Reading List: Capitalist Personality Tests, Leaning Out, and Other Unsatisfying Truths
Happy Friday, lovely ones. Here’s some content to cozy up with this weekend.
Merve Emre, The Capitalist Origins of the Myers-Briggs Personality Test (Medium) - As someone who has consistently tested at 100% extroverted on every Myers-Briggs test I’ve taken since college, I devoured this piece on how the personality test arose with the growth of the white collar working class. But it also struck me right in the face when I read the excerpt, “Evidence mattered less than the ability to justify the divisions that already existed in a world where wealthier, whiter, and more upwardly mobile men were decreed more self-aware than everyone else.” WOOF. Additionally: “To feel that you are ideally suited to do your job means to do it well and, more important, to do it willingly.”
Kara Swisher, Lean Out (The New York Times) - Now that it is coming more apparent that Sheryl Sandberg will solely shoulder most of the blame for the current scandal at Facebook, it behooves us all to read and listen to Kara Swisher. In a piece for the New York Times, Swisher writes on Facebook’s leadership dynamic, “Which is to say, no matter (Zuckerberg’s) responsibility, he is unkillable, unfireable and untouchable and no amount of leaning in by Ms. Sandberg or any other woman in tech is going to change that.”
Joseph Bernstein, The Unsatisfying Truth About Hateful Online Rhetoric And Violence (BuzzFeedNews) - As further acts of violence and domestic terror are committed by followers of the extreme right, Bernstein looks at how white men are radicalized online, and why some kill while others walk away. Unfortunately, as Bernstein discusses, there’s often no black or white reason why.
Peter Beinart, The Nancy Pelosi Problem (The Atlantic) - From April 2018, this article looking at how Pelosi’s effectiveness drives vehement hatred of her. Just one quote from this: “Therein lies the tragedy. Nancy Pelosi does her job about as well as anyone could. But because she’s a woman, she may not be doing it well enough.” Interesting to re-read in the post-40-flipped-seats-midterm / Pelosi needing to flip 15 democratic votes in the floor vote in January to regain speaker context.
Sara Benincasa, Double Double, Toil and Trouble: A Reading List About Witches (Longreads) - Sara Benincasa is one of my favorite internet people, and her writing is delightful, so learning from her about witches is also delightful.
Have a restful weekend, and be kind to each other, why don’t ya?
Xoxo Amy