Emily J. Yoffe (born October 15, 1955) is an American journalist and contributing writer for The Atlantic.[1] From 1998 to 2016 she was a regular contributor to Slate magazine,[2] notably as Dear Prudence. She has also written for The New York Times; O, The Oprah Magazine; The Washington Post; Esquire; the Los Angeles Times; Texas Monthly; and many other publications. Yoffe began her career as a staff writer at The New Republic before moving on to other publications.[3]

Emily Yoffe at a New America Foundation discussion in 2011.

Education

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Yoffe grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, and graduated from Wellesley College in 1977.[4][5]

Career

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In 2006 outgoing columnist Margo Howard turned Slate's "Dear Prudence" advice column over to Yoffe. The column appears four times per week, including one day of live chats and one day in which the letters are responded to using a video instead of text. In November 2015, Yoffe published her last "Dear Prudence" column, and was replaced by Daniel M. Lavery, co-founder of The Toast.[6] Lavery left Dear Prudence in 2021.

Yoffe also hosted a podcast called "Manners for the Digital Age" with Slate's then-technology columnist Farhad Manjoo.[7]

She wrote a regular feature on Slate called "Human Guinea Pig", in which she attempted unusual activities or hobbies. For "Human Guinea Pig", she has tried hypnosis,[8] and taken a vow of silence.[9] She has become a street performer,[10] a nude model for an art class,[11] and a contestant in the Mrs. America beauty pageant.[12]

In June 2005, Bloomsbury published Yoffe's What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner.[13] That year it was named Best Book of the Year by Dogwise,[14] and selected as the Best General Interest Dog Book by the Dog Writers Association of America.

She was a guest on The Colbert Report twice.[15] She discussed her experiences as Slate's "Human Guinea Pig", and an article about narcissistic personality disorder.[16] She has been a guest on numerous radio programs, including The Emily Rooney Show and Minnesota Public Radio.[17][18][19]

Yoffe has written pieces about the worldwide disappearance of frogs and the crash of Air Florida Flight 90 for The New York Times Magazine.[20][21] She has written op-eds for The Washington Post on global warming,[22] motherhood,[23] and politics.[24]

As of December 2022, she is a writer for The Free Press.[25]

Writings on the Me Too movement and campus sexual assault

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Yoffe has written extensively about campus sexual assault and the Obama administration's effort to end it, describing the administration's reforms of Title IX – the United States federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally-funded education programs – as a worthy goal that went awry.[26][27] Her article in Slate, "The College Rape Overcorrection" was a National Magazine Award finalist in Public Service in 2015.[28] She wrote a series on campus sexual assault for The Atlantic on due process, junk science, and racial disparities.[29] The series was a nominee for Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade by New York University's Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute.

She has praised the Me Too movement; but expressed concerns about overreach.[30][31] She wrote about "The Problem With #BelieveSurvivors",[32] the consequences of Al Franken's resignation from the Senate,[33] and the dangers of "endlessly expand[ing] the categories of victim and perpetrator."[34]

She is a signer of A Letter on Justice and Open Debate published in Harper's Magazine.[35] She is a member of the board of advisors of Persuasion.community, an organization that says it defends the ideals of a free society, for which she wrote "A Taxonomy of Fear", which describes her understanding of the term "cancel culture".[36]

Writings on transgender rights

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In March 2023, Yoffe interviewed whistleblower Jamie Reed for The Free Press,[37] whose claims that children were harmed through inadequate care at The Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital have been disputed by several former coworkers[38] and the parents of many patients.[39][40] The claims are currently being investigated by The Washington University Transgender Center[41] and the State of Missouri.[42] In April 2023, Yoffe wrote an article interviewing a mother whose child received gender-affirming care from the Washington University Medical Center, claiming that the receipt of this care made her child's mental health deteriorate. A Twitter user saying they were the child has contradicted these claims on social media, saying that their deteriorating mental health at the time of receiving gender-affirming care had nothing to do with them being transgender and that they felt the article violated their consent.[43]

Books

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  • What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner (2005)

Awards

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  • Dogwise: Best Book of the Year (2005)
  • Dog Writers Association of America: Best General Interest Dog Book (2005)

References

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  1. ^ Chapin, Angelina (10 November 2015). "Goodbye Dear Prudie: Slate's Emily Yoffe on the toughest advice she's given". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  2. ^ "Emily Yoffe". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  3. ^ "Articles by Emily Yoffe | The Atlantic Journalist | Muck Rack". muckrack.com. Retrieved 2021-06-28.
  4. ^ "Weddings – Emily J. Yoffe, John D. Mintz". The New York Times. 1994-09-18.
  5. ^ Yoffe, Emily (26 June 2012). "Growing Up With Nora Ephron". Retrieved 10 December 2017 – via Slate.
  6. ^ Yoffe, Emily (12 November 2015). "Don't Call It Closure". Slate. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  7. ^ Plait, Phil. "Digital Manners: The baby-sitter records shows on my TiVo without asking. - Slate Magazine". Slate.com. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  8. ^ Emily Yoffe (2003-12-26). "Got Me Hypnotized". Slate. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
  9. ^ Emily Yoffe (2004-05-07). "Silent Treatment". Slate. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
  10. ^ Emily Yoffe (2003-10-30). "Mime is Money". Slate. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
  11. ^ Emily Yoffe (2005-12-15). "Naked and the Dread". Slate. Retrieved 2008-12-18.
  12. ^ Plait, Phil. "Can I win a beauty pageant? - Slate Magazine". Slate.com. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  13. ^ What the Dog Did: Tales from a Formerly Reluctant Dog Owner. New York: Bloomsbury, 2005. ISBN 978-1-58234-564-2
  14. ^ Yoffe, Emily (December 13, 2008). "What the Dog Did". Bloomsbury Publishing USA – via Google Books.
  15. ^ "Emily Yoffe - The Colbert Report - 2006-01-02 - Video Clip | Comedy Central". Colbertnation.com. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  16. ^ Plait, Phil. "What is narcissistic personality disorder, and why does everyone seem to have it? - Slate Magazine". Slate.com. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  17. ^ [1][dead link]
  18. ^ "How to chill out during the holidays | Minnesota Public Radio News". Minnesota.publicradio.org. 2008-12-17. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  19. ^ "The Emily Rooney Show". Wgbh.org. Archived from the original on 2013-05-15. Retrieved 2013-05-16.
  20. ^ Yoffe, Emily (1992-12-13). "Silence of the Frogs". The New York Times.
  21. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2002-08-04). "Afterward". The New York Times.
  22. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2007-06-25). "Gloom and Doom in A Sunny Day". The Washington Post.
  23. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2007-05-13). "Wrapping My Arms Around Memories". The Washington Post.
  24. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2009-02-03). "Tom Daschle on the Gold Standard". The Washington Post.
  25. ^ Fischer, Sara (2022-12-13). "Bari Weiss reveals business plan for buzzy new media startup". Axios. Retrieved 2023-01-28.
  26. ^ "The Putative Epidemic of Campus Rape Is Pushing Colleges to Adopt Policies Unfair to Men". Slate Magazine. 2014-12-07. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  27. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2015-09-24). "The Many Problems With Campus Sexual Assault Surveys". Slate Magazine. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  28. ^ "National Magazine Awards 2015 Finalists Announced | ASME". 2019-08-20. Archived from the original on 2019-08-20. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  29. ^ Yoffe, Emily. "Emily Yoffe". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  30. ^ Yoffe, Emily. "Why the #MeToo Movement Should Be Ready for a Backlash". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  31. ^ Yoffe, Emily. "Joe Biden Created the Culture He Is a Target Of". POLITICO Magazine. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  32. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2018-10-03). "The Problem With #BelieveSurvivors". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  33. ^ Yoffe, Emily (2019-03-26). "Democrats Need to Learn From Their Al Franken Mistake". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  34. ^ "'I'm Radioactive'". Reason. 2019-08-23. Retrieved 2019-09-22.
  35. ^ "A Letter on Justice and Open Debate". Harper's Magazine. 2020-07-07. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  36. ^ Yoffe, Emily. "A Taxonomy of Fear". www.persuasion.community. Retrieved 2020-08-13.
  37. ^ "Jamie Reed Blows the Whistle on Pediatric Gender Care". The Free Press. 2023-02-14. Retrieved 2023-04-04.
  38. ^ Schrappen, Colleen. "Parents push back on allegations against St. Louis transgender center. 'I'm baffled.'". STLtoday.com. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  39. ^ Hanshaw, Annelise (2023-03-01). "Families dispute whistleblower's allegations against St. Louis transgender center". Missouri Independent. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  40. ^ Hanshaw, Annelise (2023-03-01). "Families dispute whistleblower's allegations against St. Louis transgender center • Missouri Independent". Missouri Independent. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  41. ^ Hail Flory, Julie (2023-02-09). "Statement on Transgender Center - The Source - Washington University in St. Louis". The Source. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  42. ^ "Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey Confirms Launch of Multi-Agency Investigation into St. Louis Transgender Center for Harming Hundreds of Children". Default. Retrieved 2023-04-05.
  43. ^ Hansford, Amelia (April 6, 2023). "Teen furious after mum shares fake news about puberty blockers". PinkNews.
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