feature image via Wonderland via itsoktobeyou
Welcome to your Monday! Take a look outside your window and claim this day as yours. It’s easy, you just say, “This is my day! My Monday! It’s mine!” When Slade was about two years old he used to do it all the time, and it seemed to put him in the greatest mood. Could’ve also been the sippy cup full of chocolate milk, though. Either way!
Queer as in F*ck You
+ Kristen Stewart on LGBT Rights, Generation Rx, and Overcoming Heartbreak. That’s kind of a link-baity headline, but the interview is pretty fucking interesting so click on, my pals!
Kristen Stewart via Wonderland
+ Are you going to the Appalachian Queer Film Festival this year? You should email me at laneia@autostraddle.com!
Doll Parts
+ Kimberly Peirce‘s Remake of Carrie Struggled With Vagina-Phobic Execs That Couldn’t Say “Vagina” by Charlie Jane Anders. Because of course.
+ Ava DuVernay on Moving Beyond the Black-Film ‘Trend’ and Becoming the Norm by Danielle C. Belton.
This week the black-film-distribution collective she started in 2010, AFFRM (the African-American Festival Releasing Movement), relaunched as Array—a new distribution platform for filmmakers of diverse backgrounds, including blacks, Latinos, women and more.
+ Two Pre-Teens Send Homemade Ship to the Edge of Space.
+ Landon Patterson was crowned homecoming queen Saturday night, which is a really big deal because she’s Oak Park’s first transgender homecoming queen! Also that video will make you cry.
+ April Goss Boots Extra Point to Become Second Woman to Score in College Game.
+ Pippi Longstocking’s Pancakes: Cara Nicoletti Recreates Dishes From Her Favorite Novels. THIS IS ALL I’VE EVER WANTED IN MY LIFE. Her book Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way through Great Books is out now and seems like just the best thing!
Saw This, Thought of You
+ I’ve Refused Work Because Of My Religion. Here’s What Kim Davis Doesn’t Understand About Faith. by Tara Culp-Ressler.
+ They Pretend to Be Us While Pretending We Don’t Exist by Jenny Zhang.
+ Writing Through Protest: 12 Influential Writers Share Whey Their Work Is So Crucial.
+ Decades After Fire, This Boston Home Might Get Its Other Half Back.
image by Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
+ Scholar To Spend a Year as David Bowie. We should all be so damn lucky.
+ This Historian Just Found the Oldest Use of the Word ‘Fuck’.
+ 13 Pictures of Recess From Around the World.
And Finally
Which Animals Have the Longest Claws? AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!
(Article employs the line “America’s Got Talons” so you know we’re not fucking around here.)
claiming this monday did put me in a better mood.
you didn’t even need a sippy cup!
I mean, that wouldn’t make my mood worse.
Where to even start? What a great collection of articles!
Seriously. There’s always so much good content on these, it would take paragraphs for me to acknowledge them all.
thanks guys!!
While I did enjoy KStew’s interview for the most part, she said some kinda hurtful stuff about anti-depressants. For me, taking anti-depressants has really improved my quality of life. She said she thinks taking meds for mental health is “bizarre.” That really doesn’t sit right with me :/
from the kristen stewart interview:
Q: I’m not saying this applies to everyone of course, but the friends I have who’ve gone off their meds for things like depression and anxiety seem so much better. They’re rawer emotionally, but more real.
Kristen Stewart: Yeah. As far as we know, you have one shot at this and it can be so fucking beautiful, so why lessen the feeling of anything? Why numb yourself? I’m not on antidepressants. I think it’s bizarre.
um
nope
nope
nope
nope
nope
nope
nope!
nope!
nope nope nope
Riese, seriously, thank you. I’m tired of people deeming medication (which is, uh, for very valid medical reasons!!!) as unecessary, unhealthy, and “bizarre”. Antidepressants aren’t easily accessible to everyone (I have too many friends who know this), so perpetuating the illusion that it’s worthless truly disregards some people’s NEED for them. Ugh.
It comes from a place of incredible privilege doesn’t it ?
Just… ew.
Yeah, and when they get all flustered over the horrifying thought of ~looking up directions~ or ~using a selfie stick~ like just chill, would you?
(Not to mention how shitty it is to be ace and read the line “They’re not fucking. That’s crazy.”)
THANK YOU!
Kristen Stewart and other anti-medication types drive me up the wall. For some people being properly medicated really is a matter of life and death. Meds aren’t necessarily the end all be all of mental health but for some of us they are a pretty big part of the equation.
Also really tired of this idea that medication lessens a persons experiences or somehow makes them less themselves. Finding the right meds have had pretty much the opposite effect on me. It’s so much easier now to be myself and go after the things I want in life.
To be fair, I too think it would be bizarre for Kristen Stewart to take medications for a condition she does not have. Good point K Stew. Let’s all not take medications for other people’s illnesses.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go tell my friend to stop taking my anticonvulsants.
THANK YOU.
Every medication has a different effect on different people. Some people may be unaffected by antidepressants. Others may experience unpleasant side effects. I have a friend who started hallucinating on one anti-depressant, but then she tried a different one that saved her life. Some people may find they become emotionally blunted (though, depression of course also makes you numb…). But other people are are effected in a profoundly positive way, able to emerge from a fog of immense despair or imprisoning anxiety. And many may find that the effect is more subtle, a small boost, a rosier outlook on the world, thoughts more at peace. The point is, EVERYONE is different and I hate it when I encounter this sort of attitude towards anti-depressants. /rant
To give her credit, she does refer to people who don’t have legitimate mental health problems in the previous paragraph. But still… it’s the perpetuation of the idea that antidepressants are bizarre or unhealthy or make people numb, less “real.”
“the friends I have who’ve gone off their meds for things like depression and anxiety seem so much better.”
I think anyone within a 1 mile radius of me the last time I went off my medication because I thought it was keeping me from feeling would disagree with this sentiment… it was not pleasant or fun.
same interview:
“You go, “Oh god, I have a little stomachache,” and they say, “Here, we can help you with that.” Well, why do you have that stomachache? Maybe it’s because your head’s in your stomach, so maybe there’s something you’re ignoring that you can work out.”
firstly: nope
secondly: you probably have a stomachache because you ate gross food and should take a tums and i think that’s okay
thirdly: if your head is actually in your stomach then you need to see a doctor immediately. heads go on the top of bodies between your shoulders, not in your stomach! this issue is not to be taken lightly.
Oh, God. I swear celebrities think they know the answers to everything.
it’s really only a matter of time before an academic journal publishes an in-depth study on Kristen Stewart’s Theory of Head-in-the-Stomach
I love to see the foot notes on that article.
* I’d *
Hey Riese, i recently saw a documentary on French Tv about our stomach having tons of neurones and being our second brain and how it was considered in the Antiquities that our brain was situated in our stomach. I was fascinated then fell asleep but ill definitely look into that. So maybe she was referring to that.
hi i’m back, i wrote a song for all of kristen stewart and the interviewer’s feelings about medication and psychiatric situations:
nope nope nope nope
nope nope nope nope
nope nope nope nope
nope nope nope nope
NOPE!!!!
stay tuned for the opera i am writing on a similar theme.
#blessed,
riese
Are you sure that’s not the fan song for the “Warehouse 13” finale?
I believe this is the song I’ve had stuck in my head for quite some time now. :/
“Which Animals Have the Longest Claws?”
Naya Rivera?
I’m so relieved to come to this comments section and see so many people nope-ing about the mental health stuff. I have bipolar disorder and would be dead without my meds but fave constant judgement for taking them so seeing other people be supportive of my necessary decision even indirectly really really really helps combat the feelings of crappy loneliness reading stuff like this brings. Thank you guys ❤️
Great that the meds help! You go girl!
No shame in surviving!
I was relieved with what I read in the comments too. This is such a supportive community.
Hi hello! It is me again. I just did an interview with myself that I thought everybody here might be interested in.
Q: Kristen Stewart says she isn’t on anti-depressants. Why do you think that is?
A: I think it’s because she doesn’t have depression.
Q: But don’t anti-depressants make you numb?
A: I think people have different reactions to different medications, but by and large I think what often makes depressives feel numb is DEPRESSION.
Q: Are you saying medication is the only solution? Because Kristen Stewart believes otherwise.
A: Well, there are some lifestyle changes that help some (but not all) depressives: getting enough sleep, steady employment, strong relationships, healthy food, a consistent exercise routine, health insurance, a fulfilling job, financial comfort and, of course, vacation. A lot of vacation.
Q: But who really has all that, huh?
A: Kristen Stewart.
This is everything.
there is no reason to hold the comment awards this week, riese swept all of them.
i had a very busy morning
PREACH
You really nailed it with that last line…
THANK YOUUUUUU
Have you ever noticed how so many movies are about how medicine or just science in general is a bad and scary thing? It’s weird.
And yes, I’ve a friend who was on meds and it was terrible for him. He gained about a hundred pounds and was completely miserable. But that probably just means that was the wrong medication for that specific person.
This reminds me of my uncle who always has lots to say about people who are addicted to different things, be it drugs, alcohol, or just cigarettes and how these people need to just quit, cold turkey. The man has literally never done a single drug, drank any alcohol, or smoked a cigarette even once. Probably not the best authority on the subject.
MMMMMMHM
Just because we can’t all be VOLUNTARILY frowny like her.
But she has a point you know. Maybe I should just go off my mess so my friends can see my raw emotions of crippling anxiety and depression? Kirsten can come to my house and see the raw emotion of someone who doesn’t have enough will to get out of bed.
Meds****
Also thank you Riese for being as pissed off as we are.
best interview ever.
Standing ovation
“Decades After Fire, This Boston Home Might Get Its Other Half Back.”
…When you’ve just been through a breakup and you identify with inanimate objects
comment award plz
bless
I also must mention the two preteens are hella intelligent and adorable
I’ve been waiting for something like Tara Culp-Ressler’s piece for a while. It’s perfect.
Yeah, it’s definitely the best article I’ve read on the subject.
I love that recipe article. I remember making recipes from all the American Girl cookbooks as a kid, and I actually still make Kirsten Larson’s Swedish rice porridge!
patricia!! my best friend and i had so many samantha-based tea parties! i’m weeping on the inside right now.
YES!! So much American Girl themed stuff. I liked the craft books and play books too. My friends and I did the plays about Kirsten and Addy and Felicity I think.
Oh and then there was that 90’s computer game “American Girls Premier” where you would create your own movies with the characters. Mine always felt a bit disappointing, but it was less frustrating than dying of dysentery on the Oregon Trail! …But I digress.
You know what I hate? When healthy people act like they are healthy because they have strength of character rather than because they’re fucking lucky. When healthy people are like “I don’t medication on principle” or whatever. No jackass, you don’t take medication because you don’t fucking need medication. If you needed medication, you’d realize that it’s not an issue of personal preference, its an issue of necessity
“Yeah. As far as we know, you have one shot at this and it can be so fucking beautiful, so why lessen the feeling of anything? Why numb yourself? I’m not on antidepressants. I think it’s bizarre.”
Fuck that ableist bullshit. Count your fucking blessings and shut up.
This!
YES
Having not yet read any of the links I just saved to Pocket, I came in here to say Ava DuVernay is awesome & on a vapid fluff note she made my day today by being adorable on Twitter about sitting next to Jeremy Irons on a plane.
Thank you Riese and everyone else here who’s spoken up about the shitty anti-medication views of Kristen Stewart. The stigma of mental illness is bad enough without it being reinforced by such a harmful and uninformed take. Hundreds of thousands (I assume? If not more?) will read her words and, best case scenario, feel ashamed about taking the medicine they need to stay well. The worst case scenario: impressionable young fans take advice from Dr Kristen Stewart on what’s best for their health, with potentially life-threatening repercussions. Fucking hell.
Oh I completely agree about the medication shaming, it’s ridiculous to knock something that helps so many people. Plus, if your anti-depressants make you feel weird and numb, maybe you should switch to better medication! There’s a reason I think my psychiatrist is worth her weight in gold.