The most compelling stories from our favorite sources.
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The Meaning of Serena Williams
“And in winning, it’s not supposed to swagger, to leap and pump its fist, to state boldly, in the words of Kanye West, ‘That’s what it is, black excellence, baby.’” Claudia Rankine’s in-depth piece at the New York Times Magazine on Serena Williams and what her very Serena-ness means for sports and race in America will make you appreciate one of the greatest athletes we’ve seen in our lifetime.
Over at Elle, Chloe Schama makes a case for why women wanting to get pregnant deserve a better word than trying. How ’bout something that doesn’t intimate success or failure, ok?
America’s Latest Dystopian Nightmare: The Horrifying Media Echo Chamber of the Virginia TV Shooting
When we see our “culture of violence catching up with our culture of technology,” how are we supposed to process it? Jack Mirkinson’s piece at Salon looks at Wednesday’s horrible shooting and smartly comes to the only conclusion there is: we’ve got to talk about gun control.
“I felt wild because I was wild—not shaky and insecure, but rattling with a raw and primal energy.” Darcey Steinke’s account at the Cut of the upheaval of menopause and the epiphany it gave her is a must-read, whether you know the horror of a hot flash or not.
How a Pair of Female Fighters Broke into the Big Time
At the New York Times, military wife (and DAME contrib!) Lily Burana explains why they graduation of two women from the Army’s elite Ranger School is a “moon landing moment: One grueling training course for two female soldiers, one giant leap for womankind.”
Think everyone looks forward to the carefree days of summer? Elissa Strauss’s Longreads piece will have you thinking differently about the season she calls a social justice issue, especially after diving in to the story of a single mom and her 6-year-old daughter.
The Fable of Ethnic Loudness and How It Penetrates the White Space
DAME contrib Carol Hood explains at The Frisky why booting the Sistahs on the Reading Edge off that Napa Valley Wine Train for “being loud” was a more insidious injustice than it might seem on the surface, one indicative of the silent racism every gregarious Black woman has experienced.
“’Equal pay for equal work’ is a way to make the best of a bad paradigm, a world in which most of us aren’t paid enough and everyone works too much.” In honor of Women’s Equality Day, Ann Friedman lays down the law at the Cut about what we should actually be fighting for.
Ok, it’s true, this one isn’t really a longread, but when your Tinder bio says “Hello, I’m a feminist,” it brings all kinds of misogyny out of the ether, and this Instagram account captures the douchebaggery in its digital glory.
Photo: Christopher Griffith for the New York Times