Bad Romance part 3: Demanding greater diversity in who gets a happily ever after in romance
One of the big success stories in self-publishing is romance. According to popular platform Smashwords, the genre dominates the market. With a few clicks any writer can become an author. Which makes it possible that a novel most major publishing houses and quite a few small presses would have turned down, one that hasn’t seen an editor’s red pen, or even a proofreader will wind up on Amazon more than in other genres.
There’s an argument for gatekeepers, right? Not so fast. Here’s part three in this series on romance as a genre…
Bad Romance part 2: The romance genre needs better critique, not more gatekeepers
Though romance novels have always centered relationships and women, there’s no argument that issues of consent and coercion abound in the genre's shady past. Consider the conflicted relationships readers have with Kathleen Woodwiss’ The Flame
and the Flower, a novel that is said to have started the modern “bodice ripper” romance genre. Here’s part two analyzing the romance genre in books…
How do I teach privilege to my able-bodied, white male children?
My partner and I recently welcomed our miracle twin newborns to the world and we’re thrilled! But also terrified. Somehow we managed to bring two more blond-haired, blue-eyed, males into our rural Midwest society (we are both of primarily European ancestry, but we never expected this!).
We had always planned to teach our children to value diversity and to challenge the system of privilege, but now we’re looking at raising children who are the textbook image of privilege. Help! How can we do parenting right?
CherryPicks, a Rotten Tomatoes competitor, is trying to amplify female voices in film criticism
This year’s SXSW film festival revealed a new entrant into the film criticism portal sphere, CherryPicks, a film criticism site founded by filmmaker Miranda Bailey with a goal of putting a spotlight on the voices of women and minority film critics. Will it help?
Fairy princesses can be mighty girls, as long as we don’t shame them first
My daughter wanted a “fairy princess birthday party,” so I was making wands out pink glitter-glue and pipe cleaners and cutting the crusts off fairy bread while obsessively refreshing my Twitter feed for more news about the extent of Weinstein’s depravity. The invitation to her party was a photo of my daughter wearing a tutu and crown, Photoshopped to make it look like it appeared in the pages of a storybook. She loved it.
After the invitation went out, I received messages RSVPing to the party, but they also asked a question, the same one over again: “Are you okay with this?”
Art with a cause: political art to strengthen your space
A whole bunch of us are embracing the idea that it’s time to stop being silent about the politics and causes for which we care deeply, especially when it comes to affecting change among our own small communities. This means we’re getting less shy about advocating for our causes publically, including in our own homes. I’ve compiled a big set of art prints and decor that you can use to celebrate and share your strong feels about our current world.
Mother, spinster, crone: No matter your path, ALL women are subject to criticism
We’ve all seen it: Tenacious and spectacular women — those whom Kerouac would call The Mad Ones — rounding their edges… They grow bitter, mean, judgmental. They cry when no one is watching, lost somewhere between never thinking their shit is together, and never being able to get their shit together.
Unparalleled is the devastating agony of seeming like a failure…
I feel like a “bad mom” for giving up residential custody
I strongly believe that one gender does not parent better than the other. I fully believe men are just as good at parenting as women when put in the same situations. And that the societal idea that men are idiots when it comes to kids and don’t know what they are doing is ignorant.
So why is it that, as a strong feminist, I cannot help shake the guilt that I am sending my child away, or that I am a failure or a bad mom if I let my daughter live with her father?