April 2021 Reading List! (Patreon)

Hey Reading List nerds!! Here's your April reading list and before we get INTO I have one fun update for you and one question for you (which we can discuss in the comments and/or discord). 

Fun update: I finally caved from watching Ali Abdaal and Thomas Frank talk about Readwise to trying it out (it saves highlights from articles, books, podcasts etc.) and then all on my own without any help from productivity YouTube, I found a solution for also syncing quotes from YouTube videos (https://annotate.tv/ if you're curious). Anyway, we'll see if this way of consuming information continues but it means that for a few things I actually saved quotes that really resonated with me and I included them here for you too 😊

Question: so I have sooooo many articles, videos, podcasts saved that I've already read/watched/listened to that I wanted to put on this list but I felt like it was getting too long. And then I have many more things that I've saved to read/watch/listen later but haven't gotten to yet. I also noticed I was holding off on sharing 'Pleasure Trove' themed stuff in this reading list, waiting out for when I do an episode of PT but they haven't been happening very often recently and I don't want those things to gather dust in my saves. So my question is... what if I scrapped the separation of the Reading List and the Pleasure Trove list and instead just did 2 reading lists per month??? 

Let me know what you think. And here's the April list!

Articles

Gender Neutral: Aunt/Uncle - someone asked me recently what a gender neutral term was for aunt/uncle and I didn't know so I looked it up and found this article. It's really interesting how it goes into the etymology of words that describe how people are related to one another.

Videos

6 Asian Women Have Been Murdered - really powerful spoken word from Anna Akana about the shooting in Atlanta.

I don't know what my gender is and at this point I'm too afraid to ask - so much of what Lex talks about in this video in terms of not identifying with womanhood and also how the fuck do we even define womanhood is a great companion to the video I recently made about gender. Also, once again with the whole - if I'm not out in public performing my gender, what is my gender??!?!

Bridgerton Gets a Sex Education - just a very funny mash up edit here from Netflix. I approve.

Medicine has always been sexist // The History of Hysteria - Jessica Kellgren-Fozard once again giving us the history lesson we all deserve.

one kind of everything - this was just beautiful and hit me. It's about home, about New York and small stores that just have one kind of everything. Love Taylor AKA It's Radish Time, her storytelling videos are so soothing.

It's OKAY to Say NO to Kink! - I've been watching loads of Evie Lupine recently and the bits in this video that really stood out to me aren't necessarily connected to the title but they are just such good nuggets!

"certain aspects that are considered like kinky or part of the BDSM world have kind of... been like appropriated from the BDSM world and kind of re-contextualized in vanilla porn with like vanilla standards for consent and communication which is not good"

"the people in the relationship are more important than the relationship itself, right? The concept of The Relationship you know capital letters is considered so sacred so holy to so many people that they're willing to put themselves through endless amounts of suffering to just preserve the fact they have a relationship"

Meet The Wrong Type of Jew, The Media Doesn't Want You To Know Exists | Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi - I've never seen much media coverage of this perspective (probably why I'm not seeing it on Double Down News) but I felt very seen watching this as someone who is Jewish and on the left. I've never said much about all the news coverage around the Labour Party and anti-Semitism because 1) I don't feel Jewish-enough 2) I don't feel like I understand it and 3) my gut was telling me that I couldn't see anything anti-Semitic - but then I thought reasons 1 and 2 were why I didn't see it. Anyway, I'm still a very confused Jew but this video felt grounding and like I'm on the right path.

9 Reasons Allison Raskin Loves Being a Woman on the Internet - this is old but it just appeared in my recommend and was very funny and #relatable for me.

How white people can be allies against racism - interview with Emma Dabiri on the Owen Jones Show. Definitely makes me want to read her new book. The history chat about the invention of "white" people was so interesting and the conversations all coming back to fucking capitalism.

Ranking The Best and Worst Book Adaptations - Rowan Ellis on Penguin Platform's channel talking about one of my favourite debates. Adaptations. I love getting into the nitty gritty of it.

The Problem with Cancel Culture | Ayishat Akanbi - yes, I've been consuming a lot of Double Down News recently and you know I will always click on anything to do with cancel culture because ya girl lives in constant fear and is figuring out how to manage that. I saved this quote for coming back to.

"There's a lot of things that are popular that are not good, there are a lot of things in history that have been popular that are not good. Sometimes popularity is just a measure of how much people aren't thinking. If your advocacy or activism is motivated by the fear of being cancelled, then you will adopt the popular belief. Mob culture is very terrifying but I think if you are committed to trying to make the world a better place for your community, a better place for your society, your culture you have to be prepared to think for yourself. Even if we look into the lives of some of the most prolific activists and thinkers, we're going to find chaos and that's not necessarily because they're hypocrites, I don't think so at all, I think it's because they're human."

The Truth About Youtubers - an episode of What the Sweet Fuck and the conversation about YouTube happens 8:30-7:43. It just hit me ya know -  they talk about how YouTubers have to do all the jobs and learn all the skills and whilst I'm in a very lucky position now where I can outsource stuff I still at some point learned - how to read contracts, how to do my accounts, how to edit videos, how to run social media accounts etc. etc. and they also talk about how you're riding the wave and this is always how I described it when I first moved to London and tried doing YouTube full time, I was just riding the wave. Now I'd prefer not to just ride the wave but actually create the waves and be in a bit more control but HA only if you're lucky. Also, omg Meghan's comment about just posting everything online back in the day:

"this wasn't just like a diary between the people I like, it's also a diary for the people that hate me"

They told me to change my clothes. I changed the law instead - I finally got round to watching Gina Martin's TEDx Talk about her experience making upskirting illegal. It's very inspiring and also moving. But the bit that really stood out to me was her point about how all sexual violence is connected. We can't treat an issue like upskirting as frivolous by comparing it to other forms of sexual violence because they are all part of the same problem.

Podcasts

Witch, Please - Time Travel - this episode of Witch, Please looks at the use of time travel in book 3 of the Harry Potter series and also just how time travel has been used in literature in general. Lots of fun conversations about what the fuck is time?? Different types of how fictional time travel works and I honestly wanted this conversation to be so much longer. Also, it never even occurred to me that some people find the time travel in Prisoner of Azkaban unsatisfying because I always found it incredible satisfying because it all perfectly gets tied up in a nice neat bow at the end!

Broke Millennial On Prenups, The Having Kids Debate, & The Finances of Love - conversations about money and relationships??? Yes please!! I always love hearing about the different money systems that couples have to manage their finances. Dan and I have a hybrid system and I know it's meant to be personal but like like come on this is the best way. I do not understand couples who live together, have kids etc. but keep ALL their money separate. Each to their own obviously but I just can't be dealing with the admin involved in that!