Feminist blogger Jessica Valenti's new book Full Frontal Feminism has a controversially betorsoed cover, which she justifies to New Yorkmag like so: "Let's face it, no young woman is going to pick up a book with the woman's symbol with a fist on it." Is that what books about feminism usually have on their covers, though? Let's look at some recently published ones.

Hm, well, Ariel Levy's Female Chauvinist Pigs had a hot-pink cover (toned down somewhat for the paperback edition) with a Playboy-esque lady silhouette, and Laura Kipnis's fall release The Female Thing had an even more vaginally suggestive cover—its title was positioned front and center on a fig leaf situated on top of some well-waxed lady's special place!

So why are people singling out Jessica as a tool of the patriarchy? Maybe it's because her book is the only one ballsy—sorry, ovariesy— enough to put "feminism" in its title, thereby making the disjunction between 'objectified female body' and 'females thinking about this imagery, repurposing its appeal' more obvious to the kind of 'tards who would have a problem with that? Just a thought.

Riot In Her Head [NYM]