By Lindsay Bell-Wheeler
Welcome to the 50th edition of The Three Things, the weekly update of three links, podcasts, videos, or books you can’t miss from Michael Schechter (A Better Mess),Howie Goldfarb (Blue Star Strategic Marketing), and yours truly, Lindsay Bell.
For those of you new to this series, The Three Things arrives in your inbox on Sunday mornings (unless you don’t subscribe, but that can easily be fixed if you hurry over and enter your email address or add to your RSS feed) so you have some extra time to spend perusing the obscure content we’ve curated for you (and one another) before your week begins and deadlines, meetings, and work takes over.
This week we look at the loneliness of being ‘independent’, a smart pop princess (who it is might blow your mind), and revenge porn.
Frank Chimero × Blog × The Inferno of Independence
Michael on Loneliness. While I didn’t attend the XOXO Festival, I’ve been following along closely with this annual event for independent creators. I cannot wait for the talks to go live-as I’ve heard wonderful things about several-but while I do, I’ve been enjoying many of the recaps that are popping up on the web.
Of them all, designer Frank Chimero’s reflection is well worth your time. He shares what was a clear, yet unintended theme for the event: That independence is lonely. He then goes on to examine the possibilities for a community of creators that isn’t quite so independent. There are quite a few tangents in this piece, but every last one of them is a poignant examination of what it is to create and share your work in the world, and how the community of those who do could be better.
Miley Cyrus: Confessions of Pop’s Wildest Child
Howie on Being Real. Ok, you are going to die and say “REALLY…!!!???” Yes. Really. I am a music snob and I hate pop music. But Miley Cyrus just proved that she’s not only smarter than the ‘Lamestream’ media. She herself is really smart. Yes. Really. I might not ever buy a song or album of hers. But her Rolling Stone interview was freaking kick butt and deserves to be read. On that note, my one caveat: ‘Dear Miley, stay away from Kanye – he is a Gay Fish don’t you know that!?’ Eds Note: I have absolutely *no clue* what that means. Really.
Victims Push Laws to End Online Revenge Posts
Lindsay on Revenge Porn. HA! How’s that for a Sunday morning subject line! Have no fear. This isn’t about porn in the porn’y sense. It’s about how technology has turned ‘totally crappy, painful, and embarrassing stuff you might go through growing up’ into something for the courts to pass judgement on. See, back in the day, if there were a few naughty polaroid pictures of yourself floating around, your jerkface ex-boyfriend might show them to…say…20 people? Ok, maybe more if he was on the football team. But today? Oh dear. Today, those naughty digital images get submitted to websites whose owners profit (hugely) from them, and get seen – and potentially downloaded – by millions. Legal scholars and women’s advocates are pushing for criminal penalties for those who post on them. Fair enough. Scum bags. But it begs the question: Why do young girls take nudie shots of themselves in the first place? Let’s not blame the sexualization of our culture. Every single generation has been more shockingly sexualized than the one before it. I have a teenage son. So I’m asking, mother’s of daughters, fill me in.