“Autorin. A moment. Top-Model aus den 90ern.” as she writes on her Instagram bio. A strong feminist author and satirist, a columnist, a moderator, an actress and a former radio presenter. As a millennial with nearly 300 000 followers on Instagram, I suppose calling her an internet phenomenon wouldn’t be too far from the truth either. Let me introduce you, Sophie Passmann.
As a typical millennial encounter, I first found out about her on Instagram. I was instantly attracted to her posts which seemed to reflect her as she were, and to the lack of perfecting filters and angles. She was openly showing her love for wine, books, fashion, music, video games, daily internet discoveries, and most of all, feminism. She was not afraid to approach things such as body positivity, cancel culture, and women’s rights, which I obviously loved. It didn’t take me long until I discovered one of her works “Komplett Gänsehaut” and that’s where it all started.
Sophie Passmann is a 28-year-old current Berliner and she belongs to the younger generation of feminist writers. She writes in German and as much as I hope that translations will be available as soon as possible, it still remains as the only available language for her works. As a non-native German speaker myself though, I definitely think that her works can be a brilliant way to foster your German skills, as you can easily dive into her books without an immensely large vocabulary. As a rather young author, she has written four books to date, from which I will present two of my favourites: “Alte Weisse Männer: Ein Schlichtungsversuch” which quickly after the publishing climbed up to the top of the German SPIEGEL-Bestseller list and “Komplett Gänsehaut” which is her newest book. She was also recently awarded one of the most highly regarded German television awards “The Grimme-Preis” as well as with the journalism award “The Nannen-Preis” in 2021. In addition to her publications, Passmann can be found in different podcasts, radio shows and even on television.
“Alte Weisse Männer” (Kiwi-Taschenbuch, Köln 2019) which translates to “Old White Men”, is an entertaining take on feminism in the 2020s. In the book in question, Passmann handles feminist issues trough dialogues with 16 different influential men from across Germany and Switzerland (including her own father Papa Passmann). The discussions themselves don’t bring much new to the field of feminism, but it is her ironic and humorous way of narrating that makes it more than worth reading. Compared to a lot of feminist literature pieces, Passmann doesn’t preach, nor does she try to give you predigested opinions, but rather serves you a plate of discussions containing a variety of ingredients, from which you can prepare your own consciousness and opinions. ” ‘Werden Sie dann irgendwann Feminist?’, frame ich ĂĽbermĂĽtig. Er verzieht das Gesicht. ‘Als Mann?’ ” (Sophie Passmann, Alte Weisse Männer: Schlichtungsversuch) If you enjoy feminist literature, but are craving something lighter for a change, this is for you!
“Komplett Gänsehaut” (Kiepenheuer & Witch, Köln 2021) is a thought-provoking description of the life of a millennial in Central Europe. The protagonist is a white, rather privileged middle-class millennial living in an urban environment. And the book is all about that. When you cannot be like everyone else around you, because you need to be unique. When you cannot be your past self, because self-development is the key. When parties should be the only thing you do, because youth is supposed to be the best time of your life, yet in reality you cannot wait to grow older and be liberated from that curse. When you order a pizza with caramelised walnuts only because that’s what people of your class order. When you want to get drunk, but being drunk is no longer cool and sober curiosity is in. How to balance between the hedonistic lifestyle admired by the older generation and the environmentally aware younger generation? Passmann’s critique on the society in the form of self-hate is clever and despite the seemingly negative tone, the book is everything but negative. It is a socially alert, humorous read and that’s why I think you would love it too!
If I managed to arouse any interest in you, I fully recommend to start by following @fraupassmann on Instagram, where you can discover her famous “WochenrĂĽckblick” a.k.a. weekly insight of her past week, which can mean anything from Billie Eilish to latest fashion finds to reflections on the society. Of course, always loaded with humour, irony and girlboss attitude.