Food for Thought
Rebecca Yarros is a female author that has published over two dozen novels, many of which have won literary awards. Her latest novel Onyx Storm was the fastest selling adult novel in 20 years according to “New York Times”.
“Vulture” posted an article about her entitled:
“The Rise of Rebecca Yarros, Mother of Dragon Smut”
Onyx Storm is the third in a series of best selling books in Yarros’ Empyrean Series. As adult novels, they do include some sexually explicit material.
Why is her success watered down to one element of her largely successful literary career? She has written three books that contain both dragons and smut, and also 20 other books.
Only a very small portion of this article is even about Yarros writing smut, so why is that so important to this journalist/editor?
Why did the journalist/editor use the term “mother” instead of author or leader?
Why doesn’t this title reflect Yarros’ representation of chronic illness, experience with family members in the military or overall success?
I’m not a feminist… I can cook
Mainstream media has come to fear the word “feminist.” Like most labels primarily assigned to women, the word tends to carry a negative connotation. As women, we are taught to not make waves, talk too much, or take up too much space.
On an NPR podcast about the need for more women in Hollywood in 2013, Geena Davis told the host about an astounding study.
“We just heard a fascinating and disturbing study, where they looked at the ratio of men and women in groups. And they found that if there's 17 percent women, the men in the group think it's 50-50. And if there's 33 percent women, the men perceive that as there being more women in the room than men.” —Davis
A lot of men, especially those that can afford podcasting equipment, and women with internalized patriarchy, have a fear of the mythical, “radical feminist.” I confident they are perceiving what Davis described. Women voice our need to be heard, respected and seen, and sexist people perceive that as a threat to their life.
There is an idea floating around, that because the law treats men and women equally (hypothetically) feminism should not longer exist…
What?
According to a Gender Gap study performed by Pew Research, only about 1/3 of sources in all American news stories are females.
The media is a reflection of society. We have quantifiable evidence that the mainstream media does not view women as equals because they are only consulting us 1/3 of the time. If they don’t see women as equals, it’s pretty clear that society doesn’t see women as equals.
My favorite feminist
Ruth Bader Ginsberg.
What a queen.
After graduating at the top of her class at Columbia (She was also top of her class at Harvard. She was 1 of the only 9 women in her first law class.) She could not get a job at a law office after she graduated because of her gender, Jewish identity and daughter. She served the last 27 years of her life on the Supreme Court of the United States.
She spent much of the beginning of her career fighting for equal rights for women by pleading the case of a man (Moritz v. Commissioner 1972). She argued that people should not be discriminated on the basis of sex in several cases. She was a really cool woman.
I’m going to take a similar path in this blog post, and start with what the sexists care about: men.
On January 23, 2025, Jesse Watters, a popular FOX News reporter, took time to report on the very important issue of what former Vice President Kamala Harris is doing. She and her husband were grocery shopping.
Watters asked the important question,“What kind of husband goes grocery shopping with his wife.”
… A good one? Why shouldn’t he go grocery shopping with his wife? I argue that we should not question a man for respecting and wanting to spend time with his wife. Men are not inferior to anyone if they are making their own decisions instead of basing their choices on what other people think of them. Constantly making decisions based on gender stigma actually makes you the own subject to other men’s rules.
Therefore if men can make their own decisions about what to do with their lives then women can decide what to do with their’s.
Acknowledging my White Privelege
I would like to briefly acknowledge that this posted uses examples that are exclusively white women. It was not by any means intentional. I cannot speak to the experiences of women of color because I am not one, but I want to encourage readers to seek out some of these women’s writings, movements and speeches.
They deserve, of course, to be heard and respected, and are valuable members of the feminist movement that are often overlooked.
Here are a few I admire:
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk: “We should all be feminists”
Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Anzaldúa
There are many, many more.
Sticks and Stones
Words have just as much power as you give them. We, women should not divide against each other. We should acknowledge each others’ right to stand strong.
Women are constantly labeled by the media both in news and social media:
· Trad Wives
· High Value Women
· Low Value Women
· Radical Feminists
· Prude
· Stacy
· Curvy/Thick
· Anorexic
· Related to man: wife, sister, mother
· Sexy
· Crazy
· Karen
· Pick-me girl
· Girl Boss/Bossy/Cold
· “Fake Women” (Trans Women)
· Tom Boys
· Plain Jane
· Virgin/Pure
· Catfish
· Obsessive
· Attention Whore
· Witch
· Butter Face/But Her Face
· Hag/ Old Bat
My media recommendation for this blog is any of these Greta Gerwig movies.
· Ladybird
· Barbie
· Jackie
Additionally, if you would like to know more about the wonderful Ruth Bader Ginsberg, you should watch On the Basis of Sex or her episode of the docu-series Live to Lead.
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