Tag: 1980s

When Free Speech Fought Back in 1985

Are we safe if a comedian does not have free speech? Were we safe when musicians did not have free speech? Did the executive branch always hate the first amendment or is this a new trend? In September 2025, ABC/Disney abruptly suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show after FCC Chairman Brendan Carr publicly denounced Kimmel’s political…
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September 22, 2025
Pee Wee Herman: Lessons From a Manchild

By Rachael Price Nowadays, one does not usually understand the term “manchild” to be a compliment. Whereas it once denoted a young person who had to deal with adult challenges early in life, such as the autobiographical protagonist of Claude Brown’s landmark Civil Rights-era novel Manchild in the Promised Land, it now tends to invoke…
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August 27, 2025
Surviving the Cold War (Again): A Gen Xer’s Guide

If you were a Gen X kid, you remember the Cold War and may be having a familiar feeling right now. Global tension you didn’t fully understand but could feel. We didn’t learn about the Cold War from history books. We learned it from Sting songs, Stallone movies, and being told by our teachers that…
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June 24, 2025
Sample Chapter of Hearts of Glass & An Open Heart

Hi Readers, I’m back this Friday. Earlier this evening I started writing “Hearts of Glass Fade Away and Radiate”. It is the second book in the Hearts of Glass series and it releases black Friday of this year. To get back into the writing seat I needed inspiration. I got it a few ways. The…
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May 30, 2025
Gloria Estefan Taught Us How to Come Out of the Dark

Gloria Estefan is a Fem Friday icon. I’ve got Pat Green to thank for helping me remember just how iconic she really is. I asked him if he had ever considered writing about her. He said he had a rough draft and notes on her-as well as other women from the 80s. I asked him…
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May 23, 2025
Not Your Stepford Sister: How to Be Fem Friday Hero

All women are in danger right now. Our rights, the ones we have left, are under attack. Our bodies are being legislated. Our stories are being erased from history, and government websites like NASA. Whether you’re a white straight women in Boston, trans woman in Florida, a Black mom in Illinois, a disabled activist in…
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May 16, 2025
Ready to Rage? The Great Fem Friday Takeover

Hi! My name is Heather and I will be running Gen X Watch until the end of June. I have exactly one fond memory of the 1980s: the weekend Pat Green saved my life. Everything else about that decade can burn for all I care. Gen X nostalgia? Hard pass. I’m not here to romanticize…
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May 9, 2025
Phil Collins and the Long Long Way to Go Now

Is the world too hard to handle? Do we need to face the suffering? What happens when we turn off empathy? Phil Collins’ “Long Long Way to Go” is a punch to the gut, a reminder of the world I came of age in and how it shaped us. Whenever I hear that haunting chorus,…
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April 21, 2025
Hearts of Glass Library Homecoming: Join Me!

I want to extend a heartfelt invitation to an event that means the world to me. This Saturday, April 5th, from 2:30 PM to 5:00 PM, I’ll be at the Bolingbrook Fountaindale Public Library for a very special book launch celebration. This isn’t just any author event… it’s a homecoming for me, and I’d love…
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April 3, 2025
Hearts of Glass Tour: The Next Chapter Begins

As the crowdfunding chapter on Indiegogo comes to a close in less than 2 weeks, I find myself filled with gratitude and excitement. Together, we are bringing Hearts of Glass: Living in the Real World to life through the support of an incredible community. This YA novel—set in the late 1980s—dives into some heavy themes…
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March 27, 2025