There Was Nothing We Could Have Done, Because We’re Racist and You’re Black By Michelle Weber Highlight “The prevalent perception of black women as unruly bodies and incompetent caretakers overrules even the most dominant stereotype about us—namely, that we are superhuman.”
The Silence of Women By Longreads Feature Women who spoke too angrily or too publicly were punished in cruel and unusual ways.
Repairman-man-man-(wo)man By Catherine Cusick Highlight Lauren Hough recounts a decade of misadventures as a female cable tech in the DC Metro Area.
The Thrill (and the Heavy Emotional Burden) of Blazing a Trail for Black Women Journalists By Longreads Feature Dorothy Butler Gilliam remembers how exciting it was to integrate The Washington Post, but also how lonely — and often attacked — she felt as the first black woman reporter in the newsroom.
A Woman’s Work: The Outside Story By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson catalogues her efforts to maintain her appearance from about 1970 to 2018.
Swipe White By Jennifer Chong Schneider Feature Jennifer Chong Schneider considers what it is to be Asian, maligned, and fetishized in dating — and questions her own desire when she dates someone of her own ethnicity for the first time.
They Wanted Her Body By Rafia Zakaria Feature Thinking of Qandeel Baloch’s murder as an honor killing doesn’t capture the whole truth. She was silenced for revealing men’s hypocrisy.
As Beauty Does By Chaya Bhuvaneswar Feature Chaya Bhuvaneswar contemplates the powerful evolution of a woman’s beauty over time.
Thank You for Not Being Afraid, Pat Maginnis By Michelle Weber Highlight Compromise and political reform only take you so far; sometimes you need to shake the whole system.
Queens of Infamy: Zenobia By Anne Thériault Feature In third-century Syria, a widowed monarch dared to be wildly ambitious — and almost brought the Roman Empire to its knees.
‘Emerging’ as a Writer — After 40 By Jenny Bhatt Feature Jenny Bhatt recalls the rites of passage that led to her shift in identity from corporate executive to woman writer of color.
Double, Double, Toil and Trouble: A Reading List About Witches By Sara Benincasa Reading List Witchcraft: it’s spirituality, it’s a philosophy, it’s a lot more than flowy black dresses and cursing your exes.
The Wrong Pair By Lisa W. Rosenberg Feature After decades of shame, discrimination in the ballet world, and some serious back pain, Lisa W. Rosenberg concludes it’s time to down-size her double-E knockers.
Re: Hate Mail By Amy Kurzweil Feature After receiving a string of menacing emails, Amy Kurzweil wonders: Can she safely extend a writer’s empathy to men who harass her on the internet?
Theater of Forgiveness By Hafizah Geter Feature Hafizah Geter contemplates the personal and cultural legacy of violence against Black bodies.
The Others: Why Women Are Shut Out of Horror By michellemeyrink Feature Horror movies give more screen time to strong female characters and attract a large female audience. But few female filmmakers get to work on them.
When a Missing Nickel Makes All the Difference By Krista Stevens Highlight “Yet money was a lie—pieces of paper and metal suggesting prices for goods, services, labor, and human beings themselves in a way that often had more to do with profit than with true value.”
Lacy M. Johnson on Rejecting the Need to Be Liked By Krista Stevens Highlight “As a woman, I have been raised to be nurturing, to care for others feelings’ and wellbeing often at the expense of my own.”
A Woman Becomes a Nightingale By Carolita Johnson Feature Carolita Johnson reviews the ugly history of rape being weaponized — and politicized — as a means of silencing women.
The Denial Diaries: On #MeToo Men With No Self-Awareness By michellemeyrink Feature In a good story, a character suffers, changes, and grows. In real life, women suffer while men double down on their delusions of virtue.
Queens of Infamy: The Reign of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature When your husband and male heirs are too useless or too dead to rule, you have to take matters into your own poison-gloved hands.
A Woman, Tree or Not By Terese Marie Mailhot Feature Terese Marie Mailhot questions the value of Native coming of age ceremonies she missed out on.
Of Politics and Prose By Sari Botton Highlight Roxane Gay writes about the necessary and inevitable influence of politics on literature at this fraught time in history.
Women Are Really, Really Mad Right Now By Hope Reese Feature Rebecca Traister talks about the revolutionary power of women’s anger.
The Art of the Pan By Sari Botton Highlight Sarah Miller recalls her days in the ’90s as a fickle movie critic.
It’s Time to Stop Painting Joyce Maynard as an ‘Oversharer’ Already By Sari Botton Highlight In the #metoo era, there’s no excuse for continuing to deride women like Maynard who speak out about their experiences with men who had much more power.
A Birth Plan for Dying By Hanna Neuschwander Feature Hanna Neuschwander grapples with ending a wanted pregnancy, and finds that “right” or “wrong” fail to describe the moral reckoning.
Queens of Infamy: The Rise of Catherine de’ Medici By Anne Thériault Feature Kings and popes thought she was their pawn. The Merchant’s Daughter begged to differ.
Did We Learn From Anita Hill? By Danielle Tcholakian Commentary Or will Democrats sell out Brett Kavanaugh’s accuser, too?
