Loved this book and this interview. I was torn about Barbie, I think I really wanted there to be more societal progress in the real world in the end, which was/would be a total fantasy. I’m also super uncomfortable with the fact that this movie that wants to be progressive and feminist is ultimately resulting in profit for a huge corporation.
Read Yellowface recently and was SO UNCOMFORTABLE the whole time 😩
Oct 14, 2023·edited Oct 14, 2023Liked by Virginia Sole-Smith
Thank you so much for interviewing Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. I read Big Girl earlier this year and absolutely loved it. It's such a tender, moving and hilarious(!) novel.
I really appreciate how you were able to articulate in the interview the sense of embodiment I experienced while reading the book but was unable to put into words. Hearing your discussion on the following made me feel like I was right back in the story again.
"It comes through in how embodied she feels and that you are in her body with her, not looking at her body, not objectifying her. I felt the same way about how you wrote the mom’s body and the dad when he’s sick. You embody all of them."
This novel is a gem and I hope your interview inspires more folks to immerse themselves in Malaya's world.
I am REALLY waiting for someone to deep dive Barbie. I found SO MUCH to be problematic. At a start...why replace a patriarchy with a matriarchy? Was no one else hugely bothered by this? And that’s only a start haha I have a whole undergraduate seminar’s worth of discussion points on this movie!
Just added this book to my queue. Thanks for interesting interview and I think I might be the only person who hasn’t seen Barbie yet.
I am excited that both of these wonders are in your potential future. (BIG GIRL is definitely the more important creative work though!)
Loved this book and this interview. I was torn about Barbie, I think I really wanted there to be more societal progress in the real world in the end, which was/would be a total fantasy. I’m also super uncomfortable with the fact that this movie that wants to be progressive and feminist is ultimately resulting in profit for a huge corporation.
Read Yellowface recently and was SO UNCOMFORTABLE the whole time 😩
So feel both of these uncomfortables!
Thank you so much for interviewing Mecca Jamilah Sullivan. I read Big Girl earlier this year and absolutely loved it. It's such a tender, moving and hilarious(!) novel.
I really appreciate how you were able to articulate in the interview the sense of embodiment I experienced while reading the book but was unable to put into words. Hearing your discussion on the following made me feel like I was right back in the story again.
"It comes through in how embodied she feels and that you are in her body with her, not looking at her body, not objectifying her. I felt the same way about how you wrote the mom’s body and the dad when he’s sick. You embody all of them."
This novel is a gem and I hope your interview inspires more folks to immerse themselves in Malaya's world.
I am REALLY waiting for someone to deep dive Barbie. I found SO MUCH to be problematic. At a start...why replace a patriarchy with a matriarchy? Was no one else hugely bothered by this? And that’s only a start haha I have a whole undergraduate seminar’s worth of discussion points on this movie!