This week I’ve been reading #72
It’s time for another round up of articles, blog posts and stuff from the internet that caught my attention this week.
How to buy the perfect book for someone else
But buying books for people you love is, I think, a sacred act. It’s a way of saying “We understand each other. We are complex and curious, in the same way. We share a facet of weirdness, or funniness, or just a perspective that we could spend the rest of our lives discussing and never get to the bottom of. But this book is about both of us.” – How to buy the perfect book for someone else
Daisy Buchanan on the art of buying books for other people.
After the war, the losers went to Canada
Canada became a ‘that’ll do’ goal, a suitable making of me with a pared back but hopefully intriguing narrative. And yet, I made no clear impression on that chunk of continent. If I landed in the city tomorrow morning, I’d have two people, tops, who could provide me with a couch. – After the war, the losers went to Canada
Jeanne Sutton on living in Canada, Margaret Atwood and not being the heroine of your own life.
Roe McDermott: He Said Nothing
It’s not up to women to prevent rape. It shouldn’t be up to women to always be the ones talking about rape. Rape is not our problem to solve.
Women talking about rape isn’t going to change things.
But we’re expected to do it, alone.
And I’m so fucking tired. – Roe McDermott: He Said Nothing
Roe McDermott has written a brilliant essay about rape and why she is tired of men’s silence.
The Church’s Lingering Shadows On Sex Work In Ireland
Email correspondence between McGuire and Sarah Benson, Ruhama’s CEO, were inadvertently forwarded to The University Times Magazine. One particularly telling line between the two says: “I reckon once it goes to print we can criticise such attacks as ‘pimp-thinking’.” This shows Ruhama are so concerned with tightening its control of the thinking around this industry that it blames anyone who dares to question that power. By simply asking the question, “Does Ruhama separate itself from the Church’s sexual teaching?”, Ruhama were willing to tarnish the reputation of another person and publicly declare them an advocate of pimp-related activities. McGuire has since apologised for their actions, adding: “pimp-thinking would be following smear campaigns which affect our work … it wasn’t something we would do [in this situation] but it is something we do in the situation if it was a smear campaign”. – The Church’s Lingering Shadows On Sex Work In Ireland
On sex work in Ireland and whether Ruhama separates itself “from the Church’s sexual teaching”.
Prince broke all the rules about what black American men should be
Prince was a paradox in that he expanded the concept of what it meant to be a man while also deconstructing the entire idea of gender. Like Michael Jackson, Prince seemed to perform a kind of black masculinity that was neither neutered nor completely in line with the hypermasculinity so common in the rap coming out of nearby Los Angeles at the same time. It was as fluid and luscious as his long eyelashes, and as delicious looking as those lips of his – and it seemed to welcome everyone. His gaze was as slippery, self-assured and questioning as his music itself. And when those eyes of his (paired with the light scruff around his mouth) caught yours from an album cover, almost daring you to look away with their confidence, they also seemed to know you’d be powerless not to. – Prince broke all the rules about what black American men should be
Much has been written about Prince since his death but this, by Steven Thrasher, has stayed with me the most.
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