The Bluestocking, vol 61: One for the centrist dads

Happy Friday,

Look, it's all harassment and Facebook this week, and you must all know by now what I think about them, so it's a short newsletter.

Helen

A Conversation With Jill Lepore

Myself, I suspect that the problem is that we have a representative system of government, but we no longer believe in representation. We actually believe in direct democracy.

And most of these tools that allow us to represent our own views, we are constantly representing our own views. Instant polling and even the rise of the referendum or growing reliance on a referendum — something as big as Brexit — that we don’t actually subscribe to the idea that we elect someone like our congresswoman, say, to represent the views of a large constituency of people. That that is an act of faith, and it is an act of community, and that we instead — and this is re-inscribed for us in our technologies — we instead believe that her job is to tally up our individual views and then act accordingly.

A long interview with New Yorker writer Jill Lepore, but I particularly enjoyed this section on social media and politics. Are we now, essentially, ungovernable?

One for the centrist dads: who wants to watch Tony Blair have a massive go at Nigel Farage in 2005 about what the European Union has done for Britain? You do!

Quick links:
1. Looking forward to the Alias Grace adaptation on Netflix even more after reading this interview with Sarah Polley, who adapted it.
2. Thom Yorke interviews Benedict Cumberbatch. Celebrities interviewing other celebrities is my guilty pleasure, particularly as they always end up moaning to each other about journalists.
3. Treat yourself to the Back To Basics Wikipedia page.
4. A profile of Sam Smith in which he cries a lot. He tweeted the piece, so clearly he doesn't think it massively takes the piss out of him. Decide for yourself.
5. This week in pervwatch: Dustin Hoffman.
5a. This great Rebecca Traister on the bigger point that it's handsy fellas who have been shaping our narrative about politics, and why that matters.
6. Template For Informing Female Love Interest She Will Not Be In The Sequel.
7. Why is craft beer prestigious and rose wine looked down upon? Because men elevate food, women ruin it. A more delicious version of my perpetual rant about football being seen as a perfectly good pastime for a serious person, while being interested in fashion is the sign of a superficial gadfly.

See you next week!