@dbellonby
Writer. Mother. English PhD. Feminist cultural critic. Philadelphian. Connoisseur of anxiety. Co-editor of *Victorian Gaslighting* (SUNY Press 2026). Working on a literary history of rape culture from Ovid to Epstein. (she/her)
My favorite thing I learned this week is that “Bozo” actually used to be a regular old proper name, and even a slang term like “dude” or “guy” before Bozo the clown became super famous and ruined it forever. He was truly the Karen of his day, and that’s my favorite thing I learned this week.
Love this so much!
Too often I think we view misogyny through the lens of women’s responsibility—do women cause misogyny, how can women avoid misogyny, how can we blame women, always—instead of recognizing that there is literally no way to opt out of or avoid misogyny entirely, because our whole society is built on it
It's officially OUT! Please ask your library to order #VictorianGaslighting. In honor of Women's History Month, you can purchase the hardcover at a 30% discount using the code SWHM26. Happy (belated) Book Birthday, @noragilbert.bsky.social and @tara-macdonald.bsky.social! @sunypress.bsky.social
"Over $400 million in U.S. foreign aid was cut this past year from grants that explicitly mention gender-based violence in their title or description."
I find this so depressing.
American publishing regularly punishes women in their 50s by simply not interviewing them for new jobs in the way @saribotton.bsky.social describes here. So it’s great revenge that she launched Oldster magazine on her own, now with 70k subscribers.
Big moment for me: first time I’ve ever received a set of author copies! #VictorianGaslighting @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @noragilbert.bsky.social @sunypress.bsky.social
Remember when the only cup of healthy masculinity we had to drink from was Ted Lasso? And it was just Ted, not Jason. Well now that we have Bad Bunny, Shane Hollander, Ilya Rozanov AND Benito Ocasio, Hudson Williams, and Connor Storrie, I'm drunk and never quitting these overflowing goblets of joy.
Quotations by this badass professor appear on the back of my co-edited book #VictorianGaslighting AND in Variety mag! Yes, you should read both
I‘ve mentioned that thanks to the Epstein tranche I learned that one of my PhD advisors, Lee Smolin, continued to have contact with Epstein after 2007, which is not the impression I had
It’s weird to say the least for my professional past to become a public story that demands feminist analysis
"The suppression of gender studies is not only an attempt to suppress a critical analytical tool, but also knowledge itself."
It's alive! Editor copies of "Victorian Gaslighting" arrived yesterday, and the book is now available for order at sunypress.edu/Books/V/Vict.... Go get (or go ask your library to get) yours! #gaslighting #Gaslight @dbellonby.bsky.social @tara-macdonald.bsky.social @sunypress.bsky.social
God bless Bad Bunny. To be clear, I'm not a believer, but if God is real, I'd like her to know how fucking grateful I am for this beautiful man during this ugly time.
Reading a lot lately about the early women's rights activists who emerged out of the abolition movement in the 1840s and 1850s, and these women seem so modern and familiar in so many ways that it's really galling to then learn how dramatically constrained their legal rights were.
Bad Bunny’s performance began in the plantation, featured broken electric poles, and ended by centering a hemispheric understanding of “América”—among many other things—and some Anglo journalists are like “his performance wasn’t political.”
This is why we need to be telling our stories.
"Feminist theorizing feels both as urgent and as under threat as it was during the dawning of women’s studies as an academic enterprise." Yep. Aptly themed special issue CFP from Signs.
100% this
How much like Pottersville is the fascist hell we're living in under Trump 2.0?
He’s really putting the rest into resting dick face.
Mamdani went to a small college similar to the one where I work and majored in Africana Studies. From now on my answer to the microaggressive question of “what can one (even) do with a Black Studies degree from a liberal arts college?” is “You can run New York.”
Socialism starts with me curled up under a blanket on my couch feeling joy for half a second
Same!
A toddler, adult, and child holding copies of POETRY IN GENERAL: How a Literary Form Became Public
Today is the official publication day for POETRY IN GENERAL: How a Literary From Became Public.
✨ Now available wherever books are sold ✨
Use CUP20 for a discount from the press
cup.columbia.edu/book/poetry-...
A reminder that we're collecting books, chapters, and journal articles by non-TT historians for publication in our year-end lists. Anything with a 2025 pub date is eligible and you can submit for your friends/colleagues! contingentmagazine.org/yearly-pub-l...
Think you're an expert on all things #gaslighting? Check out what my co-editor has to say about the lost ending of *Gaslight*, which I suspect you've never heard about before! @noragilbert.bsky.social
I couldn’t listen to the survivors of Epstein’s abuse without thinking about my own rape - questions unanswered by his enablers, reports unreleased by Stanford. But I’m glad I did listen, and I’m grateful for their astounding courage, eloquence, and generosity. Solidarity and #MeToo
Me every day. 😂
I can’t believe my life is being affected by the former CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment
newrepublic.com/article/2013...
