HELLO and welcome to the 289th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about Barilla pasta! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Barilla Pasta’s Turnaround From Homophobia to National Pride, by Thomas Buckley for Bloomberg Businessweek, May 2019
When the CEO of your company says something bad about gay people, how do you get your reputation back? THIS IS HOW. (It involves actually investing in us, too, which is A+++)
The Mystery of the Millionaire Hermit, by Claire Martin for Bloomberg Businessweek, May 2019
WHAT DID HE DO ALL DAY
The Stolen Kids of Sarah Lawrence, by Ezra Marcus and James D. Walsh for The Cut, April 2019
Hello welcome to my alley, I found this Dad Cult right up it!
The Pink, by Andrea Long Chu for n+1, Spring 2019
A delight, as expected.
“Not all women have vaginas,” our defenders seemed to say, “but we do.” At worst, this line of thinking served as cover for the same old transphobic obsessions with our genitalia. Somehow, under the guise of inclusivity, cis women had given themselves the responsibility of reminding us of our dicks. At best, it assumed, with marvelous ignorance, that trans women simply wouldn’t be interested in a vaginal imaginary — as if our basic psychic integrity did not regularly rely, like everyone else’s, on identification with things we do not, in the hollowest sense of reality, possess.
She was the “queen of the mommy bloggers.” Then her life fell apart, by Chavie Lieber for Vox, June 2019
I remember when Dooce was the biggest deal in blogging and it’s weird how much things have changed since then — and her, too, it seems.
The Company That Sells Love to America Had a Dark Secret, by Taffy Brodesser-Akner for The New York Times, April 2019
Working for the nation’s largest jewelry retailer left thousands of women underpaid, mistreated, sexually harassed and worse — all while functioning as the effective face of and most successful salespeople of gemstones to men trying to impress other women.
Friends of the Pod, by The Editors for n+1, Spring 2019
Um I feel like this is a drag but I’m here for it anyhow. Did I mention that we just started a podcast and that maybe you’d enjoy listening to it? ‘Cause we did and you would! A highlight from this piece is, “Tim Ferriss’s four-hour workweek has left him with plenty of time to innovate two-hour podcasts.”
Law & Order’s New York was never real, by James Nevius for Curbed, May 2019
This kind of made me want to go back and watch original Law & Order episodes from the first ten seasons just to gaze upon an older New York.
Going Under at the Playboy Club, by Josephine Livingstone for The New Republic, May 2019
A non-binary writer checks out the new and allegedly improved Playboy Club while reflecting upon Gloria Steinem’s seminal piece of writing on this esteemed topic.
Why Are So Many Longtime L.A. Bookstores Closing?, by Katie Kilkenny for The Hollywood Reporter, May 2019
The answer is not just Amazon! But also so many are still open — and stores like The Last Bookstore remain VERY crowded on weekends, I’ll tell you what.
My Cousin Was My Hero. Until the Day He Tried to Kill Me., by Wil S. Hylton for The New York Times Magazine, May 2019
I didn’t expect this story — which ultimately looks at the intoxication of hyper-masculinity, and how it is weaponized in modern life and relationships — to be the one to most enrapture me this week, but life is full of surprises! I was glued to the page.
That’s all very nice, Barilla, but since the boycott I discovered that I actually like DeCecco pasta
The Barilla stuff is a nice surprise. They’re super popular on zero waste instas for using the least plastic, so it’s good to know they’re not supporting garbage.
I mean, I’m still gonna buy the $1 store brand pasta, but nice to know.
*not supporting the OTHER kind of garbage
this comment made my day
How much/when did they invest in autostraddle? My wife is Italian so this is big news in our household!
Looove that Andrea Long Chu piece. When I read it earlier this week the “your body turns off the gas if you stop paying your bills” jumped right the hell off the page at me.