#160 - Rage Becomes Her: Why Self-Care Won’t Save Us with Soraya Chemaly

In the countdown to the 2020 election I interviewed Soraya Chemaly, author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger - an amazing book she wrote after 2016 election delving into the reasons why women can’t be angry without being called “unhinged” or a “b*”.

Our conversation includes:

• how the progressive white male was most “shocked” with 2016 results
• why the power differential between men and women hurts EVERYONE (hello, judges of Kamala Harris' facial expressions)
• why the ideology of separate spheres keeps us divided — and struggling to maintain our mental health, hence all those bubble baths and lavender oil treatments. (Raising my hand to that... its great, right, but... is it really enough?)
• Soraya also shares the historical context of gender roles and intersectional feminism to provide convincing reasons why self-care rituals fall short of any real solutions while remaining vitally important for us to do.

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About Soraya
Soraya Chemaly is currently Executive Director of The Representation Project. An award-winning author and activist, she writes and speaks frequently on topics related to gender norms, inclusivity, social justice, free speech, sexualized violence, and technology. The former director and co-founder of the Women’s Media Center Speech Project, she has long been committed to expanding women’s civic and political participation.

Her work as a writer, activist and organizer is featured widely in media, books, and academic research. She is the author of Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women’s Anger, which has been translated into several languages, and a contributor to multiple anthologies, most recently Free Speech in the Digital Age and Believe Me: How Trusting Women Can Change The World.

Prior to 2010, Ms. Chemaly spent more than fifteen years as a market development executive and consultant in the media and data technology industries. After several years in market development at the Gannett Corporation, she moved into the datatech sector at Claritas, ending her tenure there as SVP of Marketing Strategy.

Soraya currently serves on the national boards of the Women's Media Center, Women in Journalism, and the DC Volunteer Lawyers Project. She has also served on the boards of Women, Action and the advisory councils of the Center for Democracy and Technology, VIDA, Secular Woman, FORCE: Upsetting Rape Culture, No Bully, and Common Sense Media. As an activist, Ms. Chemaly has spear-headed multiple successful campaigns challenging corporations to address online harassment and abuse, restrictive content moderation and censorship, and institutional biases that affect free speech.

In 2013, Soraya won the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication’s (AEJMC)'s Award for Feminist Advocacy and the Secular Woman Activism Award. In 2014, she was named one of Elle Magazine's 25 Inspiring Women to Follow in social media, and, in 2016, the recipient of the Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press’s Women and Media Award. In 2017, she was the co-recipient of the Newhouse Mirror Award for Best Single Feature of 2016 for an in-depth investigative report on free speech and social media, and a Wikipedia Distinguished Service Award for exemplary contributions to the advancement of public knowledge and educational content. In 2019, she was awarded the Feminist Press’ Feminist Power Award.

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