A personal account from a former teaching assistant to Avital Ronell, the NYU professor accused of harassment.

The brilliant Carol Anderson recommends books about democracy and its challenges.

Okay, maybe — MAYBE — I will consume this Sherlock Holmes property. MAYBE.

Design a spaceship: Some instructions.

Over at the Book Smugglers, Foz Meadows reminds us to critique the critics when we’re talking about problematic elements in media.

Constance Grady goes in on redemption narratives for men in Hollywood, versus women. Guess who gets the benefit of the doubt.

I absolutely love this piece about the jokes comedians regret making. The people who aren’t white dudes generally have more interesting, thoughtful things to say.

Deadspin and Jezebel understand how hard this time is, and they have accordingly switched out their editors. Two Jezebel writers attend a football game, and a Deadspin writer covers a fashion show.

Why the Serena Williams thing was so viscerally upsetting for black women.

I don’t know what this partnership between Sony and the owners of The Ripped Bodice but I am ALL ABOUT IT.

I just adore this piece about how authors dress their characters — with accompanying fashion images!

Want to know how Crazy Rich Asians managed to look so, like, crazy rich? The Wrap has you covered!

How to fart when sharing a bed.

Here’s some measurements and statistics about how stupid and useless the pockets in women’s clothes are WHEN WE EVEN GET TO HAVE THEM.

Women retell myths from classical antiquity: a top ten list.

Is social psychology in a replication crisis? Professionals differ on the answer.

What women really want from Jian Ghomeshi. Also: a conversation with the editor who decided to run the Jian Ghomeshi piece, in which Isaac Chotiner gives no quarter to bullshit, and which I believe led to the editor being fired/resigning. Also: Rebecca Solnit on the tradition that men are objective and women are subjective. Also: Mo Ryan on abusive men rewriting their stories (badly). Megan Garber on the question of (vis-a-vis Kavanaugh) whether sexual assault is Just How Things Are. Jia Tolentino on dudes being not very sorry at all. Also Lili Loofbourow on Kavanaugh because Jesus Christ this fucking week.

Are we in a romcom renaissance? God I hope so.

Willa Paskin reviews (with spoilers) the show Forever, and gets into some of the reasons I find it frustrating when the whole marketing push for a thing is KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THIS THING GOING IN or it will be COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY RUINT.

Everything you know about obesity is wrong.

Have a great weekend! Cuddle up with blankets and gin and good friends, as I will be doing.

The post More Harassment Links than I Would Prefer: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Kelly Marie Tran in Buzzfeed. Kelly Marie Tran in EW. Kelly Marie Tran sorting Star Wars characters into Hogwarts houses, an activity she’s so pumped to do. And lest we forget, here’s John Boyega’s last-year enthusiasm for her, bless his heart.

Okay, good. We are all happy now, about Kelly Marie Tran. Now back to dismantling the patriarchy. (PS Kelly Marie Tran being in Star Wars is also dismantling the patriarchy, thanks Kelly Marie Tran, we owe you.)

“Many men will absorb the lessons of late 2017 to be not about the threat they’ve posed to women but about the threat that women pose to them.” Rebecca Traister on all this sexual assault business.

Love this interview with Roxane Gay.

Comedians have to get over themselves, says Drew Magary. And he attacks that awful trope of shitty, offensive comedians being truth-tellers, THANK CHRIST.

How Get Out inspired a UCLA course on horror and racism. Get Out is a movie I have seen, and it is very frightening and has lots of creepy, clever little Easter eggs for, like, critical race theory nerds. (I’m kidding.) (Sort of.)

The movie was better: AV Club has a round-up of movies that out-awesomed the books they were based on. I ardently cosign The Princess Bride in particular.

The New York Times published a puff piece about how nice and normal Nazis can be. This is only surprising to people who don’t realize how normal racism has always been.

A NOAH’S ARK REPLICA. I have nothing further to add. It is a REPLICA of Noah’s ARK that you can VISIT AND TOUR.

What would make Matt Lauer’s apology less infuriating?

20 Authors I Don’t Have to Read Because I Dated Men for Years. Bahahah this is gold and not just because she calls Kurt Vonnegut the manic pixie dream girl of American literature.

There was this mind-numbingly stupid article at Slate about how this one lady ended up marrying her boss so we better watch out lest the #MeToo moment GO TOO FAR. Here is a good response.

Happy weekend! Go watch the Star Wars trailer a dozen more times. You’ve earned it.

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It’s the year of our Lord 2017, and we are just now publishing the first translation of the Odyssey by a woman. (Buy it! The physical book is really beautiful!)

Angelica Jade Bastien on Now Voyager

I never don’t click on articles about the medieval historians trying to fend off Nazis. (Poor medieval historians! They really do not want Nazis at their luau.)

Men elevate foods; women ruin them. (It’s about gender bias, but not sexual assault. Yay?)

An excellently stern rebuttal to Francine Prose’s stupid piece in the New York Review of Books. I do not like Francine Prose.

Thor: Ragnarok, a movie I loved, is nevertheless fairly muddled as to its message about Empire. Noah Berlatsky unpacks some of that. But see also Gavia Baker-Whitelaw.

“Write because they are cutting out our tongues.” This piece is not about sexual assault, but it is about totalitarianism in the Philippines.

And then here are the links that are about sexual assault (partly or entirely). If you’re only going to read one of these, pick the first one. It’s real good.

How sexual harassment stories are like ghost stories, a horrifyingly accurate analysis by Jess Zimmerman.

The author of a new book about college football (FSU in particular) says scandal follows “where the excessive devotion is.” Shitdamn that’s a good point.

Alexander Chee on Kevin Spacey’s glib, yucky “coming-out” and what it says about his attitude toward the gay community.

Nobody needs to give a shit about Louie CK’s artistic legacy.

Have a great weekend! Chill outside if the weather is nice where you are! Cuddle up with a blanket and some hot cocoa if not!

The post Just Gonna Split These Down the Middle: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.

Mallory Ortberg’s piece about trying a binder for the first time is immensely lovely and moving (though also quite melancholy).

On Hemingway tourism in Cuba. Oh Hemingway. What a poop he was.

Deji Bryce Olukoton writes on the future of Nigeria and Nigerian science fiction upon the release of his debut novel, After the Flare. Sounds excellent!

Signature Reads pairs Tarot cards with books! It’s so in my wheelhouse!

What it’s like to have books that represent you (versus books that seem to hate you or not even to know you exist).

Subway systems (surprise!) are woefully unable to provide access to people who use wheelchairs. The Guardian compares subway maps to subway maps that show only stations with disability access.

Here is a story of Oscar and Constance Wilde promoting what passed for genderfuckery in Victorian times. Bless their hearts.

Ewwwww, Jack Sparrow impersonators are constantly getting sexually harassed at Disney and on cruises. Gross. Gross. No. Ew.

Indian Country Today is closing down its operations, and we’re losing a major voice for indigenous people and indigenous news. I’m crushed.

Dit dit dit dit, this just in, Lionel Shriver is a butthead.

I will always share stories about people loving Latin. Always. Here’s one!

There was a dumb article in the New York Times about romance novels that you shouldn’t read. Instead, you can just read this response to it! (Okay, and you can read the article itself; it’s linked herein.)

Happy weekend, friends! See you here on Sunday for happy news.

The post I’m Actually Really Anxious about Saturday: A Links Round-Up appeared first on Reading the End.