HELLO and welcome to the 167th installment of Things I Read That I Love, wherein I share with you some of the longer-form journalism/essays I’ve read recently so that you can read them too and we can all know more about GSA! This “column” is less feminist/queer focused than the rest of the site because when something is feminist/queer focused, I put it on the rest of the site. Here is where the other things are.
The title of this feature is inspired by the title of Emily Gould’s tumblr, Things I Ate That I Love.
Me and My Girls, by David Carr for The New York Times, July 2008
You guys, David Carr, I just loved that man. I really did. His death is so sad and such a loss. If you haven’t read his memoir, The Night of the Gun, then maybe this essay, which covers some of the same material, will inspire you to.
‘Sexual Intensity Like Nothing Else’: A Chat With a Woman About Her Dad, by Jia Tolentino for Jezebel, February 2015
Well you can’t really expect me not to read this. You’re gonna read it, I know you are! Have you read The Kiss: A Memoir by Kathryn Harrison? That book is INTENSE. Anyhow, this is an interview with the woman who wrote Falling In and Out Of Love With My Dad the day before this interview was published.
In the Violent Favelas of Brazil, by Suketu Mehta for The New York Review of Books, August 2013
A pre-World-Cup piece about how “the cities of Brazil are some of the most violent places in the world today” and the reason for this and the gangs that control the favelas and “the process of “pacification,” by which the government attempts to peacefully enter and reestablish state control over the most violent enclaves of the city, those dominated by drug gangs called traficantes, or by syndicates of corrupt police called militias.”
Marginal Returns, by Brandon Harris for The New Inquiry, January 2015
About Selma and Top Five / Chris Rock and Dear White People and black independent cinema and top ten film lists and just a lot of good stuff to know and think about.
Pride of Place: As the Nation’s Gay Districts Grow More Affluent, Lesbians Are Migrating to the ‘Burbs, by Rachel Swan for SF Weekly, June 2014
I never gave this article a second thought when it was plastered all over this city ’cause there was so much controversy around the cover, but Fikri linked to it in her article Gay, Interrupted: On Navigating Gaybourhoods As A Queer Brown Woman (Did you read that? You should read it!) and once I started reading it I was like, oh wow I should’ve read this. Obviously, as a lesbian who lives in the East Bay but wants to move because it’s too expensive here, I found this article about my actual life to be very interesting!
Damage, by Mariya Karimjee for The Big Roundtable, January 2015
This is an intense and important personal essay about female genital circumcision.
“You removed the part of me that makes me feel good while having sex?” I asked. Our Bodies Ourselves, and some of the Internet articles I’d read, gave me the confidence to say this last part. At sixteen, I thought I knew exactly what had been taken away from me, even if I wouldn’t have any idea what this really meant for another five years.
“I didn’t have a choice,” said my mother. “It happened to me too.”
Welcome To Paradise, by Nisha Lilia Diu for The Telegraph, December 2014
Prostitution is legal in Germany, but most of the things sex workers advocate for when we advocate for legalized sex work aren’t happening, like benefits, safety, and better pay. But the johns are having a great time! Here’s the article description: “When Germany legalised prostitution in 2002 it triggered an apparently unstoppable growth in the country’s sex industry. It’s now worth 15 billion euros a year and embraces everything from 12-storey mega-brothels to outdoor sex boxes.”
The Secret World of Showbiz Seniors, by Lee Gale Gruen for narrative.ly, October 2013
This is such a cute story!!! You won’t regret reading this story, I guarantee it.
This Is A Dead Mom Essay, by Maddie Taterka for Autostraddle.com, February 2014
This is sad and beautiful. One day I’ll figure out what to comment on it, but until then I just wanna make sure you read it.
