Long Time No See!
But Fourth Wave has been humming along
I was surprised when I decided it was about time for a newsletter to see that the last one went out in late November. Yikes! That’s a LONG TIME ago — in digital publishing minutes — and it means you’re about to be presented with a WHOLE LOT of links!
But lucky for you, I’ve realized the error of my previous newsletter ways. I am not going to organize the links by author this time, because where’s the fun in that?, but by topic. I hope that makes choosing the stories you’d like to read just a little bit easier.
First and foremost, I’d like to highlight this story, about two contributors joining Fourth Wave as Editors to help me manage this burgeoning publication. Welcome to Osi I. and Suma Narayan.
Introducing Two New Editors for Fourth Wave
Maybe with their help, I’ll be able to get the newsletter out sooner next time!!! Or maybe one of them will be compiling this delicious reading list for you. Ahhhh… I’d also like to highlight our FIRST EVER Fourth Wave poetry prompt. So poets, please take note.
Now that I’m finished grabbing all the links and see how ridiculously long this newsletter is, I’m embarrassed. Of course you should have gotten a smaller newsletter sooner! But the good news is that we have SO MANY excellent writers and stories being published on Fourth Wave. I didn’t count them all, but I counted the Boosts. We got 79 stories boosted here since the last newsletter. Can you guess which ones they are?
With such a vast menu of stories, I hope you’ll find it easy to select ones that you want to read and support with your claps, highlights, or comments — and that goes double if you’re a writer on this list. Let’s applaud and encourage each other in doing this good work of promoting equality for women — and all kinds of people — worldwide.
Yours in solidarity,
Patsy Fergusson
Publisher & EIC
Fourth Wave
Since the last newsletter November 27, we’ve published stories from these authors:
(Starting with the first one published after the newsletter and moving forward)
Christiana White, Caterina, Robert Pacilio, Me and My Muse, Seconde Nimenya, Tired Feminist, Mindy Insights, Frances A. Chiu, Ph.D. | writing coach | editor, Jeanette Brown | Don't Sum Me Up, June Tara, Bridget Pyefinch, Rebecca Ruth Gould, Danielle Watson, Maevyn Frey, Christyl Rivers, Phd., Patsy Fergusson, Toni Hargis, Catherine Oceano, Julie Marr, Rivka Wolf, Roz Warren, Writing Coach, Elle Beau ❇︎, Viragoria, Janet Chui, Sweet Honeylu, Sunanda, Evelyn Jean Pine, Jackie Rogers, Suma Narayan, Ashley Kettenring, Alan Tabor, Sophia Tell- Stories 🤓📢🤓, Ally Bush, Edward Swafford, D.K. Kennedy, Lina AbiRafeh, Selena Routley, StartledEgg, Rustam Seerat, Magali M., Eleni Stephanides, Sangeeta Kalsi, Danyelle Mustafa, Nicole Kay, Lsjaffee (Writer, Educator, Over-Thinker), Michelle Teheux, Diana C, Rita Lara, Amy Sterling Casil, Okwywrites, Vena Moore, Fatima Mohammed, Rebecca Designs A Life, Jenni, Mona Lazar, Allison Wiltz, Aza Y. Alam, Victoria Shirley, C. Circe Reid, Lynette Tremblay, Monica Taylor Boggan, Jess West, Mphatso, Maria Mouschoutzi, Moymona Begum, Agata Szymula, Osi I., Rachel Inberg, Katarina Felicia Lundgren, Katarina Felicia Lundgren, Victoria Shirley, Annika Hotta, Gail Valker McNulty 🕊️🌱, Marlowe Munroe, Anthea Jones, Maud, Patricia Gestoso, Aurora Dawn, Rui Alves, Russ Isaacs-Wade, Chad M. Topaz, Nargis K, Eleni Stephanides, Melissa Mann, Kaylin Hamilton, R. Wayne Branch PhD, Sue Reid, Kate Brennan, Luca Storm, Ramya Palakurthy, Aurelie B., Rachel Inberg, Yashi Srivastava, Ashley Kettenring, Ecorational, NatalieSugabelle, Laura Williams-Burke,
On these topics:
ON WHAT’S HAPPENING TO WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD
Femicides in Italy Can No Longer Be Ignored
Is “Feminism to Blame” For Korean Women Taking Down The Patriarchy?
British Women’s Right to Over The Counter Pill: Is This a Win?
A Woman’s Scowl Gets More Pushback than Sexual Abuse
Grace Tame Changed Australia
Where Class Meets Feminism: Are the Women of Latin America Class-less?
The Metoo Movement Exposed Australian Parliament
Why The Women of The Caribbean Are Devalued
Female football players get more online abuse
French Feminists Legally Secure Irreversible Abortion Right from 2024
Women In The Royal Air Force Expose A Culture Of Sexual Harassment At Work
Paid Period Leave is Here — but Women Don’t Want It
Was 2023 a “Good Year” for Women?
Recent abductions show Taliban’s goal of removing women from public sphere
“Leave this place, go away from here”: A Female Reporter in Exile
It Pays Better to Be Unemployed in Italy
Tampons Are Taxed More Than Truffles in my Country
Is the U.S. Responsible for What’s Happening to Women in Afghanistan?
Taliban Takes Heart in U.S. Control of Women
How to Act in the Face of Taliban Oppression: Choosing Silence, Complicity, or Resistance
The Ongoing Fights Against Gender Apartheid
Violence Increasing Against LGBTQI+ People in Afghanistan
We Imprisoned You for Wearing Men’s Shoes
The Taliban judiciary refuses to address women’s legal complaints
Taliban Gunmen Solicit Sexual Favours from Female Drivers in Herat
What happened to Qadria and Atiq? The Crime of Love under the Taliban
UN Women: How Close are Member Countries to Their 2030 Goals?
Women’s Right to Education Stripped in Iran and Afghanistan
Analyzing Violence by Women Against Women in Afghanistan
This IWD, Stay In The Kitchen
World Bank Update: No Equality for Working Women in Any Country
Post #IWD2024 Reflections: One Win and Three Persistent Failures
May Our Nowruz Be Victorious One Day!
Why I Skip Women’s Day Celebrations
“What’s Wrong with India?”
Consequences of Taliban’s Ban on Women’s Education
Taliban Abducts 17-Year-Old Girl in Ghur for Forced Marriage
New School Year Begins: 330,000 More Girls Deprived of Education
A World that Watches the Taliban Hunt Girls
Australia’s Culture of Rape and Exploitation
The Touch-paper Wrath and Violence of Some Australian Men
OUR PERSONAL STORIES
To Be a Woman of 55, Foregoing the Dream, Again
“It Was Never About the Books”
Haunting Questions for a Dark Winter’s Night
The Orphanage Didn’t Want Me
Morphing Into Something More
From Working for One Percenters to Working for Minimum Wage
God, Pills, and The Way It Went Down.
Our Last Leaf
About face: Going to Buenos Aires after all
Not Compatible With Living
The Sex Books My Mom Left Behind
The Way We Drank
“You’re getting on that plane”
When Church Was No Longer For Us
Broken Systems and the Life of a Child
Self Love is a Bitch
What Does A Home Mean To You?
My Ill-Fated Dance Adventure
Who Are My People?
A Climate Change Denier Violated Me
My Family Debates My Honor Killing
Sometimes Others See Us Better Than We See Ourselves
Memories of My Mum: My Heroine of Scraped Knee, Shattered Egg, Maundy Thursday
Drawing a Line in the Sand
Have passport, will travel
I Don’t Like Lion Words!
The Two Women Who Molded Me into a Man
In My Grandmother’s Kitchen
Shut Up and FEEL The Story!
The Last Time I Saw Her
Growing Up As a Girl Child In America
Growing Up As A Girl Child In America: Part 2
Killing Mom Softly with Tradwife Lies
I Couldn’t Swim, So I Signed up for a Triathlon
Asian Parents Love Their Children But Don’t Show It
“Are you a nun?”
Growing Up As A Girl Child In America: Part 3
Fragment: Holding (Onto)
Growing Up As A Girl Child In America: Part 4
Aqua? Vitae. Hic!
Okay, Okay, Okay!
ON FEMINISM
The Intersection When Race Meets Feminism: The Unfinished Conversation
Where Culture Meets Feminism: How Patriarchy Oppresses Korean Women
The Gender Divide, Holiday Workload Edition
Our Doormat Mothers
Have I Really Witnessed Mansplaining at a D&I Session?
“You Just Hate Men”
Guys, You’re Not The Holy Grail
“Traditional” Families Rarely Benefit Women And Children
Women Need To Demand More Power But Less Stuff
Let’s Tell More People To F*** Off In 2024
Public Parenting: Women’s Struggle with Childcare
Cats, Femininity, and the Hatred of Both
Oh, That Clock!
The One Lesson All Women Need to Unlearn
Decoding Dominance: Andrea Dworkin’s Analysis of Male Power
More Men Combining Careers With Fatherhood
The Cost of Being a Woman
Motherhood is a Choice: Not Inevitable or an Obligation
Your Life Isn’t Only Your Own
Why I No Longer Bake Cakes for Men Who Ask Me to (Even When I Like Them)
Why Are Young Men Regressing?
Shut Up, Little Girl
How Anti-Feminists Are Getting Played
The Myth of the Perfect Timeline
A Status Beneath Slave: Millennia of Systemic Inferiorization of Women
My Orthopedist Just Asked Why I Don’t Have Children Yet
Is Mom Really To Blame?
It’s Far Too Hard To Be An Independent Woman
We Need to Talk about Pockets
Why Men Leave Female-Dominated Professions
Fashion, the Male Gaze, and the Second Sex
“Fixing” Women: The Profitable Tricks of the Beauty Industrial Complex
Stay Spicy
Writing Women into Submission
The Big, Fat Backlash To Women’s Rights In 2024
During Battle, the Girls May Smile
“Sad And Lonely With Cats”
The Palatability Predicament for Women: Weighing Likability with Unfiltered Expression
I Want To Hate The GRWM Trend, But I Cannot
Woman ‘Splaining Mansplaining
The 1950s Spawned the Women’s Movement of the 60s and 70s
Politics of the Womb
Dear Woman, Of Course You’re An Imposter
Andrew Huberman’s Case: Is This the Fall of a Hero?
When You Call Me “Mama”
ON HEALTH AND MENTAL HEALTH
How Napping Can Improve Your Brain Health and Productivity
The Skinny on Skinny-Shaming
I Can’t Decide on Having Kids
White Fragility Can’t Deal With My Self-Care
Resisting the Impulse To Do Harm
Grieving What Could Have Been
The Chokehold of Looking “Young for Your Age”
Mother Nature Is Not A Feminist
When My Son’s Mind Went Missing
The Dark Psychology of “Infinite Scrolling”
Complex PTSD Is No Joke
Are Women Ready to Let Men Carry the Burden of Contraception?
Our Memories are not Reliable
Your Apple Watch is Ruining Your Mental Health
How to Access Abortion Pills
I’ve Spent My Life Being Jealous of Other Women
Mental Illness Has Almost No Correlation to Violence
I Took My Friend For an Abortion
IVF, Choice, Pregnant Persons and Non-personhood
10 Ways People Are Dealing With Bad Vibes
One Quarter of Human Pregnancies End in Miscarriage
Yesterday was different
A Lady’s Guide to Her ADHD
Is My Love Toxic?
We All Have So Much Power!
I Stopped Using Lipstick Because Most Are Toxic
How Childbirth Choices Have Changed
Permission to Sing
ON MOVIES, BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, AND ARTISTS
Lucy: A Social Commentary on Human Trafficking
Why I Disliked Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla”
Some of My Favorite Books About How Gender Dynamics Impact our Culture
Shards of Disappointment of Maya Angelou
Taylor Swift: Talkin’ about Her G-G-Generation
The Bitter Defeat Of Maya Angelou
Notes on Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye”
Comparing a Black Woman to Big Foot is Clear-Cut Misogynoir
The NFL Has Made Over 330 Million Off of Taylor Swift Without Her Consent
What Does the Movie “Fair Play” Teach Us About Insecure Men?
Consent vs. Shame: What Nobody Talks About in the Taylor Swift Deepfake Scandal
The Ever-Elusive Quality of Womanhood
Who’s That Wonderful Girl?✨
Empowered Black Voices of the Lusophony
The Arts are to Community What Breath is to Body
Words, Food, and Love: How Maya Angelou Conquered The World
ON SOCIAL AND GLOBAL JUSTICE
The Impact of Local Activism in Solidarity with Palestine
There’s Enough for Everyone
Do Fat People Deserve to Fly?
Stay Strong My Fellow People with Disabilities
Meet the Free Gaza Circus
Just Another Old White Woman Speaking Out for Palestine
Standing Up For What You Believe
Pogrom Palestine
White Women’s Weaponised Tears?
Growing Up in the 70s Vs. the 2020s
Rally for a Cause
To White Women Who Consider Themselves Liberals
Things Have Gone Downhill Since The 70s?
48% of Republicans Say California is “Not Really American”!
I Am Not an Island Adrift
Do You Dare to Venture Out of Your Comfort Zone?
Finding My Voice As a “Whyte” Free-Palestine Ally
When a Regime Slides into Dictatorship
Inequity at the Top? Analyzing Compensation and Diversity at Exeter
Where Are We Now? Have We Made Progress?
Working On My Birthday
Are Faculty Research Grants Missing the Mark on Diversity?
A Protest Calling for a New Normal
The Casualties of “Winning”
The Guilt of Being Alive When They Are Not
White Male Minority Rules the U.S.
How Do We Know What’s Really Happening in the World?
“Oh Dear, is Israel doing “Bad Stuff?”
It’s Time for Biden to End Netanyahu’s Reign of Terror
ON WHAT’S HAPPENING ON FOURTH WAVE
Consciousness Raising Continues April 20
We Juiced the Boost!
We Goosed the Boost!
What Happened at the Pub Crawl
ON GENDER
Being Non-Binary Politicized Me
The Tragedy of Gender Roles
Those “Sex is a Spectrum” Articles, (Re)bunked
Raising Men of Virtue in 2024 and Beyond
My Kids Don’t Respect Me and I Can’t Handle It
The Night Sea Journey in Campbell and Jung
Myth and Gender in Jungian Psychology
Male and Female Identities: Does Gender Define Who You Are?
Is it “Getting Harder to Be a Man than a Woman”?
Misogynist Bullying in the Salem Witch Trials Still Echoes Today
“No Matter How Far Women Go, They’ll Still End up in The Kitchen”
Gender: Stereotypes, Archetypes, and Science
ON WORK
Toxic and Abusive Management and HR vs Sanction of Employees
Gender Bias Interferes in the Workplace
Architecture Killed My Career
Women and Work/Life (Un)Balance
A Call to Reform Gender Dynamics in Architecture
Burnout: A Look Back
I Left My 6 figure Job to Save My Life
Women-Led Companies Usually Thrive. So Why So Few Female CEO’s?
I’m on a Career Pit Stop, and That’s OK
ON RACISM
This armor? I paid dearly for it
I Used to Resent the Asian Girlfriends of White Men
Rereading “Letter from Birmingham Jail”
No, Our Interracial Relationship is Not Your “Biological Erasure”
“I Don’t See Color”
Are Diversity Scholarships Another Form of Racism?
“Have You Never Seen A Negro Before?”
Which is the Most Racist Country?
The Rise and Fall of Awareness of Racism
White Women Have Flat Butts And Other Race Based Stereotypes
Who Upholds Racism in America?
Black Women in Society
Three Things Not to Say to a Black Person
Do Race and Perception Play a Role in Black Deaths in America?
The Million-Dollar Question
“White” is a Way of Life
Did They “Ethnically Cleanse” International Women’s Day?
Decolonize Your Mind, Decolonize Our Systems
Racism and Colorism: Why The Difference Matters
OUR POETRY & SHORT STORIES
The Point Of The New Year
Introducing Anastaisiia and Buttercup
Black Wedding
Living in Gaza
For My Daughter
Firebrand
Wellesley Hospital, Toronto, 1988
Krystal
Swallow, Swallow, Swallow…
Like a Fucking Phoenix
It’s Getting Hot in Here
Wolf
Fragment: THE CLOSET
Crime in the Year Dot
Feed Her to the Wolves
The Law of Intensity
Birthright
She is Earth is She
“Macavity The Mystery Cat” Was a Dominatrix
ON DATING AND RELATIONSHIPS
Are Straight Relationships Doomed?
Men, Please Improve Your Hygiene
I Refuse to Date an Apolitical Man
The Dating Wars Will End When Men and Women Can Be Just Friends
The Sad Reason Men Lash out at Women Online (That Nobody Talks About)
If You Want to Be Treated Like a King, Stop Behaving Like A Brat
I Give Men Blue Balls. Is It Fair?
It’s Not Being “Simpy” to Like Your Girlfriend
My Very First White Guy
ON WOMEN’S ACHIEVEMENTS
On the Road to Journalism
When Words Fail: The Ongoing Work of Ida B. Wells
Two Women Mother an Extinct Species Back to Life
This Is Not a Game
The Many Times Women Led World Revolutions
What If I Am A Woman?
The Coolest Gadgets Ever — And the Woman Who Made Them!
Ethel Byrne: The Feminist Icon You Have Never Heard of
She Was 15, Dark-skinned and Omitted From the History Books
ON SEXUAL ABUSE AND DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
Take What You Need and Leave the Rest
“I Know He’s a Good Man”
Stalking Laws and One Woman’s Death: The Case of Gracie Spinks
The Sexually Abusive Female
On Consent: We All Freeze
Men Who Kill Their Female Partners Get Lighter Sentences
How Rape Myths Silence Victims of Sexual Assault
Rape Is Legal, As Long As She’s Your Wife
ON THE ENVIRONMENT
Nature is a Big, Beautiful Woman!
That’s the lot! Until next time…
