Rich Text

A decade or so ago, it seemed like the coolest kind of mom to be was a bad one. They blew off PTA meetings, were fueled by rosé, and wrote irreverent blogs about their children’s tantrums and diaper blowouts. They rejected the sentimentalized idea of motherhood as a sacred calling in service of which a woman must relinquish her independence, her sexuality, her anger, her very identity. Smash cut to 2026, and the mothers of America seem to be locked in a constant, frenzied battle about who can gently, authoritatively, attachedly, and and intensively parent the best. The government lionizes white, conservative mothers who bear large broods, while separating immigrant mothers from their children and smearing liberal women who oppose the administration as “gangs of wine moms.” The labels of “good mom” and “bad mom” seem more oppressive than ever. How did we get here?
In journalist Ej Dickson’s new book “One Bad Mother: In Praise of Psycho Housewives, Stage Parents, Momfluencers, and Other Women We Love to Hate,” she unravels the trope of the bad mother, from its origins as a tool in upholding white supremacy to its proliferation into a host of bad mom archetypes we now encounter every day. Lately, we’ve been thinking a lot about these labels — how they are used to determine which women in our society deserve support, grace, freedom, and even life. So we were delighted to get to chat with Dickson about her entertaining and enraging book, which explores the idea of the bad mom largely through reconsiderations of cultural figures (Stifler’s mom, Mommie Dearest, Mama Rose). We also talked about some of the good/bad mom types that are on our minds the most lately, like gentle moms and MAHA moms.
Toward the end of our conversation, Dickson brought up the short-lived aughts reclamation of the “bad mom” label. Why did it end? Should we bring it back? Or is there another path to escaping the tyranny of the bad mom label? We may not have the answers, but we gave it a shot!
We hope you enjoy this conversation, and if you do, we recommend checking out “One Bad Mother” — we didn’t have time to even scratch the surface of this fantastic book.


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The central theme of this season of Netflix romance series “Bridgerton” comes into sharp focus the end of the first episode.
After charming rakish second son Benedict Bridgerton at his mother’s masquerade ball with her witty banter and sense of wonder, our masked heroine rushes home. We see her remove her formal glove, shoes and mask. Suddenly, she is staring into the humble mirror in her bedchamber, her full face in view for the first time. And instead of finery, she is dressed in a maid’s outfit. The major roadblock to a relationship between Sophie Baek and Benedict Bridgerton will not be a misunderstanding or a clash of personalities or a one-sided desire to end a bloodline. Instead, it will be something quite tangible, especially during the Regency era. It will be about class.
It’s a fascinating moment for this season to hit our screens. On the one hand, as many viewers have noted, the uneven power dynamics of a Cinderella-inspired story — as this one definitively is — feel less fun to explore in fiction when we’re seeing the very real rollbacks of the rights of women in this country. (Part of why “Heated Rivalry” felt like such a salve to so many women viewers.) On the other hand, it’s clear that the writers injected some real class consciousness and modern labor politics into the text of the show. And that revamped text feels quite timely. (See: Mrs. Varley telling Lady Featherington off for using the language of “family” as a way to underpay her for two decades.)
In this episode, we get into it all: the class dynamics, the power of AAPI representation, the ways in which the Cinderella tropes work and don’t, the many ancillary B-plots, and the pointed ways that the writers changed the plot of the show from its source material. Hope you enjoy! Xo

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This week, we’re diving into two topics that, somehow, both involve evil Stephens who want women to have their babies for nefarious reasons: the recent wave of high-profile, propagandistic pregnancy announcements in the Trump White House, and the current season of the dark teen soap “Tell Me Lies.”
First, we get into the MAGA baby boom. Over the past mo…

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On this week’s episode of the Rich Text podcast, we’re tackling two totally disparate topics: the rage-fueled war on liberal white women and the end of “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2. Because, as we alway say… women contain multitudes.
First, we dive into the right-wing ire being directed at white women who are ch…

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You know we had to come back and finish discussing the first drop from “Love Is Blind Germany” season 2, and we are doing that today! But first, we needed to unburden ourselves about a couple other Cultural Conversations: the Golden Globe Awards adding a Be…