Men fear me, society shames me

And other links for your Sunday

Glynnis MacNicol

is an incredible writer and human and her book I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself publishes on June 11. I was lucky enough to read a early copy of this book and I am here to tell you that it is so deliciously fun and freeing and inspiring.

This week, Glynnis published an essay in the New York Times where she writes about the freedom of being single and 50 and how she unreservedly and unabashedly enjoys her life with no apologies.

Forget about the horror of being alone and middle-aged — there is nothing more terrifying to a patriarchal society than a woman who is free. That she might be having a better time without permission or supervision is downright insufferable.

Go read it.

And she’s not wrong. In another piece for the New York Times a writer put my book, Maggie Smith’s book, and Leslie Jamison’s book in an article together to shame us for encouraging women to have passions and ambitions outside of the care work of parenting.

I am not linking to the piece because they can get their rage clicks another way. But I have a couple of thoughts about this piece, which I didn’t read all the way through and I won’t finish because it’s clear the author didn’t finish my book either.