Kate Carraway
The Dunham Rule
Last week I invented “Swift-boating” to describe the undue overattention and bushfire criticism that a young, pretty woman who says stuff (“says stuff”) inevitably experiences. This week I’d like to submit the “Dunham rule” as a related phenomenon, in...
Limited Chaos
I have two recurring dreams. One is none of your business until I make it your business and the other you’re going to hear about even if you don’t want to: It’s about a familiar-since-forever kind of weekend beach party cum bacchanal, a performance of...
Enough with the Psychodramas Already
My feelings are SOMETIMES a crystal unicorn locked in a curio cabinet that gets dusted monthly. I mean, in one most-of-the-time sense, I’m high-functioning; in another sense, in the sense we will now discuss, I’m made of glass. (SOMETIMES!) It’s fine.
Fashion in the 90s
The 90s were perfect. This isn’t to privilege one set of nostalgics over another; the 1990s reverence felt by three small, semidiscrete generations (X, Y, Millennial) is, of course, no different from anyone else’s nostalgia for what came before, but...
Feminist Fatigue
Feminist fatigue, the kind of philosophical sleepiness that sweeps through me/you/everyone when there is too much to say no to and is something I have felt for years and years, in waves. Not nice warm ocean waves like in Florida but, like, 'The French...
The Relative Transgressions of 'Girls'
The discussion around Lena Dunham’s body (her body!) last week after an episode of 'Girls' where she spends a couple of days having sex with Patrick Wilson—who I find creepy and unappealing but who the Man Internet decided was waaaay too hot for Dunham...
Vin Diesel's Cream-Colored Long Johns
In the movie 'xXx' (hahahahaha), Vin Diesel spends some crucial screen time in cream-colored long johns and if you can forget that it’s Vin Diesel (can you?) as “Vin Diesel” and think of him as “Mark Vincent” who has a twin and a kid and wants to do...
Boys Are Dogs and Girls Are Cats
Why do guys make plans within two texts and a couple of hours and girls make plans with 30 emails and several weeks and two cancellations? Boys are like this, and girls are like this. Boys are dogs, and girls are cats.
Let's All Stop Complaining About High School
“Peaked in high school” is a sound concept: a lot of people do. (A lot, a lot, a lot.) The adult lives of many high school mob bosses are just sad as all fuck, not sad like “I’m judging you for your social affiliations and entertainment choices” sad...
Selfies
Anything that is commonly understood as the province of teenage girls or their proxies is understood to be something dumb. A “selfie” is understood to be dumb, and it really is, but it’s also the ordering feature of the internet.
Obseshes ≠ Endorsements
So when I say I’m obseshed with the just announced mini Black Flag re-re-reunion, I mean that I am interested in the way that an academic is interested when a Google Alert pops up about something tangentially related to his research but isn’t like...
Self-Imposed Chocolate Poisoning
OK you guys this is going to be a tough read because I did it while I was bent over at the waist—or like between being bent over, but not for long because sitting up is real, real hard—because I ate some chocolate really quickly before a meeting, and...