Life

The Ultimate Feminist Playlist, Because We Need It

by Emma McGowan

November 10, 2016

Election Day 2016 was hard. After crying myself to sleep for a scant four hours, and then waking up with tears in my eyes when my best friend called and said, “I can’t help feeling like we lost because America hates women,” I started to get angry. I got angry at my fellow white women who decided their whiteness was more important than their womanness and more important than our sisters of color. I got angry that all of the work I’ve spent my life on could potentially be erased. I got angry about the fact that my friends who have been sexually assaulted (which, as a reminder, is one in five women and one in 71 men in America) have to watch a man who has been charged with sexual assault multiple times take one of the most powerful positions in the world.

And when that anger started to take over, I turned to music. Specifically, I listened to more Ani Difranco than I have since I was a baby feminist in high school, listening to burned copies of Living in Clip as my best friend and I drove around in her Subaru. I listened to her words and her anger and her pain and remembered that while this anger and sadness is nothing new, the stakes have been raised once again.

And while Ani does it for me (I mean, “Not A Pretty Girl” couldn’t be more relevant right now), I know that her brand of angry folk rock isn’t for everyone. With that in mind, here are 37 feminist songs that will help you work through that anger, sadness, grief, and maybe even bring a little bit of joy. But most of all? I hope they get you pumped for the fight. Because we are going to have to bring our A game.