Feb. 18, 2011
Jessica Valenti, author of "He's a Stud, She's a Slut … and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know" is the featured speaker of the 2011 Leslie Williams Symposium and part of the Jane M. G. Foster Distinguished Lecture Series at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, March 1 in the main theater of the Vern Riffe Center for the Arts.
Valenti will speak on one of her influential books that discusses double standards women confront and how to combat them.
She is called the "poster girl for third-wave feminism" by Salon magazine and has written two other books, "Full Frontal Feminism: A Young Woman's Guide to Why Feminism Matters," and "The Purity Myth: How America's Obsession with virginity is Hurting Young Women" that is being made into a documentary by the Media Education Foundation. Valenti is also the founder of Feministing.com.
She has won a Choice USA Generation award and was featured as one of ELLE magazine's IntELLEgentsia. Valenti was also named one of Left's Top 25 Journalists by The Daily Beast and she has appeared on numerous television shows including "Today" and "The Colbert Report," among others.
She was profiled recently in The New York Times Magazine under the headline "Fourth Wave Feminism." She received her master's degree in Women's and Gender Studies from Rutgers University where she is a lecturer.
Valenti lives in Sunnyside, Queens, New York with her husband, Andrew Golis, editor of Blogs at Yahoo! News, daughter Layla, dog Monty, and cat Neidra.
The event is sponsored by the Women's Center at Shawnee State University. It is free and open to the public.