Longreads

FINALIST—COLUMNS AND COMMENTARY

“It turns out that this isn’t about individual monsters. It never was. This is about structural violence, about a culture that decided long ago that women’s agency and dignity were worth sacrificing to protect the reputation of powerful men and the institutions that enabled their entitlement.” So wrote Laurie Penny in November 2017 as the cultural reckoning that began with the work of a handful of reporters spread across the Atlantic. Born in London, educated at Oxford, Penny is the author of six books, including, most recently, Bitch Doctrine: Essays for Dissenting Adults. Praised by the Ellie judges for “their fierceness, eloquence, and moral clarity,” these columns were published with reader support by Longreads, an online-only publication “dedicated to helping people find and share the best storytelling in the world.”