The fact that striking Iran can be put on hold for weeks in an attempt to sway the midterms clear proof that Iran doesn’t pose an imminent danger and this war is an evil charade

HILLARY CLINTON: "I continue to believe that Putin has things on Trump. I continue to believe that he is holding photos, videos, whatever it might be... "When we finally see all the Epstein files, I think even the people who supported Trump are going to be shocked by what it shows about Trump."

Elizabeth Warren Is 💯% Correct...

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This beautiful book by Ta-Nehisi Coates inspired me to format Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter as a direct address to my child...

I love this question from scholar Gretchen E. Henderson because it points to the ways that ugliness, as a deviation from norms and expectations, can be viewed as a kind of forward motion—a breaking off from the past to usher forth something new, startling and unexpected.

Truth 💥

In Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter, I write about the difficult experience of growing up aesthetically misaligned with my “prom queen” mom and how my queerness exacerbated my sense of ugliness.

Billionaire families have spent $1.7 BILLION on the 2026 midterms so far — a 5,200% increase since the 2010 midterms. Citizens United is among the worst decisions in history. It corrupts our system every day. Big Money is the root of our dysfunction.

Perhaps no one has taught me more about ugliness -and the beauty that also lives within it- than my favorite writer, Mary Gaitskill. 1/3

De druk van het schoonheidsideaal wordt hoger. Afgelopen jaar verschenen er drie boeken over, van Tatjana Almuli, Stephanie Fairyington en Giselinde Kuipers. Ze vertellen hoe we eronder lijden. We vergelijken en beoordelen, voelen constant de druk perfect te zijn. 👉 www.groene.nl/artikel/laat...

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When something or someone deviates from societal expectations, we call it "queer" or "ugly." We dismiss, demean and degrade it to cope with the discomfort of the challenge it poses to certain orthodoxies and power structures.

For @altajournal.bsky.social, I'm thrilled to have reviewed the inimitable @susanstryker.bsky.social's new book, CHANGING GENDER. It's fantastic and fascinating and she is an incredibly generous thinker and scholar: www.altaonline.com/books/nonfic...

Gender Epiphany

Historian and activist Susan Stryker traces the evolution of gender as a concept.

altaonline.com

Happy #BiWeek! 💖💜💙 Why is it so hard for our culture to wrap its head around bisexuality? In our July–August 2005 issue, journalist @fairyington.bsky.social confronted how the persistent “hetero-homo dichotomy” marginalizes bi identities: glreview.org/article/article-1129

Thank you to my favorite neighborhood cafe and hangout Le Libre Cafe — and its lovely owners Patricia and Herman — and our beloved local paper, The Sunset Post, for supporting Ugly and other local writers and artists in our beautiful Brooklyn neighborhood.

This is what my book Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter is *really* about — and my greatest hope is that it empowers women and girls to live and think against, and beyond, destructive forms of behavioral and aesthetic conditioning.

This is what my book Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter is *really* about — and my greatest hope is that it empowers women and girls to live and think against, and beyond, destructive forms of behavioral and aesthetic conditioning.

Gloria Steinem died with fewer rights than she had during her lifetime. That fact needs to be front and centre of every media report, every dedication, every discussion of her death.

“Remember, the Constitution doesn’t begin with, ‘I, the president.’ It begins with, ‘We, the people.’ ” —Gloria Steinem at the 2017 Women’s March

So excited to share this essay for @guardian_us on the likability imperative and its relationship with aesthetic demands on women and girls. Thank you to Estelle Tang for helping me make this piece a stronger one with her sharp -- and deeply sensitive — edits. www.theguardian.com/wellness/202...

I’m 50 years old. Why do I still struggle with the need to be liked?

An over-investment in people-pleasing can be emotionally costly. Here’s how I’m training myself to be OK with letting people down

theguardian.com

Thank you Tim Pfaff and @bayareareporter for this lovely review of Ugly! www.ebar.com/story/169556...

Stephanie Fairyington’s book, ‘Ugly’ – The lesbian journalist’s look at appearance-based discrimination

“Lookism,” a newish name for a time-dishonored discrimination based on people’s physical appearance, is examined in depth by Stephanie Fairyington in “Ugly: A Letter to My Daughter."

ebar.com

Thank u so much @bostonglobe for the chance to write this piece — so meaningul to me— for the Ideas section of the Boston Globe. It’s not just about ugliness as resistance; it’s about expanding what we perceive as beautiful to nullify the very idea of ugliness. www.bostonglobe.com/2026/08/22/o...

There’s more to life than being pretty - The Boston Globe

I’m trying to teach my daughter a different way of seeing beauty.

bostonglobe.com

I’m 50 years old. Why do I still struggle with the need to be liked? An over-investment in people-pleasing can be emotionally costly. Here’s how I’m training myself to be OK with letting people downA few months ago, my 10-year-old daughter and I went to our neighborhood cafe. At the counter,...

I’m 50 years old. Why do I still struggle with the need to be liked?

An over-investment in people-pleasing can be emotionally costly. Here’s how I’m training myself to be OK with letting people down

theguardian.com

An over-investment in people-pleasing can be emotionally costly. Here’s how I’m training myself to be OK with letting people down

I’m 50 years old. Why do I still struggle with the need to be liked?

theguardian.com