PULP Goes Indie! Menstruation + Trans Folks! Pregnancy During COVID-19!
Dear angel loves of our lives,
This hot take will be coming to you on a holiday, and I hope you’re actually getting the chance to take some time off.
It’s hard, isn’t it, figuring out how to find a baseline in all of this? Already prone to workaholism and mania, I am struggling to make time for myself away from the computer. It’s particularly hard when we’re trying to pivot PULP towards an independent future — it’s easy to work all the time.
We’ve been conditioned to work all the time, to produce as a measure of our worth. To use productivity as a way to escape. And with precious few normative ways of escapism available to us at the moment, we’re trying our very best to get endorphins where we can.
I don’t have answers yet for how to have balance, here. I suspect I’ll start to get into a groove right before some restrictions are lifted. But that’s life, isn’t it? A constant trajectory of learning and healing (my wonderful solar Taurus friend Dana, who is Capricorn rising, always says of this “But I want the syllabus!).
In case you don’t follow our social media, we’ve launched a Kickstarter to get us into the next phase of our existence, which is all outlined here. Please support us so we an continue supporting social justice-oriented media — and so we can continue supporting you.
We’re here to hear all your stories, of the good and the not so good. And we’re going to continue to fight for you.
Love,
July (+ Katie)
Good Eggs, by Elizabeth Cauvel
“I have always loved eggs, and I have a lot of opinions about them. I won’t order omelettes at restaurants because they are chronically overcooked. I don’t trust diners to deliver perfectly-executed over-medium eggs, with set whites and runny yolks. And don’t get me started on those rubbery hotel “eggs” you find languishing in steam trays like limp towels in a sauna.
But the egg dish about which I am the most insufferable is scrambled eggs. Most people have never had–much less cooked–proper scrambled eggs.”
For /Men/ Who Bleed, by Jessi Quinn Alperin
“I couldn’t say to them that I wasn’t any different from them because 1) that’s a thing that women say because they are different and simply don’t want to be treated differently, and 2) I did not have a deep enough understanding of gender or myself to be able to articulate that when I was playing with them, I was a boy.
Gender gets worse when you stop being a kid. You have to start making real adult decisions about your health and medical care. You don’t get to cavalierly remove your uterus just because you won’t be using it any time soon.”
No Guests Allowed, by Lauren Harkawik
“Though I felt bad for my partner that he wouldn’t get to experience things like seeing our baby’s heartbeat for the first time, and, later, hearing it for the first time, at first I saw this as an inconvenience more than anything else. Then I went to my 12-week appointment.”
The Pulpit Presents: Let’s Get Cyclical, by July Westhale
Your weekly tunes, served hot & fresh.
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0lZHZg9PJoZvOiMIzIubMb?si=0GkrYfcoQLqpRLpT_91oDg
Our Featured Artists Of The Week
During our Kickstarter campaign, we’re doing daily highlights of the folks in the PULP community whose work is being featured, either in the forthcoming A Year in Pulp coffee table book, or are friends of the magazine who have donated their art/time to our rewards section. This week’s artists are as follows:
Robin WB wrote “Bodies in Transition: What My Trans Teen Son’s Journey is Teaching Me About Accepting and Embracing My Aging Disabled Body”, and is an “Outspoken, Southern,Jew(ish),Geek&Mom,#Black. Tech,social media marketing enthusiast. Disability and Sexuality/Reproductive health educator, speaker, and writer”. We love Robin because of her incredible dedication to disability justice, and to helping folks with chronic conditions help themselves to absolute pleasure.
G. Walker wrote “What Could Be Scarier Than A Hairy Woman?”, and is “is a writer and editor based in New York City. Born and raised in California, she’s a Mills College alum. She holds an MA from NYU’s Journalism Institute and an MFA from St. Joseph’s College in Brooklyn. She is the Managing Editor of Wealthsimple magazine, and the former Deputy Managing Editor of GQ.” We love Genevieve because her fresh takes on body, landscape, and selfhood are always concise, thoughtful, idiosyncratic, and exactly what we want to be reading at any given moment.
Alicia Papers is an artist and maker whose illustrations will be one of our never-before-seen gems in the Year in PULP book. Alicia is self-described as “These days, I am mostly a gardener and a graduate student of nutrition. In between dirty fingernails and trying to make sense of epidemiological research, I funnel personal insanity through painting, drawing, and writing. My work reflects the subtle hilarities and absurdities of being, exploring and problematizing concepts of secrecy, social interaction, eroticism, stumbling and faltering to find connection, vulnerability and the fear of and desire for it.” What we love about Alicia is the gorgeous way color is utilized to highlight social commentary — and how aptly the body is centered.
Amy Estes wrote “A Brief History of My Body”, and is “a queer comedian and writer living in Northern California, where she spends her free time obsessing over her dogs, drinking iced coffee, and watching as much true crime as possible, preferably with her wife by her side. Her words have been featured on McSweeney’s, the Huffington Post and she performs comedy regularly all over Northern California & wherever there’s a mic. You can see her on stage and read more of her writing by checking out her website at www.amysgotjokes.com”. We love Amy because her work is cutting, gorgeous, and leaves us thinking long after we’re done reading.
Benjamin Davis wrote “Pulp It Like It’s Hot: The Blow Job Assistant”, and is “the managing editor of Sexography, author of The King of FU (Nada Blank, 2018) & columnist for Russia Beyond. He is a recovering fintech journalist and folklore addict living in Saint Petersburg, Russia. He writes humorous personal essays about travel, health, butts, sex, yoga, Russia, life, the universe, and other things.”. We love Benjamin because his work never fails to leave us with cramps from laughing so hard, and gratitude for the fierceness of his truth.
