Sarah M. Seltzer
Psst! Hi. Welcome to the new Lilith.org.
Author: Sarah M. Seltzer
The Pop Culture That Got Lilith’s Staff Through 2020
Lilith Staff
Before we say goodbye to 2020, here are our recommendations for the books, podcasts, television shows that helped us make it through the year.
I Thought I Was Jo: Revisiting “Little Women.”
Sarah M. Seltzer
Little Women’s classic journey from girlhood to womanhood is extra poignant on the other side of the divide.
A Romantic Novel That Acknowledges the Limits of Romance
Sarah M. Seltzer
Miriam Parker’s The Shortest Way Home goes deeper than its bubbly, clear surface, subtly questioning conventional definitions of success for its heroine, Hannah, who begins the novel with a lucrative job and a rich boyfriend.
The Patriarchy-Free Paradise of “Mamma Mia!”
Sarah M. Seltzer
Kalokairi, the fictional Greek island where Donna Sheridan decamps, is a matriarchal paradise: the animals are friendly and the men in thrall to the self-assured women who run things. It’s a place where “having it all” means having cake, dancing, and feeding other people cake while they dance.
More Summer Page-Turners and Pleasure Reads
Sarah M. Seltzer
Here are a few more 2018 books, ranging from slight to serious, that should give Jewish feminist readers (and indeed, all readers) something to curl up with as the summer hits its sultry stride.
The Bitches of the 1990s Weren’t Villains After All
Sarah M. Seltzer
These women were what I called bitchified–undermined and objectified, their progress thwarted by emerging media narrative that called them bitches and every derivative. The sexism was shocking to uncover.
Dana Schwartz on Humor, Rejecting the “Guilty Pleasure” Label and Terrible Jews
Sarah M. Seltzer
We as a culture need to take a step back and ask ourselves why “guilty pleasure” is a way we write about women’s books, as if women should be ironically ashamed by things that are associated with women.
“Do You Know What a Fascist Is?”
Sarah M. Seltzer
When I try to speak or write about what’s happening at the border––the official policy of tearing away young children, some of them babies, from their asylum-seeking parents––my thoughts turn into an incoherent roar of grief, anger and impotence. I am reduced to a mass of unformed feelings.
Can We Harness the Power of #MeToo To Smash Patriarchy At Its Core?
Sarah M. Seltzer
We need to fire perpetrators, but this alone won’t eliminate the abuse of workers. Changing the nature of contemporary work from the bottom up could.