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For starters, there are no plums involved. More »
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Women feel terrible about their bodies. After over a year at Jezebel, I know this is an incontrovertible fact. And yes, there are the blessed few out there who are free from self-loathing, but they are few and far between and I know this because I read your comments. Anytime we post something even remotely pertaining to weight, there are electronic reams of stories about calorie cutting and size shifting and pound comparing and well, pain. I bought Valerie Frankel's memoir Thin Is The New Happy because of a review that Rachel Kramer Bussel wrote of the book on Amazon. "As someone who has struggled with my weight, dieted, and mainly, worried about my appearance, I've read plenty of weight loss memoirs, and will continue to do so, I'm sure," Bussel wrote. "I can safely say that while Frankel's overall message (don't diet, eat what you want) isn't new, her approach, humor, frankness and willingness to dig deep are something unexpected." More »
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Most people who are famous — and I don't mean the kind of famous where a few people recognize you at the supermarket, I mean people who are known worldwide — are famous because they have sought the spotlight like particularly aggressive moths. But what about those mostly innocent bystanders who become famous not by choice, but merely by their proximity to those heat-seekers? The Lohans notwithstanding, those adjacent to the famous have an incredibly ambivalent attitude towards their public lives. Though most of the press about Curtis Sittenfeld's acclaimed third novel, American Wife, focuses on the fact that the heroine, Alice Blackwell, is based on the biography and persona of Laura Bush, ultimately it's about the nature of fate, and what happens to those loved ones swept up in the tide of someone else's ambition. In the third installment of our interview series, we talk with Curtis about First Ladies, Sarah Barracuda, and Laura Bush's stealth independence. More »
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For the second installment of our Q&A series, Sweet Talk, I chatted with Margaret Cho, and you guys, I have to be honest. It was really hard for me to interview her because I am such a pathetic fan girl. I have loved her since All-American Girl premiered in 1994, and I still remember being 12 or 13 and watching the first HBO special that Comedy Central re-ran all the time. Margaret was wearing this black vinyl cat suit, and being her usually hilarious, outspoken self, and I was smitten, even though I only understood half the jokes. Plus, the show was educational: I learned that lesbians love whale watching! Which is all to say: I was not even remotely objective when conducting this interview, and I sort of rambled and stuttered and was basically lame. Please do not let this prevent you from enjoying Margaret's thoughtful answers about her vagina, her puppies, her parents, and her new VH1 reality show, The Cho Show, which premieres on August 21. More »
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Janelle Brown’s debut novel, All We Ever Wanted Was Everything, in addition to including a Bauhaus reference in its title, is essentially about the relationship between Janice Miller and her two daughters, Margaret, 28, and Lizzie, 14. AWEWWE depicts a shining Silicon Valley suburb replete with country club appearances and pool boys. In the grand tradition of the suburban novel, though, beneath the surface of all that material excess lurks despair, accidental pregnancy and general malaise. It's sort of like a modern day, West Coast version of the Ice Storm, but instead of key parties there's…meth. We talked with Janelle, a former staffer at Wired and Salon about her darkly funny book, Maxi, the feminist ‘zine she used to run in the 90s, and the uneasy intersection between art and commerce. More »
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