IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Saúl Armendáriz is a Mexican wrestler who happens to gay, and dresses like a woman. He had a tough childhood with parents who weren’t happy with his sexuality.
(New Yorker, approx 41 minutes reading time, 8335 words)
He did not seem notably detached from, or perturbed by, what he was saying, but somewhere in between. “I am not a victim,” he said firmly. Then he gave a small sigh and started putting on lipstick—fire-engine red. “But I am still so damaged.” He glued on a pair of false eyelashes. He was transforming Saúl into his lucha character, the fabulous world welterweight champion Cassandro.
2. Bigger than One Direction… but who are they?
Never heard of Our 2nd Life? Us neither. But they’re massive on YouTube. Get filled in:
(The Kernel, approx 9 minutes reading time, 1879 words)
“[O2L] is basically five kids who really think we’re funny, but we’re kind of not,” explained 18-year-old Lawley. “We just make a fool out of ourselves online. We all still continue our separate channels, but when we got together, we felt like if we joined forces it would just multiply. It would be a stronger connection if we all got together.”
Lena Dunham is a writer, director, and the woman behind the show Girls. She’s also got a new book out about her life, where she doesn’t hold back from her confessions.
(NY Times, approx 23 minutes reading time, 4672 words)
One such lesson involves Grace coming out as a lesbian to Dunham during Grace’s senior year of high school. Though Grace wasn’t quite ready to tell their parents, Dunham was unable to contain herself and came out to them for her.
Benjamin Black is a doctor working in Sierra Leone, treating patients with Ebola. His shocking and heartbreaking diaries deal sensitively but honestly with the topic.
(MSF, approx 10 minutes reading time, 2195 words)
The patients in the “Probable” tent look to be in significantly worse condition than those from “Suspect”. Most are lying in fetal position, one hand resting on their stomachs (a common symptom of Ebola is stomach ache), they look weak and apathetic.
Eric Dean was 3. He was being abused. And the authorities were told… so why was he not protected?
(Star Tribune, approx 17 minutes reading time, 3510 words)
Those records show that by the time Eric died at age 4 in February 2013, 15 reports had been filed on his behalf. The county’s child-protection agency investigated only one, after the boy’s arm was broken in 2011, and found no maltreatment. According to records, only one report was shared with police, despite state law directing that law enforcement should be notified of all suspected abuse reports.
6. World Trade Centre, revisited
Rex Sorgatz looks at the rebirth of the World Trade Centre in the wake of the 2001 terrorist attacks.
(Medium, approx 17 minutes reading time, 3513 words)
For days on end, nothing happened down there, the dusty embodiment of a bureaucratic lock-up. Months accrued into motionless years, broken only by the occasional lazy afternoon when a bulldozer coughed itself awake, puffing the will to move some earth northward. The next day, revving up again, the dozer pushed the same soil southbound. Back and forth, across 16 inert acres, no change, except the illusion of change.
…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…
Tracy Ross goes backpacking with her father. She has four questions for him, about why she was abused as a child. This is a devastating story of a life turned upside by abuse, but also of survival.
(Backpacker, approx 40 minutes reading time)
For the growing-up victims of sexual abuse, every day becomes a test of personal perception. According to Darkness to Light, an international non-profit dedicated to child sexual-abuse awareness and prevention, one in four girls and one in six boys are sexually abused in the United States annually, and only 30 percent of all cases are reported. Most girls are molested by their fathers or stepfathers, and almost always inside the family home.
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