neal is one of my most enthusiastic friends and that’s what he enthusiastically said to me when i told him about the time i yelled at my ex-boyfriend for three hours in the denver airport. this validation came during an email exchange while i was still in lewiston. neal said he was getting in touch because he had “secretly, or maybe not so secretly” heard about the breakup and wanted to check in on me “not in a nosy way, just in a you are missed way.” i got a lot of nice emails in those few weeks but he was the only person to reference breakup-related gossip, which i found impressive. he also wanted to know if i had read simone weil or chris kraus, and what my thoughts were, and then he sent me a bunch of his thoughts on them.

neal knows how to combine funny and moving better than anyone i know, and i was crying laughing tonight at his show, especially during his rap-like remixes of bullshit seventies white male artists and when some of the juggalos held up a sign that said “negation bitches.” NEGATION BITCHES. as neal said in an interview, in genuine appreciative wonder of some of the activities of the juggalos, “who does that?” i loved his performance—and i mean i really loved it—because it combines and illuminates class politics and feminist theory in a way that is totally scary and hilarious. but his celebrating my (totally deserved, btw) airport tirade also helps. 

3 Feb 2012 / 7 notes / effusive friendship feminist theory humiliation as self-care sympathetic criticism