They force fed us stories about men. Now we listen to Taylor Swift.

The inescapability of men's narratives, the craving for women's voices and the need to cut them down, girlhood nostalgia and more in the links.

Me when a dude wants to talk about Jonathan Franzen

This week I wrote about how once in a while I realize how much we are surrounded by men’s voices and men’s stories, and we really don’t talk about it.

And how the rare dominance of women’s voices like Taylor Swift and Beyoncé right now might be a small corrective to that.

Once I started looking into it, even I was a bit shocked. Did you know that in the Bible women’s voices make up just 1.1 percent of the text, for example? One percent!!

In the Book of Mormon, which I grew up with, there are only six women in the whole (500 page!) book, and two of them have speaking parts. (Talk about a sausage party!)

In light of how much women and girls are shovel-fed stories about men, Swift and Beyoncé make a tiny counterbalance to the man-centric myths and narratives that we are surrounded by.

I hope that all the people who are getting “tired” of Taylor Swift and are also getting tired of Drake, and Ryan Gosling, and Jonathan Franzen¹ and Scorsese. And Hemingway.

If we are going to get fatigued of people who are winning too much, let’s make sure it’s not just one kind of people.

When Glennon Doyle released Untamed, The New York Times review was titled, “A THIRD Glennon Doyle memoir?” as Celeste Davis brilliantly pointed out this week, while the very same week they named the latest David Sedaris memoir, one of over two dozen autobiographical works by the writer, “a must read.”

A lot of things are “inescapable,” but women’s voices are not one of them.

In fact, women are shovel-fed stories about men and by men allllll the time, and in that context 31 songs seems…pretty reasonable! No wonder fans, especially female fans from young girls to grown women—crave female voices and hang on their every word, or video, or easter egg.

You can read the whole piece here, ICYMI, and below are some links that pair nicely with it for you Sunday reading and/or TTPD binge.

Is the album growing on you? After a meh first listen I find myself with “Fortnight” and “So Long London” and “Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me” in my head. I want to love “But Daddy I Love Him”² so much, but even the idea that it could be connected to Matty Healy makes me dry heave a little. I choose to believe the theory that it’s my crush Harry Styles.

Pairs nicely with

“Why Would Taylor Swift Drop a Double Album at the Peak of Her Exposure?” by

Celeste Davis

, about “Tall Poppy Syndrome” and the scientifically proven urge to cut down women like Taylor Swift when they get too big.

“Children Play House. Grownups Play Taylor Swift” by

Sara Petersen

on being a grown woman who gets the feels from TS.

Shout out to

Amanda Montei

who reminded me this week that Franzen wrote an entire essay on Edith Wharton that lingers on whether she was hot enough, and posits that she potentially made her husband mentally ill because of her success. Cute!

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1. Let us also not forget that when Franzen’s novel was chosen as an Oprah’s Book Club pick he very publicly freaked out saying “I had some hope of actually reaching a male audience,” which led to him being the first author to be disinvited from the Oprah show. This is the first in a long list of other vaguely and not vaguely sexist and weird shiz he’s done over the years.

2. “But Daddy I Love Him” should be my anthem for cranking up loud and crying while singing along in the car, given that I fell in love with someone who is not my same race, or same religion, or same nationality, and is younger than me to boot. Lines like, “I’m having his baby—I’m not but you should see your face,” and “I know you can’t come to the wedding,” I feel in my BONES. Like, she nailed it and the songwriting is great imo. But Healy’s racist, sexist comments are pretty cruel and disgusting if you don’t know. And it’s not helping TS’s image re: White Feminism either, unfortunately!!