I apologize in advance for extending the life of the slap discourse, and I invite everyone to ignore it and move forward with your lives. It is also notable (to me) that there has not been an equivalent amount of discourse about Louie CK winning a Grammy, which — since you ask! — does indeed make me want to set myself on fire. So amazing how confessed abusers get to carry on having richly awarded careers! It is almost as if the industry doesn’t actually care about protecting people from abuse! I don’t know!
Without further ado, some links:
“Blackness deserves a seat at the Seder.” (link)
Jay Edidin’s consistent fury with Professor X shines in this important work of journalism about X-Men sex ed. (link)
Gita Jackson (link), Mikki Kendall (link), Ijeoma Iluo (link), and Stitch (link) consider The Slap.
On a totally different note, Sara Novic considers CODA’s Oscar win and the movie’s mixed reception in the d/Deaf community. (link)
Jaya Saxena wonders if we need to keep telling Julia Child’s story. (link)
Two Twitter videos that made me very happy: one (link) and two (link)
A goblin historian explains “goblin mode.” (link)
I am terrified of TikTok, and I’m right to be. That is my final statement on the matter. (link)
Drew Magary is done with sympathetic villains. Bring on the straight-ahead monsters. (link)
“Bridgerton’s thinned notion of color consciousness only acknowledges racial difference in as much as it does not derail the story.” Kristen Warner considers the new season’s approach to representations of race. (link)
I will read literally any story about the drama that’s currently happening in some random niche online community. This week it’s herbalism! (link)
Serial killer expert Stéphane Bourgoin built his career on a scaffolding of lies. The internet found him out. (link)
Angelea Preston won the all-stars season of America’s Next Top Model, but her crown was unceremoniously stripped from her because of a brief stint doing sex work. She spoke to Bustle about her experiences.(link)
“But sometimes there is no proper way to go, there is no trick of perspective that makes everything clear.” Colin Dickey on cabins in the mountains, lateral thinking, and the COVID-19 pandemic. (link)
Charithra Chandran, who plays Edwina in the new season of Bridgerton, seems like an absolute delight in this Teen Vogue interview. (link)
Sean Campbell writes with sorrow and grace about the Black Lives Matter organization’s decision to use money from fundraising in summer 2020 to buy a $6 million dollar house. (link)
Deciding people’s worth based on the trauma they’ve survived is a broken, exploitative system, and the Mackenzie Fierceton story proves it. (link)
That’s all, folks! Have a tremendous weekend! I wish you all the best of luck in staying out of niche community internet drama, which is much more fun to read about than to participate in.