BY JOANNA C. VALENTE
Mistress Harley is a tech dominatrix. It's pretty fascinating:
"When new technology springs up, sexuality adapts to it," she says. "Human sexuality is never static. A new form of technology emerges and we find a way to connect it to sex."
-Jessica Placzek for Broadly
Heart mender tea. Um, yes:
"The bittersweet effect of love is a force we all know well. Breakups can be a harrowing process. The recollections of time together haunt us and fog our thoughts."
-Brittany Ducham for Witch Craft Mag
What everyone should know about the intersex community:
"It is estimated that 1 in 2,000 people is intersex, but it is likely that the figure is actually higher. “Intersex is a natural variation of human biology,” Quinn says. “I think once everyone realizes how non-binary human biology is, it'll be easier for people to accept others on the sex or gender spectrum.'"
-Alaina Leary for Her Campus
Writing against the false narratives of anorexia:
"I have nothing pretty to say about my body when I get too thin. My skin dulls and develops scaly patches; my oversized noggin bobs on my pencil-neck like an idiot balloon. Eating disorder memoirists love to fetishize hipbones, but I am here to tell you that mine made zero aesthetic contributions to my stomach area."
-Katy Waldman for Slate
On modern love for the modern, single woman:
"Why was I putting myself through this again? It was exhausting. Maybe love was overrated. Maybe love was just what people claimed to feel for anyone who’d put up with them. I leaned against the wall and closed my eyes. I could hear the chatter of women, turning on faucets, flushing toilets. I’ll just wait here, I thought, until the mingling is over."
-Susan M. Gelles for NY Times
This guy didn't drink for two years. This is what happened:
"I’ve had friends who’ve stopped hanging out with me because I don’t drink anymore. I’ve had relationships end (or not even start) because of it. I have been sent screenshots of people I know talking smack about me to other people because I choose to not do a thing."
-Andy Boyle for Medium
Black women don't get to be depressed:
"Depression was something that happened to white people on television, not a thing that could take down a Strong Black Woman. It seemed like just another way I was desperately trying to be white."
-Samantha Irby for Cosmo
Bill Cosby was finally charged with sexual assault.
"Mr. Cosby’s apologies to Ms. Constand and her mother and offer of financial assistance was 'further indicative of Cosby’s consciousness of guilt,' according to the complaint."
An interview with Michael Seidlinger on his book "The Strangest," which was inspired by Camus:
"I was particularly interested (and worried) in the narrative arc—a death, a murder, a trial—and whether or not I could accurately replicate it without it being too derivative for readers. I also worried about how much of the book should remain faithful to the classic and how much should be original."
-Heather Partington for The Rumpus