Henderson - Feminist Ryan Gosling

Contents

Front cover: Munawar Hosain/Fotos International/Getty Images; pp. : Slaven Vlasic/Everett Collection

BIG thanks to: Jordana Tusman, Jason Kayser, Bill Jones, Chris Navratil, Sue Oyama, and everyone at Running Press and Perseus Books Group for your time and support. Grrl Gang Midwest: Elena Lavarreda, Anne Peters, Kelly Fox, Julia Gutierrez, and Mary Durden for ladies lunches, drinks at Coopers, and revealing the secret relationship between Lacan and Tupac. Grrl Gang East Coast: Alexis Gorton for your science advice, crocheted uteri, and every moment of your friendship for the past two decades. Nelli Ruotsalainen, Melanie Carrazzo, and Anna Vaccaro for holding down the feminist fort in Finland, Boston, and Rhode Island. Sandra Pieloch, Kurt Schlachter, Sarah and Nick Hughes for early e-mails, late phone calls, and being my home base and my whole heart. Professors Ellen Samuels, Chris Garlough-Shah, Keisha Lindsay, Pernille Ipsen, Jody Lisberger, Jenn Brandt, Carolyn Betensky, and Winnie Brownell for being wonderful mentors and complete badasses. Bekah Havens, thanks for insisting I move these pictures to their own space. Anisa, Ali Eileen Zeiger, and Abby Napier for the warm welcome and continual support. Martha Fischhoff for her overall cheerleading and for being my hero. Sarah Jackson for staying up late, believing in me when I did not, and remembering Skora. Joy Lewis, Chris King, Krystyn Heide, Maile Wilson, Karen Walrond, Erin Glaser, Eden Kennedy, Rachel Rothenberg, Lea Rubenstein, Nomi Hague, and Rose Kauffman, you are better friends than I deserve. Marianne and Ray Hurley for accepting me as one of your own even after I broke every toilet in your house. Special thanks to every single reader of the Feminist Ryan Gosling blog for being beautiful people with impeccable taste. Ryan Gosling, thanks for your unwavering talent, for being a good sport, and getting me through grad school. And the biggest thanks to my husband, Seth. Youve given me one thousand brilliant moments and I cant wait to create thousands more. Thanks for supporting all of my weird ideas over the years, laughing when I dance in the kitchen, listening to my rap tourettes, and, most of all, thanks for putting out on our first date.

The post-feminist fetishization of motherhood is deeply rooted in classism, but I still think wed make cute babies.

We dont need arbitrary beauty archetypes steeped in historically biased ideologies pumped out to us by mediocre forms of media to define our sexiness.

Julia Kristeva talks about love being the modern obscenity like she was spying on us last night.

We cant smash the patriarchy without the right tools.

This pick-up game is okay, but I wish we were courtside watching Lisa Leslie take it to the rim instead.

All I want for my birthday is a subscription to Ms. Magazine.

Youve torn down the yellow wallpaper of my soul.

Yeah, but when he said, Breastfeeding in public is offensive, was the crew from Punkd standing behind him?

Start a revolutionstop hating your body.

Derrida thinks language is fluid enough to break the gender divide, but I cant imagine a world where we could get even closer.

Does watching reality television only to point out the flawed, patriarchal undertones count as activism?

Gender is a social construct, but everyone likes to cuddle.

How many consecutive episodes of Xena are too many?

I agree with Chandra Mohanty that Western feminism has a problem with referring to women as third world, since all women are No. 1 in my heart.

I mean... WOMAN.