Meet the Team: Lissy

Meet our regular contributor, Lissy Granzow

Hometown: Berlin, Germany
Current Residence: Chicago, IL, USA

M.A. in American Studies with focus on Identity, Diversity, Gender Studies in American Literature and Culture
Wrote thesis on Fresh Off the Boat and the U.S. sitcom genre
​Obsessed with television dramas and comedies and analyzing them
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Favorite Films: I can’t think of any films I would count as my absolute favorites. I’m a TV fanatic through and through. I love guilty pleasure movies, such as Clueless, Mean Girls, The Holiday, BBC adaptations of novels (e.g. Pride and Prejudice)
Favorite Shows: currently into Buffy (which always has and will have that special place in my heart), Game of Thrones (I’m very worried that the final season will be a disaster), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Arrested Development, The Handmaid’s Tale, Dear White People and others
Favorite Actors: currently Elisabeth Moss, Michael B. Jordan, Rachel Bloom, Samira Wiley, Constance Wu
Favorite Books: Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (get it together George and finish what you started!), the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling (duh), the Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (LOVE them), Fun Home by Alison Bechdel, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte, Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (love all her work), the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss (pretty woke for a male fantasy writer)

Would you be able to give up your career to get married? I personally would always want to have some sort of career to not be bored out of my mind. I also would not would want to be with a partner who expects me to stay home or be dependent on them. But I think you always need to weigh the circumstances and find a compromise that works for both sides. If one partner in a relationship would like to stay home for family or any other reason, and the economical situation allows it, why not?

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Why are you a feminist? “I don’t understand the question and I won’t respond to it…” (Lucille Bluth)

Just kidding! I think Chimamanda Ngozi Aidichie sums it up pretty well in her TED talk “Why we should all be feminists.” Feminism basically just means that we believe in the equality of the sexes, and all people for that matter, so I don’t think this should be controversial at all. Feminism has often been highly misunderstood. Many people, men and women, do not realize how privileged men are in Western societies and how all non-cis men are discriminated against on a daily basis. I think people need to be made aware that institutional sexism, racism, heteronormativity, classism etc. exist everywhere and are masked in Western societies and around the world. This is why I think intersectional feminism is so important, because it deciphers the many systems of oppression people face and we should learn as much as possible about them, particularly if we are privileged through these systems.

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