Amanda Hess
Posts
Why the Runaways’ Jackie Fox Made a Rock ’n’ Roll Board Game
The teenage bassist of the Runaways cut her music career short in 1977. Rather than retell her story, she’s reimagined it as a board game,...
The Voices of A.I. Are Telling Us a Lot
Even as the technology advances, stubborn stereotypes about women are re-encoded again and again.
Cyndi Lauper Could Only Ever Be Herself
She’s plotting a farewell tour. She’s starring in a documentary about her life. And she’s got nothing left to prove.
Shane MacGowan and Sinead O’Connor’s Enduring Friendship
The two Irish singers interacted like siblings, speaking of each other warmly, but needling each other, too.
Watching Britney Spears, as a Girl and a Woman
For 25 years, American culture has used her body to determine a woman’s worth. In “The Woman in Me,” she asks us to take a...
Why I Keep Watching In-Flight Meltdowns
How the airplane became a viral sensation, the star of videos about questionable behavior — and the new backdrop for social disillusionment.
Egg Crack Challenge and Cheese Slice Trick: Are Parents OK?
With the “cheese slice trick” and the “egg crack challenge,” parents vie for viral recognition — and the illusion of control over their children.
Breaking Out of the #MeToo Movie Formula
How “Women Talking” and “Tár” make the discourse around the movement feel thrillingly unfamiliar.
The Empty Spectacle of Marilyn Monroe’s Fantasy Fetus
“Blonde” pretends to imagine how Monroe would have felt about her pregnancies. Instead, it jarringly shoves a C.G.I. fetus into her midcentury mind.
Pregnant Men Were a Movie Punchline. Now They’re Horror Villains.
The idea of the pregnant man has long been mined for Hollywood comedy. This summer, he becomes a menace.