Interviews:
Writer and translator poupeh missaghi on challenging received narratives from The Creative Independent
Archivist and editor Laird Borrelli-Persson on bringing depth to the superficial from The Creative Independent
Psychology:
Why bad doodles can reveal more about you than good drawings from Psyche
Make it awkward! from Aeon
Philosophy:
Is beauty natural? from Aeon
Against humility from Aeon
History:
The forgotten fossil hunter who transformed Britain’s Jurassic Coast from National Geographic
Queen Nzinga: One of Africa’s fearless leaders from Grunge
Biography: Victoria Woodhull from National Women’s History Museum
Nov 10, 2024
Related Recs
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i studied sociology and the wonderful v interdisciplinary field of gender studies, here is a combo of my favorite papers + some of the most interesting (if not bizarre) ones. obv they are both heavy fields and i don’t remember exactly what is in each so just be warned there may be difficult topics mentioned! also i am just copy/pasting some of these from old bibliographies and syllabi lol but if you google them most have free PDFs online. i tried picking stuff related to culture but apologies if this is too long, i am a soc/gs nerd!
articles:
the REAL meaning and origin of the term “male gaze” (and why I get SO mad when women today misuse it instead of saying internalized misogyny): Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 1989
Dana M Britton “The Epistemology of the Gendered Organization” 2000
Dick Hebdidge “Subculture: The Meaning of Style” 2011 (book)
George Chauncey “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940” 1994 (book not article but super iconic / important)
Dean Spade “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law” 2011 (another book, v dense)
Joan Acker (def check out her other work if you like this one, I love her stuff) “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions” 1992
Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (editors) ”Our History Has Always Been Contraband” 2023 (book about Black Studies comprised of essays/excerpts of theory and about history)
Evan B Towle and Lynn M Morgan “Romancing the Transgender Native Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept” 2002
WEB DuBois “The Souls of Black Folk” 1903 (more people should read this)
J. E. Sumerau, Ryan T. Cragun, Lain A. B. Mathers ““I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian” 2016 lol
Patricia Hill Collins “TOWARD A NEW VISION: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER AS CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS AND CONNECTION” 1993 (sorry for all caps)
Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman “Doing Gender” 1987
Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt “Doing Gender, Determining Gender: Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System” 2014 (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD READ THIS! it basically offers empirical evidence / explanation of of how transphobia actually perpetuates misogyny rather than simply “protecting women” or not)
OlĂşfemi O. TáĂwò “Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics“ 2022 (book)
Cathy J Cohen “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” 1997
Colin P Ashley “Gay Liberation: How a Once Radical Movement Got Married and Settled Down” 2015
Oct 15, 2024
By Camilla Nelson, 2023
Gonna start posting all the articles I read that I feel like are worth sharing.
Starting with this random one I found after looking up “is there a matriarchy” on Google after watching The Economist’s Why nations that fail women fail YouTube video and crying.
4d ago
1. Beet juice! I’ve been drinking it before coffee in the morning. I love a morning of slowness. I’m finding that i’m in no rush to wake up, which is perhaps indicative of my current unemployment but feels more connected to my wish for intentionality in the beginning of my days. Even when my days are full of activity, i need the stillness of the morning. I've been practicing 30 minutes in the morning without technology, through which my beet juice is my companion. It is quite frightening how deeply ingrained technological dependency truly is. I want to wake up and be thinking about my beet juice and lose track of time instead of counting the minutes until i turn my phone on.
2. That picture of joe pesci at the 2009 vanity fair oscar party. Linked below. I've been thinking a lot about attractiveness, ie. who in a relationship has the right/perogative to be unattractive or act unattractively. I simultaneously deeply love this photo and wonder with skepticism about its implications. Although there is something to be said about the history of conventionally beautiful women with less than conventionally attractive men, i think there's something more interesting in terms of what this photo says about personhood and legibility under capitalism. This idea isn't fully formed in my brain but there's something there about the way men present/gender norms/boundaries of expression/who hollywood chooses to put on screen in positions of power.
3. Anthony bourdain’s no reservations. I looooove anthony bourdain. When i see him i experience a strange mixture of gender envy and sexual desire that happens often when i come across tall men with curly hair. I've been thinking a lot about the way he travels and the way he talks to other people and welcomes them in. I once tried to follow his lead and go to a bar alone and order a beer. I ended up experiences unwelcome advances and did not feel safe in that environment. I guess i just wonder what the gendered implications are for the kind of interaction he showed the world. I'm still figuring it out.
4. Music from my teenage years. It's so joyful to hear what i used to listen to when i was 15 and feel those emotions and entirely new ones. It feels like a way to connect with my soul. Because in some ways i am still 15, although i no longer look it. I am 5 and 11 and 15 and 22. I have yet to become 34 but that being lives inside me. I am not this body.
Oct 1, 2024
Top Recs from @starvinginthefigtree
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It’s a wet and gloomy day. My hair is frizzy, my tea is ginger and peach flavored. I used lipstick on my lips and cheeks today and nothing else. The shoes I’m wearing are not made for the rain. This morning I was reading East of Eden. Frazzled is how I would describe myself right now. I feel like your favorite English professor who’s always running late. Highly recommend.
Nov 18, 2024
🎵
Almost Famous, Boogie Nights, Licorice Pizza, The Holdovers, Dazed and Confused, etc. This is my favorite genre of movie. I will eat this up every single time. Masterpieces. All of them.
Nov 14, 2024
🤎
Normally, I’m a big album person, but lately my roommate got me into listening to my liked songs. It’s amazing. You get the best of all worlds, Nirvana into Clairo into Caroline Polachek into Talking Heads into Andre3000… How spectacular that we have all of the music in the world just at our constant disposal.
Nov 12, 2024