required reading
recs include: superhero sex, podcasting, schools
Hey readers. I’m coming to you with another installment of Required Reading. (AKA: good things I’ve read recently.) (Though this week also includes a podcast recommendation.)
I hope you enjoy and that you’re ready for a beautiful week.
Everyone is Beautiful and No One is Horny by RS Benedict for Blood Knife. If you read anything, read this. It’s about how superhero films simultaneously fetishize and desexualize the human body, among other things. (Thx to my lovely friend Amelia for this one.)
In Hasidic Enclaves, Failing Private Schools Flush With Public Money, an in-depth NYT report on the state of religious Brooklyn schools and the politics of Yeshiva education.
The Attractive Anti-Politics of ‘Gerontocracy’ Discourse, a Citations Needed podcast episode. Good for reminding you that our society is so fucking ageist and gross.
Podcasting Is Just Radio Now by Nicholas Quah for Vulture. I don’t agree with everything in here because there are so many podcasts I love, but I do think the writer makes interesting points about the horrible circle-jerk that is celebrity podcast shows and how we haven’t seen a podcast go Serial-level-viral in a bit.
Reader, that’s what I’ve got for you this week. Send any other recs my way. See you on Friday.
I have a recommendation for you. The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams. The audio book is exceptionally well done, if you prefer that medium. It is a novel about the power of language and who gets to choose what words are worth keeping. Set in England at the time work on creating the Oxford dictionary was being done, a young girl begins to collect words the men discarded and decided not worthy of entry. Why, she asks, are the words women use in everyday life excluded? You will love this one, Maddie.