September 20, 2019
Motherhood So White: A Conversation With Nefertiti Austin
As she puts it herself, Nefertiti Austin “writes about the erasure of diverse voices in motherhood.” This is deeply important work, which is why you need to read her new […]
August 14, 2019
The Story the Storytelling Tells: A Note on the Ramayana
Every God has his consort, his corresponding Goddess—so Brahma, the Creator-God, has Saraswati, the Goddess of arts and letters, a match made in heaven, so to speak. Shiva’s consort is […]
May 19, 2018
15 Things I’ve Learned About Women in Romantic Comedies
1) Women fall down a lot. They are apparently extremely clumsy. But it’s cute. But only if they’re otherworldly beautiful. 2) Faced with so many astounding possibilities, more than anything […]
January 29, 2018
An Interview with Rachel Lyon
In Self-Portrait With Boy, Rachel Lyon has written a powerful debut novel. Self-Portrait examines the aftermath of the moment Lu Rile takes a photograph that inadvertently captures a boy’s fatal […]
January 5, 2018
The Little Mermaid and the Little Girl Writer Part One
I will never forget sitting in the front row of that movie theater watching The Little Mermaid, wide-eyed, wondering what happened to that discarded mermaid tail. Did the witch store […]
December 4, 2017
Better Things and Silenced Women
The second season of Better Things recently came to a close and, although it did so memorably with a multi-daughter dance performance, I want to focus on the distinctive second-to-last […]
October 9, 2017
Unapologetically Stepping In: Lynn Melnick’s Landscape with Sex and Violence
I didn’t emerge well-trained into this savage vista because all the houseplants were succulent, and, while anyone could witness rot writ all over my blighted arrangement, no one stepped […]
July 27, 2017
Writing the Great American Novel Amid Breast Augmentation Ads
There’s this breast augmentation ad on the subway where this woman’s holding oranges over her chest and looking sad in the lefthand picture and grapefruits over her chest and looking […]
October 6, 2016
And She Lay Down Deep Beneath the Sea (Part 2)
Caminante, no hay puentes, se hace puentes al andar. (Voyager, there are no bridges, one builds them as one walks.) —Gloria E. Anzaldúa Once we realized She could […]
January 17, 2016
Temporary Passings/ Possessions: On Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Carlotta Valdes
“[The Hispanic] has this fear that she’s a dreamwork inside someone else’s skull . . .that if she digs into herself, she won’t find anyone. . . .” […]
December 11, 2015
EcoFeminism at Cop21
Few people remember the ecofeminist movement of the 1980s, spearheaded by my friends Ynestra King, Starhawk, Grace Paley, Dorothy Dinnerstein and others. Many of the young activists from around […]
December 11, 2014
Martyr Stories, Past and Present
Some of the most popular stories in medieval Europe were tales of saints and martyrs. Many of the hagiographies were essentially martyr stories as well, seeing as most early Christians were […]