“Orange Is The New Black” is nothing if not culturally relevant. Two years after the book’s publication, Hanna Rosin’s The End Of Men has made it to prison — specifically into correctional officer Sam Healy’s office at Litchfield penitentiary.
(Minor spoiler alert!) During a prison blackout in episode 12 of season 2, Pennsatucky sits down for a chat with Healy and ends up being on the receiving end of his rant about men becoming obsolete and the “lesbian agenda.” He also suggests that she read The End Of Men which he summarizes thusly: “In it they talk about how pretty soon men are gonna become irrelevant. How women are more educated, they’re gonna make more money and pretty much run everything.”
He attributes this impending lady domination to “the lesbians,” and frames it as a cautionary tale for Pennsatucky. But everyone’s favorite jailbird born-again Christian points out something both sadly obvious and heartbreaking. “No offense,” she says, “but men being in charge hasn’t ever done me any good.”
Y’all, Pennsatucky is a truth-teller this season.
Rosin seemed psyched about her book’s cameo and took the whole co-opted by a homophobe thing in stride:
Copy of End of Men shown in episode 12 of OITNB, or so Im told. And by a resident homophobe. I keep fine company
— Hanna Rosin (@HannaRosin) June 6, 2014
