Know Your Enemy: Suburban Woman, with Dorothy Fortenberry

Know Your Enemy: Suburban Woman, with Dorothy Fortenberry

Dorothy Fortenberry, playwright and writer on The Handmaid’s Tale, talks about gender and politics, the work women do, the importance of institutions, the #Resistance, and more.

From Designing Women

Know Your Enemy is a podcast about the American right co-hosted by Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell. Read more about it here. You can subscribe, rate, and review to the show on Apple Podcasts and Stitcher, and receive bonus content by supporting the podcast on Patreon.

Matt and Sam are joined by Dorothy Fortenberry for a wide-ranging conversation about women and politics. Topics include growing up in Washington, D.C.; her experiences writing women characters in Hollywood; why the left should take over existing institutions; the complicated Catholic motherhood of Amy Coney Barrett; and much, much more. For those not familiar with her work, Fortenberry is a writer and producer on Hulu’s award-winning adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, and her plays include Species Native, Partners, Mommune, and Good Egg. She’s a regular contributor to Commonweal, among other publications, though for her latest political takes you should follow her on Twitter (@Dorothy410berry).

Further Reading: 

Dorothy Fortenberry, “One of Those Serious Women: Andrea Dworkin’s Radical Feminism,” Commonweal , April 29, 2019

Dorothy Fortenberry, “A Plea to My Fellow Warren Moms,” Commonweal, March 6, 2020

Dorothy Fortenberry, “Why I Stay,” Commonweal, November 18, 2018

Listen:

Highwomen, “Highwomen

Highwomen, “Redesigning Women

Dar Williams, “The Pointless, Yet Poignant, Crisis of a Co-Ed