Jessica Valenti

In April 2004, Valenti co-founded Feministing with her sister and a friend while she was working at the National Organization for Women's legal defense fund (now Legal Momentum).[11][12][13] Homa Khaleeli writes in The Guardian's top 100 women that the site shifted the feminist movement online, triggering the creation of blogs and discussion groups, creating a heyday for feminism just as its death was being announced, as Khaleeli puts it. She writes that Valenti "felt the full force of being a pioneer," her involvement with the site attracting online abuse, even threats of rape and death.[14]

Kymberly Blackstock included Feministing in her review of feminist blogs, praising them for being "successful in giving a new generation the chance to engage with as well as begin to direct which topics will rise to the top of the feminist agenda". While she criticized Valenti for the blog's lack of involvement in global issues. She also writes that blogs like Feministing are helpful in encouraging activism in young people, and allow them to see current events with a feminist lens.[15]

University of Wisconsin–Madison law professor Ann Althouse criticized Feministing in 2006 for its sometimes sexualized content. Erin Matson of the National Organization for Women's Young Feminist Task Force told The Huffington Post the controversy was "a rehashing of a very old debate within the feminist community: is public sexuality empowering or harmful to women?"[16]

Valenti left the site in February 2011, saying she wanted it to remain a place for younger feminists.[17]

In 2007, Valenti wrote Full Frontal Feminism, where she discusses the ways in which readers can benefit from being feminists.[18]

In 2008, Valenti published He's a Stud, She's a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know.[19]

In 2008, Valenti was the co-editor of Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and A World Without Rape with Jaclyn Friedman. The anthology featured a foreword by comedian Margaret Cho.

In 2009, Valenti published (via Seal Press) The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women, about the way ideals about women's sexuality are being used to weaken women's rights.[1] A documentary film based on the book, called The Purity Myth, was released in 2011 by the Media Education Foundation.[20]

In 2012, Valenti published Why Have Kids? A New Mom Explores the Truth About Parenting and Happiness.[21][22][23]

In 2016, Valenti published Sex Object: A Memoir with the Dey Street imprint of Morrow.[24][25][26] The book was a memoir, a departure from Valenti's prior books.[27][28]

Also in 2016, one of the Podesta emails mentions, alongside Valenti's name, a column she was writing for The Guardian.[29][30][31][32][33]

In 2020, Valenti was the co-editor of the anthology Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World with Jaclyn Friedman.

Valenti's writing has appeared in Diane Mapes' Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness (2007), Melody Berger's We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists (2008), and Courtney E. Martin and J. Courtney Sullivan's book, Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists (2010).

Her work has appeared in Ms., The Washington Post, AlterNet, as well as other publications. Valenti wrote for The Nation from 2008 to 2014.[34] Since 2014, Valenti has written regularly for The Guardian, where she is a columnist.[3] She also writes a Substack newsletter, Abortion, Every Day, about abortion laws after the overturning of Roe v. Wade.[35]

• Valenti, Jessica (2007). Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. ISBN 978-0-7867-5048-1. OCLC 885208868.
• Valenti, Jessica (2008). He's a Stud, She's a Slut, and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. ISBN 978-0-7867-5049-8. OCLC 693762010.
• Cho, Margaret (foreword by) (2008). Friedman, Jaclyn; Valenti, Jessica (eds.). Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. ISBN 978-0-7867-2705-6. OCLC 537193942.
• Valenti, Jessica (2009). The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with Virginity Is Hurting Young Women. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. ISBN 978-0-7867-4466-4. OCLC 435970405.
• Valenti, Jessica (2012). Why Have Kids?: A New Mom Explores the Truth about Parenting and Happiness. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-0-5478-9261-0. OCLC 785865777.
  • Valenti, Jessica (September 19, 2012). "Not Wanting Kids Is Entirely Normal". The Atlantic. – excerpt
• Valenti, Jessica (2016). Sex Object: A Memoir. New York, NY: Dey Street Books. ISBN 978-0-0624-3508-8. OCLC 991056136.
  • Valenti, Jessica (May 28, 2016). "Jessica Valenti: my life as a 'sex object'". The Guardian. – extract
• Valenti, Jessica; Friedman, Jaclyn (2020). Valenti, Jessica; Friedman, Jaclyn (eds.). Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. New York, NY: Seal Press. ISBN 9781580058797.

• Valenti, Jessica (2007). "The Taming of the Threw". In Mapes, Diane (ed.). Single State of the Union: Single Women Speak Out on Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Happiness. Seal Press. ISBN 978-1-5800-5202-3. OCLC 76897638.
• Valenti, Jessica (2008). "You're a Feminist. Deal". In Melody, Berger (ed.). We Don't Need Another Wave: Dispatches from the Next Generation of Feminists. Seal Press. pp. 23–27. ISBN 978-0-7867-5088-7. OCLC 834136882.
• Valenti, Jessica; Cho, Margaret (foreword by) (2008). "Purely Rape: The Myth of Sexual Purity and How It Reinforces Rape Culture". In Friedman, Jaclyn; Valenti, Jessica (eds.). Yes Means Yes!: Visions of Female Sexual Power & a World Without Rape. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. pp. 299–304. ISBN 978-0-7867-2705-6. OCLC 537193942.
• Valenti, Jessica (2010). "I Was an Obnoxious Teenage Feminist". In Martin, Courtney E.; Sullivan, J. Courtney (eds.). Click: When We Knew We Were Feminists. Berkeley, CA: Seal Press. pp. 215–218. ISBN 978-1-5800-5285-6. OCLC 748361770.
• Valenti, Jessica; Friedman, Jaclyn (2020). Valenti, Jessica; Friedman, Jaclyn (eds.). Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change the World. New York, NY: Seal Press. ISBN 9781580058797.

• Valenti, Jessica (February 7, 2006). "Losing Our Feminist Leaders". AlterNet.
• Valenti, Jessica (April 5, 2007). "How the web became a sexists' paradise". The Guardian.
• Valenti, Jessica (March 6, 2008). "The Sisterhood Split". The Nation. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
• Valenti, Jessica (February 21, 2010). "For women in America, equality is still an illusion". The Washington Post.
• Valenti, Jessica (May 30, 2010). "Opinion: The fake feminism of Sarah Palin". The Washington Post.
• Valenti, Jessica (June 3, 2011). "Opinion: SlutWalks and the future of feminism". The Washington Post.
• Valenti, Jessica (November 29, 2012). "She Who Dies With the Most 'Likes' Wins?". The Nation. Archived from the original on November 7, 2019. Retrieved April 2, 2018.
• Valenti, Jessica (January 4, 2013). "America's Rape Problem: We Refuse to Admit That There Is One". The Nation.
• Valenti, Jessica (October 3, 2014). "'Our daughter is dead. We're the surviving victims': rape, bullying and suicide, after a viral flood". The Guardian.
• Valenti, Jessica (June 4, 2016). "Opinion: What Does a Lifetime of Leers Do to Us?". The New York Times.
• Valenti, Jessica (March 28, 2018). "On The Atlantic, Jeffrey Goldberg, and hiring men who want women dead". Medium.
• Valenti, Jessica (July 31, 2020). "The Pandemic Isn't Forcing Moms Out of the Workforce - Dads Are". Medium.
• Valenti, Jessica (July 23, 2020). "Why Men Won't Apologize". Medium.

• The Purity Myth (Short documentary). Northampton, MA: Media Education Foundation. 2011. ISBN 978-1-9328-6956-9. OCLC 978241817. – Based on Valenti's book and features Valenti
• Valenti, Jessica (foreword by) (2012). Barcella, Laura (ed.). Madonna & Me: Women Writers on the Queen of Pop. Berkeley, CA: Soft Skull Press. ISBN 978-1-5937-6429-6. OCLC 746834433.