This Week's Writing 2/4/22

Parker Molloy on anti-trans media bias, Rita Dove and the gaze, You People, and more!

I’m opening comments here to everyone so…say hello! tell me why you’re following the blog, and/or what you’d like to see here. If you feel like it! No pressure.

If You Read One Thing By Me This Week, Read

The shit of justice: my experience with Crohn’s disease and disability rights. (EIH)

Politics and Op-Eds

I interviewed journalist Parker Molloy about anti-trans bias in the media. (Public Notice)

The Iowa GOP restricts SNAP benefits because Republicans hate the poor. (Alternet)

Why convicting Donald Trump won’t heal the country or bring justice. (Independent)

The nonsense attack on Ilhan Omar’s supposed antisemitism shows the GOP doesn’t care about Jewish people. (Independent)

Poetry

Rita Dove’s “Venus of Willendorf” and gazing at the gaze. (EIH)

A poem (by me!) about marriage and modern technology. (Five Fleas)

A dada poem (also be me!) about weird yellow sexy weirdness. (dadkuku)

A gigantic double sestina mocking Jordan Peterson, who sucks. (EIH)

Music

The album Ears of the People spotlights the ekonting, banjo’s ancestor. (No Depression)

Julia Sabra and Fadi Tabbal’s Snakeskin is paralyzed pop for a paralyzed world. (Splice Today)

Movies

You People is a tired Guess Whose Coming to Dinner? retread. (Chicago Reader)

Unicorn Wars is gross out adult animation and a grim antifascist fable. (Chicago Reader)

Sorry About the Demon is a charmingly clumsy rom com horror film. (Splice Today)

Dude, where’s my empowerment fantasy. (EIH)

Syndrome K is yet another empowering story about the Holocaust. (EIH)

Minority Report is glib Hollywood bullshit. (EIH)

The documentary Cam Girlz understands that sex work as a business. (EIH)

Pleasure tries to present a realistic view of the porn industry, but gets bogged down in stigma. (EIH)

Carmen is a sentimental comedy with dark undertones. (EIH)

Do Revenge takes Patricia Highsmith and dresses her up with a happy ending. (EIH)

Television

S1E5: The Enemy Within; Star Trek is split between utopia and pulp crap. (EIH)

S1E6: Mudd’s Women; Kirks’s a cop and sex workers frighten the future. (EIH)

Barry: Season 3 is the bleakest yet. (EIH)