A Few Things

Hello, Friends. How are you? What’s been going on with you?

We had another media interview this morning — this time with the newspaper Ouest France. We were first interviewed by a journalist on Monday, and then they sent a photographer and journalist today for a follow-up interview. It’s fun to have such a warm welcome to France!

Other than that, my time is mostly taken up with Alt Summit these days. The conference is one month away, so there’s lots to do. But it’s exciting too!

I’m not sure what our weekend plans are. Maybe some shopping. Probably lots of email. How about you? Are you ready for the weekend? And ready for some links? Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share with you:

-This week marked 34 years since the Challenger exploded. I was in sixth grade, and the teacher, Mr. Humphrey, brought in a rollaway TV so we could watch the news coverage. At that time, the oldest Gen Xers were 22.

-Stress Really Does Make Hair Go Gray Faster. (NYT)

-“Women with Asperger profiles are less likely to be diagnosed and more likely to be misdiagnosed.”

New Barbie dolls feature vitiligo and hairless models.

-A tiny film to mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

-I love following historians on Twitter, so I was happy to see this article from the New Yorker. Meet the Twitterstorians: historians with Twitter accounts, who have been attracting big followings with their historically informed takes on the dumpster fire that is America in the year 2020.

-What do you want your kids to inherit?

-Today I Learned That Not Everyone Has An Internal Monologue And It Has Ruined My Day.

-My daughter Olive swears by CeraVe moisturizer. What’s your favorite body lotion these days?

Here are a some tweets I saved for you:

-We’ve trained ourselves to watch movies empathetically.

-How men draw women vs. how women draw themselves.

https://twitter.com/muwurder/status/1220904447498444800

-Do you agree with this take on sex drive?

-A thread on the idea of overpopulation-as-myth. It’s a take I haven’t heard before.

-Yes please to these measuring cups.

-It takes time to build something good.

-What should the minimum wage be today?

-Need bra recommendations? Try this thread.

I hope you have a happy weekend. I’ll meet you back here on Monday. I miss you already.

kisses,
Gabrielle

12 thoughts on “A Few Things”

  1. My dermatologist has me using the CeraVe morning and night formulas for faces and they are the best! I also use the under-eye lotion.

  2. Wow, I’m struggling to imagine what it would be like without an internal monologue! Did you know some people can’t visualize things in their minds either? My husband is that way. And it’s also hard for me to understand how thinking and memory works without any images, but apparently it does!!

  3. The first Twitter thread you shared really resonated with me and is something I’ve been thinking about in recent weeks. I recently listened to an interview with Meryl Streep on Fresh Air (from a few years back) and she expressed this exact sentiment. She said she can watch Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible and really “feel” herself there with him, but did not think it would be as common for white cis men to say the same thing about watching, say, Jo March in Little Women. As a mom to three white boys, it really makes me want to expand the types of movies they watch. Although I think we do a decent job of watching a variety of shows with characters of different races, income levels, genders, etc., I know we could also improve.

  4. Heather Cox Richardson, one of the Twitterstorians, also has a daily newsletter. Every morning I read it first to get a concise take on the previous days’ news, but more importantly, to confirm what I read or saw really did happen and that I’m not crazy.

  5. I so desperately want overpopulation to be a myth because ever since I was young I’ve wanted a great big family.

    But the author doesn’t cite any empirical evidence so I’m hesitant to trust him.

    So…is it possible that both are true? That overpopulation is a pressing modern problem *and* that the “myth” of overpopulation has been used for awful, inhumane things like genocide in the past?

    1. I think the author’s point isn’t that, “overpopulation is a myth and therefore everyone can and should have 14 babies.” It is that overpopulation should not be accepted as justification of genocide and that the solution to ‘overpopulation’ (because there sure are a ton of humans on this planet) isn’t forcing birth control upon ‘those people who are having too many babies’ (i.e. people of lower socio-economic status or in certain religious groups), genocide, or restricting movement of peoples between nations, because these ‘solutions’ are problematic in many ways and also do not work.

      Instead, if we truly want to save humanity and the planet, the solution is dismantling capitalism and patriarchy and extending education (especially sex education) to all peoples. If that happens, we can a) feed everyone and b) expect the population to plateau naturally because some people, like yourself, will still want to have big families, others will want fewer children, and many others, presumably, will not want children at all.

      1. Hi Suzie- yes I actually agree with you and the solutions you’ve laid out here 100%.

        I guess my point is that when you say that solutions like comprehensive, culturally-relevant sex Ed would encourage the population to plateau and allow sufficient food for the planet tacitly imply that there’s something “off” with the population level as it stands today?

        I think I’d say that it’s ok to acknowledge the enormous carbon footprint that big families produce *and* that we must be very, very careful in how we approach the issue so as to not mistakenly harm lives. And to acknowledge and recognize the injustice in the last. I am all for comprehensive sex Ed, universal childcare, universal basic income, and universal healthcare!! 🙌🙌

        1. I think what’s off is the number of “unwanted” or unplanned-for children Children born to young mothers who cannot care for them, children that are abandoned, etc. Note that I’m fully in support of adoption. But our foster care systems just in America are very full, and there are plenty of other countries around the world where there are children that go without care because society has failed them. I don’t think large families with thoughtful parents are the problem. The society that we’ve built that doesn’t care for parents and children are the problem. And like the original twitter author (tweeter?) said– we can feed everyone on earth now. It is, again, a failing of our society that we do not.

          1. I’m not as worried about our food supply – like the author (and yourself) states, we can feed everyone on earth, if we wanted to. I’m more worried about the carbon emissions that comes from just…living and being human. I also love this study that puts it into perspective.

            Actually, this study was posted on Design Mom a few years ago! That’s how I first heard about it. I appreciate Gabby’s willingness to post different perspectives, and I appreciate commenters, like you, Suzie, who engage in respectful and meaningful dialogue.

  6. cerave all the way! i use the thicker cream all over my body and face. when my skin is extra dry, i love La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5 Balm.

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