by Sam George-Allen
Melville House Publishing
1/28/2020, paperback
SKU: 9781612198347
A celebration of the revolutionary potential of women working with other women, and a powerful statement about myths like the cool girl or the catty workplace
Covens. Girl Bands. Ballet troupes. Convents. In all times and places, girls and women have come together in communities of vocation, of necessity, of support.
In Witches, Sam George-Allen explores how wherever women gather, magic happens. Female farmers change the way we grow our food. Online beauty communities democratize skin-care rituals. And more than any other demographic, it's teen girls that shape our culture.
Patriarchal societies have long been content to champion boys' clubs, while viewing groups that exclude men as sites of rivalry and suspicion. This deeply personal investigation takes us from our workplaces to our social circles, surveying our heroes, our outcasts, and ourselves, in order to dismantle the persistent and pernicious cultural myth of female isolation and competition . . . once and for all.
Reviews:
"Counters common misconceptions about female friendships . . . Compelling, thoroughly researched, and thoughtfully written." --The Sydney Morning Herald
"While it takes into account the lived experiences of many kinds of women, Witches never offers one fixed definition of what it is to be a woman. Instead, it highlights the endless possibilities of what women can achieve by boosting each other up." --Kill Your Darlings
"George-Allen uses Witches to make space for other women to speak." --Sydney Review of Books
"This book is a forceful rejection of the titillating stories of female rivalry that are so tirelessly recycled in the office, in pop culture and in political discourse... full of surprising insights." --Washington Post
About the Author:
Sam George-Allen is an Australian writer and musician. Her essays and cultural criticism have been published in the Guardian, the Griffith Review, the Lifted Brow, LitHub, and Overland. She lives in a village in Tasmania with her partner, a dog, a cat and five chickens. Witches is her first book.