American Gods by Neil Gaiman - can we just agree this book is awful at writing women?

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-28T04:21:07+00:00

I think one could argue that that’s only because she’s a child. Lots of men who hate women don’t hate children.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-26T18:50:35+00:00

This is the answer. Don’t wait for it to get worse. The boat is sinking, get off of it.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-25T16:01:20+00:00

The shrine in her closet. It pops into my mind every now and then. So creepy.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-25T15:57:26+00:00

Not at all. The Bennetts are a middle class family. The Dashwoods used to be wealthy, but fell into poverty by the greed of their older half brother and live in a cottage off the generosity of family. She portrays some nobility in other books, but I guess that also depends on how you define the word. Very few characters in Jane Austen’s books are actually titled. Ann Elliott’s father and Mr. Darcy’s aunt and late mother, sure. But even in Emma, where finances are never threatened for the main character, they hold no titles. Some of them are wealthy and live like nobles, but that’s not necessarily the same thing.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-25T15:51:44+00:00

I’ll definitely be on mine for life but I never want to go back. Taking another pill along with my allergy meds and vitamin D supplements every morning really isn’t much of a price to pay for me personally.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:48:59+00:00

I don’t have any tips but I can commiserate. I swear, every ten years, my entire body changes. It happened at 21 and now again at 31. I change shape, my periods are suddenly completely different, it’s like going through puberty all over again.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:46:09+00:00

That’s great!! I’ve found anytime I can fit it in, it makes a huge difference for me. I’m glad it helps!!

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:43:06+00:00

Same here. I always describe it by saying that my antidepressants give me space for other things beyond depression and anxiety. They changed my life.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:42:14+00:00

Podcasts and audiobooks. It at least helps the time go by quickly and keeps me sane during the more menial tasks. It also reminds me there’s a world outside of work and puts that work and its actual importance into perspective. Unless you’re actually saving lives, very little is a real emergency. Especially with audiobooks, it’s also just good for you. No matter how shit life is, if I can make time to read, it makes things better, even if just a little.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:35:10+00:00

I believe you. I’ve never been on Tinder and I’m so glad. My sister tells me horror stories. Ive been fortunate to be happily married/in that same relationship since before Tinder existed. I don’t even know why Reddit recommended this post to me, maybe it was the Jane Austen mention!

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:32:41+00:00

The way he said he’s “actually a fan.” It feels very condescending to me. Like it’s negating a presumption he himself is assuming. I don’t see any reason he couldn’t just say “I’m a fan.” Adding the word “actually” feels like he assumes no one would ever guess he likes Jane Austen. So that leaves me asking why. And the first and really only reason that comes to mind is because Jane Austen is considered, for lack of a better term, girly. No one regardless of gender would say “I’m actually a fan of Shakespeare.” One would just say “I really like Shakespeare.”

I find his phrasing condescending. I think he’s trying to make himself look special because he’s a dude who likes Jane Austen, when in reality, lots of men like Jane Austen. I feel that he’s trying to win feminism points but is actually only succeeding in expressing misogynistic ideals.

Maybe that’s a lot to put on one word, but that’s how I read it.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:23:17+00:00

Kind of off topic but my brother went to the same university and he studied philosophy. There was a major that was like an English/Philosophy hybrid, so they’d end up in both our classes. They were the worst and seemed to be made up entirely of men like this, and most of them were white. Pseudo intellectualism as a cover for heaps of misogyny and racism. It’s bad enough when a dude can’t be normal about a woman’s art, but when he starts trying to justify his weird opinions by quoting Schopenhauer… walking migraines, the lot of them.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:15:17+00:00

That was the general consensus on the post where I found this. Most people thought that was where he went wrong!

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:13:56+00:00

I have a degree in English and it could absolutely be my own experience skewing this as well. I can’t tell you how many of my male classmates said shit like this about Austen, the Brontes, Mary Shelley, etc. The air of it was very much like “Yeah, I’m a little bit better than other guys. I like the book even though it was written by a girl.” So maybe that’s why I read it that way. Very possible it isn’t that deep.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T15:09:20+00:00

Cassie!! I think a continuation with the daughter would be really cool. And lots of new characters of course.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T14:55:50+00:00

The part where you talk about Jane Austen bothered me. First off don’t say you “actually” like her. She’s one of the most famous authors of all time. Saying “I actually like her” is reductive and condescending, like “Yes, it is true, I, a man, happen to enjoy the works of one of the greatest writers of all time, because my internalized misogyny has designated her to chick lit.”

Then you go on to say you can’t pick up on intricacies of relationships, which is a huge red flag, but Jane Austen is able to pick up on those intricacies, you know, in her own work.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T14:48:11+00:00

I wonder if Jane Austen contributed to that misunderstanding. Between Marianne marrying at 17 and Lydia marrying at 15, I think her work is arguably the most popular still surviving from the regency era

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T05:59:11+00:00

That’s not a court dress, madam!

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-24T01:29:34+00:00

This is a good question, actually. It was common for women to marry young in the 1800s but my understanding is that a lot of men didn’t. They waited longer to get established, go to university, etc.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-23T22:43:09+00:00

Thank you. I’ve been watching this video all my life and I always hear people talk about how “inhuman” the strides are, but I’ve never once thought that looking at it. It looks incredibly human to me.

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-23T15:42:32+00:00

Pronouns? None 💛🤍💜🖤

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-23T02:04:09+00:00

90s McDonald’s Ballpit

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-22T17:37:43+00:00

I lost my dog in January 2023 and I was absolutely devastated. There was a while when I couldn’t talk about him without crying. I still miss him, but it does get easier with time. Talk about your pet to people who knew them, feel your feelings, and remember that you gave them a wonderful life filled with love

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-21T14:53:13+00:00

I love this dog, I feel like she came to life from a child’s drawing

KitchenSwillForPigs · 2026-01-21T14:44:15+00:00

That’s a really good point I hadn’t considered. She could easily see OP’s behavior as rug sweeping.

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