Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
A new survey examining the race and gender makeup of the publishing industry reveals what many writers and readers of color long suspected: Much like Hollywood, the publishing industry is overwhelmingly white. The brainchild of Jason Low of Lee & Low publishers, the Diversity Baseline Survey asked publishing houses and review journals to report the…
In a spiral notebook dedicated to lists of her short- and long-term goals, Judi Spaletto tidily records her three-, five-, and 10-year plans. She knows what she wants from her career, and it has largely worked for her—until one day, three years ago, when she decided she wanted to join a corporate board of directors….
I have said, many times, that the deepening progressive obsession with pop culture minutia is a profound strategic and analytical mistake. It devotes scarce political resources to concerns that are inherently disconnected from the actual lived oppression of most members of marginalized groups. It convinces a generation of young liberal people that the work of…
Following a meeting organized by the Arizona school district where six high school girls wore T-shirts spelling out the n-word (more or less), Don Harris, head of the Maricopa County chapter of the NAACP—who also happens to be white, and Jewish—commented on a reporter’s appearance: “Nice tits!” Tempe Union High School District invited about 50…
—- The usual definition of revenge porn is accompanied by an archetypal story: Girl meets boy, girl dates boy, girl consents to give nude photo to boy. A little while later, after girl breaks up with boy, boy turns out to be a monster who posts her photo on the Internet. —- There are stories…
The Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker’s Sundance darling period piece about the deadliest slave insurrection in American history, was purchased by Fox Searchlight on early Tuesday morning for $17.5 million. It was the largest deal in Sundance history, and coverage immediately suggested that The Birth of a Nation will function as some way through…
Salon dips back into its nostalgia file with horrifying results: During her two presidential campaigns, Hillary Clinton has consistently drawn greater support from women than men. Is this gender lag due to retrograde misogyny, or does Hillary project an uneasiness or ambivalence about men that complicates her appeal to a broader electorate? As a career…
Since Donald Trump announced he wouldn’t take part in Thursday’s GOP debate over his dislike of Megyn Kelly, Trump’s fans reacted just as expected: by unleashing a vile torrent of sexist rage against the Fox News anchor. Looking at 80,000 tweets directed at Kelly’s official Twitter handle from Tuesday to Wednesday morning—as well as close…
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) noted that only women turned up to run the Senate Jan. 26, following a weekend blizzard that brought D.C. to a standstill. (C-SPAN) Something was a little different in the Senate on Tuesday morning. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski noticed it. The Alaska Republican was one of only a few lawmakers in the…
Disney’s early princess movies offer heroines that are strikingly similar: soft-spoken, ethereally beautiful, and willing to endure hardship and humiliation without a peep of complaint. Today, Disney’s princesses are a sassier, pluckier bunch. But research has found a surprising trend: Even when they have the starring role, women speak only a minority of the dialogue—and…