EW, HAG: Bloodbath, Sweat, and Tears
So pleased to announce I've accepted a position as CEO of No, Thanks
People who use LinkedIn as a social media platform creep me out.
It’s not the need to share one’s accomplishments and milestones that does it (one of my favorite pastimes is reading about folks who are so happy and relieved to have overcome an obstacle). It’s the unspoken understanding that it’s all performative. For whom? For businesses. For their bosses. For the “promise” of better opportunities. To make more money and climb a ladder. To show everyone they work hard at the right things, which are defined by a long-dead, exploitative white man. To do the most for the least. All on a job board site designed to keep an ideal demographic hooked to this untenable scheme.
But for those people, that’s what success is. It’s not for me.
I’m looking around, beyond this site, and see masses of people losing their livelihoods, or who can see their demise closing in. I’m seeing war and famine and genocide and sky-high price tags in tandem with higher-ups shirking more and more work onto folks who don’t have a say. Masses of people are dying. Entire swaths of our population are being murdered by their peers due to fear-mongering. There’s no livelihood in this. Being a good employee can’t save us from that destruction.
In the horror scene particularly, I’ve been watching peers chase bylines and scoops that an algorithm squashes, obliterating the purpose of that work (to be seen and read and shared by others). When it is seen and/or read, the shelf life is maybe 12 hours before everyone’s forgotten, the information is stale, and we’ve moved on. That’s if they can land the gig, because no one is hiring (or they’re hiring from within, which is like, whatever). So even this seemingly feasible road to legacy is moot.
Where do we find success when what we’re being sold and what we need are two completely different things? When the corporate carrot is the furthest from reach it’s ever been, what’s the prize? I think it’s ourselves and each other.
Therapy is fine and good, and we all need some version of it. But that’s not readily available and is also built on the myth that every person’s purpose is to be a good employee. The entire metric by which we’ve measured our worth is vapor.
What brings you joy? What makes you feel like you’re in the right place? What do you enjoy being good at?
These questions can be terrifying for those of us who attach worth to productivity or the number of eyes we can bring to ourselves. If we can’t have the best business card or be the biggest star, what’s the point? Work without recognition over others isn’t work worth doing, so say our peers on LinkedIn.
So I guess we have to form personalities. Hone skills for the sake of knowledge. Forge safety. Get to know ourselves and look at all the parts we dislike and hide. To own ourselves, and to want better for everyone, not to be better than anyone.
Success? Here’s how a few real folks define it:
Please take care. Your job won’t give you permission.
HAVE IT YOUR WAY. Proof that brilliance and careers don’t always go hand-in-hand, the heroines of these films found themselves through bucking the system and getting theirs. Because being “good” doesn’t get shit done.
A CERTAIN HUNGER BY CHELSEA G. SUMMERS. Having good taste is rarely recognized under the patriarchy, but the men are delicious! Summers crafts a Hannibal Lecter by way of Miranda Priestley who doesn’t say please or sorry.
UNDEAD GIRL GANG BY LILY ANDERSON. Friends to the end and beyond! If you and your pals were too irresponsible to form a babysitters club, you’ll relate to this novel! The real success is the number of men we maim along the way to adulthood.
IT WAS COOL. Yellowjackets Season Three is in the making and one of my favorite pods just did a recap of the second season to stoke the nostalgic flames until 2025.
YELLOWJACKETS: SEASON 2. Girl, That’s Scary digs into the good, the bad, and the Misty of it all.
YELLOWJACKETS S2 PREMIERE ROUNDTABLE. In case you missed it, Ladies and Ligaments hosted a very queer breakdown of Season One and dreams for S2.
I WRITE WORDS. Still! And I have updates!
SCREECH OWL. My poem about conquering and eating your oppressors appears in the upcoming horror anthology, it always finds me, from Querencia Press. Out April 19.
EQUINOX. My poem about moving on, picking scabs, and growing tf up appears in the April issue of Pinhole Poetry.
THRIFTED. My poem about feeling judged and finding the right people appears in the Spring 2024 issue of Gaby & Min’s Literary Review
More super-brief updates to come! Follow howlhorror on IG and ewhag on TT.
"So I guess we have to form personalities. Hone skills for the sake of knowledge. Forge safety. Get to know ourselves and look at all the parts we dislike and hide. To own ourselves, and to want better for everyone, not to be better than anyone." Wise words that are really coming in handy today. Thanks.