A little over seven months ago, I asked my wife to proofread the first post on this site, then I pressed “Save & Publish” with a growing sense of anticipation. I had spent almost four months reading books and articles, collecting news links, pre-writing a few posts, and making lists of topics I planned to cover. By the time I actually launched Jesus & Venus, I was bursting with ideas I simply had to put in writing and share with the world.
This is no longer true.
Some of the topics I wanted to write about turned out, as I learned more feminist theory, to be irrelevant or misguided. Most, though, found their homes either in one of the columns I published every Thursday or as reactions to linked news items. I even picked up new ideas from my interactions with other feminist friends online and the diverse array of news sources I spent hours reading every week, and I wrote about many of these as well. But for some weeks now, I’ve felt I had nothing much to say.
This isn’t a knock against feminism; I doubt there is any one topic I would want to write about indefinitely. I don’t have the kind of brain that thrives on constantly obsessing over a single subject, and I’ve always done better when working on projects that have definite completion points (like screenplays). Since I have several such projects currently begging for my attention, I plan henceforward to devote the bulk of my writing time to them.
Because I feel so deeply invested in gender equality, I will, of course, keep reading news and op-ed writing about the world of women and feminism, so I will continue to post links to the site on a fairly sporadic, limited basis. But this Saturday will be the last day of regular publishing at Jesus & Venus, and I am discontinuing the Venus Weekly newsletter.
I have very much enjoyed my interactions with readers, and I hope you derived even a fraction of the benefit from reading the site that I did from writing it. Please feel free to seek me out on Twitter or through the contact page if you want to stay in touch.
It has been my privilege to bring you the news. Thank you.