Subject Relations

We try to end each season of The Critic and Her Publics with a little twist on our theme—something different and, often, a little risky or uncomfortable. Our final guest, Anna Silman, interviewed and profiled me for Business Insider several years ago. Back then, when Twitter was still called Twitter, it was possible for a profile of someone in a very niche industry to go viral, as Anna’s profile did. The subject of a profile rarely gets to confront its writer and ask, “What were you thinking?” or “Why did you do that?” But in this episode Anna and I finally have an opportunity to compare memories of our conversations, confess what each of us thought the other was after, and debate whether a profile of a woman can ever avoid reproducing the misogyny it aims to critique. Merve Emre: The last event that of our speaker series is always a special one; it involves someone who I have a very particular relationship with and often means doing something a bit uncomfortable. Anna is here because she wrote a profile of me for Business Insider, which ran with the headline—Anna Silman: I didn’t pick the headline. I wanted to go with something more nuanced, but I think it was “How Merve Emre beca...