This week, Jill Gallagher explains why she opted to keep her ex-spouse’s last name after their divorce. Read that and others from Medium, Gawker, Broadly, and more.
"After My Husband Left, I Kept His Last Name" — BuzzFeed Ideas
After she and her husband got divorced, Jill Gallagher opted to keep her ex-spouse's last name. She did so in order to signify that she's not the same woman she was before her marriage. "Getting married changed more than my name — it changed who I was," she explains in an essay for BuzzFeed Ideas. "I went from being Jill D’Urso, unloved and uncertain of herself, to being Jill Gallagher, someone who was undeniably loved." Read the poignant piece here.
Hannah K. Lee for BuzzFeed News
"Tan Lines" — Medium
Durga Chew-Bose becomes more aware of her skin during the summertime. "I tanned fast. Brown to dark umber in a matter of hours," she writes for Medium. "But what struck me was this: It was as if my white friends were wearing their tanned skin — bathing in it — as opposed to living in it." In the essay, she ruminates on the language of tanning, growing up brown, and American society's strange obsession with being tan. Read it at Medium.
Chris Kindred / Via medium.com
"Learning to Be a Lesbian Online" — Broadly
Josie Thaddeus-Johns first realized she was into women at age 23, after years of thinking she was straight. "While my friends at university had been flipping sexualities weekly, I was living my straightest life," she writes in a Broadly essay. "Now, years later, here I was, puffing up to the sidelines like a latecomer to softball practice. 'So, guys, what did I miss?'" Knowing nothing about lesbian culture, she turned to the internet — but even that offered little insight. Read Thaddeus-Johns' essay on that experience at Broadly.
"Here's What's Missing From Straight Outta Compton: Me and the Other Women Dr. Dre Beat Up" — Gawker
Straight Outta Compton is not a perfect film. In fact, the biopic makes no mention of Dee Barnes, a television host Dr. Dre brutally assaulted in 1991. For Gawker, Barnes writes about the movie's flaws and N.W.A.'s misogyny. "There is a direct connection between the oppression of black men and the violence perpetrated by black men against black women," she explains. "It is a cycle of victimization and reenactment of violence that is rooted in racism and perpetuated by patriarchy." Read the whole essay at Gawker.
Dee Barnes / Via gawker.com