Staunchly, vol. 51: Where in the World is Ma Anand Sheela?
(Originally posted: 3/30/18)
RIP Stacey Dash’s Congressional Run: 2/26/2018 – 3/30/2018.
You burned too bright for this world.
Out of respect, all flags across North Long Beach and San Pedro will be flown at half-staff until further notice.
Hold your loved ones close tonight, bbs.
We should lower the voting age to 16.
Black girls are leading the movement for gun control.
The Atlantic just hired a conservative writer who once said women should be killed (hanged, ideally) for having abortions. Finally, a modern, sensible, male voice in journalism!
Who gave Spicoli permission to write reactionary, trash poetry? On that note: WHY DO MEN THINK THEY CAN DO LITERALLY ANYTHING THEY WANT ALWAYS?? We may never have the answer to that. But at least we get access to Sean Penn’s skepticism of the #MeToo movement, memorialized in verse.
These photos of Trump saying goodbye to Hope Hicks are mesmerizing.
Here’s your literary guide to Aries season. Sit by a roaring fire as the frost melts (the metaphorical frost, if, like me, you live in a chaparral), and dig into some poetry by legendary rams Kathy Acker and Frank O’Hara.
The relationship between Harry Potter and the #NeverAgain movement is really quite beautiful. Here’s a summary from Time correspondent Charlotte Alter on Twitter:
Harry Potter has almost become their playbook: the Ones Who Lived fighting an “evil” force that has infiltrated the government and brainwashed adults using only the powers they’ve learned in school: illumination, protection, disarmament.
You can never have too many waxen Paul Giamattis.
Please don’t confuse Stormy Daniels and Trump sharing a femtosecond of sheet-tango (ew) as proof that they are cut from the same cloth. Stormy Daniels is brazenly inauthentic as a profession; her “artifice is entirely forthright.” Trump’s is hidden under self-delusion, exploitative con-artistry and a decoy of “working class hero.” In this case, the bleached asshole is the more honest one. (I’M SO SORRY).
A live-action Carmen Sandiego movie is coming to Netflix! Starring Gina Rodriguez! Related: prayer works!!
I’m honestly pretty invested in the astrological compatibility of the Kardashian Kousins. As both a Scorpio and an admirer of many staunch, Capricorn women, I can attest that Chicago West and Dream Renée Kardashian will indeed have a friendship for the ages.
Jia Tolentino’s piece on the deeply unsettling narrative of girly entrepreneurship in Teen Bo$$magazine is fascinating. I was particularly interested in how the narrative excludes childhood for whom work is not a fun hobby, a quirky hair bow company: “bringing in money when you’re very young is cute only when it’s optional. Tween tycoons have seed money, laptops, and parents who’ll keep the books; Teen Boss is a tribute to precocious hustle and also to the life-changing magic of already being rich.” It’s a good reminder that most trendy empowerment content is only viable for a small group of people who, by their ability to access the “you go girl!” literature in the first place, have already met a threaten threshold of empowerment.
As Magda goes, so goes the Empire State.
A 1930s law put in place by the Nazis to punish Jewish doctors is making it harder for women to access abortions in Germany. In 2018. Feels like an important thing to fix, especially in a country that has fought so hard to correct and atone for its Hitlerian past.
White Travel Writers, Please Stop Saying You Fell in Love with a Country Full of Brown People.
The founder of NXIVM has been arrested. If you haven’t familiarized yourself yet with this bat-shit “celebrity” sex cult in upstate New York, please get correct.
Let’s go whale-watching with Tiffany Haddish.
As someone who loves crispy poultry skin and exclusively air-dries her hair (Carey, where are you going with this, you wonder), I think I’ve finally found a use for the blow-dryer collecting dust in my bathroom: chicken. I can’t wait to try out this trick for perfectly roast goodness.
These photos of Christina Aguilera are stunning.
I’m going to take a hard pass on any culture that normalizes Trump. That includes the Roseanne reboot.
I didn’t expect the world of NFL cheerleading to be progressive, per se, but I was still shocked by its paternalism and super offensive double standards—not to mention the staggeringly low wages.
Growing up a Lakers fan, there’s no team I hated more than the Sacramento Kings (a team we used to heckle “the Queens” at games because, early-aughts #homophobia and #misogyny). Welp, turns out the 2018, Maloof-free version of the Kings is actually pretty awesome! After Stephon Clark’s killing, they set up an educational fund for his children and partnered with Black Lives Matter Sacramento to invest in underserved communities. I still hate Mike Bibby with a passion that sustains me, but I tip my hat to a prominent organization throwing its weight behind meaningful change.
Staunchly yours,
Carey
(PS I finally finished Wild Wild Country. Haven’t organized my thoughts around it yet—going to take me a *minute* for me to wrap my head around that one. But I agree with the consensus that it was a brilliant bit of storytelling and a truly bonkers bit of story).