Please, My Wife, She’s Very Online

June 5, 2019

Sasha Baron Cohen as Borat with his thumbs up.

Your window is closing.

Don’t lose these views. Get full access for ~~$2.50~~ $1 a week for one year, plus a free tote. Cancel or pause anytime.

See Offers

Already a subscriber? Sign In

Unlock this story for just ~~$2.50~~ $1 a week for 1 year. Subscribe »

Jia Tolentino is a staff writer at The New Yorker. In 2023, she won a National Magazine Award for her columns and essays on abortion. Her first book, the essay collection “Trick Mirror,” was published in 2019.

More:Marriage Sacha Baron Cohen Internet Memes

Books

Ocean Vuong’s Life Sentences

In his début novel, the poet tells a story of surviving the violence of America.

By Jia Tolentino

Personal History

Losing Religion and Finding Ecstasy in Houston

Christianity formed my deepest instincts, and I have been walking away from it for half my life.

By Jia Tolentino

The Backstory

Why Noise Pollution Is More Dangerous Than We Think

David Owen reports on noise pollution, an intangible phenomenon with serious costs to human health and wildlife.

Brave New World Dept.

Why Millennials Love Prenups

Long the province of the ultra-wealthy, prenuptial agreements are being embraced by young people—including many who don’t have all that much to divvy up.

By Jennifer Wilson

A Critic at Large

How Consent Can—and Cannot—Help Us Have Better Sex

The idea is legally vital, but ultimately unsatisfying. Is there another way forward?

By S. C. Cornell

Critic’s Notebook

“Waiting to Exhale,” Thirty Years On

The 1995 classic became as much a sociological phenomenon as an artistic one—but its designation as a “chick flick” belies its emotional sophistication and intelligence.

By Niela Orr

Persons of Interest

The Gospel According to Emily Henry

How the best-selling author of “People We Meet on Vacation” channelled her love of rom-coms—and her religious upbringing—into a new kind of romance novel.

By Lauren Boersma Harris

2025 in Review

What Kind of New World Is Being Born?

A Christmas essay.

By Vinson Cunningham

Open Questions

Is Life a Game?

In “The Score,” the philosopher C. Thi Nguyen argues that play is the meaning of life.

By Joshua Rothman

The Weekend Essay

Joan Lowell and the Birth of the Modern Literary Fraud

A century ago, an aspiring actress published a remarkable autobiography. She made up most of it.

By Michael Waters

Annals of Technology

How WhatsApp Took Over the Global Conversation

The platform has become a core technology around the world, relied on by governments and extended families alike. What are we all doing there?

By Sam Knight

A Critic at Large

The New York Shooting That Defined an Era

On a mild December day in 1984, a man named Bernie Goetz shot four Black teen-agers on a subway. The incident galvanized the city. Are we still living in its wake?

By Adam Gopnik

The Goings On Newsletter