feminism | Erica Mena

Accountability, Harassment, and White Male Fragility

June 20, 2016 by Erica Mena

I just created a label in my editor’s gmail for DrunkenBoat: Harassment. I know from experience in other leadership positions that this is a label I will have to use all too often, even in the supposedly progressive field of literary arts. This is a label I need to have because I need to keep records of the men (it’s always men) who can’t handle rejection (par for the course in literary publishing), or can’t handle correction, or can’t handle […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: drunken boat, feminism, fragile masculinity, male privledge, male tears, toxic masculinity

That Time I Had To Look Up "thot"

January 27, 2015 by Erica Mena

I’ve been called many things by many people. I’ve also been called many things by many people who think I’m this Erica Mena, and not the Erica Mena I actually am. It’s because I have a googleganger. And it so happens that, though I am slightly older than her and so have our name on most social media platforms (from before I even knew about her), she is much more “famous.” I use the scare-quotes because she’s a reality TV […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: erica mena, feminism, feminist, googleganger, reality tv, slut-shaming

The Hair Experiment, The 1st Month

March 3, 2014 by Erica Mena

It’s been a month since I cut all my hair off, and it’s getting a little longer. I’m still getting compliments on it from friends I haven’t seen in a while (hello AWP). And today, on the train back to the Seattle airport to get back to Boston, something really nice happened. I had just gotten onto the train and was putting my headphones on when the man sitting across from me said “Excuse me…” I looked up at him, […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: body hair, feminism, hair, shaving, short hair

The Hair Experiment, Week 1

February 3, 2014 by Erica Mena

It took me a long time to come up with something to do for the new year. (Self-improvement being the go-to for change in the new year, perhaps needs examination, but that’s a project for another year.) I’m happy with my weight, I no longer smoke, I eat well, I have a good work/life balance (in that I work all the time, for almost no money, but I love what I do so it’s still satisfying). I floss my teeth, and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: curly, feminism, feminist, hair, shaving, short hair, women's hair

Truth in Advertising

August 12, 2013 by Erica Mena

I‘ve started noticing more than the usual egregious amount of photoshopping going on in my consumer experience. And so, since most of my consuming is done online, I decided I would begin capturing it. Pointing it out. This is a series of completely unaltered screen-grabs is from the Maidenform website (not even the whole website, just one page). The first two appear exactly as they did on the Maidenform website (i.e. side by side, and in the same row), and […]

Categories: Uncategorized • Tags: advertising, body image, feminism, killing us softly, lingerie advertising, photoshop, women's bodies

Critical vs. Criticism (And Misogyny in SF)

August 10, 2013 by Erica Mena

Not all reviews have to be critical. Of course they have to be critical, but they don’t have to criticize. And it’s too bad that so many reviewers out there seem to think that in order to demonstrate their own intelligence they have to tear apart the work they’re reviewing as much as possible. I’ve seen this over and over as a trend in reviewing – surprising because just a few years ago I remember a number of people ’round […]

Categories: Reviews • Tags: criticism, feminism, feminist, guardian books, literature, misogyny, reviews, science fiction, sexism, sf mistressworks, women

Erica Mena

Poet | Book Artist | Translator

Tag: feminism