Right? I mean, she looks good in a catsuit as she is, so... I don’t get it either.

That butt does not look entirely natural. And I’m not sure she’s adequately rocking the disco drag queen sequined catsuit/goth stripper platforms combo. Swifty is many fine things, but “fierce!” is not really one of them.

It’s literally the other side of the coin of calling someone a pussy for being weak.

I am happy if she’s a fervent LGBTQ ally, but I did not find her joke funny or especially on target either.

And what I hated was the editors who had no clue on what it was like to be out in the field every day, banging your head against the world that resisted your efforts to do the news, and would pull rank simply because they could, no matter how bad their editorial judgment was.

“but you’re not publishing books on the national and international level of”

You realize there were prominent female writers in the 1960s, right? Taleses’ contemporaries include Joyce Carol Oates who out-wrote him in their competing works on Boxing, and the downtroden men who aspire to make their life in the ring or die trying.

He didn’t merely say he wasn’t inspired by any women , he explained why he wasn’t with a bullshit reason that is easy to disprove, that is what’s outrageous. Since his reason is bullshit but he expressed it anyways , he did it to disparage women writers.

I can see that you’ve been inspired by Norman Mailer though. I can spot his insufferable condescending tone in your writing.

I see. Women are a recent invention, then, popping up somewhere around the time bras were being (mysteriously and apocryphically) burned. Before that, nothing.

In the mid 80s a college professor told me a (possibly apocryphal) story about a male student who wrote an essay arguing that women were inherently less rigorous writers- using George Eliot’s work as an example of the epitome of said rigorous male writing that no woman could match.

Yes, it's your intentions that I'm calling into question. I don't believe that you really don't understand the "outrage". I think you understand it perfectly well and are willfully blind to the "outrage" because you intend to generate attention for yourself. Which I have given you, oddly enough, and that makes me…

Oh, so shitting on women women writers is ok because generations of men have been doing it? Imagine if he said something like this about black writers? Would you likewise the defend the persecution of a poor old racist? You either believe in equality or you don’t and it’s a big disservice to those who have held women…

Both influential and irrelevant. Damn, son, do you need a chiropractor for that twisting you did?

I have a very strong suspicion that you are Piers Morgan.

Oh, yes, I love when they’re like, “I am all for women as actors/musicians/politicians/whatever,” and you say “What about X?” and they are like, “Well, no, not her.” And you list 2000 other women, and somehow none measure up for him. But that anonymous, non-human imaginary woman that doesn’t exist yet? Oh, he loves…

It’s a big deal because he’s lying to demean women writers. The excuse he gives about their not wanting to deal with the gritty side of life isn’t true , even Harriet Beecher Stowe did that in the 19th century with slavery and was followed by a long line of writers and journalists such as Frances Fitzgerald on…

Yup, there’s always some excuse so we can’t point out how shitty men are to women. Oh, but he is such a great sports player! Oh, but he writes so well! Oh, he is too young/old to know better!

Good one!

Well first off, I think it’s a BIG stretch to include Talese with Capote, Mailer, etc. But second, in this thread alone, we’ve got Didion, Susan Sontag, Frances FitzGerald, Nora Ephron and Mary McCarthy who are all better known and are more influential than Talese. Third, though- and this is the important point that…