HELLO and welcome to the 149th 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 mass shooters! 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.
Naked Ladies (October 2014), by Jordan Rosenfeld for The Rumpus – “When my body began its inevitable swell from slender girl to curvier woman, when the black hair made its descent down my thighs, I was unable to take her cue to be so free. I didn’t relish the male gaze upon my morphing self, and there were plenty of middle-aged men around my parents—dealers and friends to drink with, a rag tag cast of disillusioned poets, academics and artists—who made no bones about admiring me. Once, between the ages of 12 and 13, when the first peaks of my breasts pushed out the edges of my tank tops my mother insisted, “Let me see them!” But I clutched my clothing tight and refused, same as when she asked, “Have you gotten pubic hair yet? Can I see?” She seemed to be assessing me for the moment I would explode into sexuality like an overripe peach, perhaps a moment when I would, for once, be like her.”
Everything We Think We Know About Mass Shooters is Wrong (September 2014), by Tom Junod for Esquire – “Are we helpless to stop mass shootings? Is anyone even trying to stop them? The good news is that the answers are No and Yes. The bad news: The person loading up hasn’t gotten the news.”
The Kitchen Network (October 2014), by Lauren Hilgers for The New Yorker – We’ve all eaten at these restaurants, and this is about the workers who come to the US from overseas (mostly from China) to staff the over forty thousand Chinese restaurants across the country. This looks at a few workers in New York specifically (although they’re often employed in other east coast states).
Crowded House (May 2013), by Tad Friend for The New Yorker – This brought back some unpleasant memories but also omg, this guy totally rented his apartment to like a billion people and then made up shit to keep them out of it because he wasn’t really renting it. It’s a bizarre fascinating tale that will captivate readers who’ve ever searched for apartments in a hopeless place.
Where the Tea Party Rules (October 2014), By Janet Reitman for Rolling Stone – This is not the Lima, Ohio, you see represented in Glee, but it is the Lima I’ve driven through hundreds of times, even, and this is the story of how a lack of jobs in this shitty economy has depressed a county and enabled the Tea Party to rise.
Let’s Be Real (August 2014), by Wesley Morris for Grantland – “All movies choose their moment. It’s called a release date. Some moments, however, choose their movies. And it looks as if the moment has chosen Let’s Be Cops. But let’s be clear: No one should choose this movie. It’s a title in search of a plot. It could also have been called Let’s Be Funnier, Let’s Be Directed, Let’s Be 15 to 30 Minutes Shorter, Let’s Be 22 Jump Street. Right now, though, this is our only movie starring law enforcement run amok, at a moment when much of the nation is outraged that actual law enforcement is doing the same.”
Sixty-Nine Days (July 2014), by Hector Tobar for The New Yorker – The harrowing tale of how the Chilean Miners lasted sixty-nine days underground when parts of the mine collapsed leaving them trapped inside. This is good journalism
The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Homeless Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out By Religious Families (September 2014), by Alex Morris for Rolling Stone – HAVE YOU READ THIS ONE YET. YOU REALY SHOULD.
The Forsaken: A Rising Number of Homeless Gay Teens Are Being Cast Out By Religious Families
Thank you for making me read this!
“It’s a survival thing. In America, we lose six queer kids a day to the street. That’s every four hours a queer kid dies, whether it be from freezing to death or getting the shit beat out of them or a drug overdose. This is our next real plague.”
what agonizing statistics
The article about LGBT youth homelessness broke my heart, and made me angry, and now I feel powerless … I wonder what the stats are in other western countries, the UK for example. Probably similar, unfortunately.
Anyway, thanks for making me read it.
(Also, the article about the Chilean miners was very good! They really did show incredible strength.)
I look forward to this feature every week! Now that we have largely succeeded on marriage equality, we should turn our resources to the homeless queer youth problem. Too bad it can’t be fixed by court orders.