Kyle Thomas Hemingway: The ephemera edit

“You want to know what my doctor said the first time she saw it? Yes you do. She said everything about it gives evidence of an informed taste. That’s a quote.”

“As the garment industry left the United States, it undid the work of industrial feminists like Clara Lemlich and Rose Schneiderman, who had the audacity to demand that intellectual satisfaction was the birthright of every sewing machine operator. This new brand of feminism didn’t care to protect sewing work as good work; rather it scoured the earth to find the cheapest new sources of exploitable, female labor.”

“But now isn’t simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until—later of sooner—perhaps—no, not perhaps—quite certainly: it will come.”

“There is a kind of energy born out of shame, formed by and in it, that can act as a force for transformation. This energy finds its expression in a theatricalized identity, in performance, in a love of display or extravagance, in parody. Self-display and theatricality are and have been among the most important means of defying heteronormative hegemony—and this is why they have always been the objects of such virulent attacks.”