Unvaxxed, Unfriend?
also: CAN you make a living selling 👣 pics?
Hello, unladies! I’ve been deluged the past couple weeks and haven’t been able to write the newsletter. But I’m (mostly) back on track, baybeeeees. So, please enjoy this double scoop of latest podcast episodes, Patreon bonuses and things happening out in the world from my own backyard to Italy, Iran and India.
See you in your inbox in a few days!
<3, cristen
main feed: Ask Unladylike: Unvaxxed, Unfriended?
The Unladylike inbox is already poppin after this week’s new episode, feat. vax vs. friendship! Women vs male-dominated industries! Cristen vs her dad!! It’s a good one, if I do say so myself about a podcast episode featuring only myself.
Two sources I found especially insightful were Friendships end for many reasons, including differences exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic (The Conversation), and regarding listener Lydia’s starting her computer science career confidently, Is the Confidence Gap Between Men and Women a Myth? (Harvard Biz Review).
and last week’s foot fetishism explainer: Sexxxy Feet
“I’ve sucked enough toes in my life to know when something’s not right.” That source quote from last week’s episode will be forever burned in my mind and perhaps one day sewn onto a large enough pillow.
Thanks to this episode, I also was fully prepared with facts n stats when the selling feet pics came up this weekend at a baby shower I attended. And I swear I wasn’t the one who brought it up! Loose plans to start a FeetFinder for one guest with objectively cute feet may or may not have been made.
So! Much! Bonus! A right-wing dating app flop; listener letters on STEM sexism, un-going gray and dropping unvaxxed friends; “sorry, James Madison”; and litigious aborted embryos
This week on Patreon, I warm up with some user reviews for The Right Stuff dating app for conservatives, then head to the podcast inbox to share some not preselected, grade-A unladyletters (including an A for angry with me!)
On last week’s Extra Unladylike, break down how the estate of an aborted embryo is suing for wrongful death in Arizona. Hint: aggrieved ex-husband with enough money and time to legally harass his ex-wife via the state’s fetal personhood laws, which 10 other states also have enacted.
But first, we take a quick trip to DC.
THANK YOU THANK YOU to this week’s newest dearest Unladylike patrons Alyssa, Emily and Kelly! ⭐⭐⭐
need to know:
IRAN’S GIRLS TO THE FRONT. (Twitter) It’s the fourth week of Iran protests following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, and women and girls are still leading the charge in the streets and in schools, risking expulsion, violence and death. I’ve bookmarked this deep dive on Woman, Life, Liberty (New Lines)—the protest slogan that originated from the Kurdish women’s liberation movement— and this piece on art birthed from the protest (Guardian), but right now, I can’t stop watching the girls.
Unladies in Italy are taking nothing for granted. (PBS) Incoming far-right Prime Minister Georgia Meloni has told them who she is, and LGBTQ and abortion rights supporters believe her. Meloni and her Brothers of Italy Party are, in her words (BBC): “Yes to the natural family, no to the LGBT lobby, yes to sexual identity, no to gender ideology…no to Islamist violence, yes to secure borders…” and other fascist dog whistles. (related: I predict America’s first woman Prez will be a Republican. I also hope I’m wrong. 🔮)
Actually good abortion news in India. (Bloomberg) Last week, the country’s high court expanded abortion rights for single (cisgender) women, affirming their right to terminate pregnancies up to 24 weeks, same as married women. Meanwhile in America . . .
Follow the Anti-Abortion $$$: Botox Edition. (The Unpublishable) Jessica DeFino masterfully breaks down the money trail from beauty media and brands—including but certainly not limited to Cosmo, Refinery29, Urban Decay and Botox—to the 124 Republicans sponsoring national abortion ban legislation. Read it and weep. Before applying any non-waterproof mascara and eyeliner, of course.
“Breaking down the platonic-romantic binary”. (NBC News) Liliana Bakhtiari, Atlanta City Council member and Georgia’s first queer Muslim elected official, has come out publicly as nonmonogamous and planning to build a family with their two partners (and 🐈🐈). It’s a really lovely interview—recommend!
unladies are saying:
I am a person who ended a friendship over the vaccine ... [It] was the final straw. I had reached out privately over a few of her social media posts (anti BLM, anti-choice, etc) to try to get a better understanding and explain my position (one she clearly had misinformation about) but it was getting harder and harder to feel like I wanted a person with such different VALUES in my life. Then . . . the vaccine cometh.
- unlady Sarah re: Ask Unladylike
til next week . . .
