Publisher Description
These empowering essays from leading women writers examine the power of the gendered language that is used to diminish women — and imagine a more liberated world.
Words matter. They wound, they inflate, they define, they demean. They have nuance and power. “Effortless,” “Sassy,” “Ambitious,” “Aggressive”: What subtle digs and sneaky implications are conveyed when women are described with words like these? Words are made into weapons, warnings, praise, and blame, bearing an outsized influence on women’s lives — to say nothing of our moods.
No one knows this better than Lizzie Skurnick, writer of the New York Times’ column “That Should be A Word”and a veritable queen of cultural coinage. And in Pretty Bitches, Skurnick has rounded up a group of powerhouse women writers to take on the hidden meanings of these words, and how they can limit our worlds — or liberate them.
From Laura Lipmann and Meg Wolizer to Jennifer Weiner and Rebecca Traister, each writer uses her word as a vehicle for memoir, cultural commentary, critique, or all three. Spanning the street, the bedroom, the voting booth, and the workplace, these simple words have huge stories behind them — stories it’s time to examine, re-imagine, and change.
Download and start listening now!
Lizzie Skurnick has been the go to person for words for as long as I can remember. Now, she has gone even further, redefining the way we use them. This collection of breathtaking essays shows how seemingly innocuous words (and some pretty ugly ones, too) were once used to keep women down — but not anymore. Take that, mansplainers. Pretty Bitches is truly something.
—
Marcy Dermansky, author of Very Nice and The Red CarÂ
