Reading Rambo

Dead Feminists basically springs from the idea of "What if we made a book about feminists throughout history and made it REALLY really pretty?" Chandler O'Leary and Jessica Spring, one an artist and one a printer & typographer , have assembled 24 essays and beautiful prints of historic feminists, or "historic heroines in living color." It's a damn gorgeous book. Ooh They include biographical sketches, prints for each woman, and a breakdown of what historical elements inspired the print. GET EXCITED, ART NERDS. And oh, history nerds, there're quotes and photographs and –  knitting nerds, listen up, Elizabeth Zimmerman is in here .  I know you guys are out there. Whenever I flip through it, I think about how much I probably would've loved it as a kid. There are so many pictures , and as a 3rd grader who was real real into a padded white book detailing the histories of every president of the United States – but which I only rea

What do we do now. Being the suffrage nerd I am, I recently told my friend "This feels like a NAWSA vs. the NWP time. And I tend towards NAWSA. But it's time for the NWP." What the hell that means is that when women were fighting for the vote -- when they were fighting against the majority of the country, including a large number of other women -- they were mainly split into two political organizations. The conservative group, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, wanted to do things slowly and not anger those in power beyond what was necessary for pleading their case. The radical group, the National Woman's Party, wanted to win by any means necessary. The NWP did not give a fuck. The NWP didn't care about being tactful. The NWP didn't care about stepping on toes. The NWP stood outside your White House six days a week with banners calling you the kaiser. In the middle of a world war. They did this for almost three years.  Were people

Shirley Jackson's writing can be described as extremely Shirley Jacksony. The only one of her story collections to be published during her lifetime has FINALLY accomplished what I've been waiting for with her. I've read two of her novels, and each time it's felt vaguely unfulfilling and like it's SO CLOSE to being something I would enjoy. But after reading 26 of her stories in a row, I can say "Ohhhhhhhhh." I was so struck by the insane similarities between her work and Edward Hopper's while I was reading that I was like "This must be a common thing. Like, something that everyone thinks. Because not every artist goes 'what about like...a sad woman sitting in a room and that's it?'" basically every Shirley Jackson story If I were in college, I would be so totes jazzed to write essays on these stories. "I can SAY THINGS about SOCIETY," I would say. As it is, after each one, I went "Huh. Seems like th