After China officially “decriminalized” same-sex behavior in 1997, both the visibility and public acceptance of tongzhi , an inclusive identity term that refers to nonheterosexual and gender nonconforming identities in the People’s Republic of China, has improved. However, for all the positive change, there are few opportunities for political and civil rights advocacy under Xi Jinping’s authoritarian rule.

Words like Water explores the nonconfrontational strategies the tongzhi movement uses in contemporary China. Caterina Fugazzola analyzes tongzhi organizers’ conceptualizations of, and approaches to, social change, explaining how they avoid the backlash that meets Western tactics, such as protests, confrontation, and language about individual freedoms. In contrast, the groups’ intentional use of community and family-oriented narratives, discourses, and understandings of sexual identity are more effective, especially in situations where direct political engagement is not possible.

Providing on-the-ground stories that examine the social, cultural, and political constraints and opportunities, Words like Water emphasizes the value of discursive flexibility that allows activists to adapt to changing social and political conditions.

Amazon.com A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for The Wall Street Journal， Faludi lays out a two-fold thesis in this aggressive work: First， despite the opinions of pop-psychologists and the mainstream media， career-minded women are generally not husband-starved loners on the verge of nervous breakdowns. Secondly， such beliefs are nothing more than anti-feminist propaganda pumped out by conservative research organizations with clear-cut ulterior motives. This backlash against the women's movement， she writes， "stands the truth boldly on its head and proclaims that the very steps that have elevated women's positions have actually led to their downfall." Meticulously researched， Faludi's contribution to this tumultuous debate is monumental and it earned the 1991 National Book Critics Circle Award for General Nonfiction. From Publishers Weekly Far from being "liberated，" American women in the 1980s were victims of a powerful backlash against the handful of small， hard-won victories the feminist movement had achieved， says Wall Street Journal reporter Faludi， who won a Pulitzer this year. Buttressing her argument with facts and statistics， she states that the alleged "man shortage" endangering women's chances of marrying (posited by a Harvard-Yale study) and the "infertility epidemic" said to strike professional women who postpone childbearing are largely media inventions. She finds evidence of antifeminist backlash in Hollywood movies， in TV's thirtysomething ， in 1980s fashion ads featuring battered models and in the New Right's attack on women's rights. She directs withering commentary at Robert Bly's all-male workshops， Allan Bloom's "prolonged rant" against women and Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer's revisionism. This eloquent， brilliantly argued book should be read by everyone concerned about gender equality. First serial to Glamour and Mother Jones. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews

「每一天發生的每樣事對我來說都是全新的。資訊不斷轟炸著我，經驗不斷轟炸著我……而我衰微的精神狀態幾乎要失控了。」
「你感覺自己將參與這歷史性一刻；在一區域中，整體生活模式裡很深刻的某項東西即將要轉變……你正在……創造……歷史。從某些方面來看是全然無私無我的，但（你）也同時發現了自我。」
「它讓我欣喜若狂……第一次這些片段碎塊嵌合在一塊……感覺像我自己……我認為透過它,我們不但成就了些事，也是實現我個人的救贖。」
「它是我人生中最長的夢魘：三個月──一九六四年的六月、七月、八月。」
本書即是詳述這個撼動美國六○年代，歷時不到三個月的「自由之夏」運動（Freedom Summer）。這段期間，超過一千人聚集至美國密西西比州，共同居住在「自由之家」，或寄住在當地不懼種族隔離主義者威脅的黑人家庭中。計劃期間，難以緩解的恐懼、令人苦惱的貧困，以及間或發生的暴力事件，都困擾計劃的進行，最後造成四位自願者被毆打致死、八十位自願者受傷、一百位自願者被逮捕，並有六十七間教堂、房屋及商店被砸毀或焚燒。這個夏天是每位參與者心中難以磨滅的經驗，他們的生命被改變，進而撼動整個世代。
「自由之夏」是美國社運的重要轉捩點，透過它所引發的文化與政治效應，孕生了日後其他重要運動，包括女權運動、反戰運動、學生運動等。自由之夏不僅為六○年代眾多行動主義的嘗試提供了組織基礎，同時也關鍵性地推動這個時代茁生的反文化思潮發展。