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I read Sable’s new book in preparation for our interview and I really loved it - she has such a great way of analyzing artifice and trends without making it feel academic. Gorg!
Aug 25, 2024
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chatted with Sable Yong about scent-based fascism, embracing outer beauty, analyzing artifice, and her fav Bruce Willis flick for this week's newsletter. her new book of essays Die Hot with a Vengeance is quite good <3
Aug 22, 2024
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"Beauty privilege is very real. None of us are imagining it, and if we aren’t born genetic lottery winners, our only option is to compensate with style, grace, and charm. Of course, none of that shit comes cheap. That’s kind of the whole point. It’s all meant to be aspirational and exclusionary. We’re supposed to feel depressed by our skin, agitated by our bodies, and anxious about our invisibility. That’s the insidious subtlety of social control.
The worst part is that we know in our rational minds that it’s all bullshit, and yet we’re still plagued with self-loathing when we can’t live up to unattainable beauty standards. No matter how much self-acceptance we achieve, we can still look in the mirror and instantly catalog all the things about ourselves that we don’t think measure up. It’s maddening. It makes us feel like hypocrites even though it’s not our hypocrisy."
– The Coquette, Ugly-Sexy: Cool? | Adult Mag (2014)
The worst part is that we know in our rational minds that it’s all bullshit, and yet we’re still plagued with self-loathing when we can’t live up to unattainable beauty standards. No matter how much self-acceptance we achieve, we can still look in the mirror and instantly catalog all the things about ourselves that we don’t think measure up. It’s maddening. It makes us feel like hypocrites even though it’s not our hypocrisy."
– The Coquette, Ugly-Sexy: Cool? | Adult Mag (2014)
Oct 2, 2024
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📚this is a premature rec bc although i got the ebook for this a while ago, i have only read the essay by ngai herself (titled "the cuteness of the avant garde" and really good, its included in the collection). im looking forward to reading the whole thing!!!! there are sooo many essays spanning many points in time, from 1927 - 2020, all about the cultural perception & impact of cuteness and artists who use cuteness in their practices
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📎a brief moment of comfort in this cold corporate existence
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🚗What happens behind the wheel is, frankly, none of my business. I'd rather spend my time picking songs/sipping coffee/taking in the scene.
Driving is so pedestrian.
Driving is so pedestrian.
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