Each month, we provide Ms. readers with a list of new books being published by writers from historically excluded groups.
The 24 books on my list this month are certain to help you to strategize, reenergize and mobilize.
Why Do Single Moms Still Get Erased on Mother’s Day?
The misrepresentation and erasure of single/lone mom’s on Mother’s Day happens right before our eyes, surrounds us—and yet can be impossible for some to truly see.
What’s being ignored here is an opportunity to speak directly to single/lone moms who construct their own days and lives—who buy their own Mother’s Day presents. Moms who, depending on the age and situation and ability of their children, do not wake up to breakfast in bed or presents from others. Mothers who celebrate themselves. Or are learning to.
‘Easy Beauty’: A Memoir of Motherhood and Disability
A finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, Easy Beauty by Chloé Cooper Jones is a memoir of motherhood and disability, of bodily presence and difference depicted by talent that is both staggering and undeniable.
America Needs Bethenny Frankel’s Divorce Podcast
“Finally.” That’s what Emma thought when she heard Bethenny Frankel spill the beans about her epic split on her new Just B Divorced podcast. Finally, someone was validating what millions of women go through silently behind divorce court doors. The Real Housewives of New York alum has millions of fans and a multi-million dollar business empire. In the show’s first two episodes, Frankel took listeners behind the scenes of the “torture” she endured during a 10-year divorce for a two-year marriage.
But following her mother’s death, Frankel announced that she was putting the new pod on hold and the episodes disappeared.
Taylor Swift, Underdog Voices, and Women’s Historical Right to ‘Bolt’
“The Bolter,” in Taylor Swift’s eyes, is a woman who does not fit traditional society. Swift gives the bolter a voice—one that until now had been silent. She’s a woman not interested in being a trophy wife for the masses to admire. She has her own desires, preferences and demands, but her hopes and dreams are stifled by the rules that others want her to play by. She is unwilling to give of herself to play this role.
Courage in Journalism Award Winner María Teresa Montaño Delgado Exposes Government Corruption in Mexico
María Teresa Montaño Delgado is the founder and director of the investigative portal The Observer and winner of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Courage in Journalism Award.
She has dedicated her 30-plus-year journalistic career to uncovering corruption in the Mexican government. Her reporting has been met with smear campaigns by political leaders, tax harassment, bribery and threats to her and her family. Despite all the harassment, Montaño has continued her work.
Women on the Verge of Vanishing From Afghan Media
As we celebrate World Press Freedom Day, it’s worth reflecting on how it’s become a rare privilege to spot a female face on Afghan television—whether they wear a face covering or not.
Now, even these brief glimpses of women on Afghan TV might disappear. Near the end of February, Sheikh Mohammad Khalid, the Taliban’s minister for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, gathered owners of media companies for a meeting in Kabul and issued a warning: Women working in media needed to start covering their entire faces, leaving only their eyes visible; otherwise, the Taliban would ban women from working in the industry.
The Tradwife’s Catch-22
How is it that an independent business executive goes from a full-time position in the C-suite to a full-time position in the kitchen, out of submissive devotion to her husband? If you’ve recently spent time on TikTok or Instagram, you may have wrestled with this question.
Tradwife influencers are right to point out the emptiness, precarity and dissatisfaction of neoliberal life, and the appeal of the alternative they offer is clear. But much of the rosy picture they paint exists only on our iPhones and not in reality. Domestic labor is neither slow nor peaceful.
The Best Autistic and Autistic-Coded Characters in Animation
Three years ago, I wrote a piece for Ms. about Hollywood’s blatant and continued exclusion of Autistic people, as well as the ableist tropes film and TV have continued to push in its depiction of Autism. Since the article was published, I have seen more positive strides taken in terms of Autism representation in the media, with many of those strides coming from the world of animation.
As we wind down World Autism Month, here are some of my favorite Autistic and Autistic-coded characters in animation.
Beloved Bunny’s Death Shows How Libraries Help Parents
Critics of libraries have it wrong. Libraries aren’t threatening parents’ rights. They are protecting them.
The death of a beloved library bunny can tell us how, rather than forcing children to think a certain way, libraries help us find our words in life’s most challenging moments.