Television
Legolas Bends the Space-Time Continuum
As the music crescendos, you fall, and then you fall some more. A portal, unused for twenty years, cracks open, and then—here you are again.
Journalism and Literature Need to Make Room for “Unfamiliar” Stories
To refresh our sense of empathy we have to expose ourselves to other perspectives. In the news, in literature, in life.
According to ‘Finding Magic Mike,’ Feeling Sexy Is a State of Mind
To perform is to literally be seen, to expose yourself willingly. It’s much less scary with people who have your back.
Pop Culture’s Problem with Middle-Aged Women
Women of a certain age are still largely invisible and left out of our narratives—or else, she’s a very particular type of middle-aged woman.
David Attenborough Helps Me Explain the Climate Crisis to My Son
I use his favorite David Attenborough shows to help me explain my climate activism
Lessons in Fashion and Fatness from ‘Absolutely Fabulous’
Absolutely Fabulous celebrated outlandish women behaving badly, usually in outlandish, high-end clothes.
Through Fanfiction, I Learned the Machinery of My Mind
On the page, I was intact. I was smart and forceful. I had a comeback for every spar.
‘Lost’ Fans Gave Me a Safe Place on the Internet. Is Such Fandom Possible Now?
Fan culture’s veer into the mainstream saw it lose its sense of protection and gain an abundance of entitlement, even cruelty.
Who Actually Wins (and Keeps) the HGTV Dream Home?
As of January 2021, only six of the first twenty-one sweepstakes winners were able to live in their Dream Home for longer than a year.
Ode to the Bimbos of HBO
When I was a kid, the hyperfeminine was considered a failing—but I wanted to both be and be with these beautiful women that I privately gawked at and desired.