Oh almighty algorithm, my loving God, I pray that you bestow good fortune upon me.
I pray that you will comfort me in this time of diminishing views and paltry clicks. Dear Lord algorithm, how best can I serve you, and how can I offer you an adequate sacrifice?
I vow to fulfill your every wish, for I am your humble servant. Should you ask for me to sell my soul, I will gladly sell it. Should you urge me to sacrifice my values, I will gladly renounce them. Should you wish for shameless clickbait, I will lovingly provide it.
…
I’m embarrassed to admit that up until a few days ago, I was completely unaware that Angela Davis is a lesbian. It made me think — if I, a bisexual leftist and passionate devotee of Angela Davis, was not aware, how many other people must be unaware?
I was partly upset at myself for being oblivious. But I was more upset reflecting on why my history textbooks never once mentioned her sexuality. What does that mean about our society? How deeply has homophobia hijacked the way we teach history in the US?
So I did some research to find out…
In a classic episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians,” Kim plays a jarring prank on her family. She serves them each a slice of bright red mystery meat for dinner — but she only tells them it’s a human placenta once it’s already in their digestive systems.
Understandably, they’re pissed.
But she justifies the cruel joke as revenge for an incident earlier in the episode when they harshly judged her for expressing interest in eating her own placenta.
Come 2015, Kim Kardashian had indulged that long-held wish — she ate her own placenta after giving birth to her second…
She was heartbroken.
But she couldn’t tell what was hurting her more — the fallout from finding out her husband had cheated on her, or being shunned by her friends and family for choosing to stay with him.
My friend Sarah married Joe about 5 years ago. I remember attending their beautiful wedding. It was a jubilant affair. They were great for each other, and it was really obvious to everyone.
In the years that followed, they had two kids. As they both became busy with their jobs and with the kids, they gradually spent less quality time together.
But…
Like most people, I don’t like when others micromanage my behavior. So when someone pressures me to speak when I don’t have anything to say, or when I don’t feel like it, I find it very unnerving.
Growing up, it happened so often that it was almost an everyday occurrence. I’d be minding my own business and a classmate would barge into my personal space and say,
Why don’t you ever talk?
Why are you so quiet?
It frequently happened to me for several reasons.
First, I was always a very pensive person and I enjoyed being with my own…
In the US, the criminal justice system isn’t exactly fair.
In an ideal system, if you break the law, your punishment should be determined by the severity of the crime. But in our system, it’s skewed by all kinds of other factors. For instance, people of color receive much harsher sentencing than white people. Class plays a huge role as well — wealth can buy you the best lawyers and freedom from punishment.
And another privilege that can make you immune from consequences is celebrity status.
Below are five famous people whose actions killed people, intentionally or not. And thanks…
If you haven’t heard of incels, congratulations. They’re one of the most toxic online communities in existence (and if you’ve spent any time online, you know that’s saying a lot).
“Incel” is an abbreviation for “involuntary celibate.” In other words, an incel is someone who doesn't have sex but who would like to. In their view, they’ve been denied sex, a need which they’re entitled to have fulfilled, but which women have wrongfully robbed from them.
Most of them are cisgender, straight men. Most of them are white. And all of them are misogynistic.
They’ve created their own online bubble…
Women get boners too. Yes, I said it. Men don’t have a monopoly on erections.
Most men — and even some women — are unaware, but thanks to an often-neglected thing called the clitoris, women (and others with clitorises, such as trans men and some AFAB non-binary folks) get erections when they’re aroused.
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been hearing about men’s boners nearly every day of my life. About erectile dysfunction. About treatments for erectile dysfunction, like Viagra. About morning wood. About unwanted or inappropriate erections. About pleasurable erections. About erections being revealed to unsuspecting women…
As a bisexual woman who is also a fan of Taylor Swift’s music, I’ve been intrigued by the “Gaylor” conspiracy theory community that has recently emerged online.
What are “Gaylor” conspiracy theories, you might ask?
“Gaylor” believers subscribe to the idea that Taylor Swift is secretly bisexual or lesbian and that she intentionally conceals this from the public.
They’ve accumulated a ton of evidence — including Taylor’s seemingly romantic relations with her long-time “best friend” Karlie Kloss, not-so-subtle clues from her lyrics, her continual support for the LGBTQ community, her many public appearances where she donned rainbows, and much more.
…
Content warning: Discussion of violence, gore, and abortion.
In June of 1997, Melissa Drexler went shopping for elegant prom dresses with her friends. Like a typical teen, she planned to attend prom with her boyfriend. Everything appeared fine on the surface.
But underneath the veneer of normalcy, Melissa was secretly 9 months pregnant. She concealed this fact from her closest friends, her family, and even her boyfriend — the father of the baby on the way. Not a soul was aware of her pregnancy.
Luckily for her, she wasn’t “showing” as much as pregnant women typically do, and hiding the…