New World Anxiety
...uses us without relief. Our subjugated presence has been a primary economic security for the empire. Anti-Black violence has been mined for every bit of its worth to build the...
California
...heavily invested in how the state appears, its lucrative fantasy coming to dominate and determine conditions on the ground. But the best real estate scams are the ones that work...
The Job of Consent
The Joy of Consent: a Philosophy of Good Sex (October 2023) tests the limits of consent as a heuristic for "good sex," exposing the wide berth between pleasure and what is legible to the law.
The Fight and the Whale
...dichotomy. Maron might blur those lines a bit by talking about his own personal experiences and beefs with the guest, but the aim of the show is mainly for guests...
Let Loose the Dogs of Love
...first piece in this digital trilogy, for Bookslut. I complimented you on how connected your books are. They are all obviously in conversation with one another, even when their form...
The Princess and the Brain
...Beheld. But by coming to this story as late as I have, the required reading is now beyond daunting. There are now not only Mantel's own well-regarded books, the speech,...
Beauty Blogosphere 6.29.12
...products, but even I'm skeptical of Hello Kitty collagen marshmallows. A girl thing: In an effort to dispel notions about women in science, the European Commission put out a music...
All Presidents
...a constitutional order to preserve freedom for future generations – a commitment to democracy and rule of law ratified not only by his election, but by his willingness to step...
Slugs and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails
...Harris. Malcolm Harris: Your methodology is interesting—including as co-producers the subjects you’re writing about. Can you tell me a bit about how that works and why you choose to do...
Real Inauthentic Like
...a really neat trick. But let me back up a little bit. Smith's incredible first novel, White Teeth, very much partakes in straight-up lyrical realism, what she calls the “Balzac-Flaubert”...
Beauty Blogosphere, Ides of March
..."I was wearing my second-nicest tights and a bit of makeup and holding a recorder, and hence appeared old enough and professionally polished enough to be someone they felt the...
Where Nothing Can Possibly Go “Worng”
...the New York Times, a glitch? Or were America’s liberals simply more comfortable imagining that misogyny, racism, and xenophobia hadn’t been so deeply programmed into American political life? If we...
Jennifer's Body, Redux: The Case of the Incredible Shrinking Actresses
...of me has to agree. But I think that’s also a bit of a red herring, and here’s why: Talented actresses are asked all the time to manipulate their bodies...
Desiring Machines
...year. Its images, videos, and quotes were summarily collected, attributed, and uploaded with little by way of commentary. Drones, mapping, mirror worlds, machine vision, surveillance infrastructure, conspicuous augmentation, pixelation, fetishizing...
The Withdrawal Method
...the matter?” Distaste for the work of coupledom makes a bit of shop discipline necessary. Kipnis observes that “the well-publicized desperation of single life — early death for men; statistical...
Ars longa, vita brevis
...She has written her books, and they remain. The reporter who doxed her attempted to justify himself with this bit of weaseling: “[B]y announcing that she would lie on occasion,...