So the Substack Top 25 Paid is v. white and v. male — the Top 25 Unpaid is also pretty white, but includes significantly more women. I have some theories about this!

1) Women, in generally, feel weird & sheepish asking to paid for their labor, *especially* when it's fun, meaningful, or internet labor. We internalize this shit! I certainly did!

2) Women are also working so much in all corners of their lives that we resist monetizing something (like a newsletter) that might feel pleasurable (and thus turning it explicitly into work) I certainly did!

3) At least some of the publications in the Paid list are essentially trade publications that can be expensed; guess who the majority of people in those trade jobs are who also feel comfortable expensing (would love to see a breakdown of how men expense vs. how women do)

4) One of the most remarkable Paid Substacks out there = Heather Cox Richardson's; imagine unlearning the academic ideology that you should write for free!

5) This is currently true; I've been fascinated by this for some time and the Unpaid usually has several more women. Also think of all the Unpaid Substacks you know and how many of those are run by women https://twitter.com/calizoned/status/1313155407112810505

Anyway if you have additional theories I'm really fascinated by Substack readership in general, theorize away