Tuesday, August 27, 2013

The Good, the Bad, and the Curious (Link Round-Up)

Here's what I've been reading this week that made me smile (The Good), cry (The Bad), and think (The Curious).

The Good

  • This article from The Atlantic about the difference between happiness and meaningfulness and what we should strive for in life is amazing. If you don't read anything else I link to, read this one
  • This (Warning: Some NSFW lyrics, and without the sound, it really isn't the same)



The Bad

  • It makes me sad that dogs are being kept out of loving homes because of biased and hype-filled breed specific legislation. Check out this great post on why breed bans (usually aimed at pit bulls and "pit bull-like" dogs) are a bad idea.

The Curious

  • Think stop and frisk is a good idea? What if they brought those practices to "business Harlem," or as we know it, Wall Street:
 


  • I didn't watch the VMAs, but don't you worry, the internet always lets me know when the pop culture chips are down, and it did not disappoint. Out of the Miley Cyrus aftermath, here are two articles that I thought were really interesting. This Jezebel article by Dodai Stewart and this post from The Belle Jar both look at the intersections of slut-shaming, race, appropriation, and performance. 
I grew up hearing a story. My grandmother was a cleaning lady for a white family that kept the fingers and toes of black people in a jar on their mantle. No, this was not slavery. This was 1940’s South Carolina.
  • This round-up of literary descriptions from the Toast of women being described as "not beautiful" by protagonists or narrators took my breath away. 
  • Ashley at Small Strokes Fell Big Oaks has a post about teaching the canon, teaching off the canon, and teaching students to read the canon:
It is possible to change the canon and, in the meantime, it is possible to change the way students look at the canon. Slowly but surely, teachers and students are chipping away at it and adding books that better represent the diversity of our nation and our classrooms.
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder though.  Is this whole debate about “mean girls” vs. “nice girls” really just another way for us to discredit strong feminists?  Does a “mean girl” grow up to become a “man-hater”?





1 comment:

  1. Thanks for all the wonderful links! Off to read...

    ReplyDelete