Back in 2014 one of my favorite guilty pleasure pastimes was to curl up in bed with my laptop and some chips and devour Cat Marnell’s most toxic parts of her life on XOJANE. A beauty editor who rose (and fell) in the ranks in Conde Nast and then found her way into a position at Jane Pratt’s “feminist” website as a beauty editor. Not your typical beauty editor of course Cat is a self proclaimed wreck. And she shares it all for our assessment or maybe her own therapy? With her incessant drug-use, her debilitating alcoholism, and ongoing battle with eating disorders, Cat openly uncovered something we never consider in popular culture: the functioning drug-addict and from her first article: I was hooked. So, When I heard her hilariously titled How to Murder Your Life was coming out, I preordered it’s been sitting patiently on desk nightstand and TBR ever since.
Here’s the real thing I love about Cat: She is a goddamn relic. She reminds me with fondness of my youth. There was a great epic time in 2000s were thin bleached blonde #betches ruled the world in Juicy Couture sweatsuits, smeared lipstick, and stepping out of a car without panties on was a trend. Think about that for a second. Cat regularly mixes all type of drugs in the most exclusive clubs with a cast of famous characters while having less than 500 calories in her system on a fucking Tuesday. And yet she still manages to get to work the next day. Not only does she get to work, but she advises how you too can look work-appropriate after you’ve had long night of doing blow and drinking mojitos. From a personal standpoint: Cat is my best version of vintage New York Downtown trash that I still sort of live for. She is an era that is denying out. A true maverick who doesn’t give a fuck. And despite that I should probably hate her, I don’t.
With more self described white privilege than you can throw at her, Cat Marnell is horribly transparent which lends itself for me to see right through the reality of the situation. From her few articles were she quotes “writes beauty advice for party girls”, it’s not lost on me that if she even truly is writing for quote “party girls”, white should be included somewhere. No POC could ever act this way and still manage all the success she has amassed. Only a very pristine white woman could be allowed to proclaim themselves a mess and still managed this a this amount of second chances. Cat even already knows this. She’s quite a nuanced and underrated intelligent person. Maybe that’s part of it. Why I don’t find her irrupting, but rather compelling. She very self-aware and this makes for a great writer. Hopefully her self-awareness with make for a very juicy messy memoir with enough drugs and mishaps to carry me for days.
I bet Cat wouldn’t like it any other way either.
Join us this week to in reading this wonderful train-wreck How to Murder Your Life by my favorite party girl Cat Marnell.
You can find it at your local indie bookstore, or here if your lazy (like me) here.
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