A Room of One's Own
Greetings and salutations readers!
I am once again rebranding!
After writing my “23 Pathways for 2023” I realized how desperately I want to hone in on what’s working for me while veering away from what doesn’t. What works for me is constant change and growth. What doesn’t work for me is stagnation and monotony.
If you’re reading this you either know me IRL or you follow me on social media. And you probably know that I’m a currently a grad student that likes to make funny and witty shit on the internet. I want you to laugh and think and be queer. This newsletter is actually infused with hormone supplements…if you don’t know, now you know.
I have a year left of funding for my PhD. Time is running short and I don’t see myself doing academia. The reasons why could make up an entire separate newsletter, so I’ll just recommend that you follow [at]gradschoolsucks on Instagram to find similar reasons to mine.
In short, I crave more free flowing, creative work that involves celebrating and collaborating with queer and feminist artists, writers, and activists. I don’t know what that entails right now, but I know my current path in academia is not that road I want to take to get there.
I want to give myself options and that needs to start now. Can you sense the anxiety in this newsletter! It’s jumping off the virtual page along with the hormone supplements!
Over the past several years, I’ve busted my ass trying to do independent content creation work: my solo podcast Saddergay, Canonification: the podcast that I cohosted with Matisse DuPont (Hi Mati!), TikTok videos, Instagram memes and reels, my newsletter, sending pitches to various queer and feminist online magazines. I did all of this on top of doing my PhD work, might I add.
So I’ve truly fucked around and found out, collaborated with some amazing people, and now I’m ready for the next phase.
If you listened to my old podcast Saddergay, you may remember an episode where I talk about Virigina Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own.” Woolf writes that in order to be a successful writer, specifically as a woman, you need to have enough resources and a "room of one’s own” that allows you to create the type of art you want to make.
I refer to this essay constantly because I have a massive hair across my supple ass. I’m not a nepo baby. I haven’t had the resources so many others have had to become famous and successful. I have several learning disabilities. I’m certainly privileged in my white, middle class identity. But I’ve had a certain lack too that has made my journey towards artistic success exhausting.
So much of my work is DIY (do it yourself) grunt work: learning how to record and edit a podcast, studying the “algorithm,” analyzing fellow content creators and their successes and failures. Whenever I feel lazy or like a failure, I have to remind myself of the challenges I’ve faced to create a room of my own. I’m very lucky to even have a room of my own and I’ve learned so much already.
I want to apologize for the self-indulgent nature of my newsletter this week—then again, it is MY newsletter so…
Here’s the summary (which I should include in the intro, but I’m lazy): new year same me, but with fun and interesting alterations.
I’m continuing to write and make content by and for queer people and feminists. I’m continuing to make it funny and sincere!
Please stay tuned, I promise to keep you entertained <3
xoxo
Mx Underworld
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