April 2021 Reading List PART 2! (Patreon)

So I said I would start doing 2 reading lists a month instead of 1 reading list and then a Pleasure Trove companion one and then my work got super busy and I completely forgot but we made it! Squeezed one in just before the end of April!

Don't forget there's the #readinglistdiscussion channel in The Common Room discord where we can discuss any and all of the things. Enjoy!

Articles

Who will deal with your online presence when you die? How to create a 'digital will' - your daily reminder to think about death.

Why 'Womxn' Isn't Exactly the Inclusive Term You Think It is - I'm always interested in conversations about language because how we us it is constantly changing and how just one letter difference in 'women', 'womxn' or 'womyn' can say a lot about the beliefs and attitudes of the person using that term. I think for now I'll be sticking to 'women' which includes all women.

The Unspoken Complexity of 'Self-Care' - someone shared this in the discord a while back but I wanted to blast it here too because I keep coming back to it as I'd never had it explained to me before the difference between 'self-soothing' and 'self-care', and how some self-care might actually be really boring and feel like hard work, like sorting out your finances. And then also expanding the care to community and structural care.

Videos

The Systemic Abuse of Celebrities - interesting video about what happens when you're famous but not powerful. The use of Britney's song "Lucky" gave me chills. This then led me to the music video for Lucky which I'd never seen before (!!) and wow just wow. So 2000.

My Truly Mortifying Self Talk - this was hilarious but also just so lovely and I'm very grateful that John Green felt like he could share his self talk on the internet with us all.

Patreon just raised $155 MILLION - this video from founder, Jack Conte, isn't even about the round of investment Patreon just got, way to go clickbait! But the actual content of the video is way more interesting! Jack talks about his predictions for the future of creators. He talks about what he calls the "lego-izing" of creative businesses where companies basically create template blocks for creators to easily run businesses instead of starting from scratch and figuring out shit as they go along and trying to piece things together themselves. He predicts that because of this and platforms like Patreon getting creators paid, the stigma of the "starving artist" will be gone and kids will no longer dream of becoming creators but PLAN on it. Interesting thoughts. What do you think?

4 Toxic Things I Witnessed While Working For An Influencer - the Financial Diet spilling the hot hot tea on influencer and money culture as using and here I am sipping it all up. The influencer in this video is one of those productivity bros selling masterminds/courses etc. And she says something I've been thinking about for a long time when it comes to these "entrepreneurs" who are selling workshops and courses about how to sell workshops and courses.

big guys like Tony Robbins who charge hundreds or thousands for seminars to improve one's life, have legions of fans who keep coming back again and again. If such coaching is really effective should someone need to continuously go back to it? With a lot of the thought leadership industry, the endless cycle of promising something big only to keep you in a loop of seminars books and podcasts feels a lot like an MLM.

Virtuous Pedophiles? - CW: pedophilia, child abuse. A topic I've done bits and bobs of research into but always been too afraid to broach the topic of online but Dr Lindsey Doe of Sexplanations has gone and done it! Really great video breaking down the difference (because there is one) between a pedophile and a child abuser and how the stigma around pedophilia is stopping pedophiles who don't want to act on their feelings to get help. (also why am I getting major deja vu? have I shared this video already somewhere?)

Explaining the Pandemic to my Past Self - 1 Year Later - it's been over a year... but at least Julie Nolke's YouTube channel exploded because of her hilarious sketches. She deserves it!

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY BUT IN 7 GENRES - this was very funny, I'd definitely watch the comedy or romcom of this.

WHY DO YOU HAVE SEX? - recently discovered Lolo Cynthia, a sex educator from Nigeria. Love this video about why people might have sex other than pleasure and really being in tune with our wants and needs.

How Smoked Salmon Is Destroying Our Minds - Smoked Salmon = consumerism. I always freak out when I think about consumerism too much which kind of tells me I should probably think about it more and do something to stop it from freaking me out. But I'm not ready yet (my moral imagination has been stifled). Aja Barber actually has a book coming out later this year called Consumed which I will definitely be reading.

BDSM 101: Self-Collaring - I mainly wanted to share this because I thought the discussion points around self-collaring if you are a sub but currently you don't have a partner, it potentially being about building your intrinsic motivation system, learning to look after yourself and your basic needs and prioritising yourself.

Digital Influencers: The Rise of YouTubers and (Micro)celebrities - this is a 1 hour lecture from Dr Zoe Glatt (you know I love me some YouTube academia!). Really interesting stuff around neoliberalism and capitalism co-opting feminist politics. And the structural inequalities and diversity problems of YouTube and them stemming from social and technological biases.

Podcasts

The great global vaccine divide - don't listen to this if you don't want to be freaked out by the efficacy of the vaccine on a global scale if rich countries are just going to hoard them all for themselves.

YouTuber Tiffany Ferguson On MLMs, Influencers, & Toxic Social Media Trends  - one from The Financial Confessions, two of my favourite people having a conversation about the internet, one of my favourite topics.