When we consider that 60%+ of the entire publishing market is romance (basically, it’s the genre that pays the bills and keeps the lights on), and that there are dozens of indie bookstores specializing in mystery, sci-fi, and all those other genres, the question begs, how come romance didn’t have a place, off the Internet, to call home?
Category: Feminism
Amber Rose Slutwalk 2015 vs Slutwalk LA 2011
When it comes to rape myths, that battle is already won, or almost won, at least in SoCal. As I walked around downtown LA with my “No Shaming This Slut” Slutwalk sign, people asked about it, and everyone nodded their heads in agreement, that of course no one deserves to be raped because of what they are wearing. (There may be a few troglodytes who still feel differently, but they are also the tinfoil hat kind who believe we faked the Moon landing, so, whatevs.)
50 Shades of Rape
I avoided the #AskELJames Twitter party/skewering, because generally, I don’t “do” Twitter, FaceBook events, and the like, but found myself in some interesting group discussions about it, and her work, anyway. Some female writers I know, along with EL James herself, vigorously deny the reality that, as depicted in Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian rapes Ana.…
Before #MeToo, There Was Unslut
There are women who’ve been slut-shamed who’ve had the maturity and power to ignore it. To be inspired by the slur, even, and throw it back in people’s faces: Ainsi sera, groigne qui groigne [Suck it, bitches. It’s happening! or, another, more elegant translation: Let them grumble, that’s how it’s going to be!] ~Anne Boleyn.
Josephine Baker: Great Sluts in History
At age thirteen, she was living on the streets, sleeping in card boxes and scavenging for food from trash cans. Sometime around then she made her first of four marriages; this one very short-lived.
At age 15, Josephine would join the St. Louis Chorus vaudeville show, and from there, her talent springboarded her to New York City.