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Feminine Chaos: The Feed

Cultural commentary from Phoebe Maltz Bovy and Kat Rosenfield.

Problematic faves, dissident feminism, and poodle interruptions: this is Feminine Chaos, featuring cultural commentary from Phoebe Maltz Bovy and Kat Rosenfield.

Latest Episode4/5/2021

The Bald and the Beautiful

Kat and Phoebe talk about Prince William, pretender to the throne… of sexy baldness, that is. Is Prince William the world's sexiest bald man? Heck, is he sexy at all? And speaking of sexy, Naomi Wolf is kind of a weirdo these days, but does this mean that her 1990s feminist polemic, The Beauty Myth, is no longer good? Finally, we foray briefly into the weird, wonderful, and sometimes deadly world of gender reveal parties.Links:Stop trying to make 'sexy Prince William' happen - The SpectatorA tweet thread explainer: how the "sexiest bald man" study came to beDoes Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth hold up? What I think of it now that she's an anti-masker.Naomi Wolf's Book Corrected by Host in BBC InterviewWhat Would Phoebe Do?: The Beauty Myth, Part IPlane Crashes During Gender Reveal, Killing Two 3/31/2021

The Bald and the Beautiful

Kat and Phoebe talk about Prince William, pretender to the throne… of sexy baldness, that is. Is Prince William the world's sexiest bald man? Heck, is he sexy at all? And speaking of sexy, Naomi Wolf is kind of a weirdo these days, but does this mean that her 1990s feminist polemic, The Beauty Myth, is no longer good? Finally, we foray briefly into the weird, wonderful, and sometimes deadly world of gender reveal parties.Links:Stop trying to make 'sexy Prince William' happen - The SpectatorA tweet thread explainer: how the "sexiest bald man" study came to beDoes Naomi Wolf's The Beauty Myth hold up? What I think of it now that she's an anti-masker.Naomi Wolf's Book Corrected by Host in BBC InterviewWhat Would Phoebe Do?: The Beauty Myth, Part IPlane Crashes During Gender Reveal, Killing Two 3/31/2021

Royals

Kat and Phoebe discuss Oprah's big wild interview with Meghan and Harry, formerly of the British monarchy, now just a couple of normal dudes... sort of. Also: can the endangered species known as the Basic Straight Girl survive when there is literally one good man available to be mated with?Links:11 things we learned from Meghan and Harry's interviewI'm OK -- You're a RacistKat at Unherd: Hollywood's Cinderella has spokenPhoebe at Hedgehog Review: Straightness Studies | Who Do We Think We Are? | Issues

Break a Leg, Gina Carano

Kat and Phoebe discuss the mother of all privilege disclaimers and the cancellation of Mandalorian actress Gina Carano.Links:Ashley Judd's hospital interviewThe BBC interviewNeglecting Yourself Doesn’t Make You a Better MotherBehind Disney's Firing of 'Mandalorian' Star Gina CaranoGina Carano and Crowd-Sourced McCarthyism

What Might Have Bean

Kat and Phoebe get together on the day of the Capitol coup attempt to talk about the most important political and cultural event of our lifetimes: the Bean Dad Thread. And speaking of cans of beans, how about that cheerleader who said the N-word?Links:The original Bean Dad thread, screencapped: https://twitter.com/ManiacalV/status/1345870405085573122Bean Dad apologizes: http://www.johnroderick.com/an-apologyThe NYT cheerleader story: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/us/mimi-groves-jimmy-galligan-racial-slurs.htmlKat's essay on The Word: How Could She Not Know?. Language is a moving target, but some… | by Kat Rosenfield | Jan, 2021

The Young Adult Episode

Kat and Phoebe discuss the controversy over a "vitriolic, violent" Twitter thread that resulted in a YA author's cancellation (no, not the worms guy), before answering burning questions from listeners about who's causing all this drama, the impact of young adult fiction shenanigans on the culture at large, and the craziest MeTooing Kat ever witnessed in her years on the YA beat.Links:The inaugural article on all things YA Twitter: The Toxic Drama on YA TwitterKat in Refinery29: How The OwnVoices Movement Is Changing YA LiteratureAnother rundown of the Jessica Cluess/ Lorena German beef: What is #DisruptTexts?The Sarah Dessen controversy: Sarah Dessen & Brooke Nelson Twitter Controversy, ExplainedOne book blogger's writeup on the Tristina Wright debacle:

The Shkreliphant in the Room

Kat and Phoebe discuss the jailbird-journalist love affair between reviled "Pharma Bro" Martin Shkreli, and former crime reporter Christie Smythe. (Production note/apology: Kat's mic went wonky at about 30 minutes in, this slightly tinny result is the best we could do on short notice.)Links:The original Elle storyChristie Smythe's Twitter accountFollowup interview with Smythe at ElleThe Cut story on Shkreli's harassment of female journalists

All the Sad Young Disgusting Worms

Kat and Phoebe are joined by Jessa Crispin, literary critic and culture writer, to talk about dewy ingenues, the young-adultification of literature, and why that one guy on Book Twitter was screaming about worms.Links:Jessa on age gaps in the Boston Review: Pathologizing DesireJessa's essay on the Underground Railroad vs Normal People, both for childrenDavid Bowles' epic "disgusting worms" Twitter meltdownKat's 2017 (but still relevant) primer for understanding YA's internecine conflicts: The Toxic Drama on YA TwitterJessa's website

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