Our weekly recap highlighting the best feature stories from around the internet.
This week GQ's Caity Weaver profiled Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot. Photo: AFP
Gal Gadot Kicks Ass, by Caity Weaver, GQ
‘"When I was a girl," she says in between sips of coffee with extra sugar syrup, "I went to speech therapy because I had a rusty voice. I used to lose my voice very easily. They taught me how to breathe, 'cause I was not breathing right." "It's funny to imagine a little kid with such a husky, sensual voice," I say. She cocks an eyebrow and playfully lowers her voice until it is practically dragging on the ground: "Do you want to play hide and seek?" I dissolve in laughter. She leans in close to whisper in my ear. "Come find me.”’
The Uncounted, by Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal, The New York Times Magazine
“Some time later, he snapped awake. His shirt was drenched, and there was a strange taste — blood? — on his tongue. The air was thick and acrid. He looked up. He was in the bedroom, but the roof was nearly gone. He could see the night sky, the stars over Mosul. Basim reached out and found his legs pressed just inches from his face by what remained of his bed. He began to panic. He turned to his left, and there was a heap of rubble. “Mayada!” he screamed. “Mayada!” It was then that he noticed the silence. “Mayada!” he shouted. “Tuqa!” The bedroom walls were missing, leaving only the bare supports. He could see the dark outlines of treetops. He began to hear the faraway, unmistakable sound of a woman’s voice. He cried out, and the voice shouted back, “Where are you?” It was Azza, his sister-in-law, somewhere outside. “Mayada’s gone!” he shouted. “No, no, I’ll find her!” “No, no, no, she’s gone,” he cried back. “They’re all gone!”’
Inside the Kanye Superfans’ Scheme to Beat Taylor Swift on the Charts, by Victor Luckerson, The Ringer
“The idea that Taylor Swift is both deeply knowledgeable about Kanye’s darkest moments and cruel enough to exploit them speaks to the way both artists have morphed into cartoonish supervillains in the popular imagination over the years (Swift is just having her Yeezus moment four years late). From the vantage of the mega-fan, though, both West and Swift are superheroes who need support now more than ever as they fight against a tide of unwarranted hate. It was inevitable that this endless war, fought via awards shows and song lyrics and internet-breaking Snap Stories, would eventually ensnare the foot soldiers, as well. So the release day for Reputation also became “Hey Mama” Day, with fans on both sides having a single goal: get their preferred artist to the top of the charts.”
Your Reckoning. And Mine. As stories about abuse, assault, and complicity come flooding out, how do we think about the culprits in our lives? Including, sometimes, ourselves, by Rebecca Traister, The Cut
“Considering all of these angles, it’s easy to conclude that this moment actually isn’t radical enough, because it’s limited to sexual grievances. One 60-year-old friend, who is single and in a precarious professional situation, says, “I’m burning with rage watching some assholes pose as good guys just because they never put their hands on a colleague’s thigh, when I know for a fact they’ve run capable women out of workplaces in deeply gendered ways. I’m very frustrated, because I’m not in a position right now to spill some beans.”’
The Myth of the Male Bumbler, by Lili Loofbourow, The Week
“Allow me to make a controversial proposition: Men are every bit as sneaky and calculating and venomous as women are widely suspected to be. And the bumbler — the very figure that shelters them from this ugly truth — is the best and hardest proof. Breaking that alibi means dissecting that myth. The line on men has been that they're the only gender qualified to hold important jobs and too incompetent to be responsible for their conduct. Men are great but transparent, the story goes: What you see is what you get. They lack guile.”
Colin Kaepernick Will Not Be Silenced, by GQ editors, GQ
“I see what he's done as art. I believe that art is seeing the world that doesn't exist. A lot of people excel at creativity—making TV, movies, painting, writing books—but you can be an artist in your own life. Civil rights activists are artists. Athletes are artists. People who imagine something that is not there. I think some folks see his protests, his resistance, as not his work. Not intentional. Not strategic. Not as progressive action. As if this was just a moment that he got caught up in. This was work. This is work that he's doing.”