Caitlin Flanagan (born November 14, 1961) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

and

social critic Social criticism is a form of academic or journalistic criticism focusing on social issues in contemporary society, in respect to perceived injustices and power relations in general. Social criticism of the Enlightenment The origin of modern ...

. A contributor to ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher based in Washington, D.C. It features articles on politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 185 ...

'' since February 2001, she was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 2019. Her 2004 piece for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...

'' was expanded into the 2006 book ''To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife''. Flanagan also authored the 2012 book ''Girl Land''.

Early life and education

Flanagan was born and raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

city of

Berkeley, California Berkeley ( ) is a city on the eastern shore of San Francisco Bay in northern Alameda County, California, United States. It is named after the 18th-century Anglo-Irish bishop and philosopher George Berkeley. It borders the cities of Oakland, Cali ...

. She is the daughter of Jean (Parker), a nurse, and writer Thomas Flanagan. She has written about having been the victim of an attempted sexual assault by a high school classmate in 1978. She attempted suicide the following year. Her sister Ellen is married to novelist Andrew Klavan. Flanagan holds a B.A. and an M.A. (1989) in

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

from the

University of Virginia The University of Virginia (UVA) is a Public university#United States, public research university in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Jefferson and contains his The Lawn, Academical Village, a World H ...

Career

Before becoming a writer, Flanagan was an English teacher and college counselor at Harvard-Westlake School in North Hollywood, a theme she later returned to in her articles about college admissions. Flanagan's writing and social criticism frequently explore the intersection of public and private, and seek to expose hypocrisies in social narratives of the powerful and the prominent. Flanagan has referred to herself as a Democrat and a liberal. '' Bitch'' magazine awarded Flanagan its "Douchebag of the Century" award for her criticism of feminism. Flanagan wrote an article in support of Dianne Feinstein's response to youth climate activists, who were mostly from a 350.org chapter, in which she placed the Green New Deal in "the worlds of magic and make-believe," which was met with objections from the activists and others. She has written about contradictory currents in the lives of American women, including herself, who discovered later in life a joy in motherhood and social value in domesticity that ran counter to the view of women's domestic lives as oppressive. Some of her essays underscore the emotional rewards and social value of a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which may include Parenting, caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; Sew ...

's role. Consequently, she has been criticized, for instance by Joan Walsh, for misrepresenting her life choices and then condemning other women for not choosing a lifestyle Flanagan herself did not choose either. In her article "How Serfdom Saved the Women's Movement", Flanagan challenged the narrative of economic and social liberation of women credited to feminism by accusing middle-class women of succeeding at the expense of foreign nannies and illegal workers who replaced them in mothering roles. She argued that these women, while claiming to be virtuous and concerned for others, simultaneously robbed these workers by not paying Social Security taxes. Flanagan has appeared as a guest on ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

'' and ''

Real Time with Bill Maher ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' is an American television talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by stand-up comedy, comedian and political satire, political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous series ''Politically Incorrect'' on Comedy ...

''. Flanagan's book ''To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife'' was published by

Little, Brown Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries, it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emil ...

in 2006. The book was developed from a ''New Yorker'' essay by the same title, as well as other magazine pieces by Flanagan and new writing. In 2012, she published a book about teenage girls, ''Girl Land''. Flanagan was a finalist for the 2019

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...

for Commentary for several articles that year, including two pieces about Babe.net's story about an anonymous woman's allegation that comedian and actor Aziz Ansari's behavior during a date rose to the level of sexual assault. Flanagan was one of several commentators who argued that the woman who wrote the piece ignored her own agency, not considering her own ability to speak up and leave the situation.

Personal life

Flanagan previously lived in Los Angeles. In 1998 she had twin sons, Patrick and Conor, with her husband, Rob Hudnut. In 2003, when her children were in preschool, she was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, which later metastasized to other parts of her body.

Bibliography

Books

* *

Selected articles

* * * * Online version is titled "The comic-strip heroine I'll never forget". * * *
"Joan Didion's Magic Trick"
''The Atlantic''. June 2022.

References

External links

Personal website

''The Atlantic'' articles

''The New Yorker'' articles

by Jen Lawrence at LiteraryMama.com
Flanaganappearances
on

Profile
elle.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Flanagan, Caitlin 1961 births 20th-century American women journalists The Atlantic (magazine) people Female critics of feminism Living people University of Virginia alumni The New Yorker staff writers Writers from Berkeley, California Journalists from California 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women journalists