Author Tracy Dawson Visits ‘Morning Show’ December 8, 2022
December 5, 2022Author Tracy Dawson Visits ‘Morning Show’
Tracy Dawson, an award-winning actress and TV writer, will visit “The Morning Show” on Dec. 8th to talk about her book, “Let Me Be Frank: A Book About Women Who Dressed Like Men to Do Shit They Weren’t Supposed to Do,” which came out in May 2022 from HarperCollins.
Host Mary Jacobsen will interview Dawson about the stories told in her book — ranging from ancient Egypt through Joan of Arc to modern times — of women who transgressed gendered dress codes in order to express their talents and acquire independent livelihoods.
Dawson will discuss how her own experience of gender discrimination — she was told in an interview for a comedy writing job that the producers didn’t have any “female needs” — launched her research into ways that women throughout history have found creative and bold ways to defy customs and laws in order to escape constraints on their talents and freedom.
Among the astonishing stories Dawson narrates is that of Ellen Craft, an enslaved woman whose fair skin — the result of her mother being raped by her enslaver — enabled her to pass for white. She and her husband devised a daring and risky plan in 1848. Cutting her hair and wearing men’s clothing, Craft disguised herself as a white plantation owner while her husband assumed the role of her enslaved valet. They traveled by train and ship from slavery in Georgia to freedom in Philadelphia.
In addition to critical praise for her book, Dawson reports finding enormous gratification in frequently hearing from mothers that they plan to give copies of “Let Me Be Frank” to their daughters.
For more information about Dawson and her book, visit https://tracydawson.net.
“The Morning Show” airs Thursday at 9 a.m. on Channel 9 and WJOP (FM 96.3) and live streams on YouTube (at NCMHub.org). After broadcast, click Playlist on YouTube and scroll down.
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