I realized the other day that Elf is a backwards manic pixie dream girl movie and they cast Zoey Deschanel perfectly because of it
Luxuries vs Necessities
Saw this video today, and thought it was worth sharing. Tl;dw : in the past, luxuries were relatively much more expensive than they are now.
This also reminds me of how, when I was a high schooler (late 90’s) making a prospective budget for when I moved out, I put down $2500/mo for food and $500/mo for rent. My mom saw it, laughed, and told me to swap those two numbers. Rent wasn’t $2500 bad at that time (my first crappy apartment was $1000/mo in 2006) but it wasn’t $500, either.
“Generational Wealth” as a buzzword
This newspaper advertisement made me so mad this week.
Performative leisure, tradwives, and vebelen goods
Saw this video from Professor Neil and it has a good explanation of why tradwife social media content doesn’t show them doing unpleasant, necessary tasks; rather, they are performing aspirational optional tasks, like “making cereal from scratch. For toddlers.”
The book he referenced: Theory of the Leisure Class, by Thorstein Vebelen.
Dystopia Creep, the Torment Nexus, and Repo Man
Today I saw this skeet and thought I would share it.
Petition to call this Dystopia Creep. Torment Nexus is when media illiterate techbros make something from fiction and completely miss the point that the cool thing is bad. Dystopia Creep should be when late stage capitalism gets more evil than writers thought possible.
— Deny Defend Decrow (@corbinbelasco.bsky.social) 2024-12-22T02:59:38.890Z
I don’t believe I can embed Bluesky posts yet, so here’s the text:
Petition to call this Dystopia Creep. Torment Nexus is when media illiterate techbros make something from fiction and completely miss the point that the cool thing is bad. Dystopia Creep should be when late stage capitalism gets more evil than writers thought possible.
Here is the origin of the term Torment Nexus.
Exceptions
This Instagram video about “exceptions” to an abortion ban is surprisingly effective at getting its point across.
It is less effective to ban-with-exceptions than it is to just leave the decision up to the pregnant person and their doctor.
Differently Abled
“Differently Abled is the disability version of Separate But Equal.” That’s a brilliant observation from a comment on this very helpful video about why using terms like “differently abled” is itself feeding into the ableist narrative that we are only as valuable as our ability to produce economic value. Give it a watch.
The wellness to whackjob pipeline
Just wanted to share this Reddit post with some links about how some influencers on seemingly innocuous topics like homesteading etc. can wind up in an alt-right pipeline.
Today in Learning How To People: Cheese
I was invited to board games tonight, and asked if I could bring anything. The host says “I usually have some hard cheeses out for people!”
Being a Very Neurotypical Person who is Very Good At Reading The Room, I interpreted this to mean “Please bring some cheese.”
Mmmm nope! In this case, it meant “We already have cheese, so go ahead and bring something that you, Dairy Allergy Person, can eat.” Doh!
Anyway, that’s why I usually always get clarification/specify what people are saying/asking. It’s not safe to assume! 😂 🧀
Essay: The Crisis of Gender Relations
My friend sent me this essay today, and it’s very good.
https://www.liberalcurrents.com/the-crisis-of-gender-relations/
What this has meant for women is a society in which they have options outside the patriarchal bargain. Simply working for a wage is enough to provide the security that once husbands exclusively controlled. Or, to put it more intuitively: the rise of two-income households isn’t a result of economic hardship. It’s a result of economic growth.
Go read it.
Emilybook 