the new Fresh Yarn essays
Say Everything: As younger people reveal their private lives on the Internet, the older generation looks on with alarm and misapprehension not seen since the early days of rock and roll. The future belongs to the uninhibited.
Jesus Did Not Say: “Shut Your Pie Hole”
The Romantic Life of Brainiacs: College-educated, highly successful women have long had a reputation for marrying less (and having lousier sex). But in a historic reversal of past trends, these women now triumph in matrimony. A marriage historian explains.
What the heck is in that Trimspa stuff, anyway?: A 39-year old celebrity mysteriously dies. She was the high-profile spokesperson for a diet pill that she claimed made her lose 70 pounds in a very short time. The media covers the aftermath of the death day and night but doesn’t ask one major question: What was in those diet pills?
Watch the trailer for Pregnant in America (via Grabapple)
Senator David Schultheis says women fake rape to get access to Emergency Contraception.
The Death Pimps: In their avid thirst for the blessing of the Christian right, GOP presidential hopefuls such as Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Sam Brownback lined up last fall to prostrate themselves before James Dobson and Tony Perkins. Now, in the grip of his own presidential fever, John McCain publicly joins them in pandering to the anti-woman agenda of the religious right.
Pre-Pregnancy, Again: This is not really what the “pre-pregnancy” concept for women refers to. Women have always been asked questions about whether they are pregnant before dental x-rays or before getting prescribed certain medications. No, the new “pre-pregnancy” is something much longer term, like from twelve to fifty years of age for women, pretty much whether the woman ever plans to get pregnant or not. This is the walking-womb version, in my mind.
Porn Again: Alterna-chick apologists for SG-style pornulation — who, with their keen hipster’s eye for irony, embrace the lexicon (”pin-up” vs. “centerfold”) of a quainter, Bettie Pagier porn epoch — point to the website’s purported (and invisible) “female-positive” stance as evidence that Suicide Girls models are not exploited like conventional Penthousian objets de smutte. [Lauren sez: There's always the added insult of some knob conflating your personhood with Suicide Girl or roller derby because you're a young woman with tattoos.]
Would you like your own show on FOX?
Lynette’s Testimony: “Well, I had a normal childhood, I suppose. I was surrounded by people who were exactly like me, and that’s probably a good thing. There’s less arguments, that way. Once I got to junior high there were one or two Jews or Muslins or something, but no one paid much mind to them. They seemed pretty satisfied to be by themselves. I suppose we hoped they would find Jesus’s love by the grace of how good-looking and happy we were, you know, from the outside looking in. Who wouldn’t want to be like us?
Blame It On Mercury: This week, while volunteering at a school production, a very goth girl sidled up to me. She seemed to be in a crisis. I went outside with her. After we did the dance where I asked what was wrong and she didn’t answer, and I asked again and she let a few tears fall, and I asked yet again and she said she was sure she couldn’t tell me, we got to the point of the whole exercise, where she rolled up her sleeve and showed me the series of semi-fresh cuts and scratches on her wrist. And then I took a huge risk, and I told her that I knew she could stop if she wanted too, because I used to do that, too.
Breaking Hearts & Telling Lies at “Love Won Out”, Part I: While the term “hate” may not be applicable to the parents in attendance, I’d reserve the right to apply it to the conference leaders and the organizations that underwrite such conferences and “ex-gay” groups. I do so because they, the conference leaders and underwriting organizations are in the business of breaking hearts and telling lies. And I don’t believe they can legitimately claim to be doing so out of love, when they opportunistically abuse the love that these parents and relatives obviously have for their children, for their own political purposes.
Talking Religion, In Good Faith: As I’ve pointed out before, it okay to say whatever you want about atheists or non-religious people. No one’s going to call it bigotry or anything else. But I think they should. Why shouldn’t that particular sword cut both ways? Especially when wielded against a minority? If people who criticize religion can be called “anti-religious bigots,” then we ought to create a category of “religious bigots” for people who would disparage or discriminate against non-religious people.
Everyday Images: APA Report Details the Consequences of Our Sexualized Culture: The American Psychological Association Task Force on the Sexualization of Girls issued a report this week detailing the omnipresence and damaging effects of sexualized images of girls and young women in American culture.
It is rare that I see a generation-gap article and find myself agreeing that I think like they say the older generation thinks. But reading the New York Magazine article about privacy and living online, I really do feel like breaking out a hardy “get offa my lawn.”
If the entire generation chronicles its life, it is going to be a lot harder for them to pretend that they are all het, vanilla, church-going and only drink in moderation when they are forty and have kids and careers. That has got to be a good thing.