Constance Grady
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Culture and gender writer. Previously at Vox, other bylines at The Toast and the A.V. Club. Not the Ugly Betty character. ConstanceCGrady @ gmail
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Articles by Constance Grady
Little treat culture
There are two things that I believe to be true: Art makes our lives better and richer and more pleasurable and more interesting. Thinking seriously about what work a piece of art is doing also makes our lives better and richer and more pleasurable and more interesting. Welcome to The Treat, where we do that thinking. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. I spent 10 years as a culture critic for Vox. Now I’m freelancing.
How to make friends by lying to them
Sometimes the best way to make friends is to lie. Around the world, people are gathering together to try to figure out if the person next to them is on their side — or is trying to double-cross them. By the end of the process, trickery or no, they’re deeply bonded. Social deduction games (and the related sister category social deception games) have been around for decades and come in a myriad of formats, including Mafia, Werewolf, and the newer entry, Blood on the Clocktower.
How to make friends by lying to them
Sometimes the best way to make friends is to lie. Around the world, people are gathering together to try to figure out if the person next to them is on their side — or is trying to double-cross them. By the end of the process, trickery or no, they're deeply bonded. Social deduction games (and the related sister category social deception games) have been around for decades and come in a myriad of formats, including Mafia, Werewolf, and the newer entry, Blood on the Clocktower.
Anthony Bourdain was a good man. ‘Tony’ shows us how he became one.
“Tony,” the biopic released nationwide this week, will make you miss Anthony Bourdain even more than you already did. He was famous as a chef. But he was also such a good man — which feels particularly powerful at a time when we’re surrounded by the most domineering and toxic aspects of masculinity, like the defense secretary planning to screen troops for testosterone deficiency and young men smashing their chins with hammers to get a more masculine jawline.
The promising race to get kids reading again
Something happens to kids when they’re about 9 years old. Before then, they’re voracious little bookworms, with most of them saying they read for fun at least five days a week. After their ninth birthday, only 35 percent still do. Experts call this phenomenon “the decline by 9,” and they spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to stop it.
The promising race to get kids reading again
Constance Grady Wed, August 19, 2026 at 6:00 AM EDT 6 min read Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Add Yahoo on Google Reading decline happens during the big transition all middle-grade readers go through: moving from short illustrated chapter books to fully fledged novels. | Ryan McVay/Getty Images Something happens to kids when they're about 9 years old.
Fast fashion is terrible for the planet. Can wardrobe cataloging apps help?
The influencers have started to promise me that they know how to get me to stop shopping: I just have to enter every garment of clothing I own into an app, one by one. “I digitally cataloged my ENTIRE wardrobe,” they swear on videos, routinely pulling in hundreds of thousands of views. The selling point of these apps (Indyx, Whering, ACloset, OpenWardrobe, and many more) is seductive; they promise to help users understand exactly what they already own so that they shop less.
How video games can make young men feel less alone
Young American men are in trouble. They are the loneliest demographic in the Western world. Their social circles are shrinking. At all ages, they are significantly more likely to die by suicide than their female peers. But if there’s one place where young American men are likely to congregate, regardless of race or political beliefs, it’s the world of video games. According to a 2017 Pew study, 72 percent of men under 30 say they play video games often or sometimes.
The surprisingly undisciplined trick to escaping social media Original
If you’re looking to wean yourself off social media and replace it with a more productive habit — and who among us isn’t — a lot of the common advice can sound like it’s coming from a drill instructor: Go outside and touch grass. Routine is key. Get your butt in the chair and don’t get up until you’ve done the work. They might as well be telling you to do a hundred pushups while they’re at it. Curiosity is one of the most powerful human motivators. That’s why social media preys on it.
Why does Odysseus have a Boston accent? Original
After the first trailer for Christopher Nolan’s new film adaptation of The Odyssey dropped, a wave of conversation followed, part amused, part outraged: Why were all the actors, even the British ones, doing American accents? And why did the dialogue sound so contemporary? “My dad is coming home,” declares Tom Holland as Odysseus’s son Telemachus, with tight-mouthed American vowels despite Holland’s natural English accent. Vox Culture Culture reflects society.
Is it time to finally read The Odyssey? Original
Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is about to surf the wine-dark sea into theaters everywhere, and between its star-studded cast and ecstatic early reviews, it’s likely to be a blockbuster. So if you’ve never read the 2800 year old poem on which it’s based — or you skimmed it in the 10th grade and haven’t thought about it since — is this the time for you to finally read it? There’s a strong argument to be made that the answer is yes, because The Odyssey is an absolute blast to read.
America at 250: Who are we, anyway?
America turns 250 this year. The celebrations are already underway — and so are the questions. President Donald Trump has put himself at the center of the anniversary in Washington, DC, with hype-filled plans for festivals and fireworks. Nationally, the lead-up has turned into a roiling conversation about what America even represents these days — how we all grapple with American identity, politics, and competing visions for the country.
5 books that define America — for better and for worse Original
Some countries built their identities on their land. Some countries built their identities on a shared ethnic heritage. America, however, began with an idea on a piece of paper. “America was an enlightenment experiment, and so that means we have to make our own identity,” said Mark Graybill, a professor of English at Widener University who specializes in American literature. To do so, we need books: novels that articulate what it’s like to live in this strange new land. Lawrence Buell, the Powell M.
Why Elon Musk is so obsessed with this violently xenophobic Armie Hammer movie
A violent anti-migrant propaganda movie titled Citizen Vigilante was a smash hit on Apple and Amazon over the weekend, and the online right is celebrating. The film, directed by a man frequently described as the world’s worst director and starring disgraced actor Armie Hammer, blew up after Elon Musk began promoting it on X. It currently has a 94 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it has officially acquired distribution.
Democrats say they need manlier candidates. Doesn’t Mamdani qualify? Original
After two successive women lost the race for president — and with the GOP increasingly claiming the testosterone-fueled “manosphere” — a lot of Democratic insiders are starting to worry the party is a bit too low-T. Even its successful new faces, like Jon Ossoff and James Talarico, might still be too soft. (This might explain why a recent Instagram post from @Democrats showed Talarico gnawing on meat.) They’re racked with anxiety: Where are the masculine Democrats?
The World Cup is showing what Trump can’t destroy about America
Scotland fans wrapped in a USA flag celebrate victory and qualification after a FIFA World Cup 2026 qualifier match. | Stu Forster/Getty Images My new favorite show is video after video from World Cup tourists who are in awe of America. The 2026 World Cup has become a global love fest for the US — at a time when the rest of the world has plenty of reasons to dislike us. A World Cup hosted by the United States under the xenophobic Trump administration had all the makings of a disaster.
The World Cup is showing what Trump can’t destroy about America
My new favorite show is video after video from World Cup tourists who are in awe of America. The 2026 World Cup has become a global love fest for the US — at a time when the rest of the world has plenty of reasons to dislike us. A World Cup hosted by the United States under the xenophobic Trump administration had all the makings of a disaster.
AI can replicate human-made art. Here’s why it can never replace it.
As AI continues to encroach on every aspect of our lives, there is a persistent fear or hope, depending on your angle: AI will someday take over art. The internet is full of quizzes showing that most lay people cannot tell the difference between AI-generated art (digital pictures of paintings, prose) and the real thing.
Trump’s Freedom 250 fest crashout proves he’s the only true MAGA celebrity
President Donald Trump spent the weekend crashing out on TruthSocial as artist after artist dropped out of the Freedom 250 festival, a White House concert series that will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary later this month. Trump ultimately declared he wanted to cancel the concert and replace it with a rally, featuring “the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime” — himself.
Trump’s Freedom 250 fest crashout proves he’s the only true MAGA celebrity
Trump loves stars. Too bad they all hate him. President Donald Trump spent the weekend crashing out on TruthSocial as artist after artist dropped out of the Freedom 250 festival, a White House concert series that will celebrate America’s 250th anniversary later this month. Trump ultimately declared …
Anthropic owes authors $1.5B for pirating work — but the claims process is a Kafkaesque mess Original
Earlier this year, the author Maureen Johnson was fighting with Anthropic. Specifically, she was wrestling with the Anthropic copyright settlement website. Johnson is the author of 28 books, most of them YA and many of them bestsellers. The AI company Anthropic owes her an estimated $3,000 per book (to be split 50-50 with her publisher) for several of them.
The sad, ugly debate behind the new Michael Jackson biopic Original
The new biopic Michael, about the tortured King of Pop, had a record-breaking opening weekend — despite the fact that the film celebrates the musical legacy of Michael Jackson, a man credibly accused of sexually abusing multiple children. After the success of the 2019 documentary Leaving Neverland, it was tempting to think that there was a permanent asterisk next to Jackson’s name. Advertisers stopped using his music, and The Simpsons pulled his episode from syndication.
Has Lena Dunham changed? Have we?
Lena Dunham, the subject of a thousand 2010s think pieces about whether or not she is problematic, has re-emerged from behind the curtain with her new memoir, Famesick. But this time around, the think pieces look different. Some of them are mea culpas addressed to Dunham. “We owe Lena Dunham an apology,” declared Rachel Simon in a story for MS Now. The apology came with a caveat: “Dunham is, and always has been, a flawed figure.
Has Lena Dunham changed? Have we?
Lena Dunham seen at The Drew Barrymore Show on April 14, 2026, in New York City. | Aeon/GC Images via Getty Images Lena Dunham, the subject of a thousand 2010s think pieces about whether or not she is problematic, has re-emerged from behind the curtain with her new memoir, Famesick. But this time around, the think pieces look different. Some of them are mea culpas addressed to Dunham. “We owe Lena Dunham an apology,” declared Rachel Simon in a story for MS Now.
Has Lena Dunham changed? Have we?
More than a decade ago, when Girls premiered, I was one of the many voices who reflexively loathed its creator. Looking back, I know who I was really …
What happens when a tradwife has to put her money where her mouth is Original
Yesteryear, the buzzy new debut novel by Caro Claire Burke, has the kind of premise it’s hard to look away from: a tradwife influencer named Natalie — a Harvard dropout who married rich at 20 — wakes up in 1855. Gone are her tastefully discrete appliances, her prized collection of luxury sweaters, her team of nannies and farm workers. In their place: an outhouse, stained homespun prairie dresses, and hours of back-breaking labor spent washing a single load of laundry with homemade lye soap.
What do we lose when we erase ugliness?
Constance Grady We're in a moment of cultural fascination with looksmaxxers . That too-online community, made up mostly of men who claim to do things like hit themselves in the face with hammers for a stronger jawline and snort meth for leaner bodies, has become the object of shocked trend pieces and news coverage. Looksmaxxers are fascinating in part because their motivations are so understandable.
What do we lose when we erase ugliness?
This story was originally published in The Highlight, Vox’s member-exclusive magazine. To get access to member-exclusive stories every month, become a Vox Member today. We’re in a moment of cultural fascination with looksmaxxers. That too-online community, made up mostly of men who claim to do things like hit themselves in the face with hammers for a stronger jawline and snort meth for leaner bodies, has become the object of shocked trend pieces and news coverage.
What do we lose when we erase ugliness?
We’re in a moment of cultural fascination with looksmaxxers. That too-online community, made up mostly of men who claim to do things like hit themselves in the face with hammers for a stronger jawline and snort meth for leaner bodies, has become the object of shocked trend pieces and news coverage. Looksmaxxers are fascinating in part because their motivations are so understandable.
Me Too revealed a lot of villains. Why is Epstein the one we still care about? Original
As part of its ongoing release of the Epstein files, the Department of Justice has released three FBI memos relating to accusations of sexual assault against President Donald Trump. The news came days after Bill and Hillary Clinton were brought before the House Oversight Committee to testify about Bill’s connection to notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. All of this was perhaps only a matter of time.
How Epstein’s biggest financial client shaped millennial teen culture
The 2000s saw what was perhaps the final generation of American mall teens, before the malls became laser arenas and windowless housing developments. The teens who inhabited them believed themselves to be sophisticated; they learned what a blowjob was in middle school from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Their jeans were low and their thongs were high, their hair was ruthlessly flat-ironed, and their perfume smelled like vanilla frosting. They bought all their favorite things from just one man.
The 50-year struggle to get Best Casting into the Oscars Original
On Sunday night, the Academy Awards will confer their first trophy to a casting director. The award for Best Casting is the first new category to be added to the Oscars in 24 years — and it’s doing its part to remedy the Oscars’s abysmal record on gender. Since the Academy Awards began in 1929, 82.2 percent of winners have been men, with women making up just 17.8 percent. Time hasn’t helped even the split out as much as you might think.
How Epstein’s biggest financial client shaped millennial teen culture
The 2000s saw what was perhaps the final generation of American mall teens, before the malls became laser arenas and windowless housing developments. The teens who inhabited them believed themselves to be sophisticated; they learned what a blowjob was in middle school from the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. Their jeans were low and their thongs were high, their hair was ruthlessly flat-ironed, and their perfume smelled like vanilla frosting. They bought all their favorite things from just one man.
What the arrest of former Prince Andrew can teach us about power and abuse
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor back when he was Prince Andrew, at the Requiem Mass service for the Duchess of Kent, at Westminster Cathedral on September 16, 2025 in London, England. | Aaron Chown/Pool/Getty Images Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, younger brother of King Charles III and a former British royal prince, was arrested Thursday morning in the UK over suspicions that he shared confidential information with the notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
What the arrest of former Prince Andrew can teach us about power and abuse
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, younger brother of King Charles III and a former British royal prince, was arrested Thursday morning in the UK over suspicions that he shared confidential information with the notorious sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. The latest batch of Epstein files appears to show Mountbatten-Windsor, at the time serving as an official British trade envoy, forwarding confidential emails to Epstein.
Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights is a million times edgier than Emerald Fennell’s Original
You come into a movie based on Wuthering Heights with certain expectations. Emerald Fennell has been clear that she considers her “Wuthering Heights” — pointed quote marks and all — to be a fantasia, not a straight adaptation of Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel. “It could only ever be an attempt to take a tiny piece of the book and make sense of it,” she said in a recent interview.
How the left taught the right to hate white women
Tens of thousands of marchers participate in New York's second annual Women's March to protest against President Donald Trump on January 20, 2018, in Midtown Manhattan. | Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images A new villain has emerged in right-wing discourse: the Affluent White Female Urban Liberal, or AWFUL.
How the left taught the right to hate white women
Tens of thousands of marchers participate in New York's second annual Women's March to protest against President Donald Trump on January 20, 2018, in Midtown Manhattan. | Andrew Lichtenstein/ Corbis via Getty Images A new villain has emerged in right-wing discourse: the Affluent White Female Urban Liberal, or AWFUL.
AWFULs, explained: The right’s disdain for liberal white women
A new villain has emerged in right-wing discourse: the Affluent White Female Urban Liberal, or AWFUL. Talking heads on Fox News and right-wing YouTubers describe AWFULs as smug, entitled, and even “a cancer on the nation.” AWFULs, their argument goes, are the reason that ICE activities in Minnesota have become so violent. These women are driven by their sexual frustration, their lack of real problems, their empty, childless lives. ICE Watch is full of them.
Why Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show made the right so mad Original
As the NFL sent out a final marketing blitz for Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, the official Democratic Party X account shared a picture of Bad Bunny in front of the American and Puerto Rican flags under the text “All-American halftime with Bad Bunny.” It didn’t sit right with one Republican. “Unpopular: Republicans need to unite and get on better messaging because this branding is fantastic and allows all dems to get behind it.
Woke isn’t dead. Bad Bunny’s halftime show proved it.
6 hours ago Piers Morgan fired back at Megyn Kelly after she criticised Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show. On Sunday (8 February), the Puerto Rican singer made history by becoming the first artist to perform at the coveted show entirely in Spanish. Appearing on Piers Morgan Uncensored on Monday (9 February), Kelly claimed that the choice to sing in Spanish was a “middle finger to the rest of America.” Morgan said that English is not the country’s official language.
Why is Trump so obsessed with the Kennedy Center?
Workers affix signage adding President Donald Trump's name on the facade of the Kennedy Center in December 2025. | Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will be shutting down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in the summer.
Trump is closing the Kennedy Center for the next two years Original
President Donald Trump announced Sunday that he will be shutting down the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts for two years starting in the summer.
Why is Trump so obsessed with the Kennedy Center?
7 hours ago President Donald Trump called the joke, which Noah made at Sunday night's Grammy Awards, "false and defamatory," again insisting he has never visited the convicted sex offender's island. President Donald Trump is threatening to sue Trevor Noah over a joke at last night's Grammy Awards, saying in an …
Why is America so horny for gay hockey jocks?
The two heated rivals at the heart of Heated Rivalry. To outsiders, the phenomenon of Heated Rivalry could not seem more impossible: A show about two rival hockey players is one of the most popular shows on HBO Max. Not only that, but these two puck buddies have a lot of sex. There has never been a moment in history when the world has been more obsessed with gay, Canadian, softcore porn.
Grok’s nonconsensual porn problem is part of tech’s long, gross legacy Original
For the past few weeks, Elon Musk’s Grok AI bot has been generating pornographic images of women and underage girls, without their consent, at an astounding rate. A recent Bloomberg analysis found that Grok creates 6,700 such images per hour, or more than one per minute. On Friday, X at last put some minor guardrails on the tool, with a new policy that only paying subscribers can use Grok to generate or alter images.
Erika Kirk and Marjorie Taylor Greene are playing with the same archetype Original
As President Donald Trump settles into his last term, his approval ratings sinking ever lower, an urgent new question has begun to coalesce at the center of MAGA: Would the movement survive without Trump’s force of personality? What kind of person has the juice to lead it besides Trump? While the question remains unanswered, a new archetype has abruptly acquired stature among the MAGA faithful, an archetype that is in some ways a photographic negative of crass, mud-slinging, macho Trump.
More young American women want to leave the country than ever before Original
Young American women, it seems, want out of America. A Gallup poll in November found that 40 percent of US women ages 15 to 44 say they would move abroad permanently if they had the opportunity. That percentage is up 10 times since 2014, and it is shared by neither other American demographic groups nor young women in other developed economies. These women seem to want to leave at least in part because of Donald Trump.
From Heart the Lover to Raja the Gullible, the best books of 2025
It’s been a good year for books. I’ve been glutting myself on them for months: reissued forgotten classics with sentences so crisp you can hear them ringing out through the decades, sprawling new novels that made me laugh and sigh and weep, philosophical nonfiction that has me reaching for my pencil to scrawl thoughts and addenda in the margins. As I’ve read my way through, I have saved the very best just for you.
The Kennedy Center Honors continue Trump’s vengeance on liberal Hollywood Original
On Sunday night, President Donald Trump took to the stage in Washington, DC to host the annual Kennedy Center Honors. Presidents traditionally attend the awards, although Trump declined to do so in his first term. Now, after purging the Center’s traditionally bipartisan board of ideological rivals and installing himself as chair, Trump has become the first president to emcee the night.
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