Trick Mirror

I'm coming in hot to 2020 with a book that I bought myself for Christmas.

Somehow, Jia Tolentino's book of essays slipped on past me through most of 2019, but the cover screamed at me from the shelves at Auntie's Bookstore and I bought it just in time for a plane ride (the best reading setting in the world, if you ask me. Maybe 'above' the world is a better description. Either way. Let's not dwell on the prepositions.)

I've read Tolentino's writing in the past and I love both her voice and her perspective. In a world where everyone has a "take", Tolentino's perspectives are more thoughtful than they are knee-jerk and some of her essays in this collection resonate even more a week after I've read them.

She opens big with thoughts on the internet and the internet culture in which we are all now immersed. It's the reality now that social media has given us all some kind of voice; with that has come the need for all of us (most of us?) to constantly perform. She points out, though, that this is nothing new, pointing to decades-old research about how we're all performing all the time - the internet simply magnifies it.

My favorite thoughts on that topic, though, are about this "fake woke" culture so many of us buy into. It's so easy to express a view on feminism/homelessness/poverty/civil right, etc. without having to do the work to change those social ills. "The internet was dramatically increasing our ability to know about things while our ability to change things stayed the same," she writes. The act of showing solidarity on social media is far more desirable than actually doing anything about the issues.

She writes about the meteoric rise of athleisure, at once complimenting and condemning it. She subtly mocks the "Spiritual Gangster" tank top trends and eloquently explains the draw of often-overpriced leggings. "It feels comforting to wear high-quality spandex," she says. "I imagine it's what a dog feels like in a Thundershirt."

There are thoughts on marriage and how the institution ultimately harms women more than men; she writes about the scams that define her generation, from Frye Festival to student debt to the housing market crash; she compares ecstasy to her megachurch Houston upbringing; and she devotes an entire chapter to the pure heroism of young female characters in literature.

I didn't love every essay, but I loved most and at least liked the rest. She's worth a follow on Twitter, a read of this book and at least a few thoughts next time to log onto Facebook and see your Namaste in Bed-clad friending posting about social issues.

A great start towards my goal of 60 (!) books in 2020. Away we go!