A conversation with Jennie Young, PhD
Schedule
Thu Apr 16 2026 at 07:00 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC-04:00Location
5071 Wallings Road, North Royalton, OH 44133 | North Royalton, OH
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Join us at our North Royalton Branch for a conversation with Jennie Young, PhD, author of "Burn the Haystack: Decode Dating, Torch the Duds, and Make Room for Men Who Matter."Register: https://attend.cuyahogalibrary.org/event/15744493
Young is the creator of Burned Haystack Dating Method and a writer and professor at University of Wisconsin, Green Bay. She publishes work in humor, feminism, applied rhetoric, dating dynamics, and education. Her writing can be seen in McSweeney’s, Ms. Magazine, The Independent, Huffpost, Education Week, Inside Higher Ed, and elsewhere.
Young is trained in classical and applied rhetoric; previously, she wrote a textbook on high school culture using applied rhetoric, critical discourse analysis, and primary metaphor analysis methodologies; she is now applying these same methodologies to the dating sphere, and over the past two years has focused almost exclusively on public scholarship, bringing her academic expertise to a pressing issue in the public sphere, packaging and articulating it in a way that’s accessible and engaging for a general audience, and sharing it freely on social media.
In "Burn the Haystack," it’s time for a feminist revolution!
How do you find a needle in a haystack? You burn the haystack to the ground.
Among Dr. Jennie Young’s legion of fans, the “needle” is a long-term, committed partner and the “haystack” is the group of men available to date. So often women are advised to “give the guy a chance,” to take seriously men whose app bios tell women not to take themselves seriously. Young’s refreshing approach to online dating turns this advice on its head: Give almost no one a chance.
A professor of feminist rhetoric, Young teaches people how to decode the hidden meanings in ordinary communication. Fascinated (and frustrated) by the rhetorical gambits she saw in men’s profiles when she first downloaded a dating app, she created Burned Haystack to help other women navigate the nonsense and find their needles.
Young has revolutionized the dating lexicon by identifying common toxic rhetorical patterns in men’s messaging, such as:
Test and Apologize: He texts some sexual innuendo, then apologizes before you can
even respond. He’s testing if you’ll be okay with being objectified. The test is real; the apology isn’t.
Disciplinary/Directive: He uses his dating app profile to “lay down the law” with women, which usually turns into abuse down the road. Understanding this pattern will help you disengage from this guy before he ruins your life.
Blue Ribbon for Bare Minimum: He opens his bio with “I will never hit you” (shockingly common) or brags about basic adult life skills such as having a job or washing his sheets. Things don’t improve from here.
Young’s engaging system empowers readers to sort through profiles quickly and effectively, preserving both time and sanity. And with its blend of scathing humor and academic rigor, Burn the Haystack is so much more than a dating tool—it gives women the skills to break down communication from the classroom to the boardroom and everywhere in between, and the confidence to approach life with a deeper, more powerful level of understanding.
📕 Books will be available for purchase courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.
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Where is it happening?
5071 Wallings Road, North Royalton, OH 44133, United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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