| Hi reader,
Every day, my morning routine goes a little something like this: wake up, drink chai tea latte (I know that is me saying tea two times, but that is how it’s listed at my local coffee shop), and read the Washington Post. That’s why when Christine Emba, author and opinion columnist, agreed to join me on the Ask a Matchmaker podcast, I was THRILLED.
In her column at the Washington Post, Christine focuses on ideas about society, culture, and one of my favorite topics of all–single men. She was also named one of the World’s Top 50 Thinkers by Prospect Magazine in 2022.
After the #MeToo movement, she became interested in not just the obvious cases of terrible men getting exposed *cough* Harvey Weinstein *cough,* but stories that were a little more… nuanced.
In our episode, she talks about a piece that went viral in The New Yorker in 2017 called “Cat Person” about a college woman who goes on a date with an older guy. She sleeps with him even though she doesn’t really want to, and then feels icky about it afterward.
This story became The New Yorker magazine’s most-read short fiction piece ever because SO many women read it and were like, “Yeah, I’ve been there.”
This led Christine to explore in her book, “Rethinking Sex“, the false assumptions we may have accepted as a society in this post-feminist, post-sexual revolution. Did we end up where we thought we would end up?
Christine raises some good points about whether consent is enough. To have great sex, ethical sex–even, we have to go beyond consent and will the good of the other. We have to care about the other person’s experience as much as we care about our own.
Strap in for a fascinating episode. Watch it here on YouTube or listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
I could have talked to Christine for hours. For more of her work, you can follow her column at the Washington Post or subscribe to her brand new Substack.
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️Maria’s Weekly Recommendations 
I took my kids last week to see Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at the movies. If you have access to any children (like your own kids or nieces and nephews) you MUST go with them. It was a spectacular experience and it made me stop and listen to 1989 Taylor’s Version the moment it came out.
Just give Michelle Williams a Grammy already for the narration of Brittany Spears’ memoir, “
Let’s work together
