Sunday, October 7, 2018

Rebecca Traister

Rebecca Traister's new book is Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women's Anger.

From her NPR interview with Rachel Martin:

MARTIN: You lean into history in this book. And it's full of examples of men's anger being laudable, creating admirable political change. The Boston Tea Party is a great example. What historically was so threatening about women's anger?

TRAISTER: Well, in part, that anger of the founding - our founders, who were the white men chafing against their lack of representation and who were angry and protested in ways that we understand correctly to - this is our revolutionary moment. But when they made their new nation, they codified some of the very inequities that they themselves were angry about with regard to the British government. So they built the nation on slavery and the disenfranchisement of women.

MARTIN: You referenced the racial dynamic of the Me Too movement earlier. But I want to ask again because women who speak out are condemned in the broader culture under many circumstances. But there is an outsized penalty for women of color who do so. Do you think those voices are being heard loudly enough in this moment?

TRAISTER: I think it's almost impossible for us to conceive of the voices of women of color as being heard loudly enough because...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue