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.

The post Yes, There Are Some Takes on the Slap Thing: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

“Its central question is whether one should approach the wholesale massacre of the innocents with indifference or with hypocrisy, and its conceit is that this is a relevant or fascinating distinction.” This absolute pan of Malcolm Gladwell’s new book is very good. (link)

Leni Riefenstahl and L. Ron Hubbard were gonna make a movie together, because frankly why not. (link)

Germany has acknowledged its genocidal actions in Namibia in the early 20th century and committed to sending money that they are definitely not calling reparations. Is it enough? (link)

“As Dick Snyder was later to say: ‘A publisher has an obligation to believe in the first amendment but not to publish everything that’s sent to him.’” Publishing faces a dilemma when higher-ups make junior staff work on books that directly oppose those staff members’ freedom and identity. (link)

I loved this interview with Zakiya Dalila Harris, author of the new novel The Other Black Girl. (link) Also very much loved this breakdown of how she wrote her book’s twist ending (but spoilers, of course!) (link)

The worst insult in Mean Girls is lesbian. (This movie really did not hold up.) (link)

“They didn’t get on unemployment because they’re lazy. They got on unemployment because they were fired.” Restaurant workers aren’t refusing to go back to work because they like unemployment benefits so much; they’re just refusing to go back to shit jobs that pay like shit and treat them like shit. (link)

“Teigen’s reputation-damaging tweets all share a certain essential DNA. They are all tweets mocking girls and femmes whom the pop culture of the late ’00s and early ’10s had made it clear were fair game for mockery.” The rise and fall of Chrissy Teigen. (link)

Apropos of the above, a celebrity publicist explains how to craft a perfect (or as perfect as possible) public apology. (link)

Another feminist revisits The Beauty Myth in the light of Naomi’s Wolf turn to anti-vaccine propaganda. (link)

The Hot Zone is apparently totally unreliable and carries a racist legacy that continues to affect us to this day THIS VERY DAY? I did not know! It was always kind of vaguely on my TBR list but I have stricken it from the list. (link)

I will always share a cult article. This one’s about a woman who escaped from a cult led by her mother, leaving behind her three children. The pain of this escape and her prior life has never fully left her. (link)

AND ANOTHER ONE: Amanda Montell is interviewed about her new book, Cultish, which I cannot WAIT to read. (link)

Rachel Lindsay speaks about her decision to step away from the Bachelor franchise. (I love Rachel Lindsay.) (link)

Happy weekend, my friends! Don’t join any cults! Including do not sign up for reality dating shows!

The post So the Year’s Almost Halfway Done: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Writers always wrote for money, so why do we suddenly have this idea that good writing springs purely from love?

Also, why writers are so reluctant to talk about their pay in specific terms. This article is a review of the edited collection Scratch, and the one above is an excerpt from it. Media saturation! (But also I just find this really interesting.)

That new DOJ report on patterns of abuse in the Chicago Police Department is pretty scary and upsetting. (So it’s okay to skip this link if you are scary-and-upsetting-ed out for the week.) They do bad things to children. Why again do people oppose increased transparency/accountability in police departments?

Daniel Handler on creating the new Series of Unfortunate Events Netflix show. I have some issues with the show but love how diverse the casting is! Even in crowd scenes! It is like the showrunners wanted to reflect the real world or something!

Here’s a super nifty and adorable animated representation of the Joseph Campbell model of the Hero’s Journey. It’s useful because we are all becoming heroes in this new administration! Being a hero sucks most of the time, but we can do it.

My sister sent me this v. interesting article on Afghan women’s poetry. It is fascinating but sad, so be aware before you click that sadness will ensue.

Why the band The Slants might depend on the same laws and court decisions that protect the Washington football team (or they may not) (it’s complicated).

Swapna Krishna on punching Nazis and Nick Spencer ferociously criticizing same.

My friend Alice made me cry by talking about keeping our voices lifted even when it seems like we’re not having any effect on those in power.

The myth of the peaceful women’s march (or, why it’s wrong to feel morally superior about no arrests this weekend).

That’s all for now! Have as good a weekend as you can, and I’ll see you back here on Monday to keep talking about books and protesting this presidency.

The post Breathing into a Paper Bag: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.