Claire Conger

Today’s idea is courtesy of a New York Times article on bruxism.

When I come across a photo of a woman from the nineteenth century, my usual thought is that she’s ugly, mannish looking. When I try to watch a period drama, the actors don’t seem right to me—they’re all too good looking!  Read more... (292 words, estimated 1:10 mins reading time)

You Play the Girl by Carina Chocano: You Play the Girl because that’s your only option. I read the title backwards. I read it as a young girl bossing another in a game of house. I had to finish the book before I realized “playing the girl” is all about limited options for how one might maneuver through the minefield of Madonna-whore contradictions that shade our culture.  Read more... (373 words, estimated 1:30 mins reading time)

Lately, we’ve been inundated with stories of men’s entitlement gone awry: the Me Too movement, of course, but also Rebecca Solnit’s being mansplained by someone so arrogant he barely paused when her friend got through to him that he was lecturing Ms. Solnit on her own work.  Read more... (307 words, 1 image, estimated 1:14 mins reading time)

Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream author Barbara Ehrenreich is trying to land a white-collar position in a corporation. She wants to find out what job hunting is like in the trenches of the middle-class unemployed and expects to write her book with a happy “I got the job” ending. That’s not what happens.  Read more... (256 words, 4 images, estimated 1:01 mins reading time)

My sister thinks the New York Times favors Black people when choosing photos for the front page of their Arts section. In Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Isabel Wilkerson provides an answer for that seeming favoritism. She explains that Black people are over represented today in entertainment because under the Jim Crow laws, entertaining was one of the few jobs they were allowed. Black people had generations of practice: When they were actual slaves, they were required by their masters to sing and dance and appear to be happy.  Read more... (353 words, 1 image, estimated 1:25 mins reading time)