HeyJaredWhat We Make -- Sita Balani’s Substack
what do we make and how does it make us? monthly updates on my writing, thinking, talking.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 2
- Latest publication
- Aug 11, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 7, 2026
Latest issues
You Made Me: A Butch-Femme Love Song (opens the original)
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The relentless churn of digital life makes it feel like every thought should be a post; every speculation, an essay; every concept, a book. It’s hard to take time, to let an idea live unspoken, to wait for the right moment to put it into words. But in a way, it’s easier to do that when you’re a little scared to articulate something. And so, it’s taken me many years to write an essay on butch-femme. It’s about gay pubs in the mid-2000s, Leslie Feinberg, trade unions, the algorithm, desire. Mostly
Do not attempt alone (opens the original)
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These are strange and disorienting times. War and genocide are filtered through a gauze of trivialisation, misdirection, and outright deceit. Algorithms control weaponry and monetise our distraction. Heatwaves, pogromist violence, the Epstein files, explosions of stochastic violence, Chinamaxxing, everythingmaxxing, forest fires, yet another Prime Minister — it’s hard to keep up. Trying to write about the present is a challenge and, increasingly, one that feels like it should come with a warning
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