Spooky restocks! Straight funerals! Spicy advicey! Baseball playoffs!?!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re hanging in there. I’ve been trying to write this for at least three days but I keep getting distracted by… as you know all too well if you’re on twitter… baseball!!! THE SEATTLE MARINERS WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!

Oh, wait, I’m checking my notes here and it turns out they just made it into the playoffs for the first time since 2001. But you wouldn’t know it by the way that these boys partied or the amount of feelings I have had. (Yes we ended up talking about testosterone and sports-crying in the comments.)

In fact, I wrote a whole essay-thing about my feelings about baseball and loss and my dead dad and whatever and I can’t figure out a home for it so I might just publish it on the patreon in a bit. It has some gender in it???? Whatever.

ANYWAY. Podcast is podcasting along but TO BE HONEST I am moving slowly on scheduling interviews because I don’t know when the playoff games are scheduled for yet, and also because people aren’t getting back to us lol lol lol.

We’ve got some new merch tho! Well, actually, no new designs, but a few new items and lots and lots of restocks on our spooky and/or threatening favorites. See the whole lineup here.

Photo ID: A pink sweatshirt that says "Gender is Dead" next to an illustration of a skull with purple flowers growing out of it.

We also released a new Gender Conceal episode for our $5+ patrons, featuring Mckenzee and I answering some of the most iconic advice questions we’ve ever received. As always, if you don’t have $5 but really want to hear the ep, send me a message and I’ll get it to you.

Adding this pic of Mckenzee because she sent me a lot of really good ones that the world deserves to see... and also because a fun fact is that I bought this top as a gift for myself when I quit my job to do Gender Reveal full-time! And now Mckenzee owns all my best clothing, as the good transgender lord intended.

OK, there are a LOT of Links & Stuff this week, so here we gooooo:

• I learned way too much about professional stone-skipping this week.
• Our friend Emily St. James wrote two pieces about gender: one for you and one for your cis friends and family.
• Our friend Isle interviewed Torrey about what comes next.
• Andrea Long Chu wrote a new piece about mixed Asian characters. (Like her middle name, it’s really long.)
• If you’ve never thought about incarcerated Native Americans and their access to powwows and other cultural traditions, read this.
  

In a complete tonal shift: 

• I’m probably going to share Defector’s GBBO challenge attempts every week because they are essential reading.
• This is now my favorite choreographer (which means more than you might expect from me lol).
• I try not to share too many TikToks but oh my god.
• Speaking of TikTok, why not throw a straight funeral?
• This is what happens when you let trans people post about baseball.
  

Almost done...

• I’ve been doing a round puzzle from BetterCo while I listen to baseball and it rules! I was going to link it here but it appears to no longer exist… so instead I will link you to this puzzle I saw at the Brooklyn Museum and now dream about regularly. I may have linked it before? Oh well.
• Skip to like 0:55 seconds for a surprise.
• Last but not least, Cass shared one of the best archival websites to exist. Go nuts in there.

That’s it for this week. Mariners play their first playoff games Oct 7-8 so please spare a thought for my shreds of sanity. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb.

Photo ID: Ruby in a window next to a cat portrait by Liz Yerby and a Ruby sticker by Ira M. Leigh.

Xo,
Yr favorite gender detective

PS: Thank you to everyone for your Ruby toy recommendations! Her current favorite toy is “a leftover piece of string,” second only to “the fly currently trapped in my apartment.”