sunday links
and disco tiles
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I have left X completely but you can find me on Bluesky, if that’s your thing.
Earlier this week I wrote about interior decorating as a coping mechanism and mentioned that I was considering putting rose gold disco tiles on my fireplace.
I’m pleased to announce that I have indeed put rose gold tiles on my fireplace.
As you can see from the image on the tv screen, I’ve also begun a Bones rewatch.
This week’s full moon in Taurus was a doozy. Hope everyone is hanging in there!
Links and memes
With apologies to the Toronto Sceptres and their new uniforms…
At , explains what those of us on this beat have been trying to tell folks for years: the trans sports bans were never actually about sports: “Sports were never the real issue—they’ve always been a way to get the foot in the door, to normalize placing an asterisk on the gender identity of transgender people. The notion that Democrats can ‘accept’ sports bans to appease those who wish us gone, or to prevent future anti-trans laws, is both naïve and dangerous. It concedes far more than a few trans kids playing soccer; it legitimizes the idea that transgender people are unequal under the law, creating the very framework the far right uses to fuel further attacks. In state after state, sports bans have been the first domino, laying the groundwork for the horrors inflicted by Republican legislatures. This isn’t compromise—it’s capitulation, and it’s a strategy that has already devastated transgender lives in 25 states.”
At , interviews the brilliant Sophie Lewis about the TERFism and SWERFism of the 4B movement and what a collective solidarity movement would look like. Lewis is a scholar and the author of the books Full Surrogacy Now and Abolish the Family. She has a book forthcoming in the spring that I’m very excited about, ENEMY FEMINISMS: Terfs, Policewomen, and Girlbosses Against Liberation: “It concerns me greatly that the definition of sex that seems to be operative here is about a resource that women dole out to men and never have appetites themselves. There's not really a call for lesbianism in this pseudo-lesbian separatism. The result is a rather whorephobic flavor. I think there is an evident moral denigration in this framework, given the lack of accounting for groups like sex workers—the women who continue to, you know, sleep with the enemy.”
Over at Sports Politika, writes about how when you see your favorite athletes—be it tennis legend Rafael Nadal, football stars like Neymar, or heavyweight giants like Francis Ngannou—praising Saudi Arabia as the future of sports, it’s best to take it with a hefty grain of salt: “Much like Messi, Neymar’s contract with Saudi Arabia likely includes a non-disparagement clause, limiting his ability to speak openly about his experience and reducing him to a PR tool.”
WNBA star Courtney Williams is engaged (Williams and her now-fiance, N’Shya, were featured in a WNBA Pride video last season):
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