Anne Helen Petersen - Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman

O n November 8, 2016, I woke up early and said, to no one in particular, Im so excited to vote for our first female president! I wasnt alone in this sentiment: the entire city of New York seemed to vibrate with anticipation that day. Walking back from my polling place, I saw a mom with her three young daughters, all dressed in Hillary Clinton pantsuits. At the corner of Clinton and President Streets in Brooklyn, dozens of people were taking selfies. On the subway, a stranger saw my voting sticker and said, Thank you for doing your civic duty! Some sites predicted as small as a 1 percent chance of Trump winning. The days outcome seemed assured.

Fast-forward twelve hours. Im sitting at the BuzzFeed office in Manhattan, where the tone has taken an abrupt turn from excitement to panic. During the month leading up to the election, I had spoken to hundreds of women at Trump ralliesmany of whom overflowed with hatred for Clinton. They joined the shouts to lock her up that echoed through the rallies; they wore shirts emblazoned with Monica Sucks, Hillary Swallows. Statistically, these women were a minority. But they had tapped into a larger reservoir of dislike, distrust, and repulsion that, as the election results flowing into the office were gradually making clear, had mobilized against Clinton.

I cease my frantic refreshing of Twitter and stare blankly ahead. A plastic cup of white wine grows warm beside me. Donald Trumps win becomes probable, then certain. My phone lights up.

Im so sorry to do this, my editor says, but we need you to write something.

I had expected a relaxing, joyful rest of the week. I was exhausted from weeks reporting on the road. I could have cried. But instead, I opened up a new document, typing: This Is How Much America Hates Women.

Not all women, of course. Just women like Fox anchor Megyn Kelly, whod questioned Trump about his history with women during the primary debates. Women like former Miss Universe Alicia Machado, whod dared to gain weight. Women like Elizabeth Warren, who simply wont shut up, or Rosie ODonnell, with whom Trump had feuded for years. Women like the dozen whove accused him of sexual impropriety and/or assault, and Clinton herself, whom hed referred to as a nasty woman.

In other words, unruly womenthe type who incite Trumps ire, and whom millions of voters have decided they can degrade and dismiss, simply because they question, interrogate, or otherwise challenge the status quo. Of course, there have been unruly women for as long as there have been boundaries of what constitutes acceptable feminine behavior: women who, in some way, step outside the boundaries of good womanhood, who end up being labeled too fat, too loud, too slutty, too whatever characteristic women are supposed to keep under control. The hatred directed toward the unruly women of the 2016 campaign is simply an extension of the anxiety thats accumulated around this type of woman for centuries.

Which is why Trumps defeat wouldve felt like such a victory for unruly women everywhere: a mandate that this type of demeaning, dehumanizing behavior toward women is simply not acceptable, particularly from the president of the United States. Instead, Trumps victory signals the beginning of a backlash that has been quietly brewing for years, as unruly women of various forms have come to dominate the cultural landscape.

And while the unruly woman is under threat, she isnt going anywhere: Clinton, after all, won the popular vote by nearly three million votes, and the election has mobilized untold numbers of women to protect their rights and those of others. Trumps America feels unsafe for so many; the future of the nation seems uncertain. But unrulinessin its many manifestations, small and large, in action, in representation, in languagefeels more important, more necessary, than ever.

Unruly women surround us in our everyday lives, yet such figures become most powerful in celebrity form, where they become even more layered and fraught with contradiction. The next ten chapters thus examine female celebrities, from Serena Williams to Lena Dunham, who have been conceived of as unruly in some capacity. And while each chapter is named for the celebritys dominant mode of unrulinesstoo slutty, too gross, too queereach of these women is unruly in multiple, compounding ways: Serena Williams is too strong, but shes also too masculine, too rude, too fashionable, too black; Lena Dunham is too naked, but shes also too loud, too aggressive, too powerful, too revealing, too much.

Ive filled the book with women who occupy all different corners of the mainstream, from the literary world to Hollywood, from HBO to the tennis court. It includes several women of color, but the prevalence of straight white women serves to highlight an ugly truth: that the difference between cute, acceptable unruliness and unruliness that results in ire is often as simple as the color of a womans skin, whom she prefers to sleep with, and her proximity to traditional femininity. When a black woman talks too loud or too honestly, she becomes troubling or angry or out of control; a queer woman who talks about sex suddenly becomes proof that all gay people are intrinsically promiscuous. Its one thing to be a young, cherub-faced, straight woman doing and saying things that make people uncomfortable. Its quite anotherand far riskierto do those same things in a body that is not white, not straight, not slender, not young, or not American.