Blog friends, I'm a little uninspired as of late. My lack of writing doesn't mean that I'm not reading a ton of great stuff on the world wide web, so here are some articles I've found lately. Thanks to Jamie at Betwixt and Between for this fabulous idea.
LZ Granderson for CNN: Myth of the 'Gay Lifestyle" Justifies Bias
Granderson writes about the unfair stereotypes perpetuated about gays, and how these myths are leading to the passing of new laws/ordinances, and the justification of new ones. Of course, he argues, gay people are no more likely to be all the same than any other subset of the population bound by one shared trait. This article was all the more important because Granderson himself has shattered a number of stereotypes- he's a gay black sportswriter. He certainly doesn't fit the prototype that the social conservatives are trying to highlight and marginalize. I hope he continues to get press for his opinions on this subject because we could use a lot more advocates like him, and a lot less like Newsweek's Ramin Setoodeh.
Gail Collins, What Every Girl Should Know About Birth Control
In Collins' post celebrating the 50th anniversary of the pill, she describes its history as well as its social and cultural impact. There have been a lot of recent articles that scold young women for not being more involved in the reproductive rights movement. They mostly argue that we have never lived in a society where abortion is illegal, so we don't worry about losing access to this right. I think that's unfair- I feel that most young pro-choice women are drawn more to action surrounding education about and access to birth control/Plan B because we don't necessarily buy into the idea that abortion isn't a big deal (but we do believe that it should be a legal option). Posts like this draw attention to the importance of proactive prevention, which I think is the real 'next frontier' of reproductive rights.
Rebecca Traister, Screw Happiness
At the suggestion of this article, I have happily shelved my obsession with HAVING IT ALL for the time being. Traister gives the case for embracing dissatisfaction- as difficult as it may be to accept that your life isn't perfect, the imperfections can be used to propel you forward to a place that you want to go. This place would most likely involve happiness - but at least this argues that it's okay for happiness to be the end goal instead of the day-to-day mandate.
Let's lighten the mood from progressive politics and life goals, eh? Is Joaquin Phoenix (Walk the Line, that one movie that looked like a poor man's Backdraft) starring in a documentary about him going off his rocker, or a really elaborate performance art piece? My money is that it's all a big joke, but not because Phoenix is too normal for this to be real. I think Casey Affleck, Phoenix's brother-in-law and the director of this... initiative... isn't weird enough to film this in earnest. Also, the plot points mentioned in this article make me wonder if it will be harder to sit through than Bruno was. I think that 'film' hit my quota on raunch and nudity for this century, so even though I want to see and judge this shitshow, I'm not sure I can stomach it.
Happy Wednesday! Tell me what you've been reading this week.
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