Also.Also.Also: We’re at the Part of the Pandemic Where the Aliens Arrive

This is where we are: Banana Bread (3), Banana Bread Blondies (1), Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins (1)… and TONIGHT! BROWN SUGAR CARMELIZED BANANA SUNDAES WITH RUM SOAKED TRES LECHES ICE CREAM!

Queer as in F*ck You

17 LGBTQ Writers on What They Are Listening to Right Now

Lesbian Visibility Day was on Sunday, but tbh at Autostraddle Lesbian Visibility Day is obviously EVERY DAY! And so, may I present you with From Coming Out Tales to Epic Romances: 10 Latinx Films To Celebrate Lesbian Visibility Day. (This list also goes very well with our personal celebration of the holiday, Lesbian Visibility Day Roundtable: The Art In Your Lesbian Canon)

Do you remember when we could go outside? Would you like to see two brides in matching sharp black suits and their umbrella-donuts and ballon-cake? I BET YOU DO! I BET YOU DO!

And here’s an important f*cking question:

Saw This, Thought of You

Quarantine Could Change How Americans Think of Incarceration (You should absolutely be pairing that with: ‘I Am Trying To Get Out Of Here So I Don’t Die’: 8 Women Experiencing COVID-19 Behind Bars)

I’d like to do more to help my beloved local businesses during this crisis, but I’m not sure if it’s financially wise to spend money on anything but essentials right now. I’m a freelancer with a steady stable of clients, but like most work, mine has gone completely quiet since March. I’m supposedly eligible for unemployment insurance, but my claim is still pending and I’m not sure when (or if) it will go through…. Right now, it seems like we’re all in survival mode. I feel like I should be financially responsible and eliminate all extras. On the other hand, my community is important to me. What’s the best way to be careful and still supportive to others?

I Want to Support Businesses in Need — But Can I Afford It?

Inside the Dystopian, Post-Lockdown World of Wuhan

“Here is a good recap of this week’s UFO news if anyone else has been feeling behind on that topic.” — Rachel. UFO Pentagon Video: 8 Questions and Answers About That Bizarre Footage

Listen I don’t even know what’s happening: The Editor of Taco Bell Quarterly Explains How to Make Art out of a Fast Food Brand

For Couples in Quarantine, Therapy Is an Exercise in Privacy and Trust

Here’s Why Zoom Fatigue Is Real

Anna Wintour Made Condé Nast the Embodiment of Boomer Excess. Can It Change to Meet This Crisis? I won’t lie, this kinda made me want to rewatch The Devil Wears Prada? But also, no seriously, eat the rich.

Political Snacks

Well friends, Riese Bernard found this data to be really interesting: 260,000 Words, Full of Self-Praise, From Trump on the Virus

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

9 Comments

  1. Although the bulk of my Zoom experience involves the very old and very young (at least daily preschool and TODDLER Zoom sessions, plus birthdays etc with older grandparents), and is therefore VERY annoying, I felt like that article was a little bit of a reach. Are other people experiencing this?

    The wedding pictures are incredible. Thank you for sharing those!

    • Very much experiencing the zoom fatigue the article talked about. But I’ve got multiple work zoom meetings, my kids’ school/job zoom meetings (which I don’t have to attend, but do mean i can’t talk or watch something while cooking. Zoom workouts. Zoom guided meditations (!) with work folks. Weekly zoom friend hangouts. Zoom brunches. Sometimes there’s no time for eating lunch (or peeing). It’s a lot of seeing exactly how ridiculous my hair is looking and a lot of annoying sound glitches. I had to set as firm one drink limit on my last hangout because I just wanted to close my eyes!

      • Ah ok. I’ve been really isolated in this regard. I’m in school and I was all online this semester to begin with, and my job was WFH anyway. I think I have joined one single adult Zoom with other parents from my synagogue, and I’ve done a few one on one video calls with friends, but those are one-on-one with no lag time. I’ve missed all the other group Zooms because I’m kind of over my head in other things that need to get done, but also I didn’t prioritize Zoom hangs. The small kid ones are bonkers bananas. Yelling, snacks, half the time the kid’s feet are in the air, it flashes between people so fast because of all the noise…

          • Dude, I’m struggling. This isn’t easy to do with little people who are really messy and need their butts wiped and all their meals cooked, and still having to do everything I was doing when I had childcare. I would probably be doing better if I scheduled social stuff like brunch etc. but I’m just kind of drowning all the time. I hope you’re doing ok.

  2. Something I have noticed in larger Zoom gatherings is that, as a person who tends to hang back in conversations due to social anxiety, it’s even more difficult for me to contribute to group conversations. There aren’t small side conversations happening either.

  3. Definitely feeling the Zoom fatigue at this point.

    That article on Wuhan post-reopening is heartbreaking, but so important. I keep feeling like we’ll probably never return to the old “normal,” but god, I miss so much about the world we used to know, and it’s so scary not knowing what the world will look like when we stop sheltering in place. It’s good to have an idea of what other places are starting to do, even if it seems pretty bleak – it’s the unknown that’s getting to me the most right now.

    The piece on quarantine potentially changing how we think about incarceration was also heartbreaking but good to read. I really hope this pandemic changes how we think about a lot of things as a culture. So it felt very hopeful to read this, even though it was so hard to read at the same time.

    Loved “17 LGBTQ Writers on What They Are Listening to Right Now”! Music is definitely one of the things keeping me sane at the moment and I love having new songs to check out. Thanks for including this piece!

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