Everything is History

The 90s are history! I don't know anything about battles!

Here is the cold, hard truth about my life: I don’t know shit about battles. I say this because I’m a history student and when I tell people that I study history, they say “Really?” and then tell me that history never really hit with them or that they’re not big into the World Wars or that history, in general, is boring.

These are all very fair assumptions to make. If you grew up in the Ontario school system(s), especially in the nineties and 2000s, you’ll know that history was a glorified class on the greatness of Sir John A. MacDonald and Confederation and, and, and. Was it my cup of tea? No thank you! Did I do well in my history classes in high school? I passed them, if that’s what you mean! If you are an adult who thinks “I would rather study raisins” than think about a history degree, I completely understand. That’s why I want to elaborate on what history is, can be, and how I interpret it as a person who makes everything about me. (It’s my newsletter and I do what I want.)

History is:

Not necessarily about battles!
This is important to know because some of us (hello!) aren’t big Battle People. Are you personally into learning about battles? Great! There are absolutely classes for you and you will succeed beautifully. But maybe you’re like me: in my second year, I took a class called the WWII: The European Theatre. The “theatre” of war was not something I had ever heard of in my life, so I went into this class believing in my soul that it was about the “theatrics” of war — like the feelings and the person-to-person drama and the propaganda and, and, and. Halfway through the semester (HALF! WAY!) I realized that I had made a terrible mistake, but it was too late to do anything about it, so I was going to crash course myself in various battles so I could rescue my GPA from disaster. I now know what a panzer tank is, but if I didn’t life would also have worked out okay for me.

History is not necessarily about battles.

Pop culture
YES. It’s true! Britney Spears? The Spice Girls? One Direction? Celine Dion? Aaliyah? Historical figures, baby! I had dinner with some school pals this week and I told them that for a long time, pop culture wasn’t treated as a serious topic for serious people. And THEY said, “Well people who think that are not serious.” (Gen Z, man! They get it!)

Pop culture is the reflection of everything happening politically, socially, economically, etc. etc. etc. What we consume as art and entertainment says a boatload about where we’re at. You know the trad wife phenomenon we’re currently witnessing? The compulsory thinness? The “no-makeup makeup” looks that emphasize “cleanliness”? That shit is saying a lot about the conservative, western, patriarchal, racist agenda plaguing much of the west right now. And nothing exists in a vacuum! Which means that history = looking backwards to see where the seeds of patriarchal white supremacy began sprouting (if you like to make connections the way I do — obsessively). And guess what: you can do that by watching TV, watching movies, listening to music, and even watching TV like Mad Men where every episode can be perfectly summarized in four little words: bitch, what the fuck?!

MTV, MuchMusic, VH1
I say this because I get to study nineties music TV for my MA in September. I get to watch Total Request Live and connect to the way it changed our relationship to celebrities and culture and politics! I get to watch interviews with Aqua and *NSYNC! I get to behold the evolution of Marshall Mathers and consider the impact of Destiny’s Child. I also get to read a lot and footnote like a motherfucker, but MTV?! The nineties?! As historical topics?! Obviously there’s more to the process, but nobody needs to read me trying to explain any of that now. Instead, I’m going to buy myself a couple Pogs as a treat and scroll through Etsy looking for Spice Girls postcards.

The mall
I saw The Kit recently published a piece on the rise of mall culture (see: Gen Z knows what’s up), and I love this. First, I love the mall in general because that’s where I was raised by my Nana, mom and aunts. Secondly, it’s interesting that the third space conversation has resurged after so many malls went belly-up once owners began to shirk the notion of being a third space. (Remember when a bunch of malls enforced curfews for teens? Jesus Christ. THEY’RE YOUR PRIMARY SHOPPERS.) But also, can something be a third space if its purpose is to perpetuate consumerism? And if no, then why do so many retirees hang out in the food court on weekday mornings and have coffee without shopping? Or why do so many older people mall walk before the mall even opens? Or why do I just go there sometimes to wander around because I have work due or dishes to wash and I would rather avoid any/all responsibility? Exactly. It all began somewhere!

Beauty and makeup
I mean, obviously. OBVIOUSLY. You know what I hated when I was younger? Talking about beauty and makeup and then being eye-rolled to oblivion because the man or boy (always a man or a boy) I was speaking to dismissed those things as empty and frivolous. (I mean, I even stopped wearing eye makeup because a boy told me I wore too much at one point, but that’s a conversation about the male gaze for another day.)

Fashion is history! Beauty is history! Norms are established and/or perpetuated through these things! You want to learn about the evolution of the skirt? Of flip-flops? Of the Von Dutch trucker hat? Baby, there’s a thesis for each of those! You’re a historian now! Nothing’s stopping you!

Food
My friend Becky is a literal food historian! FOOD! (I shouted that.) You may read this and think, “Okay, and?” but also I don’t think you actually reacted that way because you’re smart and I love you and guess what: we all eat food, food is everywhere, food is culture and community and usually an indicator of what’s going on where and at the hands of whom. You know microwave dinners? (I do because I enjoy them thoroughly.) They were initially part of a larger kitchen trend that focused on “the future” in the mid-20th century aka a post-nuclear, technologically-advanced, space-racing world. Appliances looked like space ships! The atom was a legitimate design featured on cups and plates! Convenience was everything! So was the imminent fear of nuclear disaster, but that’s also a conversation for another day!

Drugs
Hello, have you met MK Ultra? The whole Cold War obsession with “brainwashing”? The criminalization of marijuana to further a racist, classist agenda? What about this little guy: circa WWII, German soldiers were given a form of speed in their little kits which helps explain . . . a lot. (Seriously, all of Hitler’s friends and soldiers were high AF and by the end, Hitler was literally grey and in-cohesive and a real sloppy bitch, and that is putting it very, very professionally. His doctor gave him, like, animal blood injections? Among other things? I don’t know, man. It was fucked. Read Blitzed if you want to learn more because a) the author puts it all much better than I just did, and b) there are details in there that I don’t need to share here.)

Also, as an aside, Hitler used to nickname himself “the wolf” when picking up teen girls (as an adult man, mind you). Like, outside of being a genocidal, narcissistic, megalomaniacal, hateful monster, he was also a real fucking loser.

Literally anything
ANYTHING!!! Right now, one of my besties (shout-out to Kess!) is wrapping up their PhD dissertation about the porn wars of the 1970s. How cool is that?! My pal Keandra is going to look at feminist publications and the rise and fall of one in particular (that I do not remember — sorry Keandra!) in the 1970s and 1980s. My friend Will is . . . okay, I forget that too. BUT! When he told me I was like, “NO WAY! That’s so cool!”

I love history because it really can, as Ryan Atwood so eloquently states in the OC pilot, be whatever you want it to be. (The OC can be history too!) Our greatest mistake is assuming things that interest us or bring us joy or are deemed “frivolous” or “dumb” aren’t serious enough to investigate past surface-level. But that’s not true. Everything starts from somewhere. And, you also don’t need to go to school to channel your inner historian. Books abound! Articles are abundant! People like me don’t shut up about things! Friends, if you decide to start randomly collecting the entire collection of Animorphs novels, that’s a wee archive!

And of course, there’s room for battles and war talk, too. But please, please don’t ask me to decipher the differences between panzer tanks.

Something I love: My friend/sister/personal hero Kiva Reardon has a newsletter called Care Takes about parenthood and caregiving while trying to maintain a career in film/the creative arts. She interviews smart people which is made even better by the fact that Kiva herself is super smart. I love it and I love her! (And I also don’t have kids, so if I read it and care then it’s gotta be good.)

Something that is very annoying: I just drank my refresher way too fast and now I don’t have any refresher left and my stomach is annoyed with me now. Probably like the rest of you because complaining about drinking a beverage too fast is all kinds of annoying, but too bad because you’re here and you’re reading my newsletter. A-HA!

Something I’m obsessed with in general: What would you do if I was just like, “Oh I’ve started drinking raw milk!” LOOOOLOLOL no. Never. I am deeply afraid of anything that can cause intentional distress or discomfort or death. But I am mainlining mojito-flavoured La Croix which has become a real distressing component of my personality. Also, plain sparking water with a little fake gin? Hello, nurse! (This is 40. And it’s coming for you.)

Until next time!

• A.