Dr Alison Ronan says feminism has been shaped by the courage of the many, not just the few; while Mary Evans is glad that many people still turn to the Women’s Library I read the article by Susanna Rustin with interest (Dramatic deeds are remembered, but too many feminists of the past are forgotten, 21 July). In Manchester, the Pankhursts are indeed remembered for their deeds and their house has been restored as a museum and a place of commemoration. Emmeline is remembered with an iconic statue in the city centre. But, of course, the history of feminist resistance is much more complicated ..read more

The TikTok-friendly aesthetic, which celebrates homesteading, milkmaids and ‘the feminine urge to take care of your husband’, hinges on a history today’s Republicans would fiercely oppose “Hey guys, and welcome back to my channel! Today, I’m going to be giving some tips for the ladies on how to attract a masculine man – a provider man,” the perky blonde woman tells the camera. Beaming and dressed in a pink dress complete with matching sweater, her swoop of blonde hair pinned back with a pearly headband, the woman rattles off her tips. “You want to look feminine, you want to be fit and take car ..read more

It’s grassroots, collective action – rarely commemorated – that pushed women’s rights forward I looked first for the house in London where, in 1855, Barbara Leigh Smith hosted the first meeting of the campaign for married women’s property rights. A petition to change the law decreeing that husbands owned everything marked the start of her lobbying career. But Blandford Square was remodelled when Marylebone station was built, and the building is long gone. Then I tried Langham Place near Oxford Circus. Here a plaque marks the site of the Queen’s Hall, destroyed in the blitz, while another comme ..read more

Never doubt the instincts of Donald Trump, warns Marina Hyde, who just appointed a ‘never Trump guy’ as his running mate. Let your kids roam free, stay home alone, have fun – and fail – Norwegian style. Charli xcx’s new album, Brat, highlights how many young women now aspire to live – dirty, hedonistic, happy and bra-less. And ‘My brother’s mental illness hovers over my family life’ – Philippa Perry answers a reader ..read more

Charli xcx’s new album, Brat, highlights how many young women currently aspire to live – dirty, hedonistic, happy and bra-less. Well, it beats journalling after a long day of pilates ... A brat, said Charli xcx – describing not so much her album, Brat, as the spirit of brat – has a “pack of cigs, a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra”. This is “brat summer” – not to be confused with rat girl summer (2023, a TikTok trend centred on living like a rat), which itself was a verbal variation on hot girl summer (which was, according to the journalist Jasmine Fox-Suliaman in 2021, “about e ..read more

Clare Flanagan objects to the picture of a woman’s bikini-clad backside on the Saturday magazine front cover In a week when we were celebrating the appointment of the first female chancellor of the exchequer and equal representation for women in Keir Starmer’s cabinet, what image did the Guardian choose for the cover of its Saturday magazine (6 July)? A close-up of a woman’s backside in skimpy bikini bottoms. There is very little point publishing articles such as the one by Zoe Williams decrying the objectification of women in other newspapers (Angela Rayner’s suit and Victoria Starmer’s secre ..read more

From Boy Parts to Brainwyrms, novels by female writers are carving out a new subgenre – but is it a cathartic feminist statement or an internalised version of the misogyny it seeks to subvert? Women are writing absolutely horrific novels. Women are writing novels about people (usually women, usually young) who stalk, slash, bludgeon, infect, slice, dismember and cannibalise. Recent additions to the literary subgenre some have termed “femgore” – ultraviolent body-horror by female writers – include EK Sathue’s Youthjuice and The Eyes Are the Best Part by Monika Kim. In the autumn, Of the Flesh w ..read more

Joel Snape’s busy lifeBring your own bottlesJosephine Butler tributePound-per-vote calculationsEarly worms Joel Snape claims to be lazy, and then goes on to list what he does in a week – including a full-time job, several gym sessions, writing a newsletter and practising the piano (Big, beautiful goals – but can’t be bothered? 11 great productivity tips for lazy people, 10 July). He doesn’t need a productivity regime as much as he needs a dictionary, to find out what the word lazy really means. Martyn Brake Whitwell, Isle of Wight • Frome’s answer to Germany’s reuse schemes (‘It needs to stay ..read more

From churches to a college, readers on how the feminist is kept alive in the public consciousness As at St Olave’s church in London (Letters, 1 July), Josephine Butler is well-remembered in her native Northumberland. She is buried at Kirknewton, just 5 miles from one of the parishes I serve. I have appealed to her inspiring example more than once, when preaching and when writing to my MP in opposition to the government’s iniquitous scheme to deport to Rwanda those desperate enough to cross the Channel in small boats. More than 150 years ago, in her opposition to the Contagious D ..read more

Almeida theatre, LondonKendall Feaver’s play dissects white privilege and a university’s #MeToo moment that begins when a student speaks out after being sexually assaulted “A terrible thing happened in this building,” says Nikki, an undergraduate at a residential college in a venerable and fictitious British university. “And I am going to do something about it.” In Alma Mater, Kendall Feaver’s dissection of one institution’s #MeToo moment, Nikki encourages Paige, who was recently raped by a fellow student, to go public about her ordeal. Soon, hundreds of women are sharing their experiences of ..read more