Reading List: Let's Take A Stroll Through Early Aughts Cultural Mind F*cks

Dearests! We made it to Friday, and I hope we can all be proud of that. Got lots for you to read today, especially since some is from a few weeks ago before I got the ‘Cron, so if you’ve already read it and think it’s lame that I shared it… well, I got nothing for you, time has no meaning and these are the pieces I’ll be reading on my Kindle this weekend. And in reading through today’s selections, you’ll see I’m working out some FEELS, so let’s get to it.

LONGREADS, AHOY!

Casey Johnston, I Didn’t Start Weight Lifting Because I Wanted to Be Strong (Intelligencer) - I love following Casey Johnston on all of the social medias for the frank was she discusses how women can get “swole” and lift instead of yo-yo diet or run for hours. And this piece about how heavy lifting changed her relationship to her body after years of disordered eating and “wrangling” her body hit me square in the shared experience. 

Jordan Kisner, The Madness of Method Acting (The Atlantic) - Like the author of this piece, I also performed on stage until I “abruptly” decided not to at 22, and this piece about the extreme lengths some acting styles go to get you in character reminds me of fellow cast members who would speak in accents for weeks on end (in college!) or embark on torrid affairs with on-stage love interests in order to “go method” (sure, Jan). Meanwhile, I was nerding out on the fact that in Shakespeare, you can use punctuation as stage directions, because I was never good at completely giving myself over to a fictional character. Anyhoo, this piece, a review of a new book on method acting, took me back to sitting in an empty theater with Friend of the Missive Greg and going deep into parsing out every moment of a play, and I appreciate it for that. And, um, not to put too fine a point on it, but I think that this article on Sociopaths vs. Narcissists: 3 Ways to Tell the Difference might relate to some of these acting style discussions (drops hand grenade in the middle of the audition, runs away.) 

Paul Solotaroff, He Spent 25 Years Infiltrating Nazis, the Klan, and Biker Gangs (Rolling Stone) - Speaking of method acting… wow. I haven’t read this one completely yet, but… yea, wow, that’s all I can volunteer on this subject.

Alessa Dominguez, The Gruesome Reality Behind the Playboy Myth (BuzzFeed News, Note: likely NSFW) - My late teens were in the time of tanning beds, low rise jeans and the omnipresence of Maxim magazine, and I have an embarrassing confession to make. Back then, when having my weekly tanning session (yes, this is part of why I am SO obsessed with skincare now…), the salon would hand out little UV-blocking stickers you could place on your skin to make a “tattoo”, and I’d often select one for my shoulder or stomach. And if you need a demonstrating of just how pervasive Playboy culture was in 2001, look no further than the fact that your favorite daily(ish) newsletter writer would always select that infamous bunny. I was an honors student, student council president, an editor on my school paper, played Juliet in the school play, wrote songs and played coffee shop gigs… and I thought it was a great idea to tan the Playboy bunny on my skin. Not to be dramatic (but you know me,) us elder millennial women will be unpacking the impact of early-aughts sex culture on our personal development for the rest of our lives. 

Noreen Malone, Did Jeff Zucker and Chris Cuomo Make Me Too a Weapon in Their Power Struggle? (Slate) - Haven’t read, but this headline and subhead sure sucked me in!

Ashley Carman, Spotify CEO defends Joe Rogan deal in tense company town hall (The Verge) - Still reading, nothing clever to say other than this platform vs. publisher debate is getting mighty hair splitting…

That’s it! You’re great. Drink that water and be kind to yourself, ok?

xoxo

Amy

PS Orca got a haircut and she is damned cute.