Girl Dinner and the Panopticon Gaze

"Men look at women, women watch themselves being looked at.”

Sometimes, the internet makes me feel a dizzying sense of cognitive whiplash. Our brains weren’t designed to process so much information, delivered rapid-fire from so many people about so many disparate and contradictory topics.

You open any newsfeed or timeline, and it’s like: Your old friend from high school had a baby, and look how cute he is! People in Yemen are starving, and if you don’t click to donate, they’ll die! Here’s how to give your outfit a millennial makeover! They’re trying to systematically roll back LGBTQIA+ rights and erase trans-folks from existence! Watch this tiny, hand-knit frog get dressed in equally tiny, hand-knit clothing! Our planet is burning! Try this cozy butternut squash soup for fall - it’s dairy-free!

(This reel does a great job of illustrating the feeling.)

It’s a lot to absorb, and I often find myself overwhelmed. But sometimes, sometimes, the internet connects two things so strange and seemingly unrelated, and yet somehow makes sense of them so beautifully, that I’m almost rendered speechless.

An article I came across last week was a perfect example.