Cara Delevingne’s ‘Peg the Patriarchy’ moment from the 2021 Met Gala undoubtedly missed the mark. Delevingne and Dior both failed to credit the original creator of the slogan, a black, queer sex educator Luna Matatas. Beyond this transgression, Delevingne’s message and its delivery were blatant examples of the contradictory messages often encoded in mainstream depictions of non-normative sexualities. Delevingne clearly thought her stunt was groundbreaking, or at the very least, intelligent and thought-provoking. This begs the question of why, exactly, mainstream representations of non-normative sexualities so often miss the mark, and often do more harm than good.
Ep #84 Activist Anthropology & Becoming Humanitarian Victims: This month on TFS
The Familiar Strange · Ep #84 Activist Anthropology & Becoming Humanitarian Victims: This month on TFS This week the strangers are joined by Kathryn Allan! Kathryn is currently completing her PhD at the school of Archaeology and Anthropology at the Australian National University. Her research focuses on stateless persons, refugees, and asylum seekers. She is … Continue reading Ep #84 Activist Anthropology & Becoming Humanitarian Victims: This month on TFS
Bring Me the Head of Norman Vincent Peale: Self Care and the American Obsession with the Power of Positive Thinking
I don’t know when I first heard the term “toxic positivity” but it was sometime after my father was diagnosed with advancing dementia and before my own initial bout with breast cancer. The concept, though, is relatively simple. Toxic positivity is a kind of cultural obsession with the necessity of positive thinking or the belief that people should always put a positive spin on every experience, even the profoundly tragic. It’s a kind of silver lining run amok: wherein instead of acknowledging the good that can sometimes emerge from the bad, you gild the entire cloud in a precious, glittery veneer of happy thoughts. And American culture is utterly obsessed with it.
Ep #83 Parasocial relationships & Strangers: Dr Ian Pollock on the Origin of The Familiar Strange
The Familiar Strange · Ep #83 Parasocial relationships & Strangers: Dr Ian Pollock on the Origin of The Familiar Strange Matt’s back this week with an interview with one of the original Familiar Strangers Dr Ian Pollock. Ian discusses the origins of the Familiar Strange, why it started and whether it helped or hindered his … Continue reading Ep #83 Parasocial relationships & Strangers: Dr Ian Pollock on the Origin of The Familiar Strange