Fem Friday has a new home in Tawnlandia! You can read it on Tawnlandia’s Medium Channel for Fem Friday. If you want to listen to it read by a seasoned audiobook reader you can listen for free on her Patreon or her Feminist Forum.
There is a new emphasis in the Fem Friday’s in this collaboration. The focus is on the real women we have written about and continue to write about as opposed to the celebrities. That is not to say the celebrities are not real, but the top Fem Fridays have always been the ones that featured women that I, the editor in chief, knew between 1987 and 1991.
I spoke with two women that have been most beloved by readers to get their insights.
Heather and Jenny
This was a creative conversation to the say the least. I’ve spoken to Heather and Jenny many times over the years, but this is the first time I have had them both on the same chat. It was a mish mash of ASL, voice and chat. I have condensed the conversation and added interpretation and had them both agree that this fairly represented our conversation about Fem Friday’s new chapter.
The Conversation
Patrick: So?
Heather: Holy shit!
Jenny: This is right!
Patrick: What do you like best?
Jenny: We’re Fem Friday. You’re our words. She’s the voice and I think it needed her voice.
Heather: Yes yes yes! I love how she read Sarah! Jenny, can I ask an ableist question?
Jenny: Yes.
Heather: I’ve read the stories about you with the balloons and I know you have hearing aids. But I don’t know anyone who’s deaf. How does that work? Audiobooks and podcasts?
Jenny: I can tell you my experience. The deaf community is more disparate than it is uniform. We all experience it differently. In my case I’m profoundly deaf and I make more money than most Americans. My hearing aids have bluetooth that I can control with my iPhone or another device. Hearing aids now compared to what I had in the 80’s are much more advanced. Part of me loves that and a part of me doesn’t.
Heather: What don’t you like?
Jenny: The tech is about forcing me to live in the hearing world instead of hearies learning about us. This get’s back to something Tawn nailed.
Patrick: What did she get right?
Jenny: On the Medium channel, when you use the audio, it highlights the words being said. That’s important and useful.
Patrick: Why?
Jenny: If you’re in auditory rehab audiobooks and podcasts are helpful, but they’re most helpful when there’s a closed captioning aspect. For me, reading is my preference, but this little touch she did added to the accessibility.
Heather: Women who are blind?
Patrick: I screwed up with them. I was so focused on the retro visuals of the site that it leaned to the sighted. I hope it is useful.
Jenny: You’re responding and making the effort. That’s more than most of ya do.
Patrick: So what else works?
Heather: The decentralized approach with consistent branding’s smart. Gen X Watch needs to be centralized, but Fem Friday and Tawnlandia are different animals. This will broaden the reach. Gen X is a destination, Fem Friday is a brand available at these locations!
Jenny: I feel more connected to Sarah in the remix.
Patrick: Oh! Interesting. How so?
Jenny: It’s hard to explain. Maybe being separated from Joan Jett made her more interesting. I could focus on just her. I wanted to be that girl with a dank studio in a local band hitting on guys at concerts.
Heather: Yeah, she was a take control gal! I loved her and it’s like I saw her differently because it was just her. Jenny, do you think it’s different for us?
Jenny: ?
Heather: We’re Fem Friday’s. We’ve been written about. I read about Pat’s friend in the hospital and think about the ones who have died. I feel connected like we are in a fraternity bonded by columns. I’m worried about a woman I’ve never met.
Jenny: I think all women are written about online. The difference here is the stories celebrate us instead of hurt us.
Heather: Good point! Before they just had bathroom stalls on campus. Now they have social media.
Jenny: Yep. And women are telling their stories in the comments. We’re not special but that makes us all special. We are heroes in disguise, each one a goddess capable of anything. And look at our interviews! The women with disabilities after my interview was powerful and you have a bunch of women that want to be 18 year old you and how you foil Pat.
Heather: Foiling Patrick’s been a hobby for almost 40 years.
Patrick: Last question. In today’s political climate, is there anything else that needs to happen in Fed Friday.
Heather: No. The stories are more important than the politics, especially now.
Jenny: ?
Heather: What Patrick wrote once about Fem Friday not being Feminist Friday. The idea is bigger than the label. Women’s March was awkward. Here we are, standing up against trump, and we showed how anti semitic, islamophobic, transphobic, and racist feminism can be.
Jenny: And ableist! We get shut out of feminism all the time.
Heather: And ableist. It’s hard to admit but we have black feminist theory because black women were excluded. Still are. But I also think we need to do more work with conservative Christian women.
Jenny: ?
Heather: Trump won big in Florida, but their bullshit abortion rules just missed being overturned. I came from conservative religion in the white suburbs. Women in those circles have our experiences, our hurts, and our fears too. Atwood hit on that. But it’s hard for them to join us. Step out of line and you’re a Jezebel. Christian husbands are not swell guys. We’re afraid of The Handmaid’s Tale. A lot of church chicks already live it and all their husbands think they are Commanders. My mom’s a traitor to all that is decent and good in women, but most women in that world are gaslit and scared. A good story is bigger than a word or political party. It cuts to the meaning of the word.
Jenny: I don’t want to be anywhere near the women that voted for him. My kid and Pat’s kid are trans. I have less rights and less safety now and they supported that monster.
Heather: And the guy who founded Fem Friday used be a pro life, anti gay, bible thumping conservative twat.
Jenny: That’s different! He wasn’t always like that! He was manipulated into….oh my god.
Heather: Youth groups, see you at the pole, women’s church groups, purity culture. They groom well on that side. Inside many of these women in suburban pews is a hurt and scared little girl who was abused and manipulated into the life they lead. I was one of them. Pat and my Dad got me out. Who will get them out?
Patrick: Any final thoughts?
Heather: This is a great next step for Fem Friday and I love what you and Tawn did!
Jenny: Expansion on accessibility and a new focus on the rest of us instead of the famous among us is great!
Go Read the New Fem Friday!

You can read the new Fem Friday at Medium: https://www.patreon.com/collection/852191?view=expanded
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