CHICAGO — Here's what we're reading around the web today.
Is Women's Sell-By Date Trending Upwards? Getting older is no picnic for women but the notion that women reach their sell-by date at 30 might be shifting, according to The Cut. Ann Friedman writes, "There is something just inherently soul-crushing about your 20s" whereas "the 40s are when many people are finally approaching a high point." Millennials, she suggests, are actually envious of older women who have their, uh, stuff together and offers up as proof a 2013 Harris Interactive poll, in which most people said their ideal age is 50. Riiiiight. Reporter Patty Wetli would love to buy what Friedman's selling but spent all her money on anti-aging creams.
What's In a Game?: A recent adopter of video game-playing, senior editor Lizzie Schiffman Tufano loved reading about NPR reporter Adam Frank's parallel journey — one that led both of them to "The Last of Us," a stunning, compelling post-apocalyptic PlayStation game from Naughty Dog that Frank compares to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road." His essay on new-wave video games as the next great medium for storytelling celebrates this game's hyperrealistic graphics, evocative score by Gustavo Santaolalla and unconventional story arc. The piece includes musings on the future ubiquity of video games (could they edge out TV and movies as our primary form of entertainment someday?), but, fair warning: it's loaded with spoilers.
Show Me The Money (Advice): Some 28 college football players invited to Chicago for the NFL draft will get some financial guidance from the league this weekend, says the Christian Science Monitor, which notes many of these young men will become millionaires with their first contract. They'll need it, says senior editor Andrew Herrmann: A recent study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 16 percent of retired NFL players go bankrupt, often because they are taken advantage of since they lack sound financial advice.
The NFL Players Association says the average pro career lasts just over three years with after-tax earnings of about $4 million. But when it comes to going broke, it doesn't matter how long a player's career is or how much money they made: "Having played for a long time and being well-paid does not provide much protection against the risk of going bankrupt," the researchers write. Former Bear Muhsin Muhammad told CNBC, "You have a lot of situations where players set up a lifestyle that's not really sustainable." Added former New Orleans Saint Winfred Tubbs: "The worst thing about athletes is we get rich at a young age."
Mansplaining, Defined: DNAinfo's Jen Sabella is watching TouchVision's Molly Adams educate Chicagoans about "mansplaining," which happens when a man presumes a woman doesn't know something and proceeds to explain the thing (which she already knows) to her. It's condescending and people (not just men) sometimes do it without noticing:
"Being able to recognize a mansplainer—even if they aren’t a man or you aren’t a woman—helps us to call out their annoying behavior: 'Look I know you’re trying to be helpful, but you’re telling me information that I already know.' And if all goes according to our plans, one day, rather than mansplaining his mansplaining, this person will simply say, 'I’m sorry. I’ll shut up now.'"
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