Link About It #7: Transphobia, Scotch Snaps, and the Death of an Imaginary Clown

This is the seventh instalment in a series now known as Link About It, previously called My Favourite Internet Things, in which I compile interesting things I've seen on the internet this week.

State of the world

• Art Speigelman, the author of Maus, withdrew his introduction to a Marvel comics collection after he was asked to remove a critical reference to Donald Trump that described him as "Orange Skull" (akin to the Marvel villain Red Skull).
• Two trans employees have left the Guardian because of its recent transphobic reporting and an unwelcoming work environment. The fact that even the Guardian, a historically progressive newspaper, is giving a platform to such harmful views is concerning, to say the least.
• In America, it seems that protections against sex discrimination are being thrown under the bus in attempt to make sure it's completely legal to discriminate against trans people. Discrimination hurts us all, even if we think it doesn't affect us.

Things I didn't know (until now)

• The planet Venus may have once been habitable, and the fact that it isn't any more could be due to global warming. I feel like this gives us a glimpse of what Earth could become if we don't put a stop to climate change. This might be old news for some of you, but I'm not ashamed to admit that I only found out about this because of the song "Nobody" by Mitski.
• So-called "scotch snaps" are major musical trend right now, which you may or may not have noticed. What I found really fascinating about Adam Neely's video on this topic is that he gets into how differences in languages can impact the music created by their speakers.
• Robert Pattinson once lied on live TV about seeing a clown die at a circus. So that's... something. This article also reminded me of the many times Pattinson blatantly dragged the Twilight franchise while doing press interviews for the series, which never ceases to amuse me.
• On a lighter note, the creation of Viennettas is surprisingly hypnotic.

Miscellaneous

• At The Guardian (which I'm hesitant to link to now, given the second article in this post), Ammar Kalia has written a rather sweet article about men who choose to take their wife's surname after marriage. Although I'm stunned that any man would expect his wife to take his surname in this day and age, it's still fascinating to hear about what names mean to people and what their reasons are for changing them.
• Literature Wales are running a "Platforming Under-Represented Writers Funding Scheme" that is offering grants to BAME, disabled, or chronically ill writers in Wales. The deadline for applications is 21st August at 5pm GMT, so if you want to apply then do so quickly!

Link About It #6: Headphone Jacks, Capsule Wardrobes, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

This is the sixth instalment in a series now known as Link About It, previously called My Favourite Internet Things, in which I compile interesting/amusing things I've seen on the internet this week.

So once again, I have skipped a week of these Link About It posts. I'll admit I'm kind of defeating their whole purpose by doing this, as the aim of creating a "weekly" blog series was that it would compel me to post something at least once a week - alas, it seems that not even this promise to myself was enough to overcome my own laziness when it comes to writing. Plus, at the moment all of my free time is being sucked up by this great book called The Amber Spyglass, by Philip Pullman (you may have heard of him). Anyway, before I digress further, let's get on to the links:

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
I'm currently ambivalent about giving any attention (even if it's only social media clicks) to Tarantino at the moment, since I learned about his history of mistreating women, but I have found the following analyses of his new film quite interesting:

• Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee's daughter, was apparently not happy with the portrayal of her father in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, according to The Wrap. This article says that Lee feels the film downplayed the difficulties her father experienced as an Asian-American actor in Hollywood and makes him into "an arrogant punching bag".
• At Jezebel, Rich Juzwiak writes about the poor representation of the film's female characters - many of whom, it's worth noting, are based on real life women. While some degree of misogyny being present in a Tarantino film would not surprise me, the level of what Juzwiak refers to as "shittiness towards women" in this latest movie is pretty damning.

Fashion and minimalism

• Justine Leconte is a French fashion designer and YouTuber who makes brilliant videos on all aspects of clothing and style, including this excellent series on how to create a capsule wardrobe. She's also funny, charming, and straight to the point, so there's really no reason not to love her. At the moment I am obsessed with her videos, so much so that I am considering starting a capsule wardrobe myself.
• On a related note, Molly Osberg at Jezebel details her experience of wearing variations on the same thing for a year and a half. It's even more extreme a method than a capsule wardrobe, but Osberg makes a pretty good case for only having one outfit.
• If you're thinking all of this sounds worryingly like a certain trend for spartan aesthetics and bare-essentials living, Chelsea Fagan is here to tell you why minimalism is terrible. I still like the idea of having slightly less stuff than I have at the moment, but I agree with Fagan that minimalism as a movement is awfully wealth-dependent and generally cringey.

Miscellaneous words and (moving) pictures

• The end of the headphone jack is nigh! At least according to this article from the New York Times, anyway. Apparently we as a society have been hurtling towards a headphone-jack-less world for some time now, but being the obvious Luddite that I am, this is the first I've heard of it.
• Naomi Campbell has an incredibly detailed travel routine that has somehow made me both excited for and terrified of the next time I have to get on a plane. Mostly terrified, to be honest.
• Finally, this Tom Scott video will introduce you to the concept of "phatic expressions", which you've most likely heard of before but just don't know the name. The video also includes a dig at Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, which I enjoyed (the dig, not the books/films).

Link About It #5: Goat Portraits, Women's Work, and an Ode to Anne Shirley

This is the fifth instalment in a series now known as Link About It, previously called My Favourite Internet Things, in which I compile interesting/amusing things I've seen on the internet this week.

Remember last week, when I threatened to come up with a terrible pun-based name for this series if nobody suggested anything better? Well, I've made good on my promise, and this series is now going to be known as "Link About It" from this point onwards. Personally I think this title works better, but if you disagree.... all I can say is that you had your chance.

Women's work

This week I've somehow ended up stumbling across several excellent articles on the topic of women and labour, particularly the kind of domestic labour that is often invisible and expected from us.

• At The Cut, Lisa Miller considers how women tend to carry more things with them than men do, and what that says about our society. Miller looks at a number of issues, from the lack of pockets in women's clothes to who cleans up messes in public spaces, and ties them all together in a brilliant thesis on women and the baggage (literal and metaphorical) we carry.
• A new study says that the idea that men in general are "dirt blind" is a myth - they just aren't judged for being untidy or unclean in the same way women are. This made me think about the shared memory so many of us have of our mothers panicking over the state of the house when guests are coming over. Perhaps this is because women subconsciously know the house's condition reflects on them, rather than their male partners or children?
•  A lack of time is a woman's greatest enemy, writes Brigid Schulte at The Guardian. Her essay makes a compelling argument that the thing holding so many women back from creative or career success is the fact that they just don't have as much time as their male counterparts, due to the unseen domestic labour expected of them.

Articles on wanting and asking too much

• It's from 2017, but this ode to Anne of Green Gables at Lit Hub is so beautiful that I'd still wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who loves L. M. Montgomery's precocious heroine. I didn't read any of the Anne books until I was an adult, but once I did I related to Anne so strongly that I wish I'd read them many years before. 
• This personal essay at Autostraddle explores desire, being "thirsty", and the radical act of openly claiming what you want. It's excellent, but I will warn that it's a bit NSFW.

Stories and pictures

• "The Crane Wife", by CJ Hauser, also explores desire and emotional needs. It's a beautiful story of a woman recovering from the collapse of a relationship, and how studying cranes in the wild helps her survive the aftermath. I originally thought that it was a piece of short fiction, but now I think it might actually be autobiographical. 
• These portraits of goats, taken by photographer Kevin Horan, are surprisingly striking. I never would have thought of goats as being particularly pretty animals before, but their uniqueness and personality really shine through in this series. 

If you've finished reading this post and are surprised that I haven't shared anything to do with the UK's new PM, I would just like to say that the omission was deliberate. Between the recent heatwave and being ill, I don't have the energy to confront the horror of our current political situation right now. There is a time for action and a time for distraction, and right now I'm strongly in need of the latter.