July 25, 2023

My book Quarterlife received a delightful boost yesterday when singer-songwriter and international pop star, Camila Cabello, shared a photo of my book with her 67 million Instagram followers. There was then follow-up coverage in Glamour, Elle, People, and beyond. Were the articles mostly about her alluring photos? Yes, yes they were. But what an absolutely delightful way to be included! She posted some sexy “hot girl” summer photos and threw-in pictures of my book and Elif Batumann’s novel, The Idiot (which is excellent, by the way).

In addition to being honored to be included and thrilled by the coverage, I was thrilled to see how she was mixing unabashed sex appeal with evident literary and intellectual engagement. In a recent(ish) interview, she also fawned over the national bestseller, Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. Not exactly “chick lit.”

I think of this in context with the massive blockbuster release of Barbie and the way it plays with perceptions of the feminine, in particular, those prominent in the American psyche in which the feminine is synonymous with delicate, thin, boy-obsessed, blond whiteness—a perception that we’ve exported all over the world. I’ve yet to see Barbie (I’m looking forward to it!), but I’m all for shaking up that stereotype.

And meanwhile, Taylor Swift is forcing a lot of people to reconsider their eye-rolling perceptions of her with her love-bombing tour that has had an effect on the economy large enough for the Federal Reserve to take notice. I loved this piece this morning by Jill Filipovic about the power of joyful (not riotous!) crowds around both Taylor Swift’s concerts and the Barbie movie. It really takes the idea of girl power in a totally new direction.

All of this begins to undermine ideas of the vacuous feminine, the chaotic feminine, the silly feminine, the powerless feminine, and the feminine as equivalent to whiteness. Because yes, while we’re talking about living women—or the most famous doll of all time—we’re also talking about representations of the feminine that have the power to completely alter self-perception and the perception of the Other.

For hetero-men, there’s also the rise of icons like Timothée Chalamet, completely altering widespread perceptions of the masculine, which the brilliant Mitchell S. Jackson wrote about here for Esquire.

It’s all endlessly fascinating to me. How do we separate the “archetypal” feminine and masculine from the pop stars and dolls and ever-transforming attitudes towards gender? It’s not easy!

If you’re interested too (or confused, or curious), we’ll be talking all about it soon, blending some of the modern takes on gender with the early writings of Jung to explore what untapped power and freedom around the masculine and feminine are possible within our own lives.

xo, Satya

Satya Doyle Byock, Director of The Salome Institute of Jungian Studies