Reading List - February 2021! (Patreon)

Articles

Dissociative Identity Disorder and Me - Stephanie Yeboah recently wrote a blog post about her mental health and disclosed that she has DID. She brilliantly makes the point about how even though in our society we've become less ignorant and more accepting around mental health conditions like depression and anxiety there is still a huge amount of stigma around things like DID and other personality disorders (I don't even know if that's the right way to describe them?) But she's so right in terms of the characters we see in movies and TV - the unhinged sociopaths. We told really have any sympathetic, realistic characters with something like DID.

It's a Sin's Jill is almost a modern mammy... almost - so glad I found this article that perfectly sums up my feelings about the character of Jill in It's a Sin. The back and forth between knowing the story is not about her but also wanting to see more depth to her character rather than just as a caretaker. What I didn't know until I read this article though was that the woman who plays Jill's mum in the show is the real life Jill (who the character was based off) and reading that just had me crying all over again about the show.

What's New? Exuberance for Novelty Has Benefits - as soon as I read this article I called Dan over to explain how it's a good thing I sometimes crave novelty. Dan and I often talk about this because he's such a steady person and is very much content with life the way it is and he makes fun of me for needing new experiences (as if it makes me weak!!). Well now there's science to prove I'm not weak! People who reported the best health, most friends, fewest emotional problems and greatest satisfaction in life scored highly on these three traits: persistence (sticking at something even with no immediate benefits), novelty-seeking and "self-transcendence" (capacity to get lost in the moment doing what you love and feeling connected to nature, humanity, the universe). So I guess I need to work on my persistence and self-transcendence to balance it all out.

The Pandemic Has Erased Entire Categories of Friendship - oh boy did this article hit me where it hurt. I know exactly the kind of friendships it's talking about and I have a lot of them and they've just fallen by the wayside in the last year. I miss the casual socialising where you didn't have to put in any effort (arranging to talk or hangout) but instead you just went about your life and people were just there and you had a good time.

Videos

The Power of Nostalgic Music - Love this video from Nathan Zed about nostalgic music. I had to pause the video to write down this quote because it made me laugh out loud - "did you even make any memories to this bro?" 😂

16 personalities' inner monologues at parties - this came up in my suggested and basically all her videos are the 16 personalities (Myers Briggs) in different scenarios and I am so here for it. Granted my knowledge of Myers Briggs is limited in that I'm mostly just watching and waiting for the two types that fit me best: ENFJ and ENFP.

Race-baiting, queer-baiting, colorism, featurism, and performative diversity - another one that popped up on my YouTube homepage because it's about Bridgerton! Really great points brought up about how the show handled race and I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought from that opening scene there would be a secret lesbian romance between Eloise and Penelope. The way they looked at each other! But alas, still got some good female friendship scenes from them though.

Pretty Privilege - from the same creator as above because now a bunch of her videos are appearing in my recommended. This video took a turn I didn't expect and I now have thoughts to chew on about is being pretty a real privilege or is it just a benefit? What's the difference between a privilege and a benefit?

Patreon CEO reveals 5 data trends to help creators in 2021 - if you have an aversion to American enthusiasm, this is your content warning. This video is more aimed at creators but I thought I'd get meta and share it with my Patrons and maybe some of you who love data and graphs and charts will appreciate it!

Sanne (Books and Quills) has written a book! - it's a book club journal and whilst I'm not part of any book clubs at the moment I may have to get my hands on this book to get access to the reading lists she created.

Copying Booktubers' Thumbnails for a Year - do you like feature length YouTube videos about YouTube experiments with analysis, data and pretty thumbnails?

Anastasia's Dresses are Surprisingly Historically Accurate - I love Anastasia, she maybe has the best dresses out of every cartoon Princess out there. How do you like them apples, Disney??? (she probably also has infinitely more costume changes than most Disney Princesses though). Devestatingly, Anastasia currently isn't available to stream anywhere in the UK.

My Top 10 TikToks, Because I Guess I'm a TikToker Now - appreciate Hank Green posting his TikToks to YouTube so I can actually watch some of them.

Podcasts

Matt Haig - I Weigh - great chat about mental health. CW: suicide, suicidal thoughts.

The Stanford Prison Experiment - You're Wrong About - this was super interesting. It gives me little hope in honest research but a bit more hope in humanity.