Must-Read Links: The Ashley Madison Leak, Katrina Anniversary, + More

The Yellow House

In this beautiful and heartrending piece in the New Yorker, Sarah Broom looks at the state of New Orleans ten years after Katrina, recounting her grandmother’s death, her brother’s harrowing survival story, and her mother’s yellow house, of which nothing is left but the foundation.

 

Here’s What’s Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up

“The truth is too ugly for a general audience,” writes Dee Barnes, a former TV host who was assaulted by Dr. Dre in the ’90s in this piece for Gawker that rivetingly calls into question the sanitized biopic of L.A.’s most notable gangsta rap group.

 

What It’s Like to Have ADHD As a Grown Woman

ADHD isn’t just a young boy’s disorder, as Rae Jacobson knows all to well. She writes about the sexist skepticism she’s faced in this illuminating piece about mental health and misogyny at The Cut.

 

Kate Harding’s Timely Asking For It Accepts No Excuses in the Rise of Rape Culture

DAME columnist Kate Harding’s brilliant book comes out on Tuesday (check back here then for an excerpt handpicked by Harding herself), and this review of it by DAME contrib, Rebecca Carroll, in the L.A. Times, will have you clamoring for its release, and appreciating its importance at a time when the dialogue about rape is reaching a fever pitch, one that will hopefully change the discourse, and our culture, for the better. 

 

20 Trans People Were Murdered This Year. This Is What Happened

The number of murdered trans people seems to be rising exponentially; this piece by Jorge Rivas at Fusion says their names, and puts their murders in context from a possible visibility backlash to the disproportionate number of trans women of color who are affected.

 

15 Men React to the Idea of Taking Their Wife’s Last Name After Marriage

“Listen, I’m a feminist. But we have to draw the line somewhere.” Elijah, 27, isn’t the guy who has closed his mind to the idea; in fact, Melanie Berliet’s piece at Thought Catalog is full of them.

 

Why New Orleans’ Black Residents Are Still Underwater After Katrina

Gary Rivlin’s account of post-Katrina New Orleans, for the New York Times Magazine, explores the storm’s impact on the city’s Black community, as experienced by Alden J. McDonald Jr., president of Liberty Bank and Trust Company, one of the largest Black-owned U.S. banks. A business crucial to supporting NOLA’s Black residents—and one that may soon be gone.

 

How Should I Feel About the Ashley Madison Leak?

At Slate, Amanda Hess breaks down the Ashley Madison info leak, a huge breech of privacy and a sex-related hack that for once targeted men rather than women. So how are we supposed to feel about it?

 

The Victims of Cameroon’s Horrific Breast Ironing Tradition

Gildas Paré’s photos at Vice of women who’ve been subjected to the horrific practice of breast ironing—having their chests massaged as young girls with hot tools like spatulas in an attempt to curb their growth (and thereby thwart the attention of men)—are haunting. The quotes from these women are even more disturbing.