#housing is a feminist issue
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Not even dead Alyssa was safe from Condalâs disgusting writing of women. RIP Alyssa Targaryen you did not deserve that.
#can people now realise how badly this faux feminist show treats women please?#alyssa targaryen#anti hotd#house of the dragon#anti ryan condal#i swear he projects his own issues onto female characters#there are a lot of mommy issues scenes and comparing motherly affection im just saying
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takes that r like Feminine women are so oppressed for being feminine. will ALWAYS annoy me. like yes, obviously feminine women r oppressed bc women r oppressed and femininity is seen as weakness under the patriarchy - etc. but itâs crazy to act like âgender non-conformingâ women arenât punished way more⊠and by âgender non-conformingâ i donât even mean being ESPECIALLY âmasculineâ (although obviously they are) i just mean like. being a woman who doesnât shave or wear makeup in the professional worldđitâs crazy if u think women who opt out of these feminine social rituals are somehow LESS oppressed than the ones who rly buy into it. like yeah youâre not taken seriously if youâre so #elle woods blonde âbimboâ pink and mini skirts or whatever & (some) men will think youâre stupid but like i hate to break it to you but theyâll do that *anyway*? men donât take women less seriously for loving feminine things particularly, they just take women less seriously if they love anything đsure obviously this has its exceptions - like a girl in a group of nerds might easily be taken much less seriously if she likes the colour pink and wears skirts in comparison to âacting like a boyâ but at the school prom they could easily still expect her to put on a dress and makeup while the rest of them wear suits⊠and anyway even if they didnât like. thatâs one instance and itâs not a systemic issue. i WISH we had never popularised the phrase ânot like other girlsâ as a disparaging comment and i wish people could be a little normal about women who donât conform 100%, please
#like no offence but your inability to leave the house without makeup IS a feminist issue. your need to shave every few days and your belief#that âitâs not a misogyny thing i just feel cleanerâ IS a feminist issue because body hair is natural dude and you canât remove it from the#social context#obviously you can do what you want but choice feminism has ruined a generation of girls ability to think#oliver talks#feminism
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Trying to explain what the fuck just happened in Lankan politics today.
The leftist party has won 159 seats out of 218 in the Parliamentary elections. The single biggest landslide win since we broke from the British and achieved universal franchise in 1948.
Any party achieving a super majority in the executive and legislative is, objectively speaking, bad. It disables checks and balances, which is a catastrophic thing for any democracy, and the only two other times it's happened for us has irrevocably eroded the fabric of civic rights and democratic freedom. Also, the reason the NPP won the North and East is that the colonized, genocided and subjugated people there have no faith in electoralism anymore. The way this government has engaged minority issues has been utterly abysmal and now they've been rewarded for it.
On the other hand:
The winners. Are all. Grassroots. Candidates.Âč
We have voted out every single career criminal that's been barnacled into the Lankan political arena since before I've been alive. The fascist party has only three seats.ÂČ The other fascists didn't win a single seat. The neoliberal legacy party won none. There are only forty people in Parliament that represent any sort of dynastic political legacy. After 76 solid years of nothing but political dynasties.
This is barely five years after the Rajapaksas swept in and absolutely glutted the Parliament with their family members and cronies end to end.
This is the illegitimate interim government we had for most of the last 18 months. We literally, physically, chased the Rajapaksas out of the country and this fucking demon set up a puppet government just so he could finally sit in that goddamn chair and be the despot he'd always dreamed of in exchange for letting them all come back. He's now gone. His entire circle is gone.
THEY ARE ALL FUCKING GONE.
In US terms, just imagine that, five years from now, when Trump's GOP has control of everything, the entire GOP and the worst of the Dems are all purged from Congress and Senate, the Green Party in control of all three branches of government under a pro-union left-wing President and an unmarried female LGBT rights activist Vice President, and the Dems reduced to barely 20% of the House.
This is my anthropology professor. She joined politics from the small nascent leftist coalition to help keep the government accountable. She's now the Prime Minister and the most popular Parliamentary candidate in the nation's history. (Edit: She was knocked off first place by a dude in the final result. Boo.)
(On the other handâ the woman who helped make me a radical anarchist and literally helped write a book on political dissent and resistance...now is the state. Uh.)
But there are so many women in Parliament! We had the lowest female representation in a South Asian Parliament and some of them were from the list of seats reserved for parties rather than elected ones. Most were either anti-feminist conservative embarrassments, widows and daughters of elite politicians and neoliberal shills. It's still only an increase of a few percentage points (Edit: from the previous 5% to 10% in the final result!) but now we have elected academics, feminist advocates, activists! There Is a representative for Malaiyaha Tamils in the Central Province for the first time in history and it's a young woman! (Edit: now it's two female Malaiyaha MPS!!) This is the plantation community that still live in conditions closest to the slavery the British forced upon them two hundred years ago!
I'm like. Completely mindfucked. To be very very clear, the NPP coalition formed around the nucleus of the JVP that used to be communist but haven't been in 30 years, they're now just social democrats who are left of places like the US and UK, whose "left" is now center-right. They're only threatening to the Western mainstream media for some reason who can't stop bleating about how we have a "Marxist" government now. In reality, the actual chances for radical reform are still quite low, and the opportunity for further erosion is quite high with a super majority government regardless of affiliation.
On the other hand:
What the fuck.
Sometimes living through historical events is really damn amazing.
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Âč Well, nearly. There are a few career politicians and a nepo baby but they aren't so bad either.
ÂČ Goddamn it, Baby Rajapaksa and Sri Lanka's answer to JD Vance have wormed their way in using the list of Constitutionally reserved party seats for non-elected members. FUCK the National List.
#five years ago i was working a news desk watching a band of violent ethnofascists known for genocide torture kidnappings and murder sweep in#and take control of the entire country#on the heels of the worst terrorist attack we've suffered that they orchestrated for this purpose#wondering how many of our colleagues would be safe#and watching the people that opposed them flee the country#i cannot tell you the enraging hopeless terror#and now#they're all gone#THEY'RE FUCKING GONE#sri lanka politics#sri lanka news#sri lanka protests#sri lankan parliamentary elections#sri lanka election 2024#anura kumara dissanayake#harini amarasuriya#feminism#leftism#world news#faith in humanity#power to the people#aragalaya#knee of huss#à¶
රà¶à¶œà¶șට à¶ąà¶ș!#à¶
රà¶à¶œà¶șට à¶ąà¶ș
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gonna be entirely honest i think a LOT of people are missing the point here. the issues surrounding characterization and bad dialogue and lazy plotting and changes that weaken the story and lack of internal cohesion would have existed anyway, because those are issues that came directly from condal and hess, yes. but it IS actually a massive fucking problem that the network decided to slash a FIFTH of the time the writers thought they were gonna have to tell their story, and that they decided to do that mere weeks before shooting, likely when things were starting to be pretty firmly locked down. it IS a huge issue that this created an insane amount of work for the writing team to try and make that sudden limited time work, especially with the deadline of the strike on top of the deadline of shooting. that was ALWAYS going to create a disaster of a season.
imagine if, a month before it was schedule to start filming, hbo had demanded that succcession cut, at minimum, a full episode from their season. imagine if season 4 had that similar mandate, going from ten episodes (which it was, and which it crafted its story around) to eight. it doesn't matter how good the writing is, how on point the characterization is, how fantastic everything is on all other cylinders, demanding those changes in such a short time span is always going to lead to something sloppy and just not good. adding on top of that the fact that the writers were not able to keep on working on the show as they were filming (possibly using the time they were shooting early season episodes to work around the clock to try and make the time crunch make more sense wrt later episodes) due to the strike, which kept up for literally the entirety of shooting, at hbo's behest as well, any change that could have been made was likely incredibly half baked and needed a lot more refinement before it could even hope to work, and would have been that way for any production, even of the shows getting the most applause for their brilliance this year. abbott elementary, interview with the vampire, shogun, they would have suffered the same issues of pacing and lack of climax and both too much buildup and lack of buildup that hotd has been noted as having because of hbo's choices, and these are all shows where we know that the writing team is top notch and the showrunner has known exactly what they're doing and crafted it all expertly.
it's not about your antipathy towards condal and hess as showrunners specifically. i'm not pleased with them either, but in this i could honestly give a shit. it's about the fact that this is an insanely popular property, one whose success creates a lot of money, and the network responsible for it still made decisions that severely and detrimentally impacted its ability to succeed. this season was doomed to fail before a second of footage was shot, and a lot of that blame can and should be laid at hbo for the choices it's made here. there likely wasn't much that would have been able make the writing of the season better, because of the issues already highlighted, but this didn't fucking help. this made it infinitely worse, and created an unsalvageable situation from the getgo that possibly wouldn't have been there if the episode count hadn't been cut, if the writers had known their final count from the getgo, if they'd been given more time to rework the season, if hbo hadn't kept up filming in spite of the strike so that the writers could keep working without screwing over the rest of production.
way too many people are missing the forest for the trees here. yes, condal and hess made bad decisions all the livelong day, and yes that's on them, ring the shame bell at them. but it doesn't matter in the discussion here. the discussion here is on what's now a very clear pattern of hbo and the broader wb/discovery crew making constant choices that denigrate the actual craft of storytelling and are clearly meant to maximize their own profits at the expense of the artists involved in creating those profits, as part of the broader entertainment executive industry's disdain for creatives as a whole that we've been seeing with the strikes and generative ai and now this (and also the trend of david zaslav's incredibly bad business management that is alienating so many people from everything under the wb/discovery umbrella). that's why hbo making these choices is essentially dooming the season to fail from the outset (which is what it was, there's no way anything good could have come from this situation even if the entire writing staff was blessed by the muses themselves, it was dead in the water from the getgo because of this specifically and then only made worse by shitty writing), and something that should be talked about with the gravity it deserves, irrespective of whether or not the dragon show did a plotline you liked or not.
i'm sorry hbo allowed this writing team to plan out a ten episode season until a MONTH before shooting when they cut it down to eight????? and then kept production going when the writer's strike started like two weeks after and kept up for the entirety of the filming schedule??????? i said that filming during the writer's strike was the death knell of this season but oh my god i did not expect to be this fucking right
#personal#house of the dragon#hotd#unfortunately this post has gotten traction#and with traction comes notes#and with notes comes people who feel compelled to just say the same thing over and over#and unfortunately sometimes things get on my nerves#i'm not known for my ability to shut up about things that get on my nerves#like as someone who hated the writing top to bottom for this season: it literally does not fucking matter at all#how much you hate condal and hess's choices#like yeah they made bad choices their writing was shitty their direction was nonsensical and stupid and Bad#but that's not the point!!!! it doesn't fucking matter!!!!!!! in this situation specifically i don't care!!!!!!#you guys KNOW i'm not a fan of this season and the choices made with the greens and overall dance plots and stuff with rhaena#i've been open about that#but come ON that's not the issue#it's like saying you hate that the bad flash movie used ai to shove in christopher reeves because you hate his iteration of superman#that's not why that should be upsetting!!!! quit focusing on the wrong fucking things!!!!#some of you need to use your higher brain function on why this is a massive problem#without having to talk about how ryan condal and sara hess deserve to be shot execution style for their crimes against your fave#it's so peripheral#their writing sucked it was ass it was not feminist in the slightest it was weak it was borderline racist in some ways#that also has nothing to do with the way hbo completely shafted this season the second they did what they did#that's a separate thing#hell it's why i've said that hbo's decisions were the things that spelled doom not the things that singlehandedly killed the season#cuz duh it wasn't#but also DUH it absolutely negative affected it in key ways#and is part of a much more broad and deeply disturbing pattern within the industry#come on people think!
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the relatively small-fry feminist issue that upsets me the most is that girls hardly use parks, and in every survey and study, they cite boys as the reason. skate parks, basketball courts, soccer fields, theyâre overwhelmingly male dominated starting at a very young age. girls get less physical activity, get out of the house less, and participate in less play, because as soon as those spaces have boys in them, girls are either pushed out, or stop using them before they can be.
and itâs a minority of landscape architects who factor this in when designing new parks. are they well lit? are the bathrooms clean and in a busy space? do they have walking trails, roller skating loops, bike paths, rather than only organized courts? are those paths wide enough to accommodate groups? are there multiple courts/play areas, sectioned off from each other? are there lit, covered seating areas, especially picnic tables or other group seating?
in an ideal world, girls would feel just as welcome jumping into a pick-up game as boys, would be able to claim a soccer field with their friends and not worry it would be overtaken or they would be jeered at, would feel free to take up hobbies like skateboarding and go to the park on their own. but they donât. weâre not in that world. claiming a mixed sex space is an equal one is a lie, for now. we have to meet girls where they are.
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the triple burden (housework, childcare AND paid employment) IS a real issue that feminists have been discussing for decades... but the way tiktok tradfem tradwife girlies have twisted that into "it's too much stress for women to take on all the housework AND work full-time, so we should ~nurture our divine femininity~ by quitting our jobs becoming housewives and relying completely on our Strong Men to support us financially!!" rather than "it's too much stress for women to take on all the housework AND work full-time, so maybe men could start pulling their fucking weight around the house more and do the dishes every now and again"
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i am not being needlessly alarmist when i say that popular feminism has become extremely radfem-esque and that the normalisation of negative stereotypes towards men needs to be resisted. like. i clearly remember when feminists were derided as "man-hating feminazis" and the main counter-argument to that went something like "we don't hate men, feminism is for everyone, patriarchy harms men too and our goal is to dismantle that oppressive system, this will benefit everyone including men, men can and should be feminists because feminism is a movement for gender equality"
in fact the major rebuttal to men forming "men's rights" movements was always that the issues these groups identified were the negative impacts of the patriarchy on men. they didn't need a separate group because feminism was for everyone and feminist thought and theorising already accounted for the ways patriarchy harms men. which is true! many of the societal issues faced by men stem from white supremacist patriarchy and restrictive gender roles and traditionally feminism has given thought and time to those issues. feminism is for everyone and it is concerned with men's struggles under patriarchy alongside women's.
but somewhere in the last few decades that attitude fell by the wayside and now popular online feminism is this radfem-flavored "all men are bad forever" thing. now mocking, belittling, or hating men is #feminist #praxis. it's feminist to make jokes about #killallmen. it's feminist to view masculinity as inherently bad and dangerous. it's feminist to talk about the men in your life like they're animals who need to be house trained, or emotionally stunted children who need to be babied and distracted.
it's this idea of flipping patriarchy on its head and saying that actually women are the Superior Gender, women deserve to run the world and make all the decisions, and actually it's men who are the Inferior Gender who can't be trusted or left unsupervised.
these attitudes will always have the most severe negative impact on marginalised men. i don't know how we got here but it's past time we circled back around to "feminism is for everyone".
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TERFs couldn't keep Posie Parker out of their movement. They tried, like some of them really did think of themselves as feminists and cared about more than just exterminating trans people, some of them expressed concern that their movement's figureheads were ceding ground to Matt Walsh, but there was never going to be any meaningful resistance to fascism in the TERF movement. Their movement was fundamentally anti-feminist and racist.
I mention this, because it's already happening to this new online movement of TMRAs. There's moderate ones, I got a few in my inbox. "Come on, no one's saying that transmascs are more oppressed than trans women, we just have a right to recount our unique experiences." and those ones are already expressing concern that their movement is housing open transmisogynists. People who say Kiwifarms is a necessary evil, who expound the validity of sex-based oppression and outright deny the misogyny that transfems face, who sexually harrass and threaten transfems for sport and content.
See, the issue is that there was never going to be any resistance to transmisogyny in this movement. Your premise is flawed, you chose bad axioms. Even in its most moderate form, your movement is one skeptical of intersectionality, of the very concept of being oppressed on one axis but privileged on another. Enjoy skeptic-youtube 2: transgender boogaloo, you made your bed for it.
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Sex work debates within feminism often revolve around the tension between protecting workers and dismantling the industry. Radical feminists argue that while sex workers should be protected, the ultimate goal should be to eliminate the conditions that force women into these roles. They advocate for systemic change that addresses poverty, abuse, and exploitation, rather than merely regulating an industry that profits from women's vulnerabilities. But suddenly, when it's a 19 year old girl, she's so mature for her age, she just gets him, she knows what she's doing. Men 's dismissal of women 's safety concerns reflects a broader societal issue of control and dominance. When women take steps to protect themselves, men may mock or undermine their efforts, revealing a desire to keep women feeling unsafe. This behavior is rooted in a need to maintain power over women, making it difficult for them to assert their autonomy and independence. Radical feminists argue that sex work should not be normalized or celebrated but dismantled. While protecting workers is essential, they believe that the real solution lies in addressing the systemic issues that force women into the industry. By targeting the demand for sex work and providing women with alternatives, feminists hope to create a society where women are not exploited for their bodies. Why? Why are you for sex work? Why do you think that sex work should exist? Why do you think that there should be laws in place that protect not only the sex workers but also the pimps and sex buyers? I didnt PINGAS for this squogulous banana, it found me in The hotdog stand.I didnt PINGAS for this squogulous banana, it found me in The hotdog stand.I didnt PINGAS for this squogulous banana, it found me in The hotdog stand.! Ive had enough of Eggman always trying to peang in under my bed. The funny part of The Miscarriage shack is where the Firestar likes to slomp. Go to my house.
#female separatism#radblr#radical misandrist#genderideology#misandrist#gender is bullshit#terfblr#tra homophobia#detrans
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your tags. yeah. it's not that they are progressive or feminist or even written by women -- but they are doing something with women that is complex and worth paying attention to, and in many cases they are the reason we have a version of a particular woman's story at all
yeah that's one of the marketing conceits of the myth retelling novel industrial complex that bothers me, it's the framing as if no one has ever paid attention to these female characters who are buried unnoticed in the myths when often the most complete or the most authoritative version of the character's story that survives from antiquity is in tragedy, a genre that is notoriously interested in bringing female characters out of the house and putting them on stage in active roles, and in using those female characters to explore issues of gender and the place of women in contemporary society.
like to a certain degree it makes sense for the homeric women who don't appear in (extant) tragedy, like briseis or the hanged women in odyssey 22, but we have stories where clytemnestra and deianira and medea insist on make narrative space for themselves to tell their own stories from their own perspectives, refusing to be silent about the violence their society inflicts upon women and the lasting damage it does. they're called aeschylus' agamemnon and sophocles' trachiniae and euripides' medea. and maybe you want to retell those stories for modern audiences, changing things or emphasizing different aspects of them! and that's great! but framing it as if they've been ignored and their stories are as-yet-untold is just not accurate, and it's a cheap way to paint your work as innovative and subversive.
#interestingly the exception is medusa. who really is never given her own voice in antiquity *because she's never imagined as a person*#so like. the same way there nobody in antiquity wanted to look at the labors of heracles from the perspective of the hydra.#but (following ovid) modern reception tends to understand medusa as a person with interiority and her own perspective#in a way that i dont think would have made sense to anyone in archaic or classical greece#and medusa is often put into this category of 'misunderstood women' for the purposes of retellings#mine#ask#wizardysseus#retellings#reception
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Besties Iâm fucking tired lmao
#vent tw#transphobia tw#Iâm tired of bathrooms and locker rooms and sports and âwomen only spacesâ#Iâm tired of people pretending to care about women and children#Iâm tired of self proclaimed feminists partnering up with people who oppose every one of their other views#because their hatred for trans people outweighs the rest of their beliefs#Iâm tired of people being purposefully ignorant and simply refusing to consider anything outside of their view point#Iâm tired of people refusing to even do bare minimum research yet continue to talk about things like theyâre an expert#Iâm tired of people finding every loophole possible to justify violence against trans people#Iâm tired of time and money being spent on these dumb ass laws#on things that arenât even an actual problem#because hating trans people is easier than addressing actual issues and helping any communities ever#there are real problems in the world. each state has their own individual concerns that need to be addressed.#that need attention and funding and change in the laws and conditions.#but thatâs real easy for people to ignore when theyâre putting all their time#and effort#into ensuring trans people cannot safely leave the house ever#I want to go to bed and sleep until things are better#I have to remind myself there are very good people in the world. there really are. and there are people who are trying.#and that people can even change. not everyone will be as angry and hateful forever. change is good progress is good#but right now Iâm so goddamn tired
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Not long after the November election, new members of Congress gather for a couple of weeks of orientation. Consistent with that tradition, Sarah McBride, a Delaware Democrat, made the short trip from Wilmington to D.C. to meet with her fellow first-termers. At a hotel in the capital, she learned about the lottery for office space, how to assemble a staff, and the intricacies of the legislative process. As the first transgender member of Congress in history, she also experienced an orientation in naked aggression. Within days of her arrival, Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, introduced a resolution that would restrict access to all âsingle-sex facilitiesâ on Capitol Hill to those of the âcorresponding biological sex.â In other words, Mace sought a bathroom billâand made clear that she âabsolutelyâ intended it as a reaction to McBride.
âIâm not going to stand for a man, you know, someone with a penis, in the womenâs locker room,â Mace, who had claimed to be âpro-transgender rightsâ as recently as last year, said of her new proposal. She also added an odd, pseudo-feminist twist: âItâs offensive that a man in a skirt thinks that heâs my equal.â Mace found support among Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, who, according to Politico, told colleagues that she would fight McBride were the two of them ever to meet in a womenâs bathroom on the Hill.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was among those who leapt to McBrideâs defense, calling the bill âdisgusting.â McBride, for her part, refused to take the bait, saying that she would âfollow the rules as outlined by Speaker Johnson, even if I disagree with them.â
McBride was born in Wilmington; her father was a lawyer and her mother a high-school guidance counselor. At American University, she was active in Democratic politics and worked on Beau Bidenâs campaign for Delaware attorney general. In her senior year, she served as student-body president, and ended her term by publishing a moving coming-out article for the Eagle, the A.U. paper, called âThe Real Me.â
McBride had been hesitant to acknowledge her trans identity, she explained, because that might prevent her from pursuing a career in politics. âI wrestled with the idea that my dream and my identity seemed mutually exclusive; I had to pick,â she wrote. In the end, she realized that she would have to embrace both: âMy life was passing me by, and I was done wasting it as someone I wasnât.â
In 2020, McBride was elected to the Delaware State Senate. And this November she was elected to the United States House. At the start of our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, she seemed determined to keep her cool, despite the insult she had just suffered. âI think in many ways I got a fuller orientation this week, where I actually got to see not just the nuts and bolts of Congress,â she said drily, âbut also some of the performance of Congress, too.â
Well, letâs talk about that. Nancy Mace, one of your colleagues now, immediately came forward and decided that this would be a good time, a perfect time, to introduce a bathroom bill, all directed at you. How did you take this piece of what can only be called aggression?
I always knew that there would be some members of the Republican caucus who would seek to use my service representing the greatest state in the Union in Congress as an opportunity for them to distract from the fact that they have absolutely no real policy solutions for the issues that actually plague this country. And, in some cases, to grab headlines themselves. I was not surprised that there was an effort to politicize an issue that no one truly cares aboutâwhat bathroom I use. I did think that it might wait until January. It happened a little earlier than I anticipated. I was still getting lost in the tunnels of the Capitol when we got the news that this was coming.
What was your first reaction to it?
âHere we go.â Throughout the campaign, I really focussed my campaign on my record in the Delaware General Assembly: of passing paid leave, expanding access to health care, and the kitchen-table issues that I know keep voters across Delaware up at night that I will be working on in Congress, like lowering the cost of housing, health care, and child care. But, as I got questions about the added responsibilities that sometimes come with being a first, the first thing I would always say is that I know that the only way I can do right by any community Iâm a part of is to quite simply be the best member of Congress for Delaware that I can be, to be an effective member working on all of the issues that matter.
When I was watching this play out on television, reading about it, in the past week or two, I looked up how the first Black member of Congress was received, Hiram Revels. This is in the nineteenth century. He was treated with a great deal more respect than you were. I understand your desire to be poised about this, and straightforward, and to move the issues to the issues you ran on. But I wonder what your emotional reaction was to what you could only have taken as an enormous gesture of deep disrespect.
Look, Iâm human, and it never feels good to be used as an opportunity to get headlines. It never feels good to have people talk about deeply personal things. I think I knew what I was signing up for, though; I know what the Republican Party in this country, in Congress, has become.
Which is what?
A party that is more interested in performance art and being professional provocateurs than being serious legislators and a serious governing party. I think they have come to the conclusion that they are able to get enough votes if they occasionally throw red meat to folks, because that red meat might satiate what is an authentic crisis of hope that I think people across this country face right now.
I think we have to be crystal clear in calling them out on what they are doing, and pull the curtain back to really dull the effect that these manufactured culture wars have on the American voter. Some people do receive this red meat, and it resonates with themâit makes them feel better, but it doesnât actually address the real pain in their lives. And I think we should be calling that out and obviously modelling an approach to governing that genuinely solves the real problems that people are facing that create a level of insecurity and fear that allows for culture wars to satiate at least something instantaneously.
But I truly believe that if we solve problems, if we are serious, people respond. Iâve seen that in Delaware as we have passed paid leave, raised the minimum wage. Voters here in Delaware are sort of bucking this national trend. Weâve expanded our majorities both in 2022 and 2024 in the Delaware General Assembly, I believe, as a byproduct of a record of results that voters are responding to, and a message focussed on kitchen-table issues and economic issues. And itâs allowed us to not only expand our majorities but to break through the culture wars that the Republican Party has pursued. Because weâre in Delaware, in the Philadelphia media marketâwe are getting those anti-trans Trump ads pumped into our state like we were in Pennsylvania. And yet, despite that, running on a message of paid leave, higher minimum wage, union protections, a trans candidate not only won here in Delaware but actually outperformed every major Democrat running for major office in Delaware statewide.
And yet the notorious ads that ended with âKamala Harris is for they/them, President Trump is for youââads that were oriented around anti-trans sentimentânot only did they occur, they worked. Certainly, they worked in the interpretation of not only the Republicans but the press at large. They ran them over and over again and poured millions of dollars into them.
So, first off, I think there are two things. One, this country is still entering into a conversation about trans people. This country still is at a Trans 101 spot. And one of the things I think Democrats have to be more mindful of is that leaders should always be out in front of public opinion, but, in order to foster change in public opinion, weâve got to be within armâs distance of the public so that we can pull them along with us. If we get too out ahead of it, we lose our grip and weâre unable to pull the public with us.
Is that whatâs responsible for your calm in talking about this? I remember very well that Barack Obama, when he was running for State Senate in Illinois, got a questionnaire, and one of the questions was âAre you for gay marriage?â He didnât say yes. Now, everything I know about Barack Obama tells me that, at that time, a clear ânoâ was not his real sentiment, but that he didnât want to get too far out ahead, for political reasons. He clearly changed later on. Is that part of your calculus in the way you talk about this? Because Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez answered Nancy Mace in much more vitriolic terms.
I think there is a space for diversity of messengers and a diversity of message. I would never presume what was in Barack Obamaâs heart and mind on the issue of marriage equality. Many people authentically evolved. What we do know is that, as the movement for marriage equality moved forward, the most effective messengers for marriage were not same-sex couples, were not parents of same-sex couples or kids of same-sex couples. The most effective messengers for marriage equality were those who evolved. And they were effective because they gave a permission structure to people who had not yet gotten there that it was O.K. to be uncomfortable, it was O.K. to be on the other side of the issue. You werenât a bad person; you werenât wrong.
My motto has always been: Iâll extend grace so long as people demonstrate growth. But that is a two-way street. And I think that we are shooting ourselves in the foot, as people who believe in progress, when we create no incentive for people to grow, because they perceive that they will be permanently guilty for having been wrong. We create no space for them to grow by extending no grace for them to actually walk there. I think one of the reasons why we see people pushed into their respective corners is because you say something thatâs deemed problematic, and you are immediately hounded by one side and immediately embraced by the other side. Human nature is toâwhen faced with that degree of extreme binary reactionsâgo to the people who are validating you instantaneously. We unintentionally actually push people further and further into their own corners and into their negative opinion by responding with a degree of condemnation and vitriol that creates no incentive and space for them to grow.
But I actually want to say something on those ads, because you did say the key sentence in that ad. It wasnât the surgery point, it wasnât the undocumented-immigrant point, it wasnât the trans point, it was the concept in that line that Kamala Harris, according to the ad, was for a small group of people, and Donald Trump was there for âyou.â The lesson of this moment, of this last week, is that we should be flipping that script. Because thatâs the authentic thingâKamala Harris was for everyone. And Democrats are for everyone. And every single time Republicans focus in on a small vulnerable group of people, not only are they trying to distract from the fact that they have no real solutionsânot only are they trying to employ the politics of misdirection, to move your attention away from the fact that in that same moment theyâre trying to pick the pocket of American workers, undermine union protections, and fleece seniors by privatizing Medicare through the back doorâbut every bit of time and energy that is diverted to attack trans people, that diverts the attention of the federal government away toward attacking trans people, is time and energy that is not being spent on you. Itâs time and attention thatâs not being spent on raising your wages or improving your benefits or lowering the cost of living. These attacks have costs. Republicans are focussed on attacking a small group of people, and we are here to actually address the issues that you care about.
Youâve now had a week with your new colleagues, and I wonder what kind of support, or the opposite, you felt in your orientation sessions after Nancy Mace made the statement she did.
I have been overwhelmed and heartened by the love and the support of my Democratic colleagues. It was stunning. I got to Washington, and Iâm at orientation. Iâm grateful that I had a week before all of this started, because I had a week to just marvel at the fact that I was there. I had a week to marvel at the fact that I am serving in a body that Abraham Lincoln served in. One of the first nights we were there, we gathered in Statuary Hall, which is the Old Hall of the House, which is where Abraham Lincoln served. And then, after we gathered there, we walked onto the floor of the United States House of Representatives, where they moved in 1857, just before the Civil War broke out. And we sat in the chairs and I thought, This is the space where the Thirteenth Amendment and the Fourteenth Amendment were passed. This is the space where women got the right to vote. This is the space, these are the chairs. This is the job of the people who voted to pass the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. And you feel this awesome responsibility, not just to deliver on the tangible policies for the constituents you serve in that moment, but you also feel that deep responsibility as you realize that you are one of a little more than five hundred people who have the responsibility to be stewards of a democracyâof the longest ongoing democracy in the world. That is an awe-inspiring responsibility.
Iâm really grateful that I had that opportunity. But what was made that much more meaningful was that in that second week, as all of this noise happenedâas I continued to be focussed on the actual work that I was there to doâthe love and the support that came in from my Democratic colleagues really reinforced what I had already been hearing, which is that that caucus is a family.
And what about the Republican side? Did you get any support from there?
Yes. Look, there was a lot unsaid, but there was kindness and clear intentionality to say, âWelcome to Congress. Itâs wonderful to serve with you.â That was quite a contrast to some of the other behavior we saw that week.
People actually coming up to you from the Republican side and embracing you in one way or another?
Yes. Staff and members.
The Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, released a statement that said all single-sex facilities are for people of that âbiologicalâ sex. You responded to this on X, formerly Twitter (itâs interesting that youâre still on Twitter!), by calling this a distraction and saying that youâll follow the rules as outlined by Johnson. But what do you say to people in the trans community who think you didnât go far enough?
I understand that, at a moment where you are scared, you want to see someone fight. I understand that when you are a first, there are a lot of people who never dreamed that something like this would be possible, who are living on that journey with you. And so they feel very deeply the experience of discrimination. They feel very viscerally the experience of disrespect. I think what I would say is, This was not done to bar me from restrooms. This was done to invite me to take the bait and to fight. I am maintaining my power by turning the other cheek and doing what I promised Delawareans I would do, which is to focus on the job in front of me. Yes, when that calls for me to defend my L.G.B.T.Q. constituents, I will do that; when it calls on me to defend workers in my state, I will do that; when it calls on me to defend retirees in my state, I will do that. But I should not be the issue.
You must have anticipated, if not this, then something like it. And of course you are a first, a historical first. Do you face a lot of threats?
I think one of the problems in our politics right now is the level of toxicity has resulted in far too many people seeking to solve political disputes not at the ballot box but through violence. I am certainly not alone in Congress in having to think through that. I think itâs very early. There have been moments throughout my life where I have had to be cognizant. Iâve never had a job where I have not received death threats. Literally, I have never had a jobâeven when I was in my first, junior-level position.
How do you handle them?
Well, fortunately, weâve got great law enforcement here in Delaware that I have worked with over the course of this campaign and throughout my time in the State Senate. Look, one of the things that I grappled with when I decided to run for this position is the risk that comes with being a first at this level. Even though I didnât run to be a first, thereâs obviously risk that comes with it. And there was a moment where I almost didnât do it. Because of the fear.
Tell me about that. Was it a specific incident or just a generalized fear?
There were some rumors about what some far-right-wing groups might try to do, should I run.
When did this come up?
This was before I announced. There was a lot of speculation about me running.
So what within you allowed you to make the leap and declare yourself a candidate for Congress?
A couple of things. First off, I think that we delude ourselves into thinking that people donât take these types of steps without fear. People arenât fearless. Bravery only comes into play when you face those fears, when you pursue something despite the fears. I really do believe that we are at an inflection point where we need a politics of grace in this country if we are going to have any chance at not only restoring our capacity to have a national dialogue, which is fundamentally necessary in a democracy, but actually making government work better. I genuinely felt like I had something to contribute in that respect. I think I know how to get things done. I know how to legislate.
But youâre going to have to embody graceâand thereâs every sign that you already doâbut with a President who says, publicly, something like this: âYour kid goes to school and a few days later comes home with an operation.â Thatâs the President of the United States, come January 20th. How do you combat that, and all thatâs behind it, and embody grace?
I think a couple of things, and I think this extends beyond Donald Trump. So Iâm going to step back a little bit. I think Democrats struggle with extending one of our basic principlesâwhich is that no one is their worst act, no one is their worst beliefâto people on the other side of the political divide. Iâm not talking about Donald Trump right now. Iâm talking about Republicans. The question here is not how do I demonstrate grace in the face of Donald Trump; itâs how do I demonstrate grace in a world where people that I work withâwhere even people that I representâhold positions and beliefs about who I am that are personally hurtful, potentially.
I think all of us need to do a better job of seeing the humanity of people on the other side of the aisle. Because I think what happens in this country right now is: The left says to the right, âWhat do you know about pain, white straight man? My pain is real, as an L.G.B.T.Q. person.â And the right says to the left, âWhat do you know about pain, college-educated, cosmopolitan Ă©lite? My pain is real, in a post-industrial community ravaged by the opioid crisis.â And I know that, when I am upset, the worst thing that someone can say to me, even if it is said with the best of intentions, is âItâs not as bad as you think.â Any therapist will tell you that the first step to healing is to have your pain seen and validated. And I think all of us have to do a better job of recognizing that people donât have to be right in our mind for what theyâre facing to be wrong. And people donât have to be right in our minds for us to try to right that wrong. That comes down to sort of a core recognition that every single person is more than just one thing about them. And every single person is more than even beliefs that might personally hurt many other people. And the other thing Iâll say on that is to a similar point: early on in my career, I went viral for something.
Do you remember what it was?
Ironically enough, I was an advocate. It was a selfie in a bathroom in North Carolina that I was technically barred from being in.
I see.
The vitriol that came back to me as a twentysomething-year-old was so dehumanizing and so cruel and so mean. It was the closest in my life that I have ever been to suicide becoming a rational thought. I wasnât suicidal, but it was the first moment where I just went, I want to end this miserable experience.
What was coming at you?
I mean just the level of online bullying and harassment. It was amazing to me that peopleâperson after personâtelling me to kill myself could actually hurt me. But it was an onslaught. And, again, I was twenty-five. I was new to all this, and I thought, Maybe I donât have skin thick enough for this. I sort of went on a journey to understand the psychology of trolling and bullying. I think it was a âThis American Lifeâ podcast by a writer who talks a lot about her own weight and grapples with her own body image in a really public and vulnerable way, talking about the experience that she had writing about that hurt and getting outreach from one of her worst bullies and trolls onlineâsomeone who had created a Twitter account as her deceased father to troll her fromâwho opened up to her about what was motivating him. And, listening to that conversation, it really helped me internalize a truth that has allowed me to find balance and grace in the face of hatred or cruelty. And that was: Everyone deals with an insecurity. Everyone deals with something that society has told them that they should be ashamed of or that they should hide. And the thing about me is that I have taken that insecurity, that thing that society has said you should be ashamed of and you should keep quietâand Iâve not only accepted it but I walk forward from a place of pride in it. Bullies see that. They see that individual agency and conquering my own fears and insecurities, and theyâre jealous of that. That has allowed me to find compassion for folks who respond to me in sometimes the way that they do, to recognize that I hope, too, they can find the power to overcome whatever pain is plaguing them.
And so much so that when Nancy Mace made the comments that she did, and put forward the bill that she didâare you able to see it in those terms and not receive the attacks with the same despair that you did when you were in your twenties?
Yes. Yes.
Thatâs an enormous transformation.
I wonât say that it doesnât hurt, but, yes, I am not distracted in the same way that I was.
âDistractedâ is a small word for it. I mean, what you felt in your twenties mustâve been a lot worse than âdistracted,â no?
Yeah. I am able to contextualize it and not feel the pain as much. Again, it doesnât mean that it doesnât hurt, but I am able to work through it.
How? Thatâs a very hard thing. Is it therapy? Is it maturation? Is it living in your skin ten years longer? What is it?
I think the last two: I think itâs maturation, and I think itâs just finding a confidence in myself that allows me not to internalize. I really do seek to find compassion for the people who are acting out, who say the things that they do, because that does help me. That does help me to try to see and understand where a person is coming from, even if the action itself explicitly or implicitly is not well-intentioned, even if itâs being done for cynical purposesâto try to understand that thereâs still a person behind that and maybe thereâs something in their life that has pushed them to engage in the way that theyâre engaging.
In a certain number of weeks, youâre not only going to have to hear about Nancy Mace, youâre going to have to work with her. And you talk a lot about âworking across the aisle,â which is a phrase that we hear from politicians all the time. This takes on new levels of meaningââworking across the aisle with Nancy Mace.â Can you do it?
Well, I look forward to working with colleagues on the Republican side of the aisle who are serious about the work that theyâre doing. Who have disagreements with me, perhaps profound disagreements with me, but who are serious about getting things done.
For the first time in our conversation, I sense youâre reluctant to answer the question directly. With all respect.
I will work with anyone whoâs willing to work with me. And I donât know this individual member of CongressâI had barely heard of her before this. I will never say that anyone is beyond redemption.
I want to zoom out a bit now and talk about your own unique path to politics and congress. Your late husband, Andrew Cray, was an L.G.B.T.Q.+ health advocate and attorney. What kind of work did he focus on, and what of his legacy can be seen in your own political career and direction?
Andy was the kindest, smartest, andâthis is very important for me in a partnerâthe goofiest person that I had ever met. Just a really good and decent person.
How did you meet?
We bumped into each other at a White House Pride reception during the fourth year of the Obama Administration, 2012. After that, he reached back out to me on social media, on Facebook, and he said that he thought weâd get along âswimmingly.â I thought, Who the hell in their twenties says the word âswimminglyâ? But clearly someone I want to spend some time with. So we went out on a date, and I fell in love pretty quickly.
Was he already sick?
No. He was an attorney, as you mentioned, working on health policy, and he was actually working on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. He was a brilliant mind, but alsoâand I think this goes back to our conversation about graceâhe was so principled. I remember we had a debate once where he won me overâwhere we had a debate about whether it was appropriate to out anti-L.G.B.T.Q. politicians who were in the closet themselves. I was of the mind that their hypocrisy called on us to out them. And he was of the mind that the principle that we are fighting forâthat everyone should be able to live their life fully and freely, be able to live their sexual orientation and gender identity, the way they see fit and the way they need toâif that is not an unbreakable first principle, then what is? And principles only matter when you have seemingly altruistic reasons to violate them. He was someone of just immense grace, principled grace.
He got sick about a year into our relationship. He developed a sore on his tongue and went in thinking it was just a benign growth. He had a little minor surgery to remove the benign growth, which was aborted in the middle of the procedure as they realized perhaps that it was something more. About a week later, he was diagnosed with oral cancer. It was a shock to both of us. I mean, we were both young invincibles, something that he had written about as he worked on the A.C.A., right? We never wouldâve imagined that cancer would enter our lives in our mid-twenties, but we knew from the very start how lucky we were. He knew in particular, given his work, how lucky he was to have health insurance. And we were both very lucky to have flexibility with our jobs that allowed Andy to get care: a twelve-hour surgery that left him having to relearn how to talk, how to eat, how to breathe. I was lucky to be there by his side to care for him, to suction his tracheostomy tube, to tend to his wounds, to hold his hand through the absolute fear.
And then eventually, when his cancer turned out to be terminal, to be there by his side, to marry him, and to walk him to his passing, which happened a couple of days after we were fortunate enough to get married in our building. My brother, whoâs a radiation oncologist, said to me, âIâve seen a lot of people pass away from cancer. And one thing you should try to take stock of over the weeks ahead, as Andyâs health deteriorates, is that you are going to bear witness to acts of amazing grace that will fill your life.â And truly that grace and those miracles were everywhere. I think it has fundamentally shifted my perspective on the world and my ability to see that grace, to see beauty and tragedy, and to recognize that hope, as an emotion, only makes sense in the face of hardship.
In other words, youâre thinking about him all the time through this?
Yes. Yes.
And what does that do for you?
It makes me feel less alone in navigating this. It makes me feel more confident in what Iâm doing and how Iâm trying to go about this. Thereâs certainly things that I wish I could talk to him about and get his perspective on, but I try to take the lessons from our couple of years together and try to draw those lessons into action in this moment.
We began our conversation with you talking about how moved you were to be in the halls of Congress for the first time as a soon-to-be member, and seeing and sensing all that had happened in progressive terms, in liberatory terms, over time and in previous centuries. My guess is that this is not going to characterize the next two years for you in Congress. The Democratic Party, in large measure, will be fighting a rear-guard action against all kinds of initiatives by a Trump Presidency in a Republican Congress. How do you anticipate the coming next two years? What kind of role will the Democrats and you play? What will be your day-to-day life, do you think?
Well, thereâs no question that weâve got our work cut out for us. Thereâs no question that weâre going to have to push back on a lot of damaging and dangerous policies.
But, look, I think the biggest challenge for us is not that we understand that thereâs a fight. And we will do the work. The challenge is going to be to summon the hope necessary to see that fight through. I think that one of the challenges that we have in this country right now, particularly for Democrats, is that, really since the nineteen-sixties, it has felt like if we simply work for it, if we vote for it, if we volunteer, if we share our stories, if we lift our voices, that we can then inevitably bend the arc of the moral universe toward justice. And we felt that, I think particularly, in 2008 and when we elected Barack Obama, and then A.C.A. passed, and marriage equality became a law of the land. It just felt like there was this sort of unfolding sense of great progress.
It feels different right now. It doesnât feel like, if we simply work for it and fight for it, that change will come, that things will work out. We canât see the light at the end of the tunnel. But the other thing that I thought about, as I sat in that chair on the floor of the House, was about not only the elected officials that served there but all of the advocates and activists and citizens who lived through those different chapters in our countryâs history. We have to recognize that that sense of inevitability with hard work that we felt twenty years ago, thirty years agoâthatâs the exception in our countryâs history. Every single previous generation of Americans has been called to conquer odds much greater than the ones that weâre facing right now. And they had every reason to believe that change would not come. They could not see the light at the end of the tunnel. Enslaved people in the eighteen-fifties had no reason to believe that an Emancipation Proclamation was on the horizon. Unemployed workers during the early days of the Great Depression had never heard of a New Deal. Patrons at the Stonewall Inn never knew of a country where they could live openly and authentically as themselves. And yet they persevered. They summoned their hope, they found that light, and ultimately they changed the world.
The narrative you describe is very, how do I put itâObamian? It reminds me of Obamaâs speech in Selma, the last one he gave there as President, about a kind of parade of American heroic advance. And when I talk to a lot of younger people in my office, in my life, in my family, they donât all share the sense of determined hope that you do. Thereâs a good deal of depressionâif not giving up, then a kind of sense that these are going to be very dark times to come. And with all the emergencies surrounding us, at home and abroad, and environmentally, itâs very hard to muster hope. As a politician, as a member of Congress, what do you tell them?
You cannot tell me that the reasons for hopelessness now are greater than the reasons for hopelessness of an enslaved person. You cannot tell me that the reasons for hopelessness now are greater than the insecurity and the fear of workers in the midst of the Great Depression, and a country that very easily could have fallen into totalitarianism and fascism, as many liberal democracies around the world were falling into that, in the early thirties.
Hope is not always an organic emotion. Sometimes we have to consciously find it and consciously summon it. And, yes, there are big challenges right now. Maybe those challenges are insurmountable. Maybe we will be, because of social media, incapable of restoring our capacity to have a national dialogue. Maybe because of the culture that we live in right now, we will no longer be able to have conversations across disagreement. Maybe because of unchecked wealth and corporate power, we wonât be able to conquer climate change. The list goes on. Maybe. But we would be the first generation of Americans to give up on this country, and we would be the first generation of Americans who were unable to find the path forward. And I just donât believe that we are. And I certainly believe that we donât have to be.
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Liberal "feminists" are so annoying, man. I'll type this whole thing and reach into the very depths of my soul and self reflect on something until I'm satisfied with the conclusion all to get a reply saying "what're you yapping about".... oh my bad YASS QUEEN SEX WORK IS WORK I LOVE DRAG YESSSSSSSS PLASTIC SURGERY BIMBO DOLL WOMEN ARE SO AWESOME!!! Or maybe I have to reply in chronically online queer person humor bc thats often another response I get. "The patriarchy is like if MASON decided ELLIE wasn't HOUSE đ" Like I'm fr so tired of modern activism being a game to people. A persona. The brainrot with white liberals is scary yall can't comprehend anything complex about social issues just regurgitate
That might've made zero sense but it's been a NIGHT for me.
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when combating radical feminist/female separatist "males are inherently violent and we can't ever peacefully integrate the sexes" stuff, i think its very important to study up on the concept of "rape-free" societies. specifically check out "A world in which women move freely without fear of men: An anthropological perspective on rape" & the Kreung practice of "love/maiden huts," (read here, here) in which young women would have their own houses built where they could have as many lovers as they want until they decide to get married- and if they didn't want to have sex with a boy, they didn't. in some societies, sexual violence has always been a colonial import.
this quote from the first article's abstract has stuck in my mind since i read it:
Guajiro women of the desert, however, do not live under the cloud of rape, they are not afraid. A personal experience will illustrate that. I remember walking with my guide in the desert late in the evening. It was already after 11:00 PM and we still had some way to go. I felt uncomfortable but said nothing not to upset her. The next day, however, I brought up the issue to avoid such nightly walks in the future. She replied, yes, she had been scared, too. This, of course, confirmed my conviction that the desert was as unsafe for a woman traveling at night as the big cities. When I then mentioned that a man in Europe had attacked me, she looked surprised and replied: âYou were afraid of people? Oh no, there is no reason for that. I was thinking of the snakes.â How different our fears had been.
there have been societies where rape simply did not happen, or at least didn't happen to the extent that it was something that people reasonably feared would happen to them. and if this has ever been possible for humans to live like this, then it is possible for us to live like this again. we are animals with choices.
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You Don't Need an Agent! Publishers That Accept Unsolicited Submissions
I see a few people sayin that you definitely need an agent to get published traditionally. Guess what? That's not remotely true. While an agent can be a very useful tool in finding and negotiating with publishers, going without is not as large of a hurdle as people might make it out to be!
Below is a list of some of the traditional publishers that offer reading periods for agent-less manuscripts. There might be more! Try looking for yourself - I promise it's not that scary!
Albert Whitman & Company: for picture books, middle-grade, and young adult fiction
Hydra (Part of Random House): for mainly LitRPG
Kensington Publishing: for a range of fiction and nonfiction
NCM Publishing: for all genres of fiction (YA included) and nonfiction
Pants of Fire Press: for middle-grade, YA, and adult fiction
Tin House Books: very limited submission period, but a good avenue for fiction, literary fiction, and poetry written by underrepresented communities
Quirk Fiction: offers odd-genre rep for represented and unagented authors. Unsolicited submissions inbox is closed at the moment but this is the page that'll update when it's open, and they produced some pretty big books so I'd keep an eye on this
Persea Books: for lit fiction, creative nonfiction, YA novels, and books focusing on contemporary issues
Baen: considered one of the best known publishers of sci-fi and fantasy. They don't need a history of publication.
Chicago Review Press: only accepting nonfiction at the moment, but maybe someone here writes nonfiction
Acre: for poetry, fiction and nonfiction. Special interest in underrepresented authors. Submission period just passed but for next year!
Coffeehouse Press: for lit fiction, nonfiction, poetry and translation. Reading period closed at time of posting, but keep an eye out
Ig: for queries on literary fiction and political/cultural nonfiction
Schaffner Press: for lit fiction, historical/crime fiction, or short fiction collections (cool)
Feminist Press: for international lit, hybrid memoirs, sci-fi and fantasy fiction especially from BIPOC, queer and trans voices
Evernight Publishing: for erotica. Royalties seem good and their response time is solid
Felony & Mayhem: for literary mystery fiction. Not currently looking for new work, but check back later
This is all what I could find in an hour. And it's not even everything, because I sifted out the expired links, the repeat genres (there are a lot of options for YA and children's authors), and I didn't even include a majority of smaller indie pubs where you can really do that weird shit.
A lot of them want you to query, but that's easy stuff once you figure it out. Lots of guides, and some even say how they want you to do it for them.
Not submitting to a Big 5 Trad Pub House does not make you any less of a writer. If you choose to work with any publishing house it can take a fair bit of weight off your shoulders in terms of design and distribution. You don't have to do it - I'm not - but if that's the way you want to go it's very, very, very possible.
Have a weirder manuscript that you don't think fits? Here's a list of 50 Indie Publishers looking for more experimental works to showcase and sell!
If Random House won't take your work - guess what? Maybe you're too cool for Random House.
#writing community#writeblr#on writing#writers on tumblr#authors of tumblr#queer writers#poc writer#trans writers#ya author#writing tips#writing resources#writing inspiration#writers supporting writers
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{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Repairing Our Busted-Ass World
On poverty:
Starting from nothing
How To Start at Rock Bottom: Welfare Programs and the Social Safety NetÂ
How to Save for Retirement When You Make Less Than $30,000 a Year
Ask the Bitches: âIs It Too Late to Get My Financial Shit Together?â
Understanding why people are poor
Itâs More Expensive to Be Poor Than to Be Rich
Why Are Poor People Poor and Rich People Rich?
On Financial Discipline, Generational Poverty, and Marshmallows
Bitchtastic Book Review: Hand to Mouth by Linda Tirado
Is Gentrification Just Artisanal, Small-Batch Displacement of the Poor?
Coronavirus Reveals Americaâs Pre-existing Conditions, Part 1: Healthcare, Housing, and Labor Rights
Developing compassion for poor people
The Latte Factor, Poor Shaming, and Economic Compassion
Ask the Bitches: âHow Do I Stop Myself from Judging Homeless People?â
The Subjectivity of Wealth, Or: Donât Tell Me Whatâs Expensive
A Little Princess:Â Intersectional Feminist Masterpiece?
If You Canât Afford to Tip 20%, You Canât Afford to Dine Out
Correcting income inequality
1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay Gap
One Reason Women Make Less Money? Theyâre Afraid of Being Raped and Killed.
Raising the Minimum Wage Would Make All Our Lives Better
Are Unions Good or Bad?
On intersectional social issues:
Reproductive rights
On Pulling Weeds and Fighting Back: How (and Why) to Protect Abortion Rights
How To Get an AbortionÂ
Blood Money: Menstrual Products for Surviving Your Period While Poor
You Donât Have to Have Kids
Gender equality
1 Easy Way All Allies Can Help Close the Gender and Racial Pay GapÂ
The Pink Tax, Or: How I Learned to Love Smelling Like âBeargloveâ
Our Single Best Piece of Advice for Women (and Men) on International Womenâs Day
Bitchtastic Book Review: The Feminist Financial Handbook by Brynne Conroy
Sexual Harassment: How to Identify and Fight It in the WorkplaceÂ
Queer issues
Queer Finance 101: Ten Ways That Sexual and Gender Identity Affect Finances
Leaving Home before 18: A Practical Guide for Cast-Offs, Runaways, and Everybody in Between
Racial justice
The Financial Advantages of Being White
Woke at Work: How to Inject Your Values into Your Boring, Lame-Ass Job
The New Jim Crow, by Michelle Alexander: A Bitchtastic Book Review
Something Is Wrong in Personal Finance. Hereâs How To Make It More Inclusive.
The Biggest Threat to Black Wealth Is White Terrorism
Coronavirus Reveals Americaâs Pre-existing Conditions, Part 2: Racial and Gender InequalityÂ
10 Rad Black Money Experts to Follow Right the Hell NowÂ
Youth issues
What We Talk About When We Talk About Student Loans
The Ugly Truth About Unpaid Internships
Ask the Bitches: âI Just Turned 18 and My Parents Are Kicking Me Out. How Do I Brace Myself?â
Identifying and combatting abuse
When Money is the Weapon: Understanding Intimate Partner Financial Abuse
Are You Working on the Next Fyre Festival?: Identifying a Toxic Workplace
Ask the Bitches: âHow Do I Say âNoâ When a Loved One Asks for Money⊠Again?â
Ask the Bitches: I Was Guilted Into Caring for a Sick, Abusive Parent. Now What?
On mental health:
Understanding mental health issues
How Mental Health Affects Your Finances
Stop Recommending Therapy Like Itâs a Magic Bean Thatâll Grow Me a Beanstalk to Neurotypicaltown
Bitchtastic Book Review: Kurt Vonnegutâs Galapagos and Your Big Brain
Ask the Bitches: âHow Do I Protect My Own Mental Health While Still Helping Others?â
Coping with mental health issues
{ MASTERPOST } Everything You Need to Know about Self-Care
My 25 Secrets to Successfully Working from Home with ADHDÂ
Our Master List of 100% Free Mental Health Self-Care TacticsÂ
On saving the planet:
Changing the system
Donât Boo, Vote: If You Donât Vote, No One Can Hear You Scream
Ethical Consumption: How to Pollute the Planet and Exploit Labor Slightly Less
The Anti-Consumerist Gift Guide: I Have No Gift to Bring, Pa Rum Pa Pum Pum
Season 1, Episode 4: âCapitalism Is Working for Me. So How Could I Hate It?â
Coronavirus Reveals Americaâs Pre-existing Conditions, Part 1: Healthcare, Housing, and Labor RightsÂ
Coronavirus Reveals Americaâs Pre-existing Conditions, Part 2: Racial and Gender InequalityÂ
Shopping smarter
You Deserve Cheap Toilet Paper, You Beautiful Fucking Moon Goddess
You Are above Bottled Water, You Elegant Land Mermaid
Fast Fashion: Why Itâs Fucking up the World and How To Avoid It
You Deserve Cheap, Fake Jewelry⊠Just Like Coco Chanel
6 Proven Tactics for Avoiding Emotional Impulse Spending
Join the Bitches on Patreon
#poverty#economics#income inequality#wealth inequality#capitalism#working class#labor rights#workers rights#frugal#personal finance#financial literacy#consumerism#environmentalism
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