Feminish

What does it look like to change our relationship to food and nourishing ourselves over time? Can we love characters we hate in fiction? Are we all manifestations of the same consciousness living simultaneously across all humans? Casual questions as always! This week we tackle women characters in fiction--including the Bible as literature, because Olivia is reading Paradise Lost (yes the one from high school English class and the 17th century) and Jessie is reading Butter. It's a fun discussion with only the most mild spoilers for both plots.

Jessie and Olivia are BACK for season three! We started with a book we both read, 'I Who Have Never Known Men,' and discuss its themes, genre, and the nature of freedom and existence (we know, super light topics). The conversation explores the impact of relationships on personal growth and the importance of community. It’s really fun! Some light plot spoilers between around 8 minutes and 20 minutes, but we hope small spoilers will make you even more interested in reading this book we both loved. Also: is sending six women to space in a Blue Origin ship feminist?https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781945492600

After an unintentional break, we're back to discuss what's been going on in the world -- really, not a lot, right?! The U.S. presidential election gives us yet more opportunity to talk through a key feminist ideal, that the personal is political. Jessie's also kept reading in the ACOTAR series. In true form, she also brings us the story of some everyday women who lived in a neighborhood that happened to be built on a chemical waste landfill (turns out, this is not good!) The book follows the actions they and allies in Congress and the New York health department took to stand up to corporations, many of them experiencing activist awakenings in the process. When it's families' lives and health on the line, women truly show UP. Jessie's book: Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe by Keith O'Brien. Also published with the subtitle "A Deadly Secret, a Cover-Up, and the Women Who Forged the Modern Environmental Movement."

If there was a way to connect WWI to the Blake Lively PR controversy, you know Jessie and Olivia will find it. Today, a robust conversation about media literacy, freedom of the press, and how many of our issues with access to accurate information and using essential critical thinking skills are not new problems. Jessie talks about one postmaster general's single-minded mission to prevent sharing any minority opinions, even after wartime (ostensibly the justification) ended. Olivia talks about her personal journey through recognizing the motives that can be at play in cultural drama. Then we go on a whole tangent into the things we distract ourselves with when life is overwhelming. Jessie has discovered the wide world of racecar-driving-themed romance novels, which Olivia points out has always been the way of thriving spaces for publishing and reading the stories we love. We discuss the ways we engage(d) with stories as fledgling writers. Demure, mindful: Jools Lebron on TikTok Books Jessie talks about: American Midnight by Adam Hochschild; Getting Lost by Annie Ernaux; Drive Me Crazy by Carly Robyn

Today Olivia and Jessie talk about the surreality of #tradwives on social media. They have a massive following, but the audiences are there for as many different reasons as we can imagine--to stare, to envy, to learn, to be infuriated, to be sad, to look at beauty, to feel human, to feel inhuman. We talk about @ballerinafarm (on Instagram and TikTok) and Nara Smith (@naraazizasmith on TikTok). We also get into the Kamala Harris of it all, and yes, Jessie brings it back to rhetoric (all humanity is centered around stories, and stories are some of the best rhetorical means!). Jessie briefly discusses one of the most important books she ever read, and it's MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER: Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen

This summer, we've swapped reading content - Olivia reads the nonfiction and Jessie has entered the ACOTAR universe. We discuss bodies and faeries, it's all Feminish on this one! Olivia's books: The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor; The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk. Jessie's book: A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas. Olivia also recommends the series The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

We really fell off there, y'all! Jessie and Olivia are back to catch up on all the Feminish-relevant pop culture goss since we last met. It's the bear-versus-man of it all. Plus, we dream up a summer plan to swap our podcast personas in the most fun way: Olivia is going to bring some important nonfiction works on body and body image in culture and Jessie is going to read ACOTAR(!). More from us soon, happy summer!

Back on our bullsh*t, Olivia and Jessie discuss the new Taylor Swift and Beyoncé albums and the continued violence that capitalism inflicts on us, inhibiting our best feminist intentions. In true form, we cover some pop culture with a dose of reality from Jessie as she continues reading Naomi Klein's book, Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (it keeps staying good, staying relevant). In the meat of the book, Klein discusses the ways that covid-19 really set us solidly into two worlds, and both camps sees the other as living in the unreality. A fun one, glad to be back!

This week our pop culture and book discussion overlap big-time, with a conversation on what it means to have a public image, to "be" in public, including and especially on the internet. We discuss The Duchess of Wales's Photoshop mishap and the fallout it caused, and what all this suggests about being a persona in the media (for famous people) and on the internet (for the rest of us). Naomi Klein's book about her own real-life doppelgänger centers our discussion on the nature of multiple lived realities, and what it means when people confuse you with another person on the internet. Jessie's book: Doppelganger: A Trip Inside the Mirror World by Naomi Klein

This week we go full ’90s nostalgia, from Lisa Frank to Scholastic Book Fairs. Jessie brings a book that is as much about dolls and sleepovers as it is about the history that was central to Pleasant Company’s American Girl Dolls. Olivia brings the ~ hot goss ~ from TikTok: Who Did I Marry? and more. Did we miss something that was an unforgettable part of your ‘90s experience? Let us know! We made a Pinterest board that captures the mood of this episode This week Jessie brought the book Dolls of our Lives: Why We Can’t Quit American Girl by Mary Mahoney and Allison Harrocks

In this episode, we discuss the sexism that continues in Hollywood (too topical not to talk about tbh), as well as how it seems to make some men so angry that women enjoy sports the way they want to. Let us enjoy sports, and also—can we get better merch? We have money and will buy it. We also finally get into a book Jessie spent most of 2023 reading: Debt: The First 5000 Years. It changed the way she understands not just concepts of money and debt (both imaginary ideas) but honestly, history, politics, and war. Low-key. Book: Debt: The First 5000 Years by David Graeber Culture Study Podcast episode on Formula 1

We are back for season 2! We talk resolutions - do you make them, why or why not? We are a split camp on this show. Olivia brings some pop culture updates for us. Also, Jessie kicks off the season with discussion of a book she read about the unexpected and quite complicated history of the field of home economics / domestic sciences. Was the field progressive and feminist, or oppressive and sexist? Yes. The Secret History of Home Economics by Danielle Dreilinger

Final Girl, Final Season 1 Episode! Olivia and Jessie knew they could not pass up a bonus 13th episode to release on Friday, Oct. 13, during their favorite season: spooky season! If you've listened even once, you've probably heard us mention our love for horror movies. We frequently hang out to watch horror movies together, and they are really the BEST genre for exploring human emotions and imagination. On this ep, we do a deep dive on some of the feminist themes central to the horror genre (including the Final Girl trope), and some of the scary movies formative to their childhoods (yes, we watched scary movies as kids and they deeply shaped our love for the genre!). Also somehow, we go a full hour+ and forget to mention The Ring. Jessie's top five scary movies: The Ring, Halloween (1978), The Shining, It Follows, The Haunting of Hill House (yes, we can put shows on this list, it's our podcast, our rules). Honorable mention to Us, noted on the podcast, since she literally forgot The Ring and said on the episode "I feel like I'm forgetting an important one." Jessie has even watched and enjoyed The Ring on her birthday. Olivia's top five scary movies: Nope, Suspiria, Hereditary, It Follows, The Haunting of Hill House (take the hint, what this show!)

Today our guest is Ammie, a ceramic artist and small business owner living in Atlanta. She’s kind of a big deal on social media (find her at @ammieyall on Instagram) but today she’s here to talk pop culture and our deepest questions. You’ll get some bonus knowledge of Dublin, Georgia, the small town in the middle of the state where Ammie grew up and where Jessie first met her (when she was in middle school). Ammie’s books: We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman and You, Again by Kate Goldbeck

We’re back this week to reflect on what we’ve achieved in the past year. We take a moment to appreciate our labors and celebrate almost a whole season of our podcast! Jessie brings a book that complicates the history of HIV/AIDS activism in the United States. Olivia brings a book that got her back into a reading groove--a sci-fi novel following a near-future scientist and android contemplating the consciousness of octopuses who start forming a culture. We talk about what it means to be alive, the value of art to make it through our days, and the importance of healthcare access (and providers that believe you). Olivia’s book(s): The Mountain in the Sea: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781250872272 Time Management for Mortals: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780374159122 Jessie’s book: Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT-UP New York 1987-93 https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781250849120 We also talked about: The Water Knife: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780804171533 Debt: The First Five Thousand Years: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781612194196 From the New York Times and Serial: The Retrievals Podcast: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/podcasts/serial-the-retrievals-yale-fertility-clinic.html

We are excited to have our first-ever GUEST to the show. Jasmine Pochynok is an Atlanta-based communications specialist, pop culture enthusiast, and “very online” advocate of social media. We discuss Jasmine’s time in the Coast Guard as a fireman, her excitement to have kids, and why she cried when she finally deleted her Twitter account last month. Come for the “girl money” talk, stay for the tea on the unreality behind all of Pete Davidson’s hot celebrity girlfriends. We pick Jasmine’s brain and she graciously tells us about life from her Feminish angle, after a pretty dramatic week of ups and downs for her!

In a podcast about pop culture, feminism, and rhetoric, true crime lands itself solidly at the epicenter of those themes. Since the Roman courts held public trials, people have been interested in following along with crime stories (see, Jessie got ancient philosophers in there). But there is something about the relationship women have with true crime. Today, Olivia and Jessie offer their takes on why women make up 80% of the readership of true crime. They also discuss theories presented by Rachel Monroe in her book length rumination and Kate Tuttle in her take for the New York Times. This episode is also a joyful romp through some of our favorite TV shows that engage thriller, suspense, and crime (think Dark, Yellowjackets, Haunting of Hill House). Links to books we talk about: Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz and Savage Appetites: True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe

Olivia’s deep interest in Greek myths informs the two book suggestions she brings to this episode, as well as the compelling question of gender norms in storytelling. If we swapped all the lead (male) characters in Greek myths for female characters, what fundamental aspects of the story do (must) change? What does this say about story tropes from Ancient Greece to today? Jessie brings the central historical moment of her dissertation research to the table: what was the Equal Rights Amendment, why did it fail, what could it have meant for women, and why do so few people know about it as part of U.S. history? If you have a question for us about today’s episode, submit it here [https://www.feminishpod.com/contact]. We would love to hear from YOU, our fab listeners! What Olivia brought: Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780593356074 Gender Swapped Greek Myths by Kerrie Fransman and illustrated by Jonathan Plackett https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780571371327 What Jessie brought: Divided We Stand: The Battle over Women’s Rights and Family Values that Polarized American Politics by Marjorie J. Spruill https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781632863164 We the Women: The Unstoppable Mothers of the Equal Rights Amendment by Julie C. Suk https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9781510771789

Chaos episode! We are all over the map today discussing embodied rhetoric, which is basically all the communication caught up in how we move and have bodies in the world. As you might expect, it’s an enormous, fraught topic. We discuss why work-from-home is a feminist issue (and highly embodied), being a person in a modern workplace and on Zoom, and the recent experience Olivia had at the art museum where she cried while looking at art (a rare form for her). Plus, we finally discuss what you’ve all been waiting for: Wide Theory and Motion Theory, our nascent ideas about Hollywood men (come for the learning stay for the Old Chairison Ford conversation). What Olivia brought: Photograph: Untitled, 2005, Chromogenic print, by Gregory Crewdson. On display at the Telfair Museum, Savannah, GA. What Jessie brought: Article: Flexible work is feminist–and women won’t return to a system that hasn’t served them well to spare the feelings of powerful men, by Erin Grau in Fortune Magazine, May 2023. Chapter: ”Bodies of Praise: Epideictic Figures in the Independent Women” by Risa Applegarth, in Women at Work: Rhetorics of Gender and Labor.

This week, we talk about the marketing that was actually published to recruit (white) women to jobs during WWII, because spoiler, it wasn’t the famous Rosie the Riveter image. This leads us into the immense world of visual rhetoric, which includes so much of what we consume and what is marketed to us as people in the world today. Is Olivia a rhetor, based on her professional work in design? Absolutely. We also talk about some of the takeaways from Jessie’s students’ final projects, the brilliant rhetoric and themes in Mad Men, and why anyone who sells you anything these days can then send you emails forever. Jessie’s book: Women at Work: Rhetorics of Gender and Labor, edited by David Gold and Jessica Enoch Olivia’s show: Mad Men

In this episode, we dig into the concept of “good taste” and why it was so white and so cishet male for centuries. We talk about the refreshing pink world of Barbie that we all need in 2023. What was Cyndi Lauper really getting at when she reminded her father that he’s taking things a little too seriously? This episode is an homage to embracing the things you like, regardless of social concepts of “taste.” Be tacky, be joyful, be you. Tacky: Love Notes to the Worst Culture We Have to Offer, by Rax King: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780593312728 Barbie trailer: https://youtu.be/GRyt3Ov4zz0

Olivia and Catherine the Great have a lot in common. They are both trying to do a LOT in the 24 hours we have in a day. Running a country, running a business, dealing with family, love, body issues, and trying to choose what dress to wear to the government ball on top of that? Feels impossible. If the Empress of Russia also struggled with these things, and managed to be a complete legend, maybe we’re doing OK too. Today we talk about the impossibility of doing it all, all the time. We discuss viral songs and the rhetorical prowess of TikTok creators. We talk about the complicated and human Catherine, Empress of Russia from 1762-1796, including her twelve lovers and a document she wrote that is still considered one of the most remarkable feats of political writing in history. Turns out she fits right into the Feminish world. Labour by Paris Paloma (TikTok song): https://open.spotify.com/track/2Ggr9IfS70wYQacW8nZKPG?si=46dbd77402d2467a Jessie’s read: Catherine the Great: Portrait of a Woman: https://bookshop.org/a/81323/9780345408778

In our third episode, we’re talking about sex. We’re looking at the first era in American history when women went out and dated for the joy of it, without the expectation of looking for a husband (even though marriage + a household was very much still what the larger culture expected of her…). Think it was the 1960s? Think much earlier! We talk about how our current TV and film culture has left us hanging for realistic takes on sex and read bodies. Jessie’s read: Woman: The American History of an Idea by Lillian Faderman Articles: by Sophie Gilbert “Don’t call them trash” (Print version published under title “The Case for Bodice Ripping”) “The Death of the Sex Scene” Olivia’s read: Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed TikTok referenced: Chelsea Handler’s “Just another child-free day”

Today on the podcast we’re talking about the history of feminist movements in the United States - they are probably a lot more complex and nonlinear than you think. We discuss whether it’s fair for Olivia to ask men outright if they are feminists. We talk about what “feminism” encompasses today (spoiler: it’s a lot more than just “women’s equality”). Jessie’s read today is Feminism Unfinished: A Short, Surprising History of American Women’s Movements by Astrid Henry, Dorothy Sue Cobble, and Linda Gordon. She also references Hood Feminism by Micki Kendall.

It’s the launch of our new podcast! Join Jessie and Olivia as we talk at the intersection of pop culture, feminism, and rhetoric. We hope, if you come for one, you’ll be hooked on the other. We love to read but we read very different stuff, Feminish embraces that difference; we’re looking for the overlaps in our culture and history - and there are many! We’ll talk TikTok trends and the troubled nature of the term “feminism” and lots more this season. We hope you’ll laugh, learn, and be entertained. On our first episode, we discuss a bit about what the heck rhetoric even is, and Jessie brings her recent read Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell. Olivia brings A Court of Thorns and Roses.

Join Jessie and Olivia as we meet at the intersection of pop culture, feminism, and rhetoric. Each episode, we get together to talk about books we've read, things going on in the world and in pop culture, and what it means to be and feel feminist today. Our reading habits differ greatly, but help us understand the world. Join us for a laugh and a think.