Reading List: No-Cheer "Cheerleading", Personal Spin, Jerk Collateral Damage
My darlings! Apologies from the lack of Missive yesterday, I was just way too exhausted from the rowdy and raucous celebrations of the day of my birth. Let me tell you, nothing quite knocks you on your ass like the debauchery I engaged in… LOL, who am I kidding, I worked a fourteen hour day on Wednesday, with two events filled with fellow government and technology nerds. And it was goddamned glorious :)
This week is still insane (come say HEY if you’re at the Code for America Summit in Oakland today!) so this Reading List is a brief one:
Juliet Macur: N.F.L.’s Alternate ‘Cheerleaders’ Don’t Cheer or Dance (New York Times) - Macur looks into the shady world of noncheering cheerleaders in the NFL, attractive women hired solely to host, entertain and market the team while dressed like their dancing compatriots. Applicants for this “booth-babe”-like role as asked for their bra size (insert head-snapping eye roll here.)
Jess McIntosh: I Went on a Date With Eric Schneiderman. It Took Me Years to Process What Happened That Night. (ELLE) - An excellent first person account of how time and status can change how one remembers and communicates what we are now in the age of #metoo realizing are highly inappropriate workplace or professional incidents. McIntosh walks through all the ways she has personally spun her story of a 23-year-old attending a bait-and-switch meeting turned two bottles of wine with a 50-year-old married state senator. The most important line IMHO:
“The stories we tell are like our clothing, our personality, curated for exhibition. We go shopping in the racks of our own histories, selecting pieces that create the style we want. Having a story added without your permission is like getting a tattoo you didn’t ask for: you can hide it, or you can try to own the narrative."
Lesley Goldberg: Suddenly It's Over": How 'Roseanne's' Stunning Demise Felt in the Writers Room (Hollywood Reporter and h/t Seth) A nuanced look at what happens when a star’s awful personal behavior can ruin the livelihood of those that support them. And I differentiate Roseanne’s personal racism on twitter from Sam Bee’s scripted-and-filmed-and-aired C U Next Tuesday comment that I am only now hearing about because I’m been less on the internet this week, so I’m not going into it yet because also I need all of the coffee for it, sigh.
Is it Friday yet? Oh, it is? Well, is it 5 pm yet, pretty please?
Love you all. Be kind to each other.