Naomi Wolf's 'Outrages' Book Exposed On Air By BBC As Full Of Major Errors About Victorians

Naomi Wolf's 'Outrages' Book Exposed On Air By BBC As Full Of Major Errors About Victorians

Author, activist Naomi Wolf is living the worst nightmare for a writer. She did not properly investigate the term "death recorded", a key research term in her new book 'Outrages: Sex, Censorship, and the Criminalization of Love, '

The error is a whopper, one that goes to a core premise of her book, which deals with people not only being imprisoned for 'illegal love acts' but -- according to Naomi -- being executed.

Wolf was interviewed on BBC Radio Thurs. where she apparently sat with interviewer Matthew Sweet , as he read to Wolf the definition of “death recorded,” a 19th-century English legal term. “Death recorded” means that a convict was pardoned for his crimes rather than given the death sentence.

The legal term means the exact opposite of what Naomi assumed. The error speaks volumes about her lack of scholarship and a book that is on sale as we speak.

Writer Nicole Dennis-Benn Shares Her Brooklyn-Based, Black Beauty Fashion Inspirations

Writer Nicole Dennis-Benn Shares Her Brooklyn-Based, Black Beauty Fashion Inspirations

Nicole Dennis-Benn Finds Her Voice Through Fashion ELLE US

Bern explains that given that “I’ll always be ‘alien’ as a black person in America’, originally from Jamaica, she wears clothes from people who have her back. Literally. Bern bagged dressing to assimilate for years, trading her lower style profile to dressing to be seen in clothes created by black designers.

I have found community in black-owned boutiques. Martine’s Dream, in the heart of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, brings to mind the Caribbean with its island-inspired, bohemian-chic airy cotton dresses and skirts, its kimonos and caftans. TracyChambers Vintage and Indigo Style Vintage, also both Brooklyn-based, sell timeless pieces— from sweaters reminiscent of Denise Huxtable’s wardrobe on The Cosby Show to pleated dresses with shoulder pads and gold buttons that are very Clair Huxtable.

The Cut Announces '5 Under 35' All Women National Book Foundation Honorees

The Cut Announces '5 Under 35' All Women National Book Foundation Honorees

New York Magazine's newly revamped 'The Cut' shares the names of the National Book Foundation's '5 under 35', an annual prize recognizing five young debut fiction writers whose work "promises to leave an indelible mark on the literary landscape".  For the second time in the award's 12-year history, the five nominees are women, with three being women of color. 

“At a moment in which we are having the necessary conversations surrounding the underrepresentation of female voices, it’s a thrill to see this list of tremendous women chosen organically by our selectors,” said Lisa Lucas, executive director of the National Book Foundation. “These writers and their work represent an incredibly bright future for the world of literary fiction.” Here are the honorees, each selected by a former honoree:

Women Finally Call Out Writer Gay Talese As Still A Sexist 50 Years After Gloria

Women Finally Call Out Writer Gay Talese As Still A Sexist 50 Years After Gloria

What's so interesting is that I researched the quote my subconscious mind attributed to Gay Talese, the one I recalled him making about Gloria Steinem in the back seat of a taxi. Rewire got to the same quote, and so did Marisa Bellack just now. Gloria told the story in her recent memoir 'My Life on the road. '

Gloria shares tales from the bad old days, like a taxi ride in 1964 with Saul Bellow and Gay Talese. Mr. Talese leaned across her — as if she weren’t there — to explain to Bellow:

“You know how every year there’s a pretty girl who comes to New York and pretends to be a writer? Well, Gloria is this year’s pretty girl.”

When a man comments about female writers, as Gay Talese did about Gloria, and 50 years later asks Nikole Hannah-Jones if she shouldn't get her nails done, then perhaps we should just apply the common adage of not being able to teach at least some old dogs new tricks.

Once a sexist, always a sexist. Goodness knows, it's a year for it out there. Something tells me this story isn't over ~ Anne

Related: Gay Talese's Other Problem Slate

Gay Talese probably wishes he'd had a cold. Instead, the 84-year-old journalist ventured out to Boston University last week, and made a series of simultaneously inane and offensive comments about female writers. Since that time, Talese has been the unsurprising object of mockery and scorn on Twitter and elsewhere. But within the same week, to less fanfare, Talese revealed an even darker side of himself via a massively long piece in the current issue of the New Yorker, titled “The Voyeur’s Motel.” Although it has been on the magazine's “most read” list for days, it hasn't elicited a fraction of the commentary that his remarks did. But the article is a failure of journalistic ethics and a revealing window into Talese’s character.