BREAKING FREE

This book makes the bold argument that "equality" is a racist, patriarchal ideal. It perpetuates women's systemic oppression and limits the possibilities of feminism, coupled with a plan to transform the feminist movement.

For more than a century, women have been fighting for equal rights and losing. Time and again, their battles for equality fall short, no matter the domain, no matter the issue. Even when "equality" is codified in the law, it is rarely, if ever, enforced. Yes, we can blame this failure on the policies that are full of loopholes, and on a justice system that is mechanically reliant on a biased bureaucracy. But the greater problem, the one that stands between women and true progress, is in the notion of equality itself.

In Breaking Free, Bianco persuasively argues that the very concept of equality is a fallacy, a misleading ideal that cannot and will not resolve historic forms of discrimination and oppression. With passion and precision, Bianco breaks down the fabricated structure of equality: Starting with the inception of the ERA and traveling through modern history, she shows us how equality is a patriarchal value designed to keep women and other disenfranchised communities chasing an intangible, unobtainable goal. With the facade of equality dismantled, Bianco goes on to champion a reclamation of freedom to transform the feminist movement.

Bianco will inform and guide readers in an essential pivot to a new hope for the future of the feminist movement, gender justice, and women in general.

Controversial and thrilling, Breaking Free fearlessly takes us where we need to go.

Marcie Bianco is a writer, editor, scholar, and cultural critic. She has written, taught, and lectured about feminism, ethics, and culture for more than fifteen years. A 2013 Lambda Literary Fellow, her writing appears on CNN, NBC Think, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Salon, Slate, Vox, and Quartz. She is the author of the introduction to Meg Allen's photography book, BUTCH, and has essays on HBO's GIRLS and Gertrude Stein in edited academic volumes. Bianco is a columnist at the Women's Media Center and a SheSource expert. She is currently an editor at Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), an award-winning quarterly print magazine published around the world on issues pertaining to how cross-sector innovations lead to social change. With a global audience in the millions, Bianco helms four sections of the magazine and co-edits the features section. Bianco has participated on panels on cultural issues at institutions including Harvard University and Northwestern University. And she has made a number of media (on-camera and podcast) appearances, including Huffington Post Live, Al Jazeera's "The Stream," Sirius Q Radio, and New York Magazine's "Sex Lives" podcast. Bianco currently resides in California with her cats, Simone de Beauvoir, Freddie (Nietzsche) and (Amanda) Gorman.