Basketdolls! Baby Rhubarb! Celebrity Egg Watch?!

Hey friends,

Say it with me: hope you’re all hanging in there(!!!!).

The newsletters I’ve received this week have all been titled, like, “Well, this sucks” and “What We’re Facing” and “What to do now” and “The Sky Is Falling” and “hell,” so forgive me for assuming that you’ve had enough of that and are okay with a normal newsletter.

First of all: thank you so so so much to everyone who came to the Boston Gender Ordeal show! Y’all were beyond kind, and it was a true pleasure to meet many of you after the show. One attendee DM’d me today, “I'm really glad I went to the Boston show! It's been a good memory to carry during this rough week,” which I mention because we are coming to Philly soon and I would love to meet YOU there :)

Tomorrow, we’re dropping a new Gender Reveal episode featuring the wonderful River Gallo. River is the creator of the feature film Ponyboi (2024), as well as the short film Ponyboi (2019) and another short film and two experimental plays also about Ponyboi. They’re also a star of the intersex documentary Every Body, which is currently free on Peacock.

Photo: River Gallo and Dylan O'Brien in Ponyboi (2024)

For once, I had a This Week in Gender topic all lined up for tomorrow’s episode — but after Tuesday, I replaced it with a little pep talk in which I attempt to bully everyone into Staying Alive and Having Fun In The World. Hopefully it’s helpful?? If not, no worries, I’ve got something else for you to listen to:

" no worries if not!" is the moodier sibling to "(complimentary)," a good-vibes-only playlist I shared a few months ago. Choose your fighter, pick your poison, etc.

Also, hey. Are we really, actually doing Bluesky now? I remain unconvinced, but then Jeff did this and now I’m checking it all the time?? Not sure why — I guess in case another member of Celebrity Egg Watch decides to come out? (C.E.W. is a real spreadsheet that I absolutely will never share.) ANYWAY. I’m there for now. Idk.

Okay, let’s do Links & Stuff.

• The NYT Tech Guild has called for a boycott of NYT Games & Cooking during their strike, and have very kindly created a wide array of new games for us to play instead.

• Frankie de la Cretaz and Hunter Abrams covered the Basketdolls! :) :) :)

• Kai Cheng Thom & Maya Deane wrote a valuable essay about reading trans fems

• This NY Mag profile of a direct-action climate change activist really wrecked me.

• This Luke O’Neil piece is from 2019 but wow what a kicker!!!!!

• Three election-related links: JP Brammer’s beautiful essay “M,” Margaret Killjoy’s suggestions for the future, and User Mag on why liberal media doesn’t have its own Joe Rogan.

Tuck’s Creature Corner:

• As a born-and-raised Duck hater, this is beautiful to me

That’s it for this week. As of Friday, Ruby and I have been together for six years now! So, for your weekly Rhubarb, here’s one of my favorite Baby Ruby pics :)

Photo: Ruby as a baby floofball 

Xo,
Yr resident gender detective