Feminist Substack Sunday Reads
Plus, join our book club reading Miranda July's "All Fours," starting next week!
We are running a limited-time summer discount on annual subscriptions for $39 (that’s only $3.25 a month!) Paid subscribers get access to weekly subscriber chats, the full archive, and full access to our Summer Book Club reading “All Fours” by Miranda July, starting next week.
One of my favorite podcasts, Call Your Girlfriend (RIP), was based on the idea of shine theory — shining light on the great work of other people (especially women and queer people) makes the world better and brighter for all people.
“I don’t shine if you don’t shine,” the writer and podcast host Ann Friedman explained in an interview in 2013 (subscribe to her newsletter!)
“When you meet a woman who is intimidatingly witty, stylish, beautiful, and professionally accomplished, befriend her. Surrounding yourself with the best people doesn’t make you look worse by comparison. It makes you better,” she said.
To that end, we want to start shining a little light on the feminist reads we love from across the Substack universe.
Emily Taylor’s
What I love about it: Smart analysis of local politics, from state senate elections to assaults on abortion and LGBTQ rights.
Here’s a taste of recent post:
Primary election runoffs here in South Carolina confirmed that the state Republican party remains misogynist and sexist, punishing all the Republican women who blocked a total abortion ban by primarying them. Now three highly skilled, experienced legislators who were fighting for women and families in our state are out of the Senate, to be replaced with inexperienced Republican men. The percentage of women in our state government was already dismally low, but now it will mostly likely be even worse.
Some readers have told us they want to comment on our posts, but reading these posts on your phone make it hard to figure out how. Trying reading MR on the Substack App. You’ll be able comment, share, and find other newsletters that cover topics you care about.
, Liberating Motherhood
What I love about it: Villines, a journalist, medical and legal writer, is fierce in her argument that motherhood is a place where racism, misogyny, and consumerism meet. Her writing is direct and her arguments are crystal clear.
Take, for example, her response to this question from a reader, “Can I be a nice person and still be a feminist?”
There’s…a lot here. The short answer is that you cannot be a nice person without also being a feminist, and that feminism is the antidote to anger about injustice, not the cause of it.
You’ve made some strange assumptions:
That feminism, which definitionally involves supporting a juster, nicer world, means that a person must be mean.
That feminists must necessarily be angrier than other people.
That being angry is bad.
That feminists hate the world.
These are all very strange, ignorant assumptions. They are also exactly what patriarchy wants you to think, because these beliefs keep you silent in the face of oppression.
And finally, there’s still time to grab Miranda July’s “All Fours” and jump in on Lane’s summer book club!
“All Fours” is this summer’s instant bestseller, a heavily biographical novel about an artist in her 40’s who announces to her husband that she’s leaving to drive cross-country alone from LA to New York. What follows is “an irreverently sexy, tender, hilarious and surprising novel story about a woman upending her life,” says the Times.
Summer book club! Who wants to read Miranda July's "All Fours" with me?
I recently wrote about how women have been force fed a ridiculous amount of stories about and by men their whole lives—from religious tomes to the good old white-male literary canon. No wonder we eat up every Beyonce album and Taylor Swift easter egg (or song by
Most of the book club chats and posts will be free to anyone, but a few will be paywalled as a bonus for paid subscribers.
For the full experience, you can upgrade your subscription to paid here.
We are running a limited-time summer discount on annual subscriptions for $39 (that’s only $3.25 a month!)
MATRIARCHY REPORT is written by Lane Anderson and Allison Lichter.
Lane Anderson is a writer, journalist, and Clinical Associate Professor at NYU who has won fellowships and many SPJ awards for her writing on inequality and family social issues. She has an MFA from Columbia University. She was raised in Utah and lives in New York City with her partner and young daughter.
Allison Lichter is associate dean at the Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at the City University of New York. She has been a writer, producer and editor for radio and print, covering the arts, politics, and the workplace. She was born and raised in Queens, and lives in Brooklyn with her partner and daughter.
I LOVE shine theory!! Thx for introducing me to this concept. It’s what we need to get us through these times!!
Just picked up my copy of All Fours from the library today!