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Join NOW!Bitch is where many of today’s feminist internet denizens (yours truly included) got our start reading and writing about culture with a critical eye. In many ways, Zeisler’s book is a call to arms, asking us to return to a rigorous, systemic analysis. At Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer interviews Bitch founder Andi Zeisler on her new […]
...moreUpbeat YA protagonists are a far cry from the tortured figures we’re used to watching on television. Flavorwire’s Sarah Seltzer makes her predictions for Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables’s forthcoming return to the small screen: Two iconic characters with sunny auras and relatively straightforward histories are about to be reimagined in the context of today’s […]
...moreIs The Hunger Games feminist? Does it matter? Flavorwire’s Sarah Seltzer wonders whether we’re asking the wrong questions: It seduces us with a good-vs.-evil premise, but then muddies the entire thing in the gray fog of war.
...moreIf you like some of the things, why not read all of the things? Flavorwire’s Sarah Seltzer wonders why fans lose steam as we near the completist finish line: Maybe we’re saving those final few books for a bad day… Or maybe we know that a final book is supposed to be less than stellar, […]
...moreWomen are winning fewer book prizes than men. And narratives about women don’t fair as well when it comes to prestigious prizes either. In fact, looking at the data, the most likely to win a prize are books by men, about men and boys. As Sarah Seltzer points out at Flavorwire, its all part of a […]
...moreIt sucks to read through an essay and just abruptly read a student’s usage of rape as an analogy for, like, soccer. For Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer discusses the importance of trigger warnings in the classroom, for students and teachers alike.
...moreIt’s hard to enjoy reading Pride and Prejudice for the umpteenth time when the stack of books on your bedside table keeps reminding you of all the cultural capital you have yet to consume. Flavorwire’s Sarah Seltzer wonders why we stop re-reading our favorite books as we get older: I’ve come to understand that I’ll […]
...moreCan mansplaining ever be productive? Flavorwire’s Sarah Seltzer suggests that while Jon Krakauer’s ignorance may be infuriating, his “show don’t tell” approach to writing about rape in Missoula might help readers see firsthand how structures of oppression operate: Krakauer isn’t speaking to “us.” He’s speaking to his mainstream audience, and many of them are probably […]
...moreMuggle-born students of Hogwarts are an underprivileged class, while magic-born students enjoy unquantified privilege, argues Sarah Seltzer over at Flavorwire. Rowling creates a world where privilege and power are coupled together, just as wealth and race have allowed certain classes greater access to power in the real world: Rowling isn’t arguing that a wand is […]
...moreArt is problematic. Humans are problematic. Roxane Gay is a bad feminist. We know this, yet still we attack each other for liking Lil Wayne or Fifty Shades of Grey. Flavorwire‘s Sarah Seltzer wants us to stop telling women what they can and can’t like: I wouldn’t abandon the practice of critiquing art for its political […]
...moreThe literary idea that friends’ lives represent unmade choices, roads not taken, is applicable across gender and genre. Naturally, however, it has a particular resonance for women, because so many of life’s choices have particular resonance for women. Whether in 2015 United States or in postwar, pre-feminist Italy, women still feel like they have to […]
...moreAwe-inspiring literary legacy aside, one thing is for certain: Jane Austen could definitely hang. A new collection of some of her shorter works shows the writer in peak form, sharply mocking her social milieu with expert comedic timing: The young Austen is hardly proper. She writes of drunkenness (in fact, she’s rather fond of the phrase […]
...moreFeminists and transphobic conservatives have found common ground in attacking Lena Dunham after the publication of her memoir revealed that her seven-year-old self had been curious about her sister’s vagina. Dunham creates trigger art, explains Sarah Seltzer at Flavorwire, intentionally igniting sensitive subjects. The problem isn’t the art, but the reaction: So why would we […]
...moreJane Austen has been blowing up these days, with hundreds of fan-fictional responses to Pride and Prejudice gracing the dusty corners of bookstores and the Internet. Over at Flavorwire, Sarah Seltzer wonders why we’re still so eager to return to Pemberley: Because Austen doesn’t overload us with sensory details about her characters, but merely depicts […]
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Writers and activists Jessica Mason Pieklo and Robin Marty discuss their book, Crow After Roe, “the ever-roiling storm that is the American clash over abortion rights.”
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