Phoebe Maltz Bovy is a former editor of the Sisterhood blog at the Forward. Her writing has appeared in several publications, including The New Republic and The Atlantic. Her book, “The Perils of ‘Privilege,’” was published by St. Martin’s Press in March 2017. She has a PhD in French and French Studies from New York University, and has read a lot of 19th century French Jewish newspapers for a 21st century American.
Phoebe Maltz Bovy
By Phoebe Maltz Bovy
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Life Atlantic Essay Explores (Jewish?) Hair Anxieties
Yes, of course, of course, when I saw the headline, “My Lifelong Frizz-Ease Addiction: How I became convinced my hair wasn’t curly, it was defective,” I clicked. I clicked the provincial click of someone who knows that product (and its tendency to ooze over everything else in a bag) all too well. Emily Anne Epstein’s…
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Life Ivanka Tweets Reaction To JCC Threats — Why Not Mention ‘Anti-Semitism’?
In the world’s tiniest glimmer of hope, Ivanka Trump has reacted to the Jewish community center bomb threats. It’s a vague response that doesn’t use “Jewish” or “anti-Semitism,” and that missed the part of anti-Semitism 101 where you learn that it’s not just about religious intolerance. It reeks of President Trump having delegated the women…
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Life Brilliant Fashion Essay Defends Anachronism (and Long Sleeves)
I would not have thought of myself as the target audience for an essay about prairie dresses. Having spent elementary and middle school in pleated-skirt uniforms, I switched to jeans with a sense of tremendous relief the moment those were a possibility. Despite periodically vowing to Dress Better, I inevitably wind up in dark or…
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Life Former Uber Engineer Tells of Harassment and Threats
Former Uber employee Susan Fowler has written a damning account of the sexual harassment and generally disastrous workplace environment she dealt with while working for that company. Fowler’s account reads like a play-by-play of any woman’s worst workplace fears: She’s propositioned by her boss, brings the digital record of what’s happened to HR, and… nothing….
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Life Fashion’s False Promise Of Resistance
I like clothes as much as the next person/woman. I make no claims of having transcended the desire for the material, and plead guilty to having ended an evening or ten browsing the “We Made Too Much” section of a certain athleisure company’s website. But I’m getting weary of the myth that people’s/women’s shopping habits…
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Life Ikea Israel, Seeking Ultra-Orthodox Customers, Produces Catalog Full Of Dudes
Ikea, the Swedish affordable-furniture giant (and noted relationship stressor) has managed to offend, this time in Israel. Michele Chabin reports that along with its regular Hebrew-language catalog, the store created a special men-and-boys-only version with an ultra-Orthodox audience in mind. As opposed as I generally am to rules against images of women and girls, part…
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Life ‘Tremendous Enthusiasm’, Donald Trump’s Euphemism for Anti-Semitism?
Like everyone, I’m trying to make sense of President Trump’s rambling answer to an Israeli journalist’s succinct, to-the-point question about anti-Semitism at the press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While the end of Trump’s remarks involve the usual — citing Ivanka and fam as evidence that the Trump administration couldn’t possibly be anti-Semitic…
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Life Oklahoma Legislator Accuses Women Of Thinking Our Bodies Are Our Bodies
Oklahoma legislator Justin Humphrey is making the news rounds after telling the Intercept that pregnant women aren’t people but rather “hosts.” How progressive of Humphrey not to use ‘hostess’, or maybe this was about referring to women as non-human objects, which, in the English language, aren’t gendered? The question up for discussion in the Oklahoma…
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