March 2021 Reading List! (Patreon)

Articles

Taylor Swift's two versions of Love Story compared - I can barely hear some of the musical/instrumental differences because I don't have those kind of ears. I can tell the different in her older voice but my favourite thing about this article is this line: The new recordings are intended to diminish the value of her original master tapes. Diminish the value. I love it.

How Do We Hold Each Other Accountable When We Mess Up? - really loved this article from Dr. Bianca Laureano who is a sex educator and one of the instructors/supervisors with ISEE. I love the way she talks about not seeing people in our movement as disposable as often when someone messes up we jump to "okay well they are out, no-one speak to them or engage with them, we cannot be associated with that person anymore". But that is not helpful at all. The article really stresses asking yourself the hard questions (with examples) and how messing up is a time for slow reflection not necessarily fast action and the people around you calling you in and holding you accountable do it from a place of love because they know you can and want you to do better.

Videos

Things I didn't do in my twenties - 5 mins in to this video my friend Leena made, I texted her saying "my favourite you/our friendship is that so far in this video everything you didn't do in your 20s that you don't care about are all the things I did/trying to do/care about". And it's so true! Even though Leena and I share a lot of the same values, we make very different personal choices and are completely rooting for each other. And I love that for us.

YouTubers have to declare ads. Why doesn't anyone else? - Tom Scott killing it once again and putting actually compelling arguments behind something I think/talk about a lot with other YouTubers and peers. I actually don't mind the guidelines we have to adhere to, I think they're sensible and ethical. HOWEVER, I just wish everyone else (traditional celebrities) were held to the same standards as YouTubers and social media influencers.

The Death of Romantic Comedies - having just watched To All The Boys 3, the death of romantic comedies is really getting to me. I love romcoms. My favourite film of all time is a romcom (When Harry Met Sally). But we just aren't being given the romcoms we deserve anymore. Granted we deserve more diversity from romcoms in general, current ones and from the old greats. But we also deserve those iconic stories. I don't have a solution to this because I am not a screenwriter or film critic so I can't quite pin point what is going wrong. But romcoms have gone from being good trash to just trash trash.

I'm Quitting - this is the pep talk we all need! Watch this and then make a list of all the things you're quitting. It's quite cathartic.

We Must Protect Meme Kids - a deep dive into kids who become memes/viral hits and what that means for their privacy, identity, financial situation and career (potentially??) This kind of stuff is so fascinating for  me to think about. Hollywood child stars have grown up and told their stories but internet child stars are still growing up and there's a whole wave of confessionals, exposes, revelations yet to come about what that experience is like. Not going to lie, I am morbidly waiting in the sidelines...

Grace Blakeley on how Capitalism interacts with Love and Romance - okay that's just the title and they only talk about love and romance for a bit. The interview is more about capitalism in general and how it seeps into every aspect of our lives. Charming.

A survivor's plea to end child marriage | Payzee Mahmod - CW: child marriage, rape, murder. This is a really heavy but necessary talk from TEDxLondonWomen. We often like to think that stuff like this doesn't happen in the UK but it absolutely does and the law is not up to scratch to protect people like Payzee and her sister.

I've been on youtube for 15 years! - loved Rosianna's video about the last 15 years on YouTube and how she feels about making videos then vs now, the community she's built. What it's like to have grown up and had formative experiences online. My 10 year YouTube anniversary is coming up and I thought I'd been on the platform for a long time!

INFLUENCER-19 - only watch this if you want to be angry at celebrities, YouTubers, influencers and TikTokers who just don't give a fuck about the pandemic or other people's health/lives and think that their money and access means they can do what they want.