My power came back at the 40 hour mark. Then I cleaned out my fridge with vinegar, and I am better for it. Then I ate a TREMENDOUS amount of a frozen homemade lasagna because “I didn’t think it was safe to let it refreeze.” Then I watched the rest of Scandal. Thanks for all your emotional support.
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Teaching the camera to see her skin (I excerpted a larger chunk than usual from this piece because you HAVE to READ it):
It turns out, film stock’s failures to capture dark skin aren’t a technical issue, they’re a choice. Lorna Roth, a scholar in media and communication studies,wrote that film emulsions — the coating on the film base that reacts with chemicals and light to produce an image — “could have been designed initially with more sensitivity to the continuum of yellow, brown and reddish skin tones but the design process would have to be motivated by a recognition of the need for extended range.” Back then there was little motivation to acknowledge, let alone cater to a market beyond white consumers.
Kodak did finally modify its film emulsion stocks in the 1970s and ’80s — but only after complaints from companies trying to advertise chocolate and wood furniture. The resulting Gold Max film stock was created. According to Roth, a Kodak executive described the film as being able to “photograph the details of the dark horse in low light.”
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GUTS is a new Canadian feminist mag, and here is a piece from their first issue, “Body of Work”:
I stopped working as a grant writer for the Cerebral Palsy Association the day of my first emergency room visit, and I receive disability pay from a private insurance company. Lisa, the claims examiner, calls me periodically to check on my status. Where am I on the “road to recovery”? What can my body mean now to the market? It seems so unfamiliar and variable that I can’t imagine a place for myself in the world of “work.” But the market is constant, able, so insolently healthy that my new and, I thought, irreconcilable body seems to Lisa no challenge for its appetite. She effortlessly redefines my labour. All my work becomes, or has been all along, the work of getting back to work. To the insurance company, my work has always been in service of the market imperative to Be Well.
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A brief history of on-screen text messages in TV and movies:
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“What Michael Stewart Did” is a total gutwrench, but also excellent, and shows a real attempt to understand the nature of psychosis and responsibility:
“The first time I spoke to them” — his family — “after the index offence, I was saying, will you please forgive me? And they said yes, but I hadn’t earned it.”
Michael is told that every member of his family interviewed for this story said they don’t blame him for what happened.
He takes a deep breath and nods slowly, his mouth curling into a sad half-smile. “I’m happy to hear that said to me,” he says. Then he’s quiet for awhile.
“The only thing that I’m sure they, I hope they know is that I’m grateful,” he says. “They haven’t pushed me aside, which I think is lucky. For me.”
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Why yes, I WILL link your Flashdance-but-about-abortion-access music video, thank you. You can also donate:
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The life and death of Spuds MacKenzie, the original party animal:
There’s a moment in Spuds MacKenzie’s interview with Dick Clark when Clark shifts gears and, as if by obligation, brings up the recent bad press the bull terrier has been the subject of. “There are these vicious rumors,” he begins, addressing not the tuxedo-wearing Spuds, but one of the beautiful spokesmodels—or “Spudettes”—who accompany him. “Is there any truth to the fact that he is female?” The Spudette, clearly trained for this type of question, asserts, “He’s got three women around him, and I don’t think we’d be following him…” Clark, thrusting his fist forward, interrupts, “He’s a full-out macho guy?” A few men in the audience let out ferocious whoos! and yeahs! They are relieved to hear that their hero is, like them, a cool dude.
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Why Black Boys Need Lupita Nyong’o:
As much as we tout how important it is for a young Black person’s parents to instill an appropriate sense of self-worth, self-love, and racial consciousness, family units don’t exist in vacuums. A kid’s peer groups matter. The images they’re exposed to matter. The media they consume matters. And, I don’t think it was a coincidence my young tastes skewed lighter at a time when the vast majority of the young female entertainers considered crush-worthy (Halle Berry, Aaliyah, Lark Voorhies, Mya, Karyn Parsons, Tisha Campbell, etc) were also light. Even the ones who were browner (Tatyana Ali, Ananda Lewis, Chilli, etc) were lauded for their long, wavy hair–a trait usually associated with lighter-skinned women and not one most Black women posses, not by far.
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Are you watching High Maintenance?
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DID you see this gif of Drake lint-rolling his pants at a basketball game?
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TRICIA LOCKWOOD’S BOOK TRAILER
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This is now officially our longest Link Roundup ever, but this Spotify playlist of 1960s and 1970s ladies covering Beatles songs is AMAAAAAZING.
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
Ahahahaha Drake. Pants lint is serious business, y’all.
I’m not sure why but the dude next to him is also checking out the lint situation.
Because it’s serious business, that’s why. He was vigilant and ready to assist in eliminating the lint scourge, as we should all be.
A rogue tissue made it into my laundry last night and now everything is covered in little white flecks, so I am feeling this.
RAAAAGE my husband NEVER checks pockets yet he is the one that does the laundry.
I’d like to say that this has happened to me only once, but that would be an almost Go Ask Alice-level falsehood.
I can never reconcile how much i still like Drake and how much i roll my eyes at him.
Drake is my favorite meme.
He brought a lint-roller to COURTSIDE SEATS at a basketball game! Maybe he was really concerned about stray lint from the promotional rally towels?
Rally towels are dangerously linty!
I, too, eat lots of lasagna for… safety reasons. Yes, that’s it.
Likewise.
Also, if anyone has any potentially dangerous pie lying around, I hereby volunteer to transfer it to a safe location (specifically, my face).
Keep the world safe from rogue lasagnes. For everyone around the globe, I thank you.
PATRICIA LOCKWOOD! everything she does is magic.
Seconding the MUST-READ on that piece about film & dark skin, it was fascinating.
also lol Drake.
when I got to the end and saw the photo of the people at the beach, it gave me chills. I felt like I hadn’t seen that skin color in a photo before and I just kept staring at it.
Did it make anyone else cross to share that essay on FB and discover that the only photo option on the link was pictures of 1960s white women? COME ON, WEB PRESENCE WHOEVER.
(I clearly do not know who is responsible for putting image options on social media links, but YOU SEE MY POINT.)
The day I realized that I possess three lint rolls (one of them foldable travel-edition) was the moment I decided I have officially become a Grown-Up. I’m with you Drake!
I am also on #teamlintroller
I own my grandfather’s silver valet brush, and it never occurred to me to use it until this winter; when I needed to de-lint something, I used bits of packing tape. I might not be the most logical.
My husband brought back a super pack of 6 lint rollers (each was big, too) from Costco a few months ago. He’s only 8 years into being a dad, but he’s nailing it. I feel confident that his skills will only get stronger. I’m going to tell him about Drake.
I keep a mini one at my desk and I haven’t lived with a cat for 2 years now.
This is a roundup of all my favourite things! Canadian feminism! Canadians lint-rolling! I’ll be spending the rest of my day reading all of it.
Why don’t we have a “Canadians lint-rolling” tag?
I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND DRAKE. HOW DOES HE WHY DOES HE PLEASE NO MOAR.
no, but fucking lint is the worst, though.
The dangers of lint build up to the public have not been adequately addressed in the lamestream media. Thanks should go to Drake and The Toast for bringing this important issue to a larger audience
Actual sidebar text from the National Post’s sports section:
“In the fall, Toronto rapper Drake was named the global ambassador for his hometown Raptors. He has now also become the public face of lint-rolling”
THE PUBLIC FACE OF LINT-ROLLING
your boy/OVO crew/the public face of lint-rolling
For those who remember my visa freak out yesterday. Well we got sort-of good news? My partner was awarded a visa (yay) but for the wrong dates (boo). Turns out we (well I) basically applied too early (which I didn’t think was possible with visas?!?) but there ya go. Anyway, we can apply to get the date changed, so that’s the next step.
UGH bureaucracy! But it sounds like not-the-worst outcome, right? Sending good thoughts for the next step.
UGH bureaucracy is right. Thanks for the thoughts, they will come in useful.
The Michael Stewart piece – if you read it, prepare to be wrecked. I basically just burst into tears in my office. It’s excellent, deeply insightful and empathetic and not to be missed, but oof, my heart.
Yep, OOF, is exactly how I feel as well.
I’m like 2 paragraphs in and already it’s getting dusty. Maybe I should wait until I’m not on the reference desk (I’m a librarian). But so good so far.
It was really, really good. I’m so glad the article was written and that the movie is being made.
Having an immediate family member with a similar diagnosis (we were reading “x’s” mind, “x” received messages from angels, etc.) that Michael Stewart piece hit close to home. I am so grateful & thankful for the dutiful care given by doctors and the kindness and dedication shown by social workers and case workers over the years and which continues today.
For those outreach and social workers who truly care for the mentally ill: you are amazing human beings.
I could not finish that Michael Stewart piece. I feel like a lot of media around psychosis, etc. is about those who are violent. Someone who knows the statistics can correct me, but I thought I’ve read that the majority are not violent. And it is much more difficult to get someone the help they need when they do not have violent thoughts. They can essentially be psychotic, delusional, etc. forever, since you can’t force them to be on medicine. But I guess no one writes about them because they don’t want to confirm the delusions…
Yeah, I think you’re right with the statistics. To be fair to the piece, in the middle of the article there’s a trailer for the film (Out of Mind, Out of Sight), which was the catalyst for the article. In the trailer a woman who works at the Brockville Mental Health Centre says:
“The majority of people who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, they don’t have violent tendencies.”
My experience with people having psychotic episodes is highly limited but I would recommend against assuming from the start that they don’t know it’s happening. Specifically, the person I know best who had this happen to him called the police on himself once the psychotic episode really got going (he was not violent, then or later.)
Or assuming that they don’t want help and need convincing. The problem is that “help” in the sense of a reliable cure does not exist, and wanting help like a good and docile mental patient is not going to do anything to hurry up medical research. Plenty of people would like to stop hearing e.g. the urgent voice of god but are not great fans of tardive dyskinesia, rapid and uncontrollable weight gain, or pituitary tumors. That is, crazy people are frequently noncompliant with their meds for reasons other than being crazy. I try to be a reliable voice for TAKE YOUR MEDS, TAKE YOUR MEDS to my loved ones because I feel it is my moral obligation, but lord knows I wouldn’t want to take a lot of them if it were me. I don’t know what I would do.
There’s a sidebar in the article that says
“People who have schizophrenia are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators of it. The majority of violent people do not have a mental illness.”
Maybe that could have been worked into the article itself, I don’t know.
My sister is mentally ill and violent, and I actually find the opposite — that most writing about mental illness is intended to be positive and about healing and recovery. Even this piece ends with an assumption that Michael will continue to improve and his past will stay in the past. I actually wish there were more resources that frankly discussed how to cope with mental illness that doesn’t improve.
No, I agree with that. If the writing is not on, say, a school shooter, then I find they are definitely positive and have this “cured” vibe.
He made his case while standing in front of huge posters featuring the “Ayatollah of Partyollah” himself, Spuds MacKenzie.
The 80s were WEIRD.
Speaking as someone who grew up in the 80s…yes, yes they were.
I feel a little weird about upholding Lupita Nyong’o’s appearance as “something that men need” in order to somehow set right the spectrum of what they consider beautiful. The lead in for the article talks about the “steady diet of light-skinned dreamgirls,” and I think this may be what doesn’t feel quite right to me. The language here is pretty clear in still reducing women to consumable objects.
Don’t get me wrong, she’s a stunningly beautiful woman, and watching her do her thing on screen is a damned privilege. But still some part of me feels like this is a misuse of her visibility. It feels like the article reduces (and actually completely omits) her own talent and accomplishment into something more superficial that ultimately benefits men. The woman won an OSCAR, and all we get from this article is more commentary on appearance. Am I alone here, because I can totally take a backseat if I’m alone here.
In partial defense, I don’t think anyone is suggesting that we just appreciate her because she’s pretty. She’s a Yale educated Academy Award winning actress, yes– but she has publicly stated several times (including in her AA acceptance speech) that she’s honored to be a representation of ‘non standard’ beauty in the mainstream media. She’s also stated (on Oprah/OWN) that until she saw The Color Purple she didn’t know that people who looked like her could act or be public figures. She is embracing her role model status (and, hey, she was just named People’s Most Beautiful Woman for this year, so she’s getting even more exposure to audiences who may not have seen her film.)
I think her increased exposure is a boon for both women and men, who both need to expand their horizons into appreciate what is beautiful/acceptable/mainstream. Representation is extremely important.
Please donate to NNAF if you have any money that you can spare. They are doing the real work out there on the front lines of abortion access issues. The Texas chapters especially need funding right now because of the recent restrictions.
That “Body of Work” piece is SO good.
So good…and so heartbreaking. Sometimes the imperative to Be Well isn’t possible, and there’s not much understanding of that from a society that demands productivity, and treats illness and death as liabilities or pretends they don’t exist.
“Then I cleaned out my fridge with vinegar, and I am better for it.”
#blessed #soblessed
I did the same yesterday (the power was on but I’m moving), and plan to get my deposit refunded by placing charges of baking soda strategically throughout my home, then standing in the driveway, biting the top off a bottle of white vinegar, hurling it through the kitchen window, and laying rubber in the moving van as a giant fireball of clean erupts behind me. Pretty sure that’s what you suggested to Terry Gross, right?
I just want Drake to quit rap and become a professional dad:
Dad Drake is the best Drake. You know he never lets pants lint get out of control.
He should be on the cover of the next DADS magazine, amirite?
Am I the only one who can’t figure out how to work Spotify? Like, I click on the link to the playlist, but I get taken to the website instead of the app and I can’t play it? Why do they make things so difficult?
Anyway: what’s the name of the playlist so I can just search for it in the Spotify app?
Paste this into the search bar in the app and the playlist should come up:
https://play.spotify.com/user/1242129603/playlist…
You are not alone! I just spent far too long figuring that out!!! Man, I’m not good at computers.
this isn’t relevant to any of these links specifically but it’s another link that is relevant to The Toast generally or an old tweet of Mallory’s particularly so
ONLY THE CHILDREN WERE READY
That is my Beatles by Ladies playlist and I am deeply emotional about its presence here! Thanks, The Toast dot net. I super-recommend the reggae version of “Don’t Let Me Down” and the way Nancy Sinatra turns “Run for Your Life” into a misandrist anthem.
I am enjoying it more than I can adequately express, thank you so much for putting it together!
I just asked boyfriend “What should I listen to while I write this paper?” and he said “anything you want” THANKS boyfriend. But then I got to say “never mind, The Toast fixed it” Which is my favorite thing to say.
It is to my eternal shame that I was unable to convince any of my friends to be a Spudette for me when I dressed up like Spuds MacKenzie for Halloween last year.
Thank you for the offer, I may take you up on that sometime. I have been meaning to check out NAMI's support groups, so I will forward it on to her husband. And I'm so sorry about your sister as well.
I did the same yesterday (the power was on but I'm moving), and plan to get my deposit refunded by placing charges of baking soda strategically throughout my home, then standing in the driveway, biting the top off a bottle of white vinegar, hurling it through the kitchen window, and laying rubber in the moving van as a giant fireball of clean erupts behind me. Pretty sure that's what you suggested to Terry Gross, right?
I was not watching High Maintenance and then I BINGED ALL OF IT JUST NOW. I can’t believe how well done it is. The things they can do in 8 minutes!
I'd like to say that this has happened to me only once, but that would be an almost Go Ask Alice-level falsehood.
Speaking as someone who grew up in the 80s…yes, yes they were.
So good…and so heartbreaking. Sometimes the imperative to Be Well isn't possible, and there's not much understanding of that from a society that demands productivity, and treats illness and death as liabilities or pretends they don't exist.
He should be on the cover of the next DADS magazine, amirite?
SEE MORE https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85JmVONwXG8