' Financial Times Includes a new preface and extra essays Smart and provocative, this collection of Laurie Penny's writing establishes her as one of the most urgent and vibrant feminist voices of our time. From the shock of Donald Trump's election and the victories of the far right, to online harassment and the transgender rights movement, these darkly humorous observations provoke challenging conversations about the definitive social issues of today. Featuring a new preface and nine new revelatory, revolutionary essays, Bitch Doctrine will give readers tools for change from one of today's boldest commentators.

In Nazi Germany, Hitler portrayed the Jews as vermin and six million people were killed. Metaphors can make the unreasonable seem reasonable, the illegitimate appear legitimate, and good people turn evil. Top speechwriter Simon Lancaster goes on a mission to explore how metaphors are used and abused today. From Washington to Westminster, Silicon Valley to Syria, Glastonbury to Grenfell, he discovers the same images being used repeatedly. Scum! Bitch! Vegetable! Whilst vulnerable groups are dehumanised, the powerful are hailed as stars, angels or even gods. Prepare to take a journey into the surreal. This book raises profound questions about the power of language and the language of power. You will never think about words in the same way again.

"A fresh feminist appraisal of the pop culture canon." —Publishers Weekly How bitches, trainwrecks, shrews, and crazy women have taken over pop culture and liberated women from having to be nice. Female characters throughout history have been burdened by the moral trap that is likeability. Any woman who dares to reveal her messy side has been treated as a cautionary tale. Today, unlikeable female characters are everywhere in film, TV, and wider pop culture. For the first time ever, they are being accepted by audiences and even showered with industry awards. We are finally accepting that women are—gasp—fully fledged human beings. How did we get to this point? Unlikeable Female Characters traces the evolution of highly memorable female characters, examining what exactly makes them popular, how audiences have reacted to them, and the ways in which pop culture is finally allowing us to celebrate the complexities of being a woman. Anna Bogutskaya, film programmer, broadcaster, and co-founder of the horror film collective and podcast The Final Girls, takes us on a journey through popular film, TV, and music, looking at the nuances of womanhood on and off-screen to reveal whether pop culture—and society—is finally ready to embrace complicated women. Praise for Unlikeable Female Characters: "Fascinating, insightful, and kick-ass." —Emma Jane Unsworth, internationally bestselling author of Grown Ups and Animals "Beautifully written." —Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger "Part-cultural exposé, part-Taylor Swift album." —Clarisse Loughrey, Chief Film Critic at The Independent "Brilliant masterpiece breaking down the tired tropes of TV and beyond." —Aparna Shewakramani, author of She's Unlikeable and star of Indian Matchmaking

US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy doctrine is the subject of vast debate. Analysts and practitioners routinely disagree as to what ideology and thinking informed his foreign policy approach – and even whether Trump was politically capable of formulating a doctrine at all. This book explores one specific line of analysis, which deals with the concept of what has been termed the ‘doctrine of unpredictability’. Trump has repeatedly declared that being unpredictable comprises the ideal approach to foreign policy for a state leader. Never be predictable; never let others know what you will do next. The contributors to this volume consider whether a conception of unpredictability did inform Trump’s foreign policy as a coherent doctrine. Yet this book also takes the issue further to problematize what the very concept of unpredictability means in respect to International Relations. What is unpredictability – and how does the concept apply in respect to Trump especially? What impact does unpredictability have on international relationships? How far does unpredictability deviate from previous approaches to foreign policy, not least Madman Theory? And is it even possible to understand the idea of unpredictability fully within a discipline that is more typically committed to comprehending certainty in respect to international politics? The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of Cambridge Review of International Affairs.

Television is entering a unique era, in which women and minorities no longer serve under white captains but take the lead--and all the other roles as well. In a brilliant new universe where the intersectional values of fourth wave feminism are becoming more widespread, fantasy and science fiction are leading the charge. Shows from Star Wars to Doctor Who are rewriting their traditional storylines to include more well-rounded and racially diverse female characters. Steven Universe, DC's Legends of Tomorrow, Orphan Black and Sense8 highlight queer characters and experiences. Dystopias like Marvel's Jessica Jones and The Handmaid's Tale show the female perspective entirely, guiding viewers from trauma to self-determination. In fantasy and horror, Wynonna Earp, Game of Thrones, Supergirl, Vikings, American Horror Story, Black Mirror, and The Walking Dead reveal how much the story changes with a spectrum of women reclaiming the text from white, straight, young, cisgender men. These new shows are intersectional, digital, global, critical, and political, with fan responses changing the content and cutting-edge platforms like Netflix and Hulu shaking up the format.

“Luigi’s life of public service is not only impressive quantitatively; the quality of his contribution to the conduct of diplomacy in this Hemisphere has been outstanding, indeed historic.” Henry A. Kissinger

Gender has become a commodity. Today's economy trades in symbols and narratives as much as in objects. As such, gender can be bought and sold, produced as an object, and demands constant work. What makes the commodity object seem alien, mysterious, and even threatening, Marx tells us, is that the worker's social relations - his subjectivity - are taken away from him and stamped into the object which then appears to have a life of its own, disassociated and threatening. Gender Commodity argues that gender is a social relation made into such an alienated object. In today's situation of radical insecurity, people are reaching out and identifying with objects - including symbolic ones - that promise quite falsely that they grant stability, duration, and fulfillment, and gender has been made into one of those. Gender Commodity is an interdisciplinary study that brings literary studies into dialogue with the surrounding mediascape around issues of gender, culture, and economy. It also asks how the symbolic production of gender commodity at home informs an imagination of gender policy as it reaches out globally. As it criticizes gender-affirmative feminism for participating in the culture of the commodity, Gender Commodity also looks to feminism to imagine gender otherwise.