The Ms. Q&A: Melissa Scholes Young on Feminism Rising from Rural Roots

“The Hive” is a story of women yearning for independence and equality against the backdrop of familial tragedy, a stark political divide, Rush Limbaugh devotees and a fourth-generation pest control business struggling to get by during the 2008 economic recession.

Author Melissa Scholes Young discusses her role in carving out space for more authentic stories, the unique journeys taken by each of the Fehler women, feminism rising from rural roots and the importance of reinvesting in our rural communities.

Boebert, Greene and the Peril of Internalized Misogyny

We are left questioning how we can productively condemn Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene’s anti-democratic, conspiracy-laden and discriminatory words and actions without turning to superficial, misogynistic attacks.

True and lasting liberation requires the elimination of sexism for everyone, everywhere—including for our worst enemies.

Thank You, Rush Limbaugh, For My Feminism

Rush Limbaugh made it clear: Women who desire power and self-determination weren’t real women at all.

Luckily, most of the values I learned—hard-work, guts, grit and kindness—far outweigh Rush Limbaugh’s disturbing messaging about how to be a woman in rural America, but it was a deep sexism that fueled the birth of my feminism.

Hate for Hillary

In “The Hunting of Hillary,” Pulitzer Prize-winning political biographer Michael D’Antonio recounts how her political opponents used sexist attacks to paint Clinton as a “ball-busting feminist” and frigid wife; a power-hungry “Lady Macbeth” and even a manipulative murderer. Along the way, he writes, they eroded political institutions, not only to damage Clinton’s political prospects, but to consolidate their own power.