A Poetic Takedown of V.S. Naipaul’s Sexism

Writer V.S. Naipaul, the Trinidadian-British novelist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001, recently earned an ignoble prize for sexism because of his demeaning comments about women writers. Aside from his arrogance, Naipaul was described in his authorized biography as being “violent, unstable, a racist and a misogynist,” according to NPR. So it’s [...]

What’s Behind Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Yellow Wallpaper?

Today, Charlotte Bronte, the author of Jane Eyre, the subject of a big Hollywood film, is not the only 19th-century woman writer newly capturing the public imagination with her portrayal of  a “madwoman” in an attic. Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1860-1935, is also re-emerging in the spotlight with a bevy of recent books about her, including [...]

My Favorite Feminist: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

In honor of Women’s History Month, I want to honor my favorite (and too-little-known) feminist, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a 17th century nun, poet and scholar. Juana was born in 1648 in San Miguel Nepantla, Mexico, near Mexico City. She was officially registered as “a daughter of the Church” because her parents were [...]

An Open Letter to The New Yorker

Dear Editors of The New Yorker, I am writing to express my alarm that this is now the second issue in a row in which women have only two bylines in the Table of Contents of your print issue. The January 3rd, 2011 issue features only a (tiny) Shouts & Murmurs (Patricia Marx) and a [...]

Little Women Turns 142

On September 30, 1868, Louisa May Alcott published the first of two volumes that comprised Little Women, one of the 19th century’s most famous novels. Its success showed that focusing on women’s lives had literary merit—which is still something women authors struggle with today (does “Franzenfreude” ring a bell?) If you’re unfamiliar with the story, [...]

Women We’ll Be Reading 200 Years From Now

“Women I admire have gone through hell to get their work out there,” Erica Jong told us this past weekend. “I’d like to change that for you.” Despite its sale of 20 million copies worldwide, Jong’s 1973 feminist novel Fear of Flying provoked a backlash, the vestiges of which still own a sliver of Jong’s [...]

Where Are the Women Comedy Writers on Late-Night TV?

I was expecting horror tales of discrimination and sexist exclusion when I attended a gathering  of some of the most talented women late-night TV writers in New York City last week. Instead, what I heard was that there just aren’t enough funny women submitting material and applying for comedy writing positions. That late-night comedy is [...]

The Cancer Bitch on “Sick Lit”

Illness is not a gift. Do you know what a gift is? Earrings.