Liberating Motherhood

1 day ago | zawn.substack.com | Zawn Villines

Where do we draw the line between gentle/compassionate parenting and permissive parenting? I have a toddler who is beginning to throw tantrums, and we’re having to begin assessing how to draw boundaries. I want to sit with her in her emotions, and parent her differently than how I was parented. But I also don’t want to raise a jerk, and I’…

2 days ago | zawn.substack.com | Zawn Villines

My social media feeds are forever filled with women talking about their “good guy” husbands.

4 days ago | zawn.substack.com | Zawn Villines

In patriarchy, the notion of prettiness exists for one reason, and one reason only: to harm women. The concept of prettiness harms us by distracting us, by impoverishing and endangering us, by forever demanding that we self-objectify, by demanding that we be beautiful to be worthy, by insisting that we never take up space, and by ensuring that whatever beauty we are able to attain rapidly slips away as we age.

5 days ago | zawn.substack.com | Zawn Villines

Bad Advice is a twist on my usual Feminist Advice column. In this semi-regular column, I look at the bad advice other columnists have given. The bad advice is often rooted in patriarchal norms, in the idea that women’s emotions really don’t matter, and in the cultural practice of centering men’s desires at the expense of women’s needs. You can find a complete list of previous bad advice columns here. A woman writes to Slate’s How to Do It column requesting guidance for a “prank” her husband pulled.

1 week ago | zawn.substack.com | Zawn Villines |Kate Manne

This post is a collaboration between Zawn Villines and Kate Manne. We wrote our responses separately, so you’ll get two unique answers informed by our distinct perspectives. As a special promotion, we’re both running a 50% off sale for one day only. The idea here is that you can subscribe to both of our newsletters for the price of one. If you subscribe to either column, you’ll also get some free feminist merch; just email [email protected].