Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006

Super Bitches and Action Babes: The Female Hero in Popular Cinema, 1970-2006 Review

With actress Pam Grier's breakthrough in Coffy and Foxy Brown, women entered action, science fiction, war, westerns and martial arts films--genres that had previously been considered the domain of male protagonists. This ground-breaking cinema, however, was--and still is--viewed with ambivalence.

While women were cast in new and exciting roles, they did not always arrive with their femininity intact, often functioning both as a sexualized spectacle and as a new female hero rather than female character. This volume contains an in-depth critical analysis and study of the female hero in popular film from 1970 to 2005. It examines five female archetypes: the dominatrix, the Amazon, the daughter, the mother and the rape-avenger. The entrance of the female hero into films written by, produced by and made for men is viewed through the lens of feminism and post-feminism arguments. Analyzed works include films with actors Michelle Yeoh and Meiko Kaji, the Alien films, the Lara Croft franchise, Charlie's Angels, and television productions such as Xena: Warrior Princess and Alias.

Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities

Future Search: An Action Guide to Finding Common Ground in Organizations and Communities Review

When the term future search appeared in Productive Workplaces (Weisbord, 1987), so many people sparked to it that we decided, after trying fancier names like strategic futures conference, to retain it. The response to the concept led to Discovering Common Ground (Weisbord et al, 1992), a work that pulled together principles and practices for valuebased action planning. The earlier book presented a variety of high participation models and cases, most based on the Emery/Trist Search Conference, including early experiments with future search. In this book we focus on our evolving future search model. Here we go deeply into our sources and rationale, our experiments with tasks and techniques, and examples of how we and many colleagues have employed this model and its variations. We also provide a philosophical rationale for our design and facilitation practices.

"Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (New Black Studies Series)

"Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas: Black Power Action Films (New Black Studies Series) Review

This lively study unpacks the intersecting racial, sexual, and gender politics underlying the representations of racialized bodies, masculinities, and femininities in early 1970s black action films, with particular focus on the representation of black femininity. Stephane Dunn explores the typical, sexualized, subordinate positioning of women in low-budget blaxploitation action narratives as well as more seriously radical films like Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song and The Spook Who Sat by the Door, in which black women are typically portrayed as trifling "bitches" compared to the supermacho black male heroes. The terms "baad bitches" and "sassy supermamas" signal the reversal of this positioning with the emergence of supermama heroines in the few black action films in the early 1970s that featured self-assured, empowered, and tough (or "baad") black women as protagonists: Cleopatra Jones, Coffy, and Foxy Brown.

Dunn offers close examination of a distinct moment in the history of African American representation in popular cinema, tracing its emergence out of a radical political era, influenced especially by the Black Power movement and feminism. "Baad Bitches" and Sassy Supermamas also engages blaxploitation's impact and lingering aura in contemporary hip-hop culture as suggested by its disturbing gender politics and the "baad bitch daughters" of Foxy Brown and Cleopatra Jones, rappers Lil' Kim and Foxy Brown.  

Captain Action: The Original Super-Hero Action Figure (hardcover)

Captain Action: The Original Super-Hero Action Figure (hardcover) Review

Captain Action, the original super-hero action figure, was introduced in 1966 in the wake of the Batman TV show craze, and later received his own DC comic book with art by Wally Wood and Gil Kane. Able to assume the identities of 13 famous super-heroes, his initial career was short-lived, but continuing interest in the hero has led to two different returns to toy-store shelves. Lavishly illustrated with over 200 toy photos, the second edition of this critically acclaimed volume by author Michael Eury chronicles the history of this quick-changing champion, including photos of virtually every Captain Action product ever released, spotlights on his allies Action Boy and the Super Queens and his arch enemy Dr. Evil, an examination of his comic-book appearances, and Action facts that even the most-diehard Captain Action fan won t know! It features a foreword, cover image, and previously unseen package illos by Murphy Anderson, historical anecdotes by the late Gil Kane, Jim Shooter, Stan Weston (co-creator of G.I. Joe, Captain Action, and Mego s World s Greatest Super-Heroes), and Larry Reiner and Larry O Daly, formerly of Ideal Toys, plus never-before-published and classic Captain Action artwork by Gil Kane, Joe Staton, Carmine Infantino, Jerry Ordway, Paul Gulacy, Mark Sparacio, Ruben Procopio, and Tom Yeates. The revised second edition of this full-color hardcover includes behind-the-scenes material covering Captain Action s triumphant 2008 return to comics shelves in his new series from Moonstone Books, and spotlights on the new wave of Captain Action collectibles. Written by Michael Eury.

Go UnDiet: 50 Small Actions for Lasting Weight Loss

Go UnDiet: 50 Small Actions for Lasting Weight Loss Review

You've tried dieting before, but like the 3 out of 4 North Americans who are overweight, you've discovered that rigid diet plans just don't cut it. A 14-day plan can only create results for 14 days. Then what? You're bombarded with conflicting diet strategies - low carb, low fat, low GI, and on and on. Confused and frustrated, you gain the weight back. 

You won't find a diet plan in this book. Instead, you'll learn how you CAN lose weight for good by undieting! Go UnDiet shows you: 

• 50 simple, painless, undieting actions that will change your diet and weight without a rigid diet plan, and with no counting of calories or fat grams
• Why common food "villains" like meat and cheese are not responsible for your weight issue - and which foods are really to blame
• A 5-second scan to spot diet-destroying highly processed foods (HPF), and 3 foolproof ways to avoid this weakest link
• The truth about common diet myths, and how to choose food products that really work for you

This is not another "miracle" diet plan. Instead, Go UnDiet is a guide designed to help you lose weight for good by making small changes, one step at a time.

Connecting Leadership With Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action

Connecting Leadership With Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action Review

What kind of leadership makes learning possible for all students? How can school leaders help teachers increase their knowledge and improve their instructional abilities? What actions should leaders take to ensure that learning occurs? In Connecting Leadership with Learning: A Framework for Reflection, Planning, and Action, Michael A. Copland and Michael S. Knapp give educational leaders a new way to answer these questions and find solutions perfect for their particular school environment.
Copland and Knapp assert that far too many educational leaders are struggling with outdated curricula, demands that don t align with their school or district goals, and professional meetings that are high on complaints but low on solutions. Instead of prescribing a linear or rigid approach, the authors encourage educators to be attentive and tune into their leadership actions by using the Leading for Learning Framework. The framework provides different vantage points to help leaders reflect on their strengths and weaknesses, plan for improvement, and take actions to foster learning for students, teachers and professionals, and school and district leaders. The Leading for Learning Framework will empower leaders to

Establish a focus on equitable learning
Build professional communities
Engage communities and external partnerships
Act strategically and share leadership
Create coherence in their leadership actions

The book includes extended case studies, descriptions of 23 different leadership "pathways," and many examples from schools and districts that show the Leading for Learning Framework in action.
There is no magic formula for great school leadership, but Copland and Knapp conclude that magic can happen when leaders reframe their efforts to focus more clearly on learning.

Citizen Action and National Policy Reform: Making Change Happen (Claiming Citizenship: Rights, Participation, Accountability)

Citizen Action and National Policy Reform: Making Change Happen (Claiming Citizenship: Rights, Participation, Accountability) Review

How does citizen activism win changes in national policy? Which factors help to make myriad efforts by diverse actors add up to reform? What is needed to overcome setbacks, and to consolidate the smaller victories?

 

These questions need answers. Aid agencies have invested heavily in supporting civil society organizations as change agents in fledgling and established democracies alike. Evidence gathered by donors, NGOs and academics demonstrates how advocacy and campaigning can reconfigure power relations and transform governance structures at the local and global levels. In the rush to go global or stay local, however, the national policy sphere was recently neglected. Today, there is growing recognition of the key role of champions of change inside national governments, and the potential of their engagement with citizen activists outside. These advances demand a better understanding of how national and local actors can combine approaches to simultaneously work the levers of change, and how their successes relate to actors and institutions at the international level. 

 

This book brings together eight studies of successful cases of citizen activism for national policy changes in South Africa, Morocco, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Turkey, India and the Philippines. They detail the dynamics and strategies that have led to the introduction, change or effective implementation of policies responding to a range of rights deficits. Drawing on influential social science theory about how political and social change occurs, the book brings new empirical insights to bear on it, both challenging and enriching current understandings.