The First Annual Out of the Binders Conference and the Power of Female Communities

Ten years ago, you'd never have caught me dead at a conference dedicated to "women and gender non-comforming writers." I thought I'd had my fill of female community after a terrible stint at an all girls prep school in my small Southern town. There I'd felt the emphasis on female-ness ghettoizing, a matter of reducing me (at the peak of puberty) to my breasts and ovaries and the way the world reacted negatively to those bits and parts, no matter how I identified or what other labels I might subscribe to. Yet the first annual BinderCon in New York City was a breath a fresh air, a space where women were celebrated no matter how else they might describe themselves and what other qualities they might possess. The goal was simple, to help women share their voices in the media, and achieve a fair and equal place in the professions where they earn their bread.

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