THANK YOU for being here and reading this. I crossed over 5.5k subscribers this morning and it made my cold black heart beat a little brighter.
DON’T @ ME
In the last Eat Me, I mentioned that conservatives are coming after birth control - and how anti-abortion leader Lila Rose tweeted that contraception is harmful to women and that it “suppresses our natural cycle.”
I want to urge folks to pay attention to how the Right will be weaponizing the word “natural” in the coming months - specifically as it pertains to gender issues, from abortion and birth control to trans rights.
The Trump administration just launched a State Department commission that they say will “provide fresh thinking about human rights discourse where such discourse has departed from our nation's founding principles of natural law and natural rights.” (Most of us don’t have to guess what they think women’s “natural” role is - or if they think trans people are “natural” or same sex marriage is “natural.”)
This “natural” shit is part of a broader effort by the right to sanitize their language - sometimes even co-opting feminist language. In the same tirade where Rose bashed birth control, she recommended a women’s health website/centers called Femm - which calls itself a “comprehensive women’s health program.” They tweet about helping women “to empower themselves,” but late last month, the Guardian found that Femm is funded by extreme anti-abortion backers, and that their popular fertility app aims to instill doubt about the safety of birth control.
The GOP knows they can’t talk about how women should be in the kitchen, or barefoot and pregnant - but Goopy language about what’s natural and good for women is a whole other story. Eyes open, friends.
WHAT I’M EATING
The tiramisu at Frankie’s 457 in Carroll Gardens. Saying this dessert is my favorite is an understatement - it would literally be my last meal. (The guys who run the restaurant have a cookbook with the tiramisu recipe in it, but I’m too afraid to ruin it.) I’ve never in my life paused from eating to take a picture of it, but enjoy this one I found on Pinterest.
WHAT I’M COOKING
I’m in the last stages of writing a book and my husband started a new job that keeps him insanely busy, so cooking full meals every day has been sort of impossible. So I’m pretty hot on making huge batches of chicken cutlets that we can eat throughout the week for dinner or lunch. I use a breadcrumb mixture of plain, Panko & Parmigiano-Reggiano with garlic and parsley - and anything fried in that is bound to be good.
WHO I’M READING
Rebecca Traister giving an incredible speech in Texas: “Consider what the most powerful least want you to do, and then do that.”
Emma Roller on Joe Biden’s years-long “lock up your daughters” joke: “Biden does not want to change his perspective and behavior toward half the country’s populace because, simply put, he thinks he is right and we are wrong. Biden cannot wrap his mind around the idea that perhaps, at certain points in his long and fabled career, he was the bad guy.”
WHAT I’M WRITING
I sort of can’t believe that the sponsor of the Alabama abortion ban outright admitted that people who dispose of embryos in IVFs clinics aren’t beholden to the law because “it’s not in a woman.” He gave away the whole game! I’m not trying to give the GOP any ideas, but let’s be real - if they thought every fertilized egg was a precious life, they’d be protesting outside of IVF clinics. Maybe, just maybe, this is about controlling women’s bodies and lives - not when life begins.
CURRENT OBSESSION
Jumpsuits. I mean, I know they’re having a moment, so maybe this particular obsession is basic, but hear me out: You have an entire outfit in one piece, they are perfect for peri-menopausal bloating that your jeans just can’t handle (SO I HEAR), and older ladies start conversations with you in elevators because they “had one just like it in the 70s.” My favorite one is white linen because I’m a messy eater and that’s about as living dangerously as I get these days.
Just a reminder that in the coming weeks, I’ll be moving the newsletter to a paid subscription - folks who sign up as subscribers will be able to chat with me via comments, get more content, and be on the receiving end of my everlasting love & appreciation.