What if lawmakers just like, left our bodies alone?

+ My Taylor Swift recap and why Gen Z is obsessed with Do Not Disturb mode

Holy shit angels - last night Rubes and I were lucky enough to go to Taylor Swift with the GORGE team from META (and some other sick creators) so naturally I just want to give you a VERY QUICK recap before we get into the news.

First of all the fits:

midnight rubes and lover luce

Ok, so first Rubes and I gathered at META HQ where we put some sparkly jewels on our eyes, swapped a couple of friendship bracelets and headed to the bus.

but not before grabbing a wee taylor swift cookie

We arrived, watched Sabrina Carpenter (cutest polly pocket ALIVE) and IMPORTANTLY our ‘Nonsense’ outro was:

"I can't believe a plane can fly this far

I met the cutest Aussie at the bar

He said "are you from here?" I said 'naur'"

AND THEN TAYLOR CAME OUT! I gotta say, the energy at this concert was something TOTALLY different from New York (it helped that Rubes and I were mainlining bubbly) but I have NEVER danced so hard.

SHE TOTALLY HIT THE PENTAGON WITH OUR ICONIC SURPRISE SONGS WHICH WERE:

• A mashup of “Would've, Could've, Should've” and “Ivy”

• A mashup of “Forever & Always” and “Maroon”

I must note here that my best friend Flo is the biggest swiftie of all time (she was at this show and it was her first time seeing Taylor live), and her NUMBER ONE SONG is “Would've, Could've, Should've” so she DIED when this one came on.

But my number one highlight was getting to see “Long Live” (which is my favourite song IN THE WORLD) and getting to experience it with Rubes 🥺

If you want to read the best review of the concert itself then I suggest you read this by our bestie

Duncan Greive

but all I’ll say is I remember this night all too well.

And thank you to the team at META (especially you Michael) who invited us along! A dream!!

⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖ IN THE NEWS⊹˚. ♡.𖥔 ݁ ˖

Embryos are now considered 'unborn children' in Alabama

As I’m sure a lot of you have heard by now, but last Friday we learnt of a first-of-its-kind decision in Alabama when the state supreme court ruled that embryos are “extrauterine children” (which means existing, formed, or occurring outside the uterus.) This ruling - and this term - could have widespread implications for those seeking, or currently undergoing IVF, and is just another way our bodies continue to be regulated in a post-Roe world.

Why this ruling? Why now?

Here’s the best explainer I’ve seen about why this has come up now:

“When a hospital patient wandered into one of Alabama's fertility clinics in 2020, they caused a chain of events that has left the state's IVF sector, and those using it, reeling. 

The patient, according to court documents, got into the clinic in the city of Mobile through an unsecured doorway before managing to remove several frozen embryos.  

But as the patient picked them up, the subzero temperatures at which they were being stored caused a freezer-burn to their hand. 

The embryos were dropped onto the floor and destroyed.  

Three couples affected by the incident brought lawsuits against the clinic under legislation, first enacted in 1872, that allows parents to recover damages for a child's death. 

At the centre of the case was a key question: Is a frozen embryo considered a child under the state's law?

In a decision that is now reverberating across the country, Alabama's highest court ruled it was.”

What have the effects of this been so far?

Within a few days, the impacts of this ruling were already being felt in Alabama, with at least three of the state’s seven fertility clinics pausing their IFV services over legal risks.

“Since each created embryo is now a person in the eyes of the law, the Alabama ruling casts multiple parts of the IVF process into legal jeopardy. Providers may no longer be able to freeze, thaw, transfer or test embryos using best medical practices. People also frequently make more embryos than they use, and it is unclear if Alabamians would be able to ever dispose of those embryos under the supreme court ruling.

The consequences could even pose an existential threat to IVF in Alabama, as providers and patients may flee the state rather than risk liability flowing from the ruling.”

What happens now?

A few things are underway, according to CNN:

• A bipartisan effort is currently underway in the Alabama House and Senate to draft “clarifying” legislation that would “protect” in vitro fertilization treatments

• Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall weighed in on the issue on Friday. Marshall said he “has no intention of using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers”

My overarching thoughts on all of this mirror this statement from Alabama-based family lawyer Ashleigh Meyer Dunham:

"…Alabama has utilised a very emotionally charged case as a vehicle to regulate women's reproductive choices to the date of conception." 

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Apparently, Gen Z leaves their phones on ‘do not disturb’ to avoid notification anxiety

This is a classic tweet-turned-discourse moment which occurred after a dude called Max Burns tweeted this:

It created a bit of buzz (not literally of course, because everyone’s phone was on DND) about how this wasn’t specifically a Gen Z thing, and how it also wasn’t specifically about phone call anxiety, and I wanted to know your thoughts.

If you ask any of my friends, I am the number one proponent (is that the right word?) for having Do Not Disturb on at all times. My phone gets so many notifications (not a flex, just heaps of news updates really) that it would be buzzing NON STOP, and the only way I can set a good boundary from it is by having it constantly on Do Not Disturb. It is NOT because I’m avoiding phone calls (although I do hate a phone call) in fact, Rubes has made me add her and a few other imp people to a list where if they ring me it bypasses DND and gets straight to me. If you’ve made it onto that list you’re a real one.

I personally think it has less to do with avoiding people’s calls or emails, and more to do with trying to put up some sort of wall between us and the thing we’ve unnaturally become plugged into 24/7.

What do you think?

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So many of us have grown up having everything available and accessible to us all the time - which is AMAZING for so many reasons, but there is a cost to free things - even if you can’t see it.

In a world that feels more mystifying by the day, where journalists are constantly being laid off, and misinformation spreads faster than a leaked Harry Styles song, finding media that you trust, understand and actually want to read is so important.

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