So Much More Than Enough By Soraya Roberts Feature My favorite director, Lynn Shelton, died suddenly this month at the age of 54. Did the spirit of indie filmmaking go with her?
On the Hotness of Not Getting Any By Soraya Roberts Feature Edging, or extending the time leading up to an orgasm, is almost a character of its own in Normal People, Run, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. It also has a lot to teach us about sexuality and consent.
What Happens If I Don’t Like Fiona Apple? By Soraya Roberts Feature It seems like everyone in the world loves “Fetch the Bolt Cutters.” So why don’t I? On the isolation of disconnection.
My Body Is Not a Temple By Soraya Roberts Feature All the good habits and self-optimization in the world don’t give you real control over your body. Back away from the bread starter.
A Crying Public Shame By Soraya Roberts Feature Dialogue, Twitter-style: you get called out on social media. People pile on to you. Other people pile on to the pile-oners. Soon everyone’s anxious or angry or both, no one’s really talking (or listening), and a few tech CEOs are buying new houses in Jackson Hole.
Wait, What? By Soraya Roberts Feature It’s surprising when stodgy institutions award progressive artists, and surprises, even good ones, are alarming — so we immediately burden the winners with the weight of symbolism.
Regarding the Pain of Oprah By Soraya Roberts Feature She gets a mansion and she gets a boat and she gets a jet! And you get to suffer and then maybe pull yourself up by your bootstraps, if you’re lucky enough and bare enough of your private pain.
Be a Good Sport By Soraya Roberts Feature Competitive sports can mean professional and financial success — if they don’t compromise your mental health first. ‘Cheer’ and ‘Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez’ show how athletics can hurt as much as they can heal.
Menace Too Society By Soraya Roberts Feature Cancel culture suggests we can change the world from the outside in, but the misogyny and racism are coming from inside the house.
Happily Never After By Soraya Roberts Feature By protecting ourselves and no one else, we destroy ourselves along with everyone else.
Still Waters By Soraya Roberts Feature The muted response to Todd Haynes’s “Dark Waters” is depressingly similar to our culture’s muted response to climate change
Longreads Best of 2019: Arts and Culture By Longreads Commentary We asked writers and editors to choose some of their favorite stories of the year in various categories. Here is the best in arts and culture.
The Great White Nope By Soraya Roberts Feature Canada’s old white publishing institutions are a lesson in what happens when your media industry contracts: journalism no longer serves the reality of the country.
Bully for You By Soraya Roberts Feature Women with power have the capacity to silence women with less — and they wield it. Why can’t they see that?
Under the Influence: Watch(wo)men By Soraya Roberts Feature We watch the (women) influencers watching the (heavily female) influencing industry, but the men aren’t entirely in the dark.
Under the Influence: Deeper Than Beauty By Soraya Roberts Feature Influencers who break type, like Mina Gerges or Jakiya Brown, have more than just an image. They have a story — and a plan.
Under the Influence: White Lies By Soraya Roberts Feature When you read “influencer,” do you think “white woman”? That’s not a surprise: the stereotypes originally established offline are reaffirmed on social media by the same systems.
End of Discussion By Soraya Roberts Feature There’s no such thing as a 140-character exegesis: the (non)-discourse around “Joker” is the latest to prove that social media is designed for emotion, not dialogue.
Grow Up By Soraya Roberts Feature Being an adult at the end of the world means listening to children tell the truths grown-ups refuse to actually hear.
Cahiers du Post-Cinéma By Soraya Roberts Feature The movie theater was once a kind of lay church, with festivals like TIFF serving as annual religious holidays — until new houses of worship opened online.
The Myth of Making It By Soraya Roberts Feature If the most financially and critically successful artists don’t feel successful, maybe there’s something wrong with how we think about success.
White Looks By Soraya Roberts Feature Should white critics cover black culture? Only if they’re able to own their whiteness.
Won’t You Be My Neighbor: An Anti-Hate Pop Culture Syllabus By Soraya Roberts Feature Media and entertainment grounded in empathy are a critical part of a saner culture — and we can all help by actively producing, seeking, and supporting it.
Death Proof By Soraya Roberts Feature With ‘Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood,’ Quentin Tarantino slakes his thirst for nostalgia while he plays god with another piece of history.
This (Wo)Man’s Work By Soraya Roberts Feature When men devalue the labor of women like Andrea Arnold and overvalue the work of even problematic men, it’s a triple whammy that diminishes the individual woman, women in general, and the overall quality of culture.
If I Made $4 a Word, This Article Would Be Worth $10,000 By Soraya Roberts Feature Journalism’s one percent would rather make up a fake feud than address the reality of the industry’s pay disparity, which benefits them and no one else.
‘Women Created Our Worlds:’ Native Art Reclaims Its Power By Soraya Roberts Feature There’s a direct line from missing and murdered indigenous women to the repression of Native women’s contributions to art and culture, but those long-silenced voices are now making themselves heard.
The View From 5-Foot-3 (and a Half) By Soraya Roberts Feature Maybe we can’t transcend height, but can we transcend the internalized misogyny that causes us to limit ourselves and judge other women?
Fashions Fade, But Fleabag Is Forever By Soraya Roberts Feature The jumpsuit is great, but it won’t get you a hot priest or a BAFTA — you’re not Fleabag (or Phoebe Waller-Bridge).
The Artificial Intelligence of the Public Intellectual By Soraya Roberts Feature Today’s public intellectuals have their own version of the American Dream, where one person, on their own, can achieve anything — including being the smartest person in the room.
