The deeply researched and definitive account of the invisible emotional work and mental load so often shouldered by women, and the economics of how it is devalued monetarily and socially, as it relates to the workplace, relationships, sex, family life, and much more – providing a new framework and language for a 21st-century feminism, and ideas for how to better share the load.
EMOTIONAL LABOR
by Rose Hackman
Flatiron/St. Martin’s Press, March 2023
“Emotional labor.” The term might sound familiar, but what does it mean exactly? Originally used to describe the unacknowledged labor flight attendants did to make guests feel welcomed and safe—on top of their actual job description—the phrase has burst through to the national lexicon in recent years. The examples, whispered among friends and posted online, are endless—a woman is tasked with organizing family functions, even without volunteering; a stranger insists you “smile more,” even as you navigate a high stress environment or grating commute. Emotional labor is essential to our society and economy, but many are asked to perform this exhausting, draining work at no extra cost. In this ground-breaking, journalistic deep-dive, Rose Hackman traces the history of the term and exposes common manifestations of the phenomenon. She describes the many ways women and girls are forced to edit the expressions of their emotions to accommodate and elevate the emotions of others. But Hackman doesn’t simply diagnose a problem—she empowers us to combat patriarchy and forge pathways for radical evolution, justice and change. This is a must-have for any feminist reader.
Rose Hackman is a British journalist based in Detroit. Her work on gender, race, labor, policing, housing and the environment – published in the Guardian – has brought international attention to overlooked American policy issues, historically entrenched injustices, and complicated social mores.
People living in democracies have for decades drawn comfort from the notion that their form of government, for all its flaws, is the best history has managed to produce. SURVEILLANCE STATE documents with startling detail how even as China’s Communist Party pays lip service to democracy as a core value of “socialism with Chinese characteristics,” it is striving for something new: a political model that shapes the will of the people not through the ballot box but through the sophisticated―and often brutal―harnessing of data.
Do you feel just a bit crap, most of the time? We’re not talking major depression here but rather that constant underlying feeling of being underwater, struggling beneath the surface of life. It’s because of your tiny t – the small, everyday traumas that you’ve endured all your life which have led you to living on autopilot, slightly numb to the world. This book will show you how to come alive once again – and flourish, rather than languish, in a life less lived.
Anti-fatness is everywhere. In WHAT WE DON’T TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT FAT, Aubrey Gordon unearths the cultural attitudes and social systems that have led to people being denied basic needs because they are fat and calls for social justice movements to be inclusive of plus-sized people’s experiences. Unlike the recent wave of memoirs and quasi self-help books that encourage readers to love and accept themselves, Gordon pushes the discussion further towards authentic fat activism, which includes ending legal weight discrimination, giving equal access to health care for large people, increased access to public spaces, and ending anti-fat violence. As she argues, “I did not come to body positivity for self-esteem. I came to it for social justice.”
« I’ve seen the future of horror . . . and his name is Clive Barker. » In the mid-1980s, Stephen King inducted a young English novelist into the world of great genre writers, and since then, this genius creator has only continued to expand his field of activity. Created by his two most loyal collaborators, Phil and Sarah Stokes, CLIVE BARKER’S DARK WORLDS is the first book to shed light on the massive scope of Barker’s creative work. With the help of Barker himself, this book contains exclusive insight from those who have worked with him creatively and professionally, alongside analyses of his works and comments over four decades from industry contemporaries and friends such as Ramsey Campbell, Quentin Tarantino, Neil Gaiman, China Miéville, Peter Straub, Armistead Maupin, J.G. Ballard, Wes Craven, and many more.