Maverick Feminist : To Be Female and Black in a Country Founded Upon Violence and Respectability

Bridging the gap between women in both the streets and the academy, Maverick Feminist expands the traditional understandings of activism and enlarges discussions about Black female sexuality. Swanson emphasizes sexuality''s significance to the literary and sociopolitical success of Black women of the past and in this contemporary climate. Through close readings and critical analyses of fiction, nonfiction, and popular culture, Swanson argues that #blackgirlmagic and racial progression require rejecting respectability politics and developing an intimate appreciation of self. Maverick Feminist examines texts by and about bold Black women, including Zora Neale Hurston''s Their Eyes Were Watching God, Sister Souljah''s The Coldest Winter Ever, Brittney Cooper''s Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower, Alice Walker''s The Color Purple, Sapphire''s PUSH, Roxane Gay''s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body, Terry McMillan''s Getting to Happy, and Michelle Obama''s Becoming.

Maverick Feminist offers hope concerning the growing divide between scholars and the communities about which they theorize. The book celebrates centuries of agency and control that Black women have mustered and maintained in a world that seems to want nothing more than to see them prone and powerless. Ultimately, maverick feminism provides a freer means of living out, evaluating, understanding, and improving the lives of Black women.