American Gurls #5: Josie and the Pussycats, Anticapitalist Masterpiece
A punk legacy lives on in this movie based on an Archie Comic.
Welcome to She Was an American Gurl, a 5.5-part culture series for paid subscribers to Burbank Industries. This is the last installment of the series — and this newsletter’s first birthday! — and I’m already thinking about what could come next. (Do you have thoughts? Hit reply to this email!) Thank you for supporting my work! Wanna join us? You can do that here:
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In this installment, we’re discussing the blistering yet subliminal critique of the Y2K marketing machine, packaged in a movie made by the Y2K marketing machine. But first, some updates from Burbank Industries:
What I’ve been up to: I’m back on my beat covering reproductive health policy for Crosscut Cascade PBS and writing my column at the South Seattle Emerald. I have more capacity now that my time at Axios is over, so if you or someone you know has ever wanted to work with me, now is a good time to reach out. For Cascade PBS, I wrote about a new Senate report on the fallout of Dobbs, increased demand for emergency contraception and domestic violence support in Idaho in the two years since the decision, and why some Washington State residents have to go to Oregon for abortions. (It’s probably not for the reason you think!)
At the South Seattle Emerald, I wrote about a gender-expansive ballet program for adults (republished at the Tacoma Weekly; we love local papers!) and the worst city council committee meeting I’ve ever witnessed, in which the Venn diagram between SWERFs and NIMBYs was, in fact, a circle.
I’ve also been savoring the final days of summer with outdoor swims at Seattle’s most underrated outdoor pool, little treats like Dirty Diet Coke (here’s a recipe from a Mormon food blogger; credit where credit is due!), brain-smoothing TV (My Lady Jane and Love is Blind UK), and a trip to the San Juan Islands that required taking my goofy little Persian cat on a small charter boat, her second sea voyage after a ferry trip last year.
What I’ve been reading: Unserious books on my Kindle after my swim workouts. A more serious book about what it’s like to be a grumpily hopeful progressive Lutheran pastor. This well-earned critique of Colleen Hoover. (Read what you want, but also, there are plenty of writers within the romance genre who explore similar subject matter with more care and complexity.) This upsetting visit to Crime Con. This good tweet.
Thanks for being part of Burbank Industries! Now let’s get to the real reason we’re all here: to explore the powerful legacy of a movie no one liked when it first came out.