Two quotes I am re-reading, hoping to etch them into my brain:

"Remember that we have never seen the America we’ve been fighting for." -Sherrilyn Ifill. Refusing to go backward is an act of limited imagination. What does it look like to move forward?

"Historically, survival is usually the work of people having each other’s backs." -Kelly Hayes. We can have each other's backs with the language we use. With the action we take. By supporting the future-building work that's already in progress. 

For many people, the personal and the political are knotted up together right now in acutely painful and inescapable ways. The fear and guilt and shame are coming from all directions. If you're having a hard time, I just want you to know that I have your back. I'm sending you some tenderness this Friday, along with the links and pie chart.

Lauren Collins on the history of the abortion pill. Neel Dhanesha on the terrifying reality of what happens when a pregnancy turns deadly in a state where abortion is criminalized. Delete your period-tracking app, concludes Sara Morrison. And an oral history of Barbara Kruger’s "Untitled (Your Body Is a Battleground)".

In Missouri, lawmakers consider criminalizing gender-affirming care for adults. We knew they weren't going to stop at children and teens, but this headline still dropped like a cold block of ice into my stomach. A friendly reminder that gender-affirming care has undeniably positive mental-health benefits for people who seek it out. It is life-saving care.

In South Africa, a post-apartheid program to return land to Black farmers from whom it was stolen was emblematic of "a problem proposed by the end of apartheid, when black people had to enter into and possess a world that white people believed they had created," writes Eve Fairbanks.

In California, the intense drought has created its own microeconomy, reports Andrea Chang. 

Crispin Long on the heterosexual vortex of modern reality TV shows that are "so preposterously extreme that each new installment becomes an accidental exposé of the tensions and contradictions of the institution that they are purportedly attempting to celebrate." And Rayne Fisher-Quann on Selling Sunset and the shimmering edifice of feminist capitalism.

Mary Gaitskill on incels: "That they react to their feelings of being despised by acting the part makes me sick, like screaming inside sick. Because this is what people do. They start acting the part." I am really loving her new newsletter.

And Autumn Fourkiller interprets a dream from author Kristen Arnett: "This dream is a signal to reach out, to let your community hold you."

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Excellent use of the Benny Hill theme. Vintage apple crate labels. Very excited about the new Book Exploder. And I was on Alana Levinson and Dave Schilling's podcast Free Validation talking about quilted clothes and other crafty aesthetics.

Yeah, sometimes I do consider this newsletter a "silly little email." 

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A dance break to Lauryn Hill's "Doo Wop (That Thing)". 

Aug 17, virtual: I'm in conversation with Nona Willis Aronowitz about her new book, Bad Sex: Truth, Pleasure and an Unfinished Revolution