Sunday

Previously, on 'The Internet' #2

My Twitter bio states: Reading the internet since 2001. NO SPOLIERS. Based on a joke (ok, not really) about what I'm currently reading, which is always and forever, the internet. I'm about 50% done guys! Previously, on 'The Internet', is a weekly listicle of what I eyeballed. Down to business.

Dear readers, it's been a week. And I'm about to be catapulted directly into another one - my 6 year old is having his tonsils out tomorrow. There is nothing quite like hearing a nurse tell you all the worst case scenarios for after surgery to scare you shitless and make you want to grab your baby and run in the opposite direction. Alas, I will be putting my big girls pants on and getting through it like a boss.


  •  So, let's start the roundup with something beautiful, shall we? I think these landscapes by Chris Floyd speak for themselves. Calm, space, serenity. I wants.
  • It was a big week on the Internet for Kesha. There have been approximately 1 gazillion articles about the horrendous reality she is currently living which I'm sure you've seen. So I'm going to refer you instead to an  important piece, that whilst not about Kesha directly, makes a brilliant point about women making the culture:
"So it all comes down, again, to money and autonomy: women need to be in charge. Women need to be in charge. At least half the time. Our culture suffers when this doesn’t happen. And it is my job, it is all our jobs, to keep shouting this over and over and over and over until we start to see some movement. And not just say something, but do something. Start filling out the paperwork."
  • On a related tack (sigh, it's all related right? The way we treat women and their invisibility in society...?) I'm also going to point you in the direction of Rebecca of Girls Gone Child, whose writing about rape culture actually made me stop and think. To be honest, I'm still wrapping my head around it and untangling my feelings... There is much I hands down agree with and yet the point of rapists not being monsters per se, and maybe pointing more to the culture... I'm struggling. I completely get that cycles of abuse, messages that society gives and normalizes etc play a huge, impactful part, BUT. I also believe, need, want, to know that men can think before pinning a woman down, or assaulting her in her sleep that this is not something a decent human being does. Doesn't it all just come down to human decency? This heartfelt piece written by Emma Lindsay feels like the flip side of the coin, and the one which I am more inline with.
  • I loved this advice given to a writer in her late 40's who's struggling. And THIS:
"I think just becoming a mother can make you feel like an awkward alien among the carefree and the hip.
But look, the whole idea of "breaking through" is such a crock of shit. If you do nothing else, build a religion around this one fact. Beyond the ability to feed yourself, it doesn't fucking matter if a million people love you or five people do. It doesn't matter if you're 25 or 75. You cannot pollute your life with this fixation. You can feel relevant, you can imagine that you somehow matter in the larger scheme of things, you can commit to being a force in the world, without hitting some arbitrary high score or crossing some imaginary threshold of popularity. I am drawn to the flame of Twitter for some great reasons and for some reasons that spring from some slow, sick, sucking part of me, to quote Pavement like the old fucker I am. But you can't construct your life around these equations. You can't try to "reach" some imagined mob of dipshits, molding your work to match their dipshitty tastes. Be a lovely odd duck instead, one who hardly notices if people are booing or cheering."
JLAW WINS EVERYTHING

3 comments:

  1. So much good stuff here! Thank you for sharing, I read half a dozen of Emma Lindsay's pieces on medium following your link. And the Jennifer Lawrence piece was a glorious antidote to all of that thinking about rape and abuse, JLaw is my Beyonce.

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    1. It was so hard this week - you know sometimes you realise you've actually just read a lot of heavy stuff?! Thank fuck for JLaw! (Also, her Oscars hair colour is #lifegoalz right?)

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    2. It *was* a hard week. I cried to Nye about the terror of raising girls in this world yesterday.

      And YES. I screengrabbed it for if I can ever afford the hairdresser again!

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