In 1792, Georges Danton stood before the French people and called for audacity—an insistence on courage as a means of survival. Centuries later, in a different kind of revolution, the multi-hyphenate artist Miranda July seemed to echo that call. Her novel All Fours is not about overthrowing monarchies but about dismantling something quieter, yet no less insidious: the expectation that women, as they age, should disappear.
July doesn’t just tap into the zeitgeist; she helps shape it. Her prose is startlingly original yet immediately familiar, like meeting a stranger who reminds you of yourself. How did she create something so original and yet so relatable? I’ve known Miranda peripherally for years and once even collaborated with her, but like so many other women, after reading her book I felt like I got to know her intimately. This is her revolution: unflinching and insistent—a defiance against erasure. Audacity, always audacity.
Ringwald is an actor and writer