a dispatch from bed on how and what we are reading, and hello my loves…. (Patreon)

hallo dear dear ones

i just wanted to let you know, first, that i’m slowly making my way through the 300+ comments on the last althing post/town hall:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/64229030

…and there’s some truly wonderful conversation going on about tiktok, the intergenerational internet, and so forth. i’m finding it really enlightening to hear what everyone has to say, even if and when it can feel like an echo chamber. i like when it’s not. i like to be challenged. it’s good.

if you haven’t read that one or commented yet, i’m still reading every single comment over there, and responding to most. i’ll do one big response post when i get a little more time to collect my thoughts, i have a lot of them, and as usual, your insights are everything to me: challenging, comforting, educating. god i fucking love you guys. thank you for being an amazing group of people. god you’re all so fucking smart.

….

meanwhile….i just cross-posted this photo to instagram as well, because i’m up in the middle of the night and feeling inspired by a conversation i just had with a friend.

this photo is of tully, me, ash and ash’s stuffed tuatara, whose name is - wait for it - “tuatara”.

i’m reading them “busy, busy world” by richard scarry, and the highlight of the night was actually getting to have a deep dive with tully’s mama about how much extra explaining-work we try to do when reading richard scarry books to our kids, because they are sweet, and the drawings are wonderful, and they’re beautifully educational….and sexist AF. (not to mention “the world” consisting of 85% european countries. i taught the boys the word “eurocentric”, my good deed for the day).

tully’s mama and i found that we both have lots of conversations that begin “in the olden days….” in order to put this media into context. it’s complicated to read little boys stories where the men “do” mostly everything and women depicted - for the most part - bake pies and wheel babies around in cute pranks.

so you teach media literacy. 95% of the stuff that we read isn’t like this. but i don’t want to not be able to read richard scarry, or beatrix potter or other old faves. while we chatted, we also discovered that we do the same thing when explaining “in the olden days”, which is to point out how strict the gender rules were for the men, as well. anytime i’m about to say something along the lines of “yes, in the olden days, women all more or less had to wear dresses….”, i catch myself and say “yes, in the olden days, there were all sorts of silly rules for everybody, and men had to wear only pants, women had to wear only dresses, and nobody was allowed to wear clothes that were against the rules or they’d get in trouble or made fun of, and that’s been slowly changing.”

and when we read up-to-date books (a few favorites include “julian is a mermaid”/“julian at the wedding”, “things in the sea are touching me” and my fave about same sex marriage, “worm loves worm”) we talk about how nice it is that the world has changed for women and minorities, and that we are always trying to make it more fair for everyone, because everyone, everyone, everyone deserves to be happy and accepted. then the kids get a sense of progress, and that books are artifacts.

there was, afterwards, a massive pillow fight/fort-building, and the invention of a game called “lizards versus brains”.

the kids are alright.

🦎🧠

while i’ve got you here - i am wide open to non-sexist AF book recommendations!

i’m sure there are tons of other parents and teachers and aunties and uncles who would love them as well.

it’s been a bizarre week.

but i’m filled with love for everybody.

keep hanging in there.

x

a

———THE STUFF I SAY AT THE END OF EVERY POST———

1. if you are a patron and new to my work, don’t forget your patronage allows you access to ALL of my patreon releases to date. HERE is the link to download my latest big solo record, “There Will Be No Intermission”, and HERE is a link to download the PDF of the art/essay book that goes with it.

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http://amandapalmer.net/things

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