READ: The 2000s Made Me Gay: Essays on Pop Culture by Grace Perry
Grace Perry is an author, comedian, and essayist. Her newest collection of essays came out last month and to give you an idea of what it’s all about, topics covered include Taylor Swift’s songwriting, a New Yorker review of the L Word pilot that uses the phrase “truly idiotic,” and the sapphic overtones present in Disney Channel original movies. ‘The 2000s Made Me Gay’ is hard to put down as Grace Perry’s writing is not only hilarious, but she presents a truly fascinating analysis of sexuality and gender within 2000s media.
From the Publisher:
From The Onion and Reductress contributor, this collection of essays is a hilarious nostalgic trip through beloved 2000s media, interweaving cultural criticism and personal narrative to examine how a very straight decade forged a very queer woman. Today’s gay youth have dozens of queer peer heroes, both fictional and real, but former gay teenager Grace Perry did not have that luxury. Instead, she had to search for queerness in the (largely straight) teen cultural phenomena the aughts had to offer: in Lindsay Lohan’s fall from grace, Gossip Girl, Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl,” country-era Taylor Swift, and Seth Cohen jumping on a coffee cart. And, for better or worse, these touchpoints shaped her adult identity. She came out on the other side like many millennials did: in her words, gay as hell. Throw on your Von Dutch hats and join Grace on a journey back through the pop culture moments of the aughts, before the cataclysmic shift in LGBTQ representation and acceptance—a time not so long ago, which many seem to forget.
Get it Here
WATCH: Halston
If you haven’t watched the 5 episode miniseries about American fashion designer Halston yet, it’s time. The 2021 Emmy nominees were just announced and Halston is up for 5 categories- production design, period costumes, period makeup, lead actor (Ewan McGregor, as Halston), and music supervision. Directed by Daniel Minahan, the show is the story of Halston rising to fame with his worldwide fashion empire that defined the Studio 54 era of luxury, sex, status before his life began to spin out of control.
LISTEN: On Being With Krista Tippett Podcast
Hosted by the American journalist Krista Tippett, On Being is a Peabody Award-winning public radio show and podcast that takes on the big questions of meaning — spiritual inquiry, science, social healing, and the arts. Every Thursday Tippett is in conversation with humans of different fields (authors, professors, scientists, religious leaders, and so on) dealing with the big question: What does it mean to be human? How do we want to live? And who will we be to each other?
One of our favorite episodes is with the author of On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong. Check it out here.
Listen on: Spotify
–Leah Flannery
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