Jezebel brings its brand of feminism to the Grove tonight

By Carolyn Kellogg

Nov. 6, 2013 10:23 AM PT

Often witty, sometimes righteous, and occasionally furious, the blog Jezebel has been a high-profile platform for a new generation of feminists since 2007. Part of the Gawker media blog empire, Jezebel put feminist critiques of our still-very-critique-able culture smack into the center of the mainstream.

Now it has moved into print, with “The Book of Jezebel.” The book’s editor and website’s founding editor Anna Holmes, who did her time working at glossy, non-feminist magazines before beginning Jezebel, will be at Barnes & Noble at the Grove on Wednesday night with current editor Jessica Coen and contributors Jill Soloway, Ann Friedman and Amanda Hess to talk about the book.

Like books from The Onion and “The Daily Show,” “The Book of Jezebel” is a reference volume that’s full of slant. It’s an illustrated encyclopedia of things that interest, obsess, and are otherwise on the minds of the women behind the site. Here’s a sample:

Cullen, Edward
Vampire character from “Twilight” who sparkles in the sunshine and drives a BMW. Though he has the face (and body) of a teenage boy, he’s over one hundred years old, digs high school girls, and doesn’t believe in premarital sex. Nope, not creepy at all. (See also twilight)

Dickinson, Emily (1830–1886)
Nineteenth-century poet and one of the most important voices in American literature. Long regarded as a nunnish recluse with little contact with the outside world until Brenda Wineapple’s 2008 biography offered an alternate view of the New Englander as a flirtatious, active, engaged letter-writer.....

Gilbert, Elizabeth (1969–)
Writer. Bestselling eater, prayer, lover, and author of several books. Portrayed on-screen by Julia Roberts in the film version of her hugely popular 2006 memoir “Eat, Pray, Love.” Alternately hailed as an inspiring writer and the worst kind of first-world whiner, Gilbert has inspired numerous pilgrimages, with varying results. (It’s hard for any single woman to travel abroad nowadays without a disclaimer that her journey has nothing to do with spiritual self-discovery or the pursuit of a book deal.)

loudmouth
Woman with opinions.

March, Jo
Second eldest of the four sisters whose lives are chronicled in Louisa May Alcott’s classic 1868 novel “Little Women.” Strong-willed, tomboyish, and creative and perhaps the most beloved of the sisters, aspiring writer Jo is outspoken against injustice and refuses to bend to the norms of the time, even rejecting the marriage proposal of the family’s handsome and wealthy neighbor Laurie in favor of the poor but kind professor Friedrich Bhaer. The character of Jo is generally accepted to be a reflection of Alcott herself or, at the very least, a reflection of the woman Alcott yearned to be, and a representation of the evolving standard of girlhood in the late 1800s. (See also alcott, louisa may)

patriarchy
Smash it.

The women of Jezebel are scheduled to start the conversation at Barnes and Noble at the Grove on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

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