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interesting academic writing

i studied sociology and the wonderful v interdisciplinary field of gender studies, here is a combo of my favorite papers + some of the most interesting (if not bizarre) ones. obv they are both heavy fields and i don’t remember exactly what is in each so just be warned there may be difficult topics mentioned! also i am just copy/pasting some of these from old bibliographies and syllabi lol but if you google them most have free PDFs online. i tried picking stuff related to culture but apologies if this is too long, i am a soc/gs nerd! articles: the REAL meaning and origin of the term “male gaze” (and why I get SO mad when women today misuse it instead of saying internalized misogyny): Laura Mulvey “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” 1989 Dana M Britton “The Epistemology of the Gendered Organization” 2000 Dick Hebdidge “Subculture: The Meaning of Style” 2011 (book) George Chauncey “Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890–1940” 1994 (book not article but super iconic / important) Dean Spade “Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics and the Limits of Law” 2011 (another book, v dense) Joan Acker (def check out her other work if you like this one, I love her stuff) “From Sex Roles to Gendered Institutions” 1992 Colin Kaepernick, Robin D. G. Kelley, and Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor (editors) ”Our History Has Always Been Contraband” 2023 (book about Black Studies comprised of essays/excerpts of theory and about history) Evan B Towle and Lynn M Morgan “Romancing the Transgender Native Rethinking the Use of the "Third Gender" Concept” 2002 WEB DuBois “The Souls of Black Folk” 1903 (more people should read this) J. E. Sumerau, Ryan T. Cragun, Lain A. B. Mathers ““I Found God in The Glory Hole”: The Moral Career of a Gay Christian” 2016 lol Patricia Hill Collins “TOWARD A NEW VISION: RACE, CLASS, AND GENDER AS CATEGORIES OF ANALYSIS AND CONNECTION” 1993 (sorry for all caps) Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman “Doing Gender” 1987 Laurel Westbrook and Kristen Schilt “Doing Gender, Determining Gender: Transgender People, Gender Panics, and the Maintenance of the Sex/Gender/Sexuality System” 2014 (MORE PEOPLE SHOULD READ THIS! it basically offers empirical evidence / explanation of of how transphobia actually perpetuates misogyny rather than simply “protecting women” or not) Olúfemi O. Táíwò “Elite Capture: How the Powerful Took Over Identity Politics“ 2022 (book) Cathy J Cohen “Punks, Bulldaggers, and Welfare Queens” 1997 Colin P Ashley “Gay Liberation: How a Once Radical Movement Got Married and Settled Down” 2015

@marxinista

Oct 15, 2024

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OKOK sexuality of CAnnibalism rant

fuckin uhhhh,, wrote this at like 4 am for a powerpoint night,,, examining cannibalism thru litcrit,,,, no promises about that part 2 but i do have Thoughts title: eating you (out): the inherent sexuality of cannibalism So much of our sexual language contains also that of hunger. Conversely, cannibalism contains within it the hunger of sexuality – the hunger for another’s body. “I’m starved for touch” “Oh I could just eat you up”  “they were eating each others’ faces”  “Eat my pussy” The knowledge of cannibalism as erotic — and eroticism as cannibalistic — is carried through our language of sexuality hunger from tender to sensual to pornographic. Cannibalism is the ultimate act of a possessive, starving sexuality. It is the ultimate knowledge of the other, from whence there can be no return. Once you have partaken of another’s flesh, you are something different. You’re full. The King James Bible often translates sexual acts as "knowing"; thus knowing someone, in the biblical sense, is a carnal knowledge. And what knowledge is more intimate, more totalizing, than the knowledge of another’s taste? Cannibalism is a carnal knowledge, but it also exemplifies the horrors of being known intimately, the fears associated with sex. Will I become absorbed by this person, this other? What does their knowledge of me mean for my selfhood? How much of me can they Know before I cease to exist entirely? Thus, cultural depictions of cannibalism are overwhelmingly stories where love and horror coexist. In the ancient greek myths, we can see these inklings of a cannibalism borne out of love. When Saturn, or Cronos, hears the prophecy of his destruction at the hands of his children, he knows he must kill them. But rather than merely dispatching them in some sterile, unphysical way, he retakes into his body that which came from it. He cannot allow his children to live, and yet he cannot live without them; they must become a part of him. This presents a painful physicality of love that could only be expressed as cannibalism. This is the erotic complexity of cannibalism – possession, love, knowledge, sex, fear, consumption.  Modern tv and movies have heightened awareness of the sexual nature of cannibalism to a degree that cannot be ignored. [slide w/ NBC Hannibal and Twilight posters] Both these depictions are deeply possessive, and certainly toxic – I need you so much that I must bend your body to my will and consume you totally — yet hold space for tenderness, intimacy, friendship, and marriage. In NBC’s 2012 horror/comedy masterpiece Hannibal, we see the ways in which cannibalism can present both this deep possessiveness and hunger (literally and figuratively), but also the ways in which cooking and eating someone is an act of intimacy. Hannibal spends hours making people into gourmet meals, familiarizing himself with their bodies before taking them into his own. Imagine the caress of spices before the heat of the gas stove flame. He remembers each of his meals like one might remember an old lover. We might say that the relationship between pleasure and pain is central to the cannibalism’s sexuality — the pleasure and the pain of being known, the dichotomy of possessiveness and tenderness.  Cannibalism is kinky, it’s sadomasochistic.  In Twilight, Edward's vampirism, the capital-b Bite, is a clear metaphor for sex. Metatexually, the story needs this metaphorical distancing because of Meyer’s Mormonism, but the choice of vampirism, of cannibalism, as the sexual metaphor exposes the already existing cultural linkages between the two. Bella’s erotic fascination with the Bite, and Edward’s shame at his bloody desires, entwine the cannibalistic act of vampirism with sex and sexuality. Let us not forget that Twilight spawned the massive softcore kink book/movie franchise Fifty Shades of Grey. Reading these texts together, we can see clearly how the vampiristic, cannibalistic hunger of Twilight IS the kinky, sadomasochistic sex of Fifty Shades. These authors are writing the same thing.  An interesting dynamic that arises with regard to the sexuality of cannibalism is the aspect of penetration. There is a double penetration occuring – that of the carving knife, and that of the flesh. In the first instance, the cannibal as the power-holder is doing the penetrating; this is to be expected in a cisheteronormative culture. But the second penetration is that of the cannibalized into the cannibal — the cannibal is allowing someone else’s flesh into them, is allowing their body to be changed by someone else’s. Here, although the cannibal is still (obviously) in a dominant role, they experience vulnerability and penetration at the hands of their partner. This is queer as fuck!!  Cannibalism is not just sexual, it embodies a queer sadomasochistic sexuality. Bones and All (2022) highlights this perfectly -- the eroticism of satiating a hunger that has been condemned and relegated to psychiatric institutions and subversive subcultures.  We as a culture have accepted --- and even adore --- the sexual nature of cannibalism in our media. But how has the sexual cannibal presented throughout history? What institutions does it support, and is the sexuality of cannibalism something that must be destroyed? Stay tuned for part 2 for a historical materialist analysis of sexy cannibalism :) 

@solitarytea

Feb 21, 2025

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Feminism (and its language) has been coopted by corporate interest, absorbed into the mainstream, and lost its meaning

And choice feminism turned it into a matter of individuality rather than systemic issues, while also making it essentially forbidden to critique anything and positioning any criticism as an act of internalized misogyny. As a society we also take for granted the rights women gained (not even that long ago!), and dismiss the ways less privileged women are still exploited. And when feminism became associated with “sexual empowerment“ that ultimately serves the male gaze (ex free the nipple), we reinforced the societal value of beneficial sexism, and feminism had to be sexy. Pop feminism is no longer a materialist ideology. This has all led us to the current Evie Magazine right wing trad-wife backlash… All of that is to say that I’m here 😜🫶 lol but I actually love Sara Petersen’s Substack and through her you can discover a lot of other really amazing writers

@taterhole

Jan 15, 2025

Top Recs from @justinlapuff

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Modeling your life after movies like Paris, texas​

Your life should be full of hardship, you should walk for hours on end across the desert in this disagreeable world, theorizing, you should wake up one day and find love is possible

@justinlapuff

Jan 26, 2024

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Chronological playlists

You are the main character, not Taylor Swift or the country genre. I think most people with an angst above level 3 do this, but you should make playlists about your epochs/arcs/eras random memory-tied tracks that bring you to moments of your life - you'll just enjoy it more.

@justinlapuff

Jan 26, 2024

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Esoteric nipple play

Snakes, leeches, ice cubes shaped like bullets, miniature propeller hats with internal feathers, studio fan with a sturdy cubic feet per minute, a multi course Michelin Star meal with even smaller portions, Infinite Jest for the ventriloquism stage, Marvin's Room karaoke solo audio amp clamp attachment, a virtual locket tattoo in the dermis to watch Family Guy on during... The list goes on.

@justinlapuff

Jan 27, 2024