Meghan Daum
Meghan Daum was born in California and grew up primarily on the East Coast. She is the author of four books, most recently a collection of original essays, “The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion.” Her other books include the cult favorite essay collection “My Misspent Youth,” as well as a novel and a memoir. She is also the editor of “Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids,” which will be published in the spring of 2015. Daum has written for numerous magazines, including the New Yorker, Harper’s and Vogue, and contributed to the public radio programs “Morning Edition,” “Marketplace” and “This American Life.” Her column has run on the Op-Ed page since 2005. Learn more about her at meghandaum.com.
Recent Articles
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Using 'privilege' as a weapon
Of all the inaccurate and not-so-nice things people have said about me on the Internet over the years, the one that bothered me most didn't involve being called a whore or a hack or, in one case, an ugly hobbit. It was the one that said something to the effect of “Meghan comes from a very wealthy...
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Brittany Maynard's date with death
On Nov. 1, a 29-year-old woman named Brittany Maynard plans to end her own life. Diagnosed this year with stage four brain cancer, doctors told her that she would die — quite possibly with a great deal of pain and loss of body and cognitive function — within six months. After careful thought and...
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Is feminism's current moment all slogan and no change?
Like the cicada, which lies dormant for 13 or 17 years and then suddenly makes a cacophonous comeback, feminism is having a moment. It's announcing itself on magazine covers, dominating discussions on culture blogs and, in one case, making itself known in huge, lighted letters spelling “feminist”...
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Is Urban Outfitters waving the bloody shirt?
It was the hand-me-down from hell: a Kent State University sweatshirt, faded, hole-filled and splattered with red dye — or was that blood? — offered online by Urban Outfitters last weekend for $129. A scandal ensued — and not because of the price tag. Kent State, as you may remember (or have read...
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The new, tiresome culture of outrage
There's a scene in "A Piece of Work," the 2010 documentary about comedian Joan Rivers, who died last week, in which she shoots down a heckler while performing in a casino in northern Wisconsin. In so doing, she effectively explains the purpose of humor in society. After she delivers a throwaway...
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Our bodies, our selfies: Is Jennifer Lawrence to blame because she took the photos?
Amid roiling political unrest overseas, the American pop culture scene is facing its own crisis this week. Last weekend, hackers uploaded hundreds of nude photos of female celebrities onto the Internet, many of them selfies and all of them stolen from private data storage accounts. Though it's...
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Power to the social media 'Invisibles'
"We are living in a time when the most radical act is to refuse to talk about yourself." So went a tweet I noticed last week (sent, incidentally, by someone not particularly known for talking about herself). It resonated with me and I retweeted it to my followers, several of whom retweeted it too....
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Robin Williams: A Mork in the family
As sitcoms of its era went, “Mork & Mindy” was neither the best nor the worst. It may, however, have been among the sneakiest in its social commentary. A “Happy Days” spinoff that ran from 1978 to 1982, its premise was that Mork, an alien from the planet Ork, played by Robin Williams, is sent to...