Latinx Teens: U.S. Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen

Abstract

mative Activism: Inauthentic Allyship in the Midst of a Racial Pandemic,’’ highlighting the tensions that arise due to the ease of social media engagement with social justice movements on the one hand, and the hard work and sustained activism required of creating social change on the other. A third main theme is higher education, including chapters about the challenges of creating change in higher education and rampant sexual violence and institutional silence. One chapter is about the logistics of creating an inclusive higher educational institution (Chapter 9, by Melanie Duckworth and Kelly Cross), while another is about the importance of Black studies and teaching African American history, particularly given this historical moment (Chapter 10, Idrissa Snider). A chapter that will likely be etched in the reader’s mind, given the vivid descriptions and courage of the author, is ‘‘The Silence of Laughter,’’ by Lydia Huerta Moreno, which describes the sexual harassment she experienced (as a professor) by a senior university leader. These parts of the volume, while fascinating, are especially heterogeneous. Much of the higher education material in the volume may be more for a graduate student or professoriate audience than an undergraduate audience. Overall, Badass Feminist Politics is an appealing text. Some chapters are just a couple of pages long while others are longer, meaning it is easy to pick up and page through. The editors do a good job linking together chapters and sections that in some ways seem highly divergent. The text would be most appreciated by students of feminism and those feminists who wish to grow and connect with the struggles of others and to find community through words. It is not only feminist in the subject and content, but also in the contributors’ and editors’ approaches: confronting urgent personal and societal issues with a blend of theory, data, and first-person narratives. Latinx Teens: U.S. Popular Culture on the Page, Stage, and Screen, by Trevor Boffone and Cristina Herrera. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2022. 160 pp. $22.95 paper. ISBN: 9780816542758.