The Weird Sister Collection: Writing at the Intersections of Feminism, Literature, and Pop Culture

In this stimulating anthology, poet Crawford (Diary) collects entries from her Weird Sisters blog, which she created in 2014 to publish accessible perspectives on literature and feminism. Several selections draw parallels between classic literature and pop culture from the 1990s and 2000s, including “Anonymous Was a Riot Grrrl,” in which Eleanor C. Whitney suggests that the riot grrrl movement of the 1990s “seized the means of punk cultural production” to create the kinds of women-controlled spaces Virginia Woolf called for in A Room of One’s Own. Elsewhere, Naomi Extra explores how Toni Morrison’s 2015 novel, God Help the Child, critiques the “bad bitch” archetype, and Emily Gaynor defends the “sad girl” for refusing to conceal her sorrow: “A woman who needs instead of gives is threatening.” A few entries feel undercooked; for example, Cathy de la Cruz’s reflection on her viral tweet suggesting a Texas sculpture resembles a guy “mansplaining” something to a woman concludes with the pat assertion that the story “highlights the importance of women’s conversations with each other” because the tweet began in a group chat with Cathy’s female friends. Still, the best pieces balance a breezy style with intelligent interrogations of what it means to be a woman today. The result is an approachable examination of contemporary feminism. (Feb.)