Amanda R. Martinez – författare

What did gay men do in women’s liberation—and vice-versa? This book offers the first systematic investigation of the question. Conventional wisdom has offered varied and contradictory stories: Gay men were misogynistic enemies of feminism; feminist women were homophobic or androphobic; feminist women and gay men collaborated only during the 1960s-1970s liberation moment; lesbians rushed in to work with gay men during the AIDS crisis. Examined for the first time in this book, their stories are much more complex, yesterday and today. Feminist women and gay men have had dynamic relations in popular thinking and historic practice, including commonality, opposition, and intellectual contributions. Written by a feminist-identified gay man, this book forges an examination of these two groups’ alliances and obstacles over the past 50 years, as well as their communications of, between, and about each other. What have been the received views of how these groups have or have not worked together politically? What historical evidence supports, contradicts, or complicates these views? New findings help illuminate understandings of the past and present of US women’s and LGBTQ movements, as well as broader relations between social movements in general. With a special focus on neglected areas of research, such as the US South, it also argues for how these social movements shaped ideas about what it means to be gay and/or feminist. This book is suitable in whole or excerpt for classes in LGBTQ studies, women’s studies, feminist theory, social movements, American studies, and US history.

What did gay men do in women’s liberation—and vice-versa? This book offers the first systematic investigation of the question. Conventional wisdom has offered varied and contradictory stories: Gay men were misogynistic enemies of feminism; feminist women were homophobic or androphobic; feminist women and gay men collaborated only during the 1960s-1970s liberation moment; lesbians rushed in to work with gay men during the AIDS crisis. Examined for the first time in this book, their stories are much more complex, yesterday and today. Feminist women and gay men have had dynamic relations in popular thinking and historic practice, including commonality, opposition, and intellectual contributions. Written by a feminist-identified gay man, this book forges an examination of these two groups’ alliances and obstacles over the past 50 years, as well as their communications of, between, and about each other. What have been the received views of how these groups have or have not worked together politically? What historical evidence supports, contradicts, or complicates these views? New findings help illuminate understandings of the past and present of US women’s and LGBTQ movements, as well as broader relations between social movements in general. With a special focus on neglected areas of research, such as the US South, it also argues for how these social movements shaped ideas about what it means to be gay and/or feminist. This book is suitable in whole or excerpt for classes in LGBTQ studies, women’s studies, feminist theory, social movements, American studies, and US history.

The first book to examine nostalgia in all its facets: what triggers it; how it shapes mind, memory, and identity; and how it provides sustaining mental resilience for both individuals and cultures in times of stress. Far more than simply a sentimental attachment to the past, nostalgia has proven to be an emotion that has a profound cognitive and social function: it is a critical part of the mind’s immune system, a coping mechanism to heal and fortify ourselves in times of self-doubt and anxiety. It has also proven to be universal, across age, gender, and culture.   Underpinning the book is cutting-edge research on the emerging science of nostalgia that top neuroscientists and psychologists have conducted over the past few years, with findings that are completely unexpected. The world-class scientists at the forefront of this research have welcomed Martinez into their labs and shared both their findings and their personal stories. The head of the Mind and Brain Center at UC Davis even made her the subject of a first-ever experiment in the power of music to shape identity.  But the research goes deeper, suggesting that revisiting our fondest, restorative memories - our personal golden age - is fundamental to how we give our lives meaning and come to reconcile our purpose in the larger world.   In the larger world, a wave of nostalgia has taken hold as a positive cultural phenomenon. On every continent, the author met people who shared anecdotes of their own golden age and she found nostalgia playing out in some wondrous ways. She toured with a Grateful Dead tribute band followed by thousands of fans; dined at a theme restaurant in Beijing, where patrons sit at old-fashioned schoolroom desks and “take” the menu as a multiple-choice test; and discovered that the new hot commodity in Germany is a junker of a car produced on the cheap during WWII and generally reviled at that time. She also looks to the future, to consider the impact of technology on the ways in which we “store” memories, digitized rather than recalled.   The book also contains a fascinating section in which the author traces the destructive and increasingly global exploitation of nostalgia by charismatic demagogues who invoke an invented golden age for political purposes. Our reliance on nostalgia as a healing mechanism makes us uniquely vulnerable to politicians like the authoritarian leaders of Hungary and Poland, playing on the golden image of a “simpler” life in the past, or, Donald Trump, busy making America great again, or, both right-wing Tory leaders like Jacob Rees-Mogg and left-wing leaders like Jeremy Corbyn, who are each selling different forms of nostalgia to pursue their political agendas. Martinez explores this phenomenon, which has long historical roots.  

The first book to examine nostalgia in all its facets: what triggers it; how it shapes mind, memory, and identity; and how it provides sustaining mental resilience for both individuals and cultures in times of stress. Far more than simply a sentimental attachment to the past, nostalgia has proven to be an emotion that has a profound cognitive and social function: it is a critical part of the mind’s immune system, a coping mechanism to heal and fortify ourselves in times of self-doubt and anxiety. It has also proven to be universal, across age, gender, and culture.   Underpinning the book is cutting-edge research on the emerging science of nostalgia that top neuroscientists and psychologists have conducted over the past few years, with findings that are completely unexpected. The world-class scientists at the forefront of this research have welcomed Martinez into their labs and shared both their findings and their personal stories. The head of the Mind and Brain Center at UC Davis even made her the subject of a first-ever experiment in the power of music to shape identity.  But the research goes deeper, suggesting that revisiting our fondest, restorative memories - our personal golden age - is fundamental to how we give our lives meaning and come to reconcile our purpose in the larger world.   In the larger world, a wave of nostalgia has taken hold as a positive cultural phenomenon. On every continent, the author met people who shared anecdotes of their own golden age and she found nostalgia playing out in some wondrous ways. She toured with a Grateful Dead tribute band followed by thousands of fans; dined at a theme restaurant in Beijing, where patrons sit at old-fashioned schoolroom desks and “take” the menu as a multiple-choice test; and discovered that the new hot commodity in Germany is a junker of a car produced on the cheap during WWII and generally reviled at that time. She also looks to the future, to consider the impact of technology on the ways in which we “store” memories, digitized rather than recalled.   The book also contains a fascinating section in which the author traces the destructive and increasingly global exploitation of nostalgia by charismatic demagogues who invoke an invented golden age for political purposes. Our reliance on nostalgia as a healing mechanism makes us uniquely vulnerable to politicians like the authoritarian leaders of Hungary and Poland, playing on the golden image of a “simpler” life in the past, or, Donald Trump, busy making America great again, or, both right-wing Tory leaders like Jacob Rees-Mogg and left-wing leaders like Jeremy Corbyn, who are each selling different forms of nostalgia to pursue their political agendas. Martinez explores this phenomenon, which has long historical roots.  

Gender in a Transitional Era addresses a range of issues relevant in current gender and sexuality studies scholarship which span many disciplines. The contributors prioritize the critical thinking that continues to support the notion that we, as a society, still have a ways to go toward full gender equality in all spheres of life. This collection positions marginal voices at the center of complex gender issues in today’s society. Broad thematic topic areas include parental identities, advice, and self-help; gender performances and role expectations in media; interacting within organizational and social spaces; and tensions and negotiations on politics, health, and feminisms. Though there is still much work to be done concerning an array of gender equality issues, scholars in this collection interrogate a transitional era of gender in which changes are evident, yet challenges persist.

Latina/o/x Communication Studies: Theories, Methods, and Practice spotlights contemporary Latina/o/x Communication Studies research in various theoretical, methodological, and academic contexts. Leandra H. Hernández, Diana I. Bowen, Sara De Los Santos Upton, and Amanda R. Martinez have assembled a collection of case studies that focus on health, media, rhetoric, identity, organizations, the environment, and academia. Contributors expand upon previous Latina/o/x Communication Studies scholarship by examining identity and academic experiences in our current political climate; the role of language, identity, and Latinidades in health and media contexts; and the role of social activism in rhetorical, environmental, organizational, and border studies contexts. Scholars of communication, Latin American Studies, rhetoric, and sociology will find this book particularly useful.

This book illuminates the rhetorical work performed by contemporary representations of a specific type of postfeminist hero who has garnered a lot of cultural capital: women who are smart, capable, physically agile and fit, and proficient with weaponry and technology. Employing critical/cultural and feminist approaches, Heather Hundley, Roberta Chevrette, and Hillary Jones engage with a range of theories including intersectionality, critical race theory, postmodernism, and posthumanism to examine a range of contemporary texts, including Kill Bill, Volumes I and II; The Hunger Games films; Wonder Woman; Atomic Blonde; Proud Mary; The Bionic Woman; Deus Ex; Dark Matter; and Caprica. Contributing to a robust existing conversation about postfeminist media as well as tracing how representation has changed in recent years, Hundley, Chevrette, and Jones contend that portrayals of dangerous dames offer limitations and opportunities for audiences. Specifically, should audiences read these characters as evidence of a postfeminist apocalypse, they may heed warnings of the limited interpretations offered. Yet as more women serve as role models and gain public attention, particularly regarding their assets and abilities, they provide important equipment for living for navigating around patriarchal constraints raised by postfeminism, neoliberalism, and humanism.