August 2023 Reading List! (Patreon)

Weirdly lots of stuff this month that actually feels current and relevant for once 😅😅 (or does it just feel that way because there's 3 Barbie related things on this list?)

Articles

Blue Marriage and The Terror of Divorce - I hadn’t heard this term “blue marriage” before as opposed to a “red marriage”, Peterson describes them in the article but I’m assuming the blue/red refers to the American political parties - Dem/Rep - in terms of general values around marriage? Anyhoo, it’s a really interesting read and this bit hit me right in the “ouch that hurts because it’s true” and it’s about these blue marriages - “it theoretically believes in fostering and funding a community that nurtures all within in, but is, in practice, often too overwhelmed with work and parenting duties to cultivate or participate in it.” And oh boy do I feel that.

The best television series in the world: Bluey is back! - this Guardian article about Bluey left me with some surprising facts that I did not know about Bluey. Such as the season 2 episode Sleepytime apparently at one point making news for being the best-reviewed episode of television OF ALL TIME (what?!). Anyway, I immediately went and watched Sleepytime with Rowan (who enjoys the theme song and not much else atm) and I was sobbing by the end 😭 Bluey is magic.

Barbie Answers Oppenheimer - Barbie and Oppenheimer aside (I haven’t seen the latter), the thing that stuck with me from this article is looking at different age/gender demographics and what they are interested in in terms of stories i.e. adults will watch things aimed at adults and younger people but younger people tend to like just watching stuff aimed at young people. Girls/women will watch things aimed at gender whereas boys/men tend to only like watching stuff aimed at boys/men and so…. “if you want to make the biggest hit possible, you aim for something that will hit all four quadrants: a film aimed squarely at an audience of 16-18 year old boys.” Brutal but annoyingly true. Thanks, I hate it.

Parenting in Barbie Land - this was a sweet piece about womanhood and motherhood looking at the mother/daughter relationship in Barbie but also at the author’s own relationship with her daughter and taking her to see Barbie. “Girls can be anything! But women cannot.”

Videos

Reacting to the WORST interior design on YouTube - Caroline Winkler and her sister “roasting” one of Caroline’s early YouTube videos. The reason I saved this one though is something her sister said which CRACKED ME UP - about how Caroline started doing gratitude and “became grateful which is a totally intolerable quality in a person” and I had to laugh 😂

Why Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is her most interesting album yet… - Daniel J Layton really giving us the TS analysis we want and need. Really loved this deep dive into that lyric change on Speak Now TV.

More Odd Scenes in Mamma Mia 2 - a follow up from last month’s newsletter Mamma Mia 2 video! Also LOL at him having no clue who Omid Djalili is. That’s one for the Brits.

Unsexy Origins of Intimate Things - lots of stuff in this Sexplanations video but I found the history of circumcision and why it’s so widely practised in the US really interesting and I had no idea!

The Versions of Myself - I’ve always really loved the way Carrie Hope Fletcher talks about her work and life and the discussions of the behind the scenes of fame in this video were really good.

Why we all need subtitles now - I pretty much watch everything with subtitles now and that happened since having Rowan. I don’t know but something shifted with how Dan & I watch TV and movies and now we need those subtitles to really understand everything that is going on and I feel a bit lost when I don’t have subtitles on. This video was more about the technical history of making film/tv and microphones and audio engineering and actors mumbling etc. so it didn’t really answer my questions about why since having a baby do I now need subtitles but it was still interesting!

Iconic ‘90s/’00s Popstars - What Happens When Fame Fades? - I think this is a promo clip thing for a Netflix series but I want THIS to be the actual series. SO INTERESTING.

The Plastic Feminism of Barbie - really great deep dive from verilybitchie into the history of Mattel and consumerist, capitalist feminism. But also, shamefully one of my main takeaways from this video was “omg Greta Gerwig is to direct a Narnia remake!??!”