Author: Susan Rubin

Susan Rubin’s writing talents range broad and deep. She has written 25 documentaries on topics like domestic violence, early and forced marriage, untested rape kits and women’s reproductive rights and other feminist subjects and a series of videos for the Feminist Majority on issues like the killing of abortion doctors and the rise of violence against women. But the brutal truths of this work were balanced by Funny or Die sketches that have survived to amuse readers for nearly a decade and the comedy, magic, music, and surrealism of her original plays produced by Indecent Exposure Theater Company. Susan's first novel, The Road Not Taken, comes out in September. You can follow her blog for updates and personal commentary and find her on Twitter and Instagram to stay in touch.

“The Road Not Taken”: Fighting for Women’s Rights in Weimar

The following is an excerpt from “The Road Not Taken”—the debut novel, out September 4, by feminist playwright, documentarian and writer Susan Rubin. In the book, one woman traverses through space and time on an epic journey of self-discovery—and in an effort to change world history.

“Stop staring at me,” I said. “Figure out how a woman my size could overpower this huge bully with nothing but my rage. Find your own rage before it is too late. You will not survive what is coming if you are complicit.”

Adam and Eve Rebooted

What if Eve got really sick of being blamed for human mortality, pain during childbirth, snakes slithering along on their bellies and just about every other affliction in life? What if Eve figured out that she had been wrongly blamed and vilified? In Genesis, we’re told that G-d tells Eve not to eat from the […]

Who Has More Rights: Women or Eggs?

If any of the personhood initiatives at play in as many as 11 states this year pass, a fertilized egg would be granted full Constitutional rights. But the woman whose body contains that egg might lose her right to legal abortion (no matter the circumstances) and hormonal birth control. Couples who cannot conceive could lose […]

Womanslaughter: Cuts in Breast Cancer Screening Hurt Women

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and also happens to be the month, in 1986, that I first underwent surgery for my own breast cancer. I do a lot of thinking as the days grow shorter and my sense-memories of being diagnosed, having surgery, radiation and chemo grow stronger. I was younger than 50 when […]

Woman #451: Imagining the U.S. Without Legal Abortion

Report from the United States of America, July, 2015. Four months after the re-criminalization of abortion. Woman #451 was 38 years old. She had just finished chemotherapy treatments for breast cancer. #451 believed she was infertile because the chemo had stopped her period. When she discovered she was pregnant, she was very afraid. Doctors had […]

To Serve and Protect–And Sexually Assault?

Recently, a New York City police officer was charged with raping a drunk and comatose woman while his partner stood watch. The two were cleared of rape charges, to feminist outrage, but the fact that the officer crossed sexual boundaries with a very intoxicated woman was undisputed (he admits to kissing her shoulder). Many of […]

War on Drugs 1, War on Rape 0

I was called to jury duty last week at federal court in Los Angeles. Thirty-five prospective jurors were asked if they could fairly judge a man accused of selling a “small amount of a controlled substance”–crack cocaine–to an undercover cop. (In total, six undercover cops worked to bring this guy down!) When asked in voir […]

Click! A College Grad Strips on Bourbon Street

I was dancing in a G-string and pasties when I first realized I was a feminist. Backtrack: I was a young woman experimenting with the boundaries of freedom. It was the sexual revolution, the time after Roe v. Wade and before AIDS, and there was enormous confusion about what it meant to be free. I […]

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2, 4, 6, 8, Let’s All Go Re-Virginate!

For Jeannette Yarborough’s 17th wedding anniversary, she wanted to give her husband something special. So she had her hymen re-attached. Wow, better than new golf clubs or even tennis balls! This gift would allow hubby the thrill of conquering a “virgin” all over again! According to news reports, hymenoplasty, or “revirgination” surgery, is increasingly in […]

Surviving Breast Cancer: 24 Years Later

“The good news is, you’re a candidate for a lumpectomy!” With those ten words, my surgeon told me I had breast cancer. I didn’t understand the “good news” part. But he cheerfully handed me a brochure filled with pictures of lumpectomies, mastectomies and reconstructed breasts. Then he told me to go home and come back […]