My experience with The Bachelor franchise is as follows: I edit the recaps from Elyse, which she’s been faithfully recording since 2017. That’s it. Now, I have watched two (2) episodes to fill in for Elyse, prompting the following questions: Why are they four hours long? Why are they on two subsequent nights sometimes? Why on sequential nights or on four hour nights are they stretching out TWENTY FIVE TOTAL MINUTES OF FOOTAGE into an … Continue reading Here For All the Reasons: Why We Love the Bachelor, edited by Ilana Masad and Stevie K. Seibert Desjarlais →
Programming note: this week’s episode is dropping on 30 April 2026. Smart Bitches Trashy Books, LLC, is withdrawing our labor on May 1, 2026, alongside other companies, school districts, and activists as part of the May Day Nationwide Day of Collective Action. For more information, visit MayDayStrong.org. Ilana Masad and Stevie K. Seibert Desjarlais are the editors of a new and excellent anthology called Here for All The Reasons: Why We Watch the Bachelor. The … Continue reading 716. Here for All the Reasons: Bachelor Critique With Ilana Masad and Stevie K. Seibert Desjarlais →
In 1961, an interracial couple drove through the dark mountains of New Hampshire when a mysterious light began to follow them. Years later, through hypnosis, they recalled an unbelievable brush with extraterrestrial life. Unintentionally, a genre was the alien abduction narrative. In Ilana Masad’s Beings, the couple’s experience serves as one part of a trio of intertwined Known only by their roles as husband and wife, Masad explores the pair’s trauma and its aftermath and questions … Continue reading Beings →
“A queer tour-de-force . . . Compelling and astonishing.”–Kristen Arnett, author of Mostly Dead Things Intimacy has always eluded twenty-seven-year-old Maggie Krause—despite being brought up by married parents, models of domestic bliss—until, that is, Lucia came into her life. But when Maggie’s mom, Iris, dies in a car crash, Maggie returns home only to discover a withdrawn dad, an angry brother, and, along with Iris’s will, five sealed envelopes, each addressed to a mysterious man she’s … Continue reading All My Mother’s Lovers →
Welcome back! March is coming to a close. Here’s what we’re reading right now: Lara: I’ve just started The Luckiest Lady in London by Sherry Thomas from 2013! It’s my first historical romance of hers so I’m excited for it. So far I’m enjoying it but I’m only one chapter in! Claudia: I just finished A Most Worthy Husband by Faye Delacour and really liked it, except the ending felt very rushed. Great working-class hero. … Continue reading Whatcha Reading? March 2026, Part Two →
The Bachelor franchise has been around for over two decades and amassed an army of fans across its four shows. While contestants battle to prove they’re here for the right reasons, Bachelor Nation is confronting their own question—Why are we here and why can’t we stop watching? Devout franchise fans Ilana Masad and Stevie Seibert Desjarlais pose the big questions to Bachelor Who are we? What does the franchise mean to us? And seriously, why on … Continue reading Here For All the Reasons →
