Good morning!
Welcome to Issue 25.2 of Digestable, your daily mouthful of real things happening in the world, minus alarmist pandemic news.
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Today’s news, fermented:
I’ll let him correct me if I’m wrong, but I think my dad might have texted me last night for the purpose of exchanging nasty names to call Joe Kennedy, who challenged Ed Markey for his long-held Senate seat.
We had a good short run. This morning, I woke up to news that Kennedy had lost, in the first electoral failure of the family. Markey’s an old guy, sure—but this seems like proof that all the young voters the American center loves to write off aren’t easily tricked.
Older white men holding political office have been getting ousted a lot lately, from Joe Crowley to Eliot Engel. A few weeks ago, Nancy Pelosi endorsed Joe Kennedy, which should be reason enough to vote for Markey—I understand the lady is working hard AND her consistent disregard for the (reasonable) demands of young people and other organizers in her state, which is supposed to be a progressive bastion against the encroachment of fascism, really makes me irate.
But also Nancy, did you really think we’re all just stupid young people trying to replace older people? Markey’s victory is evidence we can all read, as well as determine whose values in fact align with our own.
And evidence as well, I hope, that the power of political dynasty alone is not enough. This one was easy—Markey is a long-time fighter for the people, actually does his job, and actually listens to his constituents. Other old white men in elected office, are you listening? This is how you protect yourself from the *scary* wave of young women of color (or elite New England younger white men, in this case).
Also, it’s not always that simple. For example: I really do not like Joe Biden, and I am really not excited to vote for him, and I absolutely will be voting for him in November. In fact, I might even pick up the phone and call some battleground states (although likely while drinking heavily). Who knows.
Primaries are important, but please, please, if you are able to vote, make sure you are registered, know where you need to go, and check on your neighbors to see if they need help registering or voting for the even more important election in November. As we saw with the pandemic, nobody is going to magically show up to help us claim our most basic rights, so we have to do it ourselves.
The Commitment March, at which thousands of Americans gathered on the Washington Mall to evoke the spirit of the original March on Washington, is a reminder of this. (A beautiful photo essay features some of the attendees). Beyond the scope of protest there is plenty more work to do—but that either happens in the halls of power that are currently controlled by a fascist, or in the absence of the state. Mutual aid has shown us that plenty of good can happen in this latter locale, but as the state continues to sanction and perpetrate violence against Black people, we can only get so far without curbing those powers (/burning them to the ground).
Something’s gotta give.
Here’s a sweet lion scene that maybe we could emulate in our next form of governance.
*Hot Goss*
Brought to you by the superb Latifah Azlan.
Okay, I don’t even know where to begin with this story but it’s been making the rounds lately and I feel like I need to cover it for this column.
It’s time we talk about Bella Thorne.
Last week, the 22-year-old actress courted controversy when she became the first person to make $1 million within a day of making an account on OnlyFans, a content subscription service that many sex workers use to sell adult content. Bella claims that she was on OnlyFans to do some research for an upcoming role in a movie with director Sean Baker, but given her history of mess and clout-chasing, it is also just as (if not more) plausible that Bella started an OnlyFans for the money and exposure. Also, Sean released a statement that he isn’t producing a movie with Bella, so there’s also that.
Unfortunately, Bella’s decision to join OnlyFans wasn’t all just fun and games – it ended up resulting in actual harm to the sex workers who use OnlyFans as a source of income. Part of the reason Bella was able to make so much money so quickly was because she charged fans more than $200 for pay-per-view images that were marketed as being nude but were actually assorted photos of her in lingerie. This scam led to many people asking for refunds, which overwhelmed OnlyFans and caused the company to lose a lot of money and led to an imposition of a new set of rules that limit how much OnlyFans creators can charge for exclusive content and changes to its payment policy that lengthens the period in which creators must wait to receive payments (monthly, rather than weekly).
As you can see, sex workers and content creators who rely on OnlyFans are understandably up in arms about these new changes – and personally raking Bella through the coals for the harm she’s brought upon the community. Bella apologized but defended herself by saying that she joined the site to “remove the stigma behind sex, sex work, and the negativity that surrounds the word sex” by bringing a mainstream face to the work that is being done and the types of content that is being produced on OnlyFans.
Except, nobody asked you to Bella! And that’s what really gets me about this whole thing: Sex workers are doing enough to destigmatize sex work without scamming people and making lives harder for others. Just… stay in your lane, please. And tell your sister to do the same.
Anyway, moral of the story: