Reading List: May Your Weekend Be More Joyful Than The Links In This Here Email. Because, WOOF.
Good morning, lovelies. I hope that in light of every awful thing that is happening in the world right now, that you’re doing your best to take care of yourself and your mental health. If it helps, I put out a call on Twitter for pictures of cute critters, and you lovely humans did not disappoint.
So what are we reading this weekend?
Megan Garber, The Unending Influence of ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ (The Atlantic) - For background: a 19-year-old progressive candidate won his primary runoff against an incumbent Dem in Kansas despite having, in middle school, “obtained a nude photo of a girl, threatened distribute it unless she sent him more nude photos and followed through with the threat when she didn’t provide more photos.” After this was revealed, a bunch of media and political folks came to his defense, claiming he’d learned his lesson, and had just been a kid when he did it (that fact that his victim was also a child seems not to matter.) Now, an ex-girlfriend is alleging he attacked her. Garber’s piece is an excellent examination of how redemption narratives sometimes only seem to serve the perpetrators.
Elon Green, The Enduring, Pernicious Whiteness Of True Crime (The Appeal) - The subhead sums up the thesis well, and is something that gave me pause as a fan and consumer of true crime media: “White voices and victims dominate the genre, which can skew the perception of what constitutes a crime.”
Carolynn Kormann, How Did I Catch the Coronavirus? (The New Yorker) - The kicker on this piece is devastating. And the entire meditation on the author’s illness is a reminder that, in a country getting its butt kicked by this virus because of government malfeasance, a lack of testing, and so many cases that contact tracing is a Sisyphean folly, no matter how careful you are, you could get it, through no fault or action of your own. And be at risk of giving it to others.
David Litt, The RNC Is a Master Class in Mediocre Speechwriting (Gen) - There are SO MANY BIGGER THINGS to worry about right now, but since I love the art and craft of writing, and especially the art and craft of writing for performance, this piece by a former Obama speechwriter was quite enjoyable.
Michael Edison Hayden, The Fascist Underpinnings of Pro-Trump Media: An Interview With Author Jason Stanley (The Southern Poverty Law Center) - If you’re wondering why I’m putting out calls for cute animals to my social networks (gestures wildly around me).
Have a great weekend, y’all. Be kind to each other, be kind to yourselves, and for the love of all things good, please wear your masks.
xoxo Amy