Dr Abigail Fine
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onceuponafine.bsky.social
Dr Abigail Fine
@onceuponafine.bsky.social
PhD in Comp Lit, MA in History. Fairy tales, material culture, (fast) fashion, gender, children’s literature. Special interest in fairy godmothers and American Girl brand.
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
I’m just a simple country historian w/o a law degree, but it’s more than a ‘long standing tradition’ when its IN THE CONSTITUTION
npr.org NPR @npr.org · 5d
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration. n.pr/48E1oko
Supreme Court agrees to hear arguments in birthright citizenship challenge
The Supreme Court will ultimately decide whether to uphold the longstanding principle that grants citizenship to the children of non-citizens born in the U.S., following a legal challenge by the Trump administration.
n.pr
December 6, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
After the recent joy of Hard Boiled in a packed theater it hit me that one of the tragedies of capitalism’s manifestation of our tech age is that on top of imprisoning us in gilded cages disconnected from shared reality, they are transforming communal experience into an expensive, uncommon novelty.
James Gunn says theatrical releases are “incredibly important” for DC after the Warner Bros & Netflix merger news

“The communal theatrical experience is something that is incredibly important & remarkably well suited to our big spectacle films”

(Source: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...)
December 6, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
be the bitch doing something yourself that you want to see in the world
there’s a scene in the new documentary where Elizabeth Taylor is talking about the stigma of AIDS and how she got involved in the movement and it’s fucking everything
December 1, 2025 at 8:54 PM
What could be better for a family-oriented holiday? An episode on the ultimate parent-child relationship: Frankenstein! Put on those headphones and listen to our first new podcast episode in three years! Or leave those headphones off and share the episode with the fam! Quality time!
Historical Resurrection! Frankenstein (2025)
Podcast Episode · Historical Friction · 11/22/2025 · 1h 19m
podcasts.apple.com
November 27, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
I think the President of the US responding to a question about the murder of a journalist with "A lot of people didn't like that gentleman" is probably pretty bad.
November 18, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
Well, it's a little clearer now why billionaires are so invested in technology that produces better written emails.
November 12, 2025 at 10:23 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
We've had 2 massive mergers in 2 years. In both cases, QMUL refused to hear students (staff was told not to talk about it with students for fear of repercussions), and *after* both of them, management said 'our bad, we'll talk to students next time'.

#UKHE managers don't prioritise students.
November 9, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Okay well, I had hope on Tuesday and now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
November 10, 2025 at 3:22 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
I will not support a deal that does nothing to make health care more affordable.

We are in a health care emergency. A simple one-year extension of these tax credits would cost less than Donald Trump’s $40 billion bailout for Argentina.

A vote for this bill is a mistake.
November 10, 2025 at 1:06 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
S I G N I F I C A N T L Y
I think Senate folders are significantly underestimating how fucking angry Democratic voters are at them
November 10, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
One trillion reasons not to buy a Tesla.
November 7, 2025 at 2:01 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
The key thing to watch here: they fired a Wired political reporter. That’s the title doing the most effective, pointed work. Teen Vogue’s stuff was culturally impactful, but less focused on investigating the administration. Within the Condé portfolio, Wired and the New Yorker are the canaries.
New: Conde Nast fired four employees who were among a group that confronted the company's head of human resources on Wednesday over the decision to fold Teen Vogue into Vogue/recent cuts. Employees who were fired included journalists from the New Yorker, Wired, and Bon Appétit.
November 6, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
Don't cross a picket line.
BREAKING: After months of stonewalling by Starbucks, unionized baristas just voted 92% to authorize a ULP strike unless Starbucks finalizes fair contracts & stops union busting.

If forced, our baristas will strike in dozens of cities on November 13 – the company's busiest sales day of the year.
Starbucks unionized workers say they'll strike on Nov. 13 if coffee giant doesn't finalize contract
Union members say they are ready to strike on the chain's Red Cup Day if Starbucks doesn't finalize a contract with their union by then.
www.cbsnews.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:29 PM
Love to have just a bit of hope in the morning! 🎉
November 5, 2025 at 5:09 PM
Election Day = Existential Dread
November 4, 2025 at 7:50 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
I was laid off from Teen Vogue this week, alongside multiple other phenomenal team members.

At our Summit, I was asked how it felt to be 1 of 2 Black women left and what that meant for representation. Now, there are no Black women at Teen Vogue and that is incredibly painful to think about.
November 3, 2025 at 11:57 PM
This is incredibly upsetting. Teen Vogue was doing genuinely great work. I hate how the press keeps caving.
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 9:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
As I regularly note, "AI" at this point is an umbrella marketing term for a bunch or generative/machine learning/other formerly differently-termed processes that (of course) have no actual intelligence behind them. It means nothing useful for how the underlying computing proceeds. Thus the quotes.
I love how you used quotation marks around "AI." If you've been doing that all along, I'm kicking myself for not noticing. It's a misleading or just lying marketing term and we shouldn't accept and repeat it without pushback. Generative LLMs are not AI.
November 3, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
The richest man on earth owns X.

The second richest man on earth is about to acquire TikTok and his family could soon own both Paramount and Warner Bros.

The third richest man owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

The fourth richest man owns The Washington Post.

See the problem here?
October 25, 2025 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
Updating my LEGO White House
October 23, 2025 at 2:51 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
It’s far from the most important thing, morally right now, or in terms of the human stakes, but the ballroom thing is really breaking my brain.
October 22, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
I know we all get desensitized and think our calls / voices can't move the needle, but we can, we do, keep it up:
Just for giggles, I wrote my MAGA congressman asking him to explain why he's fighting the ACA subsidies that make healthcare possible for me. Instead of his usual Trumpy bullshit, his response was "I'm hearing a lot of this, I'll get back to you." Hmmm. Maybe they are getting worried?
October 21, 2025 at 2:36 AM
Reposted by Dr Abigail Fine
you don't understand. as someone who isn't inherently good at art, stealing paintings from the museum is the *only* way i'm able to express myself creatively. i wouldn't be able to paint beautiful portraits. but by breaking into a museum and stealing the paintings, now i am
August 3, 2025 at 7:24 PM