Hello, Dames Nationals!
It’s SOPHIE BROOKOVER DAY, please celebrate accordingly! Wear an exuberantly colorful yet nonetheless chic outfit! Bake something delicious and share it with people you love! Match excellent media with deserving friends in a manner so expert it looks like witchcraft! Think deeply about something you adore and articulate exactly why it’s special! Open your heart to the world so greatly that you find yourself weeping more with joy than with sadness! We are so immensely lucky to live in a world with Dame Sophie in it, not least because this newsletter would not otherwise exist. Taking a moment to celebrate her in one of the above listed manner— and/or with a comment on this post— is the least we can all do to show our gratitude.
To Really Steep in Sophie’s Greatness…
Might I recommend spending some time with this playlist of songs other people came to love through her influence? It’s top to bottom bangers and it always makes me feel so close to her.
HAPPY PRIDE: Great Gay Follows
In honor of Pride Month, I wanted to highlight a few favorite queer creators on Instagram and TikTok whose work I’m always delighted to see in my feed. Fittingly, I know many of these people are also favorites of Sophie, so it’s a dual celebration.
Yesterqueers, AKA Amanda W. Timpson
Amanda (Instagram | TikTok) describes herself as a public historian of Queer history and, even as a Millennial typically allergic to phone videos longer than 60 seconds, I watch her whole stories every time they come up and I am always so glad I did. She’s exceptionally good at making engrossing videos that are FULL of information and consistently nuanced in a way so little content, on ANY subject, often manages to be. I’ve mentioned her work before, in last month’s issue about the Met Gala, but ICYMI, I’m endorsing her again.
Guy Branum
I have been a devoted follower of Guy Branum (Instagram | TikTok) for over a decade thanks to the expert guidance of Pop Culture Happy Hour’s Glen Weldon. Branum’s memoir contains some of the funniest and most incisive cultural commentary of any book I’ve ever read (or listened to!) and his work in film and television is consistently worthy of your attention. But what I want to highlight here is his video series “What the Old Gays Remember” where he highlights things that he, a Gen X gay man, remembers that he can see queer culture has forgotten. This videos are consistently informative for me, in addition to being hugely entertaining. Between this and his roasting fruit videos, Guy’s a solid gold brilliant follow and you’ll be so grateful to have him in your life.
Coach Jackie J
Coach Jackie J (Instagram | TikTok) first came to my attention for her hilarious videos asking “Is she gay or does she just play women’s sports?” — the answers consistently surprise and delight me. In addition to these, she shares really smart content about women in sports, queer right related to sports, and fictional characters she thinks might be gay. Another no-skip follow.
Optional: Dame Margaret on Belle Burden’s Strangers
For this month’s bonus column at Culture Study, I focused on Belle Burden’s runaway bestseller Strangers: A Memoir of Marriage. To extend the pleasures of this memoir for the Culture Study audience, I consumed a number of other divorce memoirs (and one divorce novella), as the above matrix suggests, and I also collected:
Articles and essays relating to recent controversy around Belle Burden’s narrative of financial anxiety in the memoir
Material explaining her rarified life, from the private beach her family paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to access to her famous socialite grandmother’s midcentury scandals
Pairing suggestions for which other divorce memoirs to read based on what you wanted more of in Strangers
Practical resources for contending with financial planning, runaway husbands, and narcissists
If all of that sounds fun to you, you’re still able to claim your free month of access to Culture Study by clicking right here:
Claim Your Free Month of Culture Study!
While you’ve got that access, you can consume tons of other great subscriber exclusive content, such as:
Bonus podcast episodes where Margaret, Anne, and Culture Study’s producer Melody yapping about
Culture Study subscriber’s suggestions for “best summer _______”
Culture Study subscriber’s favorite dad jokes
And Anne Helen Petersen’s very detailed notes on writing a successful newsletter, which alone is worth the price of admission (particularly when the price is free)
That’s all for today, folks! I hope you find a wonderful way to celebrate Dame Sophie today and every day.
XO/ Dame Margaret
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