Happy Friday—and September!
I may have let out a squeal when Beyoncé shouldered a Cruella de Vil fur at the VMAs on Sunday and launched into “Don’t Hurt Yourself,” arguably the most feminist anthem on Lemonade. Surrounded by flames, she looked fearsome and absolutely furious. It was a rare celebration of female anger, and it was glorious.
This week, Caroline Siede wrote about how rare it is to see such a thing in TV and movies: “Fictional women can be catty, shrewish, whiny, manipulative, or even—occasionally—outraged at a deep injustice, but everyday female anger is depicted with shocking rarity.”
Like Siede, I thought my anger was a defect when I was a little girl. As an Archie comic book-obsessed kid, I was frightened to find that I identified more with dark-haired, temperamental Veronica than happy-go-lucky Betty the blonde—and even shaved off part of my eyebrows in efforts to correct myself. (I remember thinking so clearly: They make me look angry!) Meanwhile, girls just a little bit older than me had another Veronica: Winona Ryder’s Veronica Sawyer in Heathers.
Also: Cruella in the animated 101 Dalmations from 1961. Maybe—as Sarah Gailey wrote for Tor— Cruella and the sisterhood of Disney villainesses (not to mention those Veronicas) might not be such bad role models after all: “What could we become, if we threw our heads back when we laughed?” she writes. “It’s delicious and frightening to think about becoming the type of woman that a Disney illustrator would light from below, surrounded by billowing smoke, with your henchmen cowering in the background and every opportunity spread before you.”
Just something to think about.
Speaking of burning it down, right now some 70,000 people are parading around a dusty stretch of Nevada desert at Burning Man, creating pop-up architecture and art installations, ingesting countless hallucinogens, wearing steampunk goggles, removing their clothes, and, ultimately, burning the event’s eponymous man in effigy.
Quartz’s Olivia Goldhill suggested the festival’s popularity is a cry for help for the overworked professionals who flock there. One social psychologist told her the festival is a breeding ground for transformational experiences, because it offers burners authentic connections and opportunities for self-expression that may be rare in daily life. I used to think it was obnoxious to hear burners say, “You wouldn’t understand,” but those are cravings I totally get.
Hajj. If you think having a spiritual experience amongst 70,000 pilgrims in the Nevada desert sounds transformative, imagine having one with 3 million others in Mecca. Quartz’s Nushmia Khan is en route for the once-in-a-lifetime holy journey for Muslims known as the Hajj. For five nights, she’ll sleep in a tent with about 50 other North American women, including her sister, while she performs a series of sacred rituals.
“Hajj is supposed to be a grueling experience where you can see the best and the worst of people,” she said. “All you can control is how you react.” Nushmia says her #1 priority for the trip is patience.
Next Tuesday, Nushmia will be Snapchatting from Mecca, showing us the Holy Mosque that will be at the center of the Hajj a few days later, and documenting the preparations. Follow along at quartznews!
Last weekend, in my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri, I visited the city’s wonderful (free!) art museum. There, a touring exhibition called Self-Taught Genius completely blew me away. I mostly didn’t recognize the names of the artists—all without formal training—whose quilts, sculptures, and paintings I admired. In some cases, such as an intricate wooden model of the Empire State Building, the curators couldn’t even identify them. (They suspect that an ironworker who worked on the skyscraper made the model as a tribute.)
One of my favorite pieces was a wooden coyote carved in 1982 by Felipe Benito Archuleta, who had been a fruit-picker, fry-chef, and carpenter. When he was in his 50s and his work was slow, Archuleta said he had a vision telling him to make wood carvings. Word of his talent spread, and soon Archuleta had more commissions—giraffes, pigs, porcupines, and beyond—than he could keep up with: “I make these things not for the money, but to get rid of the people!” he told an art historian.
Famous or not, the works in this exhibit were moving because they felt beautifully human. It’s on in St. Louis through September 11, and then goes to Tampa for the remainder of the year. The works can be viewed online, and there’s more where they came from at New York’s American Folk Art Museum.
Try throwing your head back when you laugh—and have a great weekend!
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How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Buy tickets now! Marc Maron, the comedian and host of the raw, profound interview podcast, WTF, will be performing at Carnegie Hall on November 4. He is absolutely freaking out, and I will be there to support him. (Maron’s perspective, humor, and vulnerability got me through a tough time.) The show is part of the New York Comedy Festival, which will also host Fred Armisen, Tracy Morgan, and the fabulous, bawdy Bridget Everett, who totally could—and should—play a Disney villainess.