Fiction that Strikes a #MeToo Chord
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For the last few days, a short piece of fiction has been making the social media rounds. It’s called “Cat Person,” written by Kristen Roupenian, and published by The New Yorker.
And it has struck a chord.
It’s the story of a college-aged woman who gets involved with an older man. But it’s not about sexual assault. This isn’t a Harvey Weinstein story. Instead it's a woman confronting a need to please others, even to the detriment of her own comfort and needs.
“She tried to bludgeon her resistance into submission by taking a sip of the whiskey…” the narrator, Margot, says at one point.
Each week we speak to two female journalists focused on gender issues in the news, and this #MeToo moment: Koa Beck, editor-in-chief of Jezebel, and Jessica Bennett, gender editor of The New York Times and author of Feminist Fight Club. Today, they sit down to talk about this now-viral story and why it rings true for many women.
