F Bomb

Women are leading the fight against feminism and women's rights. The question is, why? From pop icons to working mothers, women are abandoning feminism in unprecedented numbers. Even scarier, they are also leading the charge to send it to its grave. Women head anti-feminist PR campaigns; they support anti-feminist politicians; they're behind more than 70 lawsuits across North America to silence the victims of campus rape; they participated in Gamergate, the violent, vitriolic anti-women-in-technology movement; and they're on the front lines of the fight to end reproductive rights. Everywhere we turn, there's evidence anti-feminist bombs have exploded, sometimes detonated by the unlikeliest suspects. Between women who say they don't need feminism and women who can't agree on what feminism should be, the challenges of fighting for gender equality have never been greater. F-Bomb takes readers on a witty, insightful, and deeply fascinating journey into today's anti-feminist universe as investigative journalist and feminist Lauren McKeon explores generational attitudes, debates over inclusiveness, and differing views on the intersection of race, class, and gender. She asks the uncomfortable question: If women aren't connecting with feminism, what's wrong with it? And she confronts the difficult truth: For gender equality to prevail, we first need to understand where feminism has gone wrong and where it can go from here. In a world where sexual harassment allegations regularly dominate news coverage and in which 53 percent of white women voted for Donald Trump, F-Bomb presents urgent and necessary discussion on women's lives today. This book is not authorized by and has no relationship to the WMC FBomb, an inclusive feminist blog that has been publishing since 2009. See www.womensmediacenter.com/fbomb.

We all know what frak, popularized by television's cult hit Battlestar Galactica, really means. But what about feck? Or ferkin? Or foul--as in FUBAR, or "Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition"? In a thoroughly updated edition of The F-Word, Jesse Sheidlower offers a rich, revealing look at the f-bomb and its illimitable uses. Since the fifteenth century, no other word has been adapted, interpreted, euphemized, censored, and shouted with as much ardor or force; imagine Dick Cheney telling Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy to "go damn himself" on the Senate floor--it doesn't have quite the same impact as what was really said. Sheidlower cites this and other notorious examples throughout history, from the satiric sixteenth-century poetry of James Cranstoun to the bawdy parodies of Lord Rochester in the seventeenth century, to more recent uses by Ernest Hemingway, Jack Kerouac, Ann Sexton, Norman Mailer, Liz Phair, Anthony Bourdain, Junot Diaz, Jenna Jameson, Amy Winehouse, Jon Stewart, and Bono (whose use of the word at the Grammys nearly got him fined by the FCC). Collectively, these references and the more than one hundred new entries they illustrate double the size of The F-Word since its previous edition. Thousands of added quotations come from newly available electronic databases and the resources of the OED, expanding the range of quotations to cover British, Canadian, Australian, New Zealand, Irish, and South African uses in addition to American ones. Thus we learn why a fugly must hone his or her sense of humor, why Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau muttered "fuddle duddle" in the Commons, and why Fanny Adams is so sweet. A fascinating introductory essay explores the word's history, reputation, and changing popularity over time. and a new Foreword by comedian, actor, and author Lewis Black offers readers a smart and entertaining take on the book and its subject matter. Oxford dictionaries have won renown for their expansive, historical approach to words and their etymologies. The F-Word offers all that and more in an entertaining and informative look at a word that, while now largely accepted as an integral part of the English language, still confounds, provokes, and scandalizes.

"Hilarious…This book charmed my socks off." —Patricia O’Conner, New York Times Book Review Mary Norris has spent more than three decades working in The New Yorker’s renowned copy department, helping to maintain its celebrated high standards. In Between You & Me, she brings her vast experience with grammar and usage, her good cheer and irreverence, and her finely sharpened pencils to help the rest of us in a boisterous language book as full of life as it is of practical advice. Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, Amazon, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal.

You murder a man, and all of a sudden people are scared of you. Slate Solis went from being a guy that people went to in times of need to an ex-con that people crossed the street to avoid being too close to. He knows he’s done wrong, but out of all of his sins, only one really bothers him—coveting thy neighbor’s wife. Harleigh Belle—the cute little lady that never gives him a second glance. After seeing her for the first time while he was in prison, she’s stayed on his mind for three long years. Each time she comes in to visit with her friend on family day, he can’t help but stare. Then the day comes that he’s set free, and he’s almost disappointed that he’ll never see her again. Except fate has different plans. He hasn’t been back in his house for more than three hours when he sees her. Harleigh Belle in all her glory...oh, and her husband that is everything Slate isn’t. He tells himself that her being fifty feet away from him, all day every day, is a complete coincidence. One that he shouldn’t take advantage of. The more time passes, the harder it gets to stay away. Until one day, and one very ill-timed thunderstorm, ruin everything. Who knew that baby-making-weather was a real thing?

An amusing, informative, controversial and utterly irreverent history of the world’s favourite word.

“We think of English as a fortress to be defended, but a better analogy is to think of English as a child. We love and nurture it into being, and once it gains gross motor skills, it starts going exactly where we don’t want it to go: it heads right for the goddamned electrical sockets.” With wit and irreverence, lexicographer Kory Stamper cracks open the obsessive world of dictionary writing, from the agonizing decisions about what to define and how to do it to the knotty questions of ever-changing word usage. Filled with fun facts—for example, the first documented usage of “OMG” was in a letter to Winston Churchill—and Stamper’s own stories from the linguistic front lines (including how she became America’s foremost “irregardless” apologist, despite loathing the word), Word by Word is an endlessly entertaining look at the wonderful complexities and eccentricities of the English language.

In the vein of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat comes a fascinating and fun look at the new science of bad language. Did you know that chimpanzees can swear? Or that we do most of our swearing in our first language? Have you ever noticed that swearing is an excellent painkiller? In delightfully fun and accessible language, backed by riveting historical case studies and the latest cutting-edge research, Dr. Emma Byrne explores the science behind swearing and why bad language might actually be good for us. Swearing, it turns out, is socially and emotionally essential. Not only has some form of swearing been around since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it has been shown to reduce physical pain, prevent violence, help stroke victims recover their language, and help people work together as a team. Swearing Is Good For You is a fascinating and fun look at the new science of bad language.