Also.Also.Also: Demand for Lightly Used Dildos Higher Than Anticipated

I had a craving for brownies that I could not shake, so then I bought the brownies. And now I know peace.


Saw This, Thought of You

An A+ member very helpfully wanted to get the word out, Squeaky Clean Toys will take your gently used sex toys for resale, and if you want to learn more: Owners of Used Sex Toy Company Swear It’s Not Gross.

Admittedly, I don’t love the title of the article, but I do know that readers are often asking us what to do with their old sex toys! Which I think is a fair question or concern, especially when you think about both the price of toys and also just… there is limited space for waste on this planet, and the last time I checked most toys were not biodegradable (someone tell me if I’m wrong in the comments!). And not all queer couples feel the same about using old toys on multiple partners, etc etc etc. Personally, I say boil them/sanitize them/ and keep it moving for eternity — I keep toys until the motor dies out — but here are some other options.

‘I Felt Powerless’: Black Americans Suffering From Long COVID Say They Have Trouble Accessing Care

Fuck thiiisssssss. The Snitch in the Silver Hearse: The FBI Paid a Violent Felon to Infiltrate Denver’s Racial Justice Movement, “Mickey Windecker encouraged violence, accused activist leaders of being police cooperators, and tried to draw demonstrators into elaborate stings.”

Nico smartly also recommends this related reading material, Why Misogynists Make Great Informants

This one goes out to all my depressives! Too Much Serotonin Is A Bad Thing, Actually

RIP, Stripper Web. “For 20 years, the forum was a haven for new dancers seeking community.”

How Educators Secretly Remove Students With Disabilities From School. “Known as informal removals, the tactics are ‘off-the-book’ suspensions often in violation of federal civil rights protections for those with disabilities.”

This Winnie the Pooh Is Terrifying. “When the gentle bear fell into the public domain, a horror director pounced.”


Queer as in F*ck You

I didn’t know that The New York Times’ infamous Modern Love column is now a podcast? I Promised God It Was the Last Time. “After years of suppressing her gay desires, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish woman reaches her breaking point.”

TikTok’s Chief Operating Officer, Vanessa Pappas, Came Out as Nonbinary

There’s a large smattering of local state-level gay news and it is… all bad? So, ripping it off like a band-aid:


Political Snacks

Originalism Is Going to Get Women Killed. “A federal court has ruled that a law barring domestic-violence offenders from owning firearms is unconstitutional.”

It’s No Coincidence That the Midterms Turned the Blackest Parts of America Red. “While Democrats celebrate an averted crisis, the GOP campaign to quell and marginalize Black voters has only continued.”

So Tuesday was Biden’s State of the Union address, let’s see about that:

🙃

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Carmen Phillips

Carmen Phillips is Autostraddle's former editor in chief. She began at Autostraddle in 2017 as a freelance team writer and worked her way up through the company, eventually becoming the EIC from 2021-2024. A Black Puerto Rican feminist writer with a PhD in American Studies from New York University, Carmen specializes in writing about Blackness, race, queerness, politics, culture, and the many ways we find community and connection with each other.  During her time at Autostraddle, Carmen focused on pop culture, TV and film reviews, criticism, interviews, and news analysis. She claims many past homes, but left the largest parts of her heart in Detroit, Brooklyn, and Buffalo, NY. And there were several years in her early 20s when she earnestly slept with a copy of James Baldwin’s “Fire Next Time” under her pillow. To reach out, you can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram, or her website.

Carmen has written 716 articles for us.

3 Comments

  1. Yeah, I have a vibrator I didn’t love and I wanted to sell it but I’ve kept it for years thinking, “No one wants a used vibe” so this was a nice push to maybe see if it even still charges and offer it up to some1 who could enjoy it.
    So with you on the waste aspect.

  2. the article on removing disabled kids from school strikes a chord…it starts SO young and so often the kids and their caregivers have no understanding of their rights and alternatives, so school policies go unchallenged. school to prison pipeline, except schools are also prisons

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