Misogyny is not a mental illness
And totally unrelated: An extraordinary story about big wave surfing
After we spent so much time discussing astrology (catch up here and here) in this space, I owe you at least two issues worth of pop culture pleasures. A couple of things don’t fit the “pleasure” label, but if anyone else has immersed themselves into the recent debates in the US – reproductive rights, gun control – and finds it hard to wrap their heads around so much misogynistic fuckery, you might appreciate these links:
“Will be Wild”, is an eight-part podcast series about the January 6th insurrection. It basically traces the end of democracy in the US and as much as that is horrifying, it also helps to understand where those right-wing-maniacs come from and how the system supports them.
“The Daily” is my most trusted source on understanding US politics, and this episode on how mental illness is not the root cause of school shootings was especially insightful. (Spoiler: the root cause of violence are young men who don’t get what they feel entitled to).
“This American Life” on school shootings was brilliant. I cried on the bus while listening to part one and then I couldn’t believe my ears in part two, when I learned that there are massive conspiracies around mass shootings and parents of dead children get harassed by internet trolls.
Speaking of internet trolls: This article explains really well how “don’t feed the troll” has been the wrong strategy from the start, and also how the big platforms never had any intention to prevent online abuse (which we all know by now can lead to offline violence).
A large majority of internet trolls has been groomed by online Incel or Men’s Right Activism communities. Laura Bates has spent many years researching those mechanisms, and in this podcast episode she outlines the staggering systemic problems which lead to (or permit) on- and offline male violence.
But now on to the pleasures!
pop culture pleasures
Starting with the classic “if you only read one piece”: This New Yorker portrait of big wave surfing superstar Kai Lenny gave me so much joy – mostly because it’s written by Pulitzer Prize winner William Finnegan. Nobody writes about the realities of surfing like Finnegan (I adored his autobiography “Barbarian Days”).
“Traditionally, those who surf the biggest waves are more concerned with not falling than with style, and people watching them are mostly astonished that they don’t die.”
📚 Usually, I am very sceptical of hypes, but both of these novels more than lived up to them: “People Person” by Candice Carthy-Williams was a lovely page-turner, an easy-read without being shallow. And “Sorrow and Bliss” by Meg Mason was laugh-out-loud funny AND devastating at the same time. Two great summer reads, if you’re still looking for inspiration.
A very close runner-up in the “if you only read one thing” category was Heather O’Neill’s essay on why society is so afraid of single women:
When we watch a horror film, the sight of a woman alone fills us with dread. We expect terrible things to happen to her. But she also fills us with a sense of supernatural expectation, because we know so little about what a single woman’s trajectory in life could possibly look like, without romance at the center of it.
Cheaters is the best TV show I’ve seen since Fleabag and that’s gotta say something. It’s funny, sexy, very well written and the hot protagonist is a fat black woman. Who gets to do her thing without her body size being commented on even once. It makes me so happy. (Available on RTL+ in Germany)
I loved Jessica DeFino’s take on the latest beauty trend of the “five-minute-face” – which requires less make-up but a whole lot more expensive skin care products and cosmetic procedures. It’s the rich effectively gate-keeping beauty.
In German we have the saying “Vorfreude ist die schönste Freude”, which roughly translates to “anticipation is the greatest kind of joy”, and this NYT-piece provides some solid arguments in favor of this claim.
All you need are three close friends – but with them you gotta put in the time (at least 200 hours, says researcher Jeffrey Hall).
How Covid has created a universal midlife-crisis.
A couple of weeks ago this Rolling Stone’s piece made the rounds: Hannah Ewens analysed how millennial pop queens process being in their 30s, in a different way than the women before them:
“They’re part of a generation more exposed to therapy than the women who came before, who raised us. Ideally, we know when we’re being terrible or dysfunctional just as well as when our partner or relationship is and have the Instagram infographics and self-help language to navigate that if we want to change it.”
Why the cleanse will never die and instead continue to trigger disordered eating, although everyone should know by now that our liver does all the detoxing we need.
🇩🇪 Meine Freundin Nora Burgard-Arp hat lange dazu recherchiert, wie unsere Eltern und Großeltern unser Körperbild beeinflussen (und was die Nazi-Erziehung damit zu tun hat). Das Ergebnis gibt es jetzt endlich bei Zeit Online zu lesen.
🎙 Podcast recs, let’s go:
Minnie Driver on How to Fail gave me all the feels. If you could use inspiration and wise words from a woman who’s got some life experience under her belt: Give it a listen.
Jonathan Van Ness takes us on a journey to learn about the history of fatphobia. Great insights.
I hope you’re already loyal listeners of “Maintenance Phase”, but if you’re not please let this episode be the one which draws you in. It’s about a mad woman who wrote a book on how she thought her husband was too fat (his doctor disagreed) and then massively restricted his access to food until he was slim enough for her.
For a good laugh, I recommend listening to the first five minutes of this “This American Life” episode which is all about the twisted logic of children.
🇩🇪 Ich habe eine Folge für “Wissen Weekly” geschrieben – es geht um Pornos und das muss als hook reichen.
Finally, are we all watching season four of Borgen and loving it? I hope so.
This is all for now, thank you so much for being here.
Until next time,
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