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Koa Beck

@koabeck

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VALLEY GIRL newsletter l WHITE FEMINISM @atriabooks I @thehuntingtonlibrary fellow | @harvardkennedyschool fellow

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For @themassachusettsreview, I wrote about my experiences as a foster parent watching concepts of motherhood and gender be defined and enforced by the American judicial system. My essay, “Nanny of the State,” details how gender mythology dictates who gets deemed a “good mother” on the state level and how children are routinely and legally taken from their families to be placed in homes like mine.

This MR issue is very special because it’s the 50th anniversary of the now canonical WOMAN: AN ISSUE, which published preeminent works by Angela Davis, Anaïs Nin, Audre Lorde, and Bella S. Abzug, among others, in 1972.

I’m tremendously honored to have been asked to contribute to feminist discourse in their legacy and to include the state violence of foster care within this dialogue of gender rights.

Thank you to guest editor @nicoleshawanjunior for soliciting this piece and to the entire Massachusetts Review team for their editorial support.

Link to the full piece, “Nanny of the State,” in bio. by @koabeck

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TERFs: a potential origin story as told by me.

More on the anti-trans sentiments, theories, and strategies of #whitefeminism in chapters 2 and 10 and on @bookclubdotcom. by @koabeck

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Thank you to everyone who attended my (sold out!) Valley Girl talk. You were a lovely group💅🛍️🌴And thank you to @thehuntingtonlibrary and @vanessa.wilkie1637 for continuing to support this research into an enduring, like, gender trope of Los Angeles.

You can subscribe to my weekly newsletter analyzing the Valley Girl gender caricature and #valleygirl history at koabeck.substack.com📰 taken in The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens by @koabeck

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If you’re interested in the politics of desegregating public schools per Nikole Hannah-Jones’ NYT essay, I’ve been covering the (failed) history of desegregating LAUSD on Valley Girl. 🌴🌴

More pieces forthcoming. Links in the sky📰 taken in Los Angeles, California by @koabeck

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Favorite books I read this summer💫 by @koabeck

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15 years together❤️ by @koabeck

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🌹 by @koabeck

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Next month, I’m giving a talk at @thehuntingtonlibrary about the Valley Girl gender trope based off the research in my weekly newsletter, Valley Girl. This lecture is deeply meaningful to me because the Huntington awarded me a fellowship in 2022 to do this research into valley girl cultural narratives, history, and archives. So it’s full circle💫

As a writer, researcher, and valley girl myself, it’s also significant to see the Valley Girl included in the @wewantmorehistory national programming📚

Tickets are free with admission to the Huntington. Reserve your tickets at the, like, link in bio.🌴🌴 taken in The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens by @koabeck

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When Amelia Earhart moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1935, she did so with the relentless focus that was her career: aviation. Amelia and her husband decided on Toluca Lake as their home, purchasing a new Spanish colonial-style house on a private lake. She chose the neighborhood because she wanted to be physically close to the Lockheed factory in Burbank, an aerospace manufacturer that she relied on throughout her career for state-of-the-art planes and trustworthy repairs. Lockheed would produce the planes in which Amelia would complete her most daring and historic flying records. Her most iconic plane was built in the Burbank factory.

Link to full Valley Girl piece up top.🌴

#valleygirl taken in San Fernando Valley by @koabeck

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💙 taken in Santa Cruz Mountains by @koabeck

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In Backrooms, these spaces are horrifying for the way they mimic humanity back to itself across a landscape of commerce and excess, two elements that are deeply reflected in the Valley Girl. Artificial and disturbingly sanitized, the rooms build behind a commercial enterprise in a salient commentary on suburbia, consumption, and the nuclear family.

Full Valley Girl piece up top🏡🏡🏡🏡🌴

#backrooms by @koabeck

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