November 2021 Reading List! (Patreon)

Okay we back with the monthly reading lists but because we skipped a month I honestly don't know what to expect when I open up my list of saved articles and videos. Did I even read anything over the last 2 months? Will I remember what I saw? Let's find out.

Articles

Cinderella is a vapid adaptation, but its biggest flaw is its women - I watched the new Prime Video Cinderella adaptation just as I started feeling like shit and hated every second of it but still had to watch the horror unfold. I then immediately went to the internet to find articles and video essays talking about why it was so bad and found this scathing review.

'Sex Education's' gay teen Eric takes a risky trip to Nigeria. How realistic is it? - interesting article about the reality of being gay in Nigeria and how accurate the portrayal of Eric's visit was in Sex Education.

The Methods of Moral Panic Journalism - a long read from Michael Hobbes (You're Wrong About) about how we end up with news stories about cancel culture and 'wokeness' gone too far. It's really interesting, he dissects a couple of articles in terms of their language, their sources, how they tell a story, what information they leave out etc. It's real fascinating. I think we could probably apply a lot of what he's talking about to the current "news" about Critical Race Theory in the USA and the trans "debate" in the UK.

Videos

I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS), let's talk about it - if you like my hour long episodes of The Hormone Diaries you'll like this chatty and very thorough and thoughtful video from my pal Leena about her PCOS.

The Most Important 10 Words a Stranger Ever Said to Me - this Hank vlogbrothers video really resonated with me.

Shon Faye: Trans liberation will free us all - Shon Faye was on Owen Jones' YouTube channel and they had a great chat about her new book and trans liberation.

Sex Ed vs Censorship (the Show Me Debate) - really interesting set of videos from Sexplanations about censorship in sex ed that comes from platforms, social values and sex educators self-censoring for fear of crackdowns from these things. With our current mainstream views on sex, can a sex educator use their real body or pictures of real bodies to demonstrate anatomy, health, pleasure etc??? Also, part 2 of this discussion leads to a video on Sexplanations' Patreon (but available for non-Patrons to access to) which she gives appropriate content warnings for in the public video so would recommend you watch that first and decide if you want to watch the Patreon video which like Lindsey in the video definitely brought up a lot of conflicting feelings for me but she navigates it so well.

I Ran The London Marathon! - did not expect 2 things from watching Carrie's video. 1) that I would cry basically the whole way through (pregnancy hormones?) and 2) that it would make me want to run a marathon (!?!?!) I have run a half marathon but that was pre-surgery and also now pre-pregnancy and baby so maybe a bucket list thing to do before I'm 40?

Deuxmoi & the Normalisation of Stalking Celebrities - forever grateful that I'm not actually aware of most of these internet things and that I get to learn about them from Tiffany Ferguson in a very thoughtful way.

Podcasts

Why We Should Abolish Prisons in the UK - Yikes Podcast - after reading about the abolition movement in the US I was excited to see the Yikes Podcast had recently done an episode about prisons in the UK. It's one I may have to come back to because I was very ill whilst listening to it but I'm glad I now have a reference point for learning more about the UK context.