June 14, 2023
Wanting more than "a bit of rainbow window dressing"
There’s an idealized version of a Pride Night in my head: one night a year where a ballpark truly becomes a place where straightness is the exception and not the norm. - No Straights at Pride Night Lauren Theisen, writing about Pride Night at baseball games, the nice things that we're painfully aware we can't have, for Defector. [more inside]
The SexyCyborg Origin Story
Why Do I Look Like...This? The SexyCyborg Origin Story (YouTube) Naomi Wu (aka Sexy Cyborg) is "a Chinese DIY maker and internet personality [who] challenge[s] gender and tech stereotypes with a flamboyant public persona, using objectification of her appearance to inspire women" (Wikipedia). This video is her origin story, and it is deeply personal and funny and poignant and so, so eye-opening. It's 38 min. long but worth it. [more inside]
He was a Protestant man, but we were the best of friends.
If You Have to Ask, Slowjamastan Is Not For You
what it means to be too big, Black, and brilliant for this world
I'm A Virgo [Official Trailer] “Through its depiction of Cootie — an awkward but endlessly curious and kindhearted young man Jerome inhabits with a boyish charm — and his parents, whose strict rules are a reflection of their love for him, I’m a Virgo is very explicitly telling a tale about what it means to be (or to raise) children whose Blackness and brilliance makes them too “big” for the world. Cootie’s gigantism is the way that Black children are robbed of their childhoods because of how other people perceive them to be older than they actually are and more deserving of punishment. Cootie’s gigantism is the boundless potential for greatness parents see in their Black children knowing full well that the society they’re living in isn’t designed to help them maximize it but, rather, to stifle it. It’s also a rather direct way of unpacking how, even when Black people manage to play the game successfully and reach the upper echelons of fame and fortune, the specter of racism by way of dehumanization is never all that far away.” [via: The Verge]
Humans are Biased, Generative AI is Even Worse
"Stable Diffusion generates images using artificial intelligence, in response to written prompts. Like many AI models, what it creates may seem plausible on its face but is actually a distortion of reality. An analysis of more than 5,000 images created with Stable Diffusion found that it takes racial and gender disparities to extremes — worse than those found in the real world." An analysis by Leonardo Nicoletti and Dina Bass for Bloomberg Technology + Equality, with striking visualizations. [more inside]
I wanted the liberating experience to happen while I'm making.
Happy Pride Day! After trailing out singles such as Contact and On The Run for months, Kelela [Wikipedia] finally released her second album Raven [YT playlist] earlier this year after a long hiatus. During this break, she went on a bit of a journey [Grounded: the revival of Kelela, Dazed, Sept 2022] that is a bit breathtaking in its scope and courage. NPR's It's Been A Minute profiled/interviewed Kelela [22m] earlier this year, for a different take on the same story, with background and music samples and a really involved interviewer. The Dazed article has more details on the curriculum she sent to her people. Thanks to eyeball for suggesting this artist. [more inside]
New Rubik's Cube World Record Gets Set At An Absurd Three Seconds
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