Dear female students: Stop writing about men
salon.comAnother common theme — and this one never fails to shock me — is the young woman who discovers her boyfriend is cheating by reading his texts on his cellphone. So he’s cheating, but she’s invading his privacy. I have to still my hand from writing “WTF?” in the margins.
Estimated reading time: 12 min
My fake online boyfriend
salon.comAlthough to be precise, I never “met” him. Ours was a thoroughly 21st relationship that unfolded through the Web, email and iPhone, a drama in which the two suitors never actually shook hands. It was one of the strangest romances I’ve ever had, not simply because I did not know him in person but because I truly came to believe he did not exist.
Estimated reading time: 15 min
Stop posting that Dove ad: “Real beauty” campaign is not feminist
salon.comHere’s another experiment. Find a 4-year-old and ask her to draw a picture of you. At the same time, blindfold yourself and draw a self-portrait. You might be surprised to learn that through a child’s innocent eyes, you’re actually a potato with a shock of purple hair, sticks for limbs and a triangular nose that rests somewhere south of where you always imagined your neck to be.
Estimated reading time: 4 min
Flashback! Psychedelic research returns
salon.com“I walked out of the session happy, unafraid of death,” he says. “I don’t know why, but a transformation took place after being in that peaceful place. I relaxed. I started enjoying food again and was able to gain weight. The session taught me to be fully in the present. I’m optimistic. Mentally and physically, just better.”
Estimated reading time: 19 min
I do not fear death
salon.com›Kindness" covers all of my political beliefs. No need to spell them out. I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this and am happy I lived long enough to find it out.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
When I was kidnapped
salon.comOnce you do get yourself un-kidnapped, you have to figure out your way back into the world.
Estimated reading time: 6 min
How Netflix is turning viewers into puppets
salon.comFor at least a year, Netflix has been explicit about its plans to exploit its Big Data capabilities to influence its programming choices. “House of Cards” is one of the first major test cases of this Big Data-driven creative strategy. For almost a year, Netflix executives have told us that their detailed knowledge of Netflix subscriber viewing preferences clinched their decision to license a remake of the popular and critically well regarded 1990 BBC miniseries. Netflix’s data indicated that the same subscribers who loved the original BBC production also gobbled down movies starring Kevi[…]
Estimated reading time: 8 min
Report: Sex addiction is BS
salon.comsex addiction has become a convenient term to describe disapproved sex.
Estimated reading time: 5 min
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salon.com“There are no conclusive tests,” she began, “but some studies show that children who have two gay biological parents might have a higher chance of being gay themselves.” The three of us stayed quiet, stunned. “Is that OK?” the doctor asked. After a few seconds, I broke the awkward silence. “Forget it,” I said, turning to Tim. “We can’t use you as the donor now.” The doctor looked confused. “I’m just kidding,” I finally assured her. “We think being gay is fine, so we’re OK if that happens.”
Tarantino’s incoherent three-hour bloodbath
salon.comLately Tarantino appears to have drifted into the hipster equivalent of George Lucas-land, where everyone around him agrees with his dumb ideas and nobody dares to observe that the movies are fatally undisciplined and way too long and not really about anything.
Estimated reading time: 6 min
Sex’s first revolution
salon.comIf you fast-forward a hundred years to 1754, people have started to think and behave differently. There was a huge explosion in the amount of sex outside marriage, which was no longer punished. In 1754, [English radical] John Wilkes writes this great line in his “Essay on Woman”: “Life can little more supply, than just a few good fucks and then we die.” I think this is a wonderful encapsulation of a completely new way of thinking about the purpose of life, the greatness of sexual pleasure and the role of sex in life on earth. That’s just one of the huge shifts that take place, and th[…]
Estimated reading time: 16 min
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