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The secret to almost everything

Plus: a virtual school for looksmaxxing, 'living apart together,' Sylvia Plath's diary, and more in the weekend roundup.

Tracy Clark-Flory

Jul 21

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You know when a writer articulates something you feel but have never found the words for? That and more in the weekend roundup.

To the links…

I just finished Carvel Wallace’s memoir and this bit, whew:

Sex is weird and disgusting and ridiculous and quite often abused and weaponized and traumatic. But I still like it. … Sometimes I think it might hold the secrets to almost everything.

An online “looksmaxxing” school that teaches men how to become “hot.” GQ asks: “Is it possible to build a digital utopia out of a self-loathing subculture?”

Katy Perry is stuck in 2016 feminism.

Sylvia Plath’s diary never disappoints: “I long for the blind burning irresponsible delight of being crushed against a man’s body. I want to be ravished… to hear a man groan hoarsely, for in that moment I am the victor.”

The “living apart together” movement.

Not quite sure what internet rabbit hole led me to this 2019 speech from Lauren Berlant, but here I am listening to her talking about feminism, “erotophobia,” “the mess of sex,” love, and structural revolution.

The message of Charli xcx’s Brat is “feminine contradiction—the way someone can be a 365 party girl and also anxious about motherhood, the way friendship with other powerful women can be both empowering and a source of anxiety, the way a full-on thirtysomething woman can still feel like a girl inside,” says Monica Heisey...