What We Owe Stormy Daniels

Published September 10, 2024 in The Nation

The morning of the press conference to announce my resignation from the New York City Department of Education, I inadvertently gave AM New York an exclusive interview in the ladies’ restroom. I knew little about how the media worked and naïvely assumed it was off the record when I told the reporter, as we both stood at sinks, washing our hands, that no one was willing to hire the woman that the news had dubbed the “hooker teacher.” Eight months after being removed from the classroom because the New York Post put on its front cover that I’d worked as a prostitute prior to becoming a public school teacher, I was unemployed and unemployable. I would never be allowed to work with kids or in the nonprofit sector again, I told her, a premonition that has more or less come true. I told the reporter I was broke and on the verge of losing my apartment, and so I’d made the difficult choice to move back in with my ex. READ ON…

Unsurprisingly, living in a modern epidemic of shame has taken a considerable toll on our mental health. Girls today are especially in crisis. A 2023 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that teenage girls are presenting unprecedented levels of depression and suicidality. Though the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor, the results echoed previous surveys and reports that began prior to the coronavirus pandemic. A 2020 study by the CDC, for example, reported that, between 2007 and 2018, the national suicide rate among youth aged 10 to 24 increased 54%. A separate 2020 CDC report found that high-school-aged girls, particularly Black girls and LGBTQ youth, had the highest increase in suicide attempts compared to other demographics. Of the more than 17,000 US high school students surveyed in the fall of 2021, more than half of the girls reported persistent hopelessness—double that of the boys. Most concerning, the surveys revealed that one in three seriously considered suicide, and one in ten attempted it. A 2021 study from the Archives of Suicide Research reveals that girls with comorbidity are at the greatest risk: Girls with ADHD, for example, are three to four times more likely to attempt suicide than girls without this diagnosis. READ ON…

How My Shame Became My Strength

Published October 4, 2024 on TIME

Shame on her: Why shaming is still one of the most useful tools for controlling women

Published November 15, 2024 in The Globe and Mail

In September, when Mohamed Al-Fayed, the late former owner of high-end London department store Harrods, was exposed by the BBC as a known predator who had spent years sexually abusing staff members, a primary line of inquiry raised by the press was: How did he get away with it? When the story first broke, the BBC reported Mr. Al-Fayed had 20 alleged victims; since then, the number has risen to more than 400. Publication after publication after publication has described the allegations as “shocking,” but I’d surmise the case is not even mildly surprising to anyone paying attention to how our world actually works.

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