Aja Romano

New York

Staff Writer at Vox

in training to become a swamp witch. actual twt @/topgallantry

Articles

There’s a name for what Diddy allegedly did to Cassie — but you won’t hear it at trial

2 weeks ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

Among all the lurid details and allegations that have surfaced in Sean “Diddy” Combs’s trial on federal charges, including sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy, one potential aspect of the music mogul’s relationships has flown under the radar. What we haven’t heard on the witness stand is a concept crucial to understanding intimate partner violence and how individual incidents can form a pattern of abuse over time.
Christian nationalists decided empathy is a sin. Now it’s gone mainstream.

1 month ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

It’s a provocative idea: that empathy — that is, putting yourself in another person’s proverbial shoes, and feeling what they feel — is a sin. The Bible contains repeated invocations from Jesus to show deep empathy and compassion for others, including complete strangers. He’s very clear on this point. Moreover, Christianity is built around a fundamental act of empathy so radical — Jesus dying for our sins — that it’s difficult to spin as harmful.
Karen Read on trial again: What’s new in the case that captivated the nation

1 month ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

It’s the same courtroom, the same judge, and nearly all of the same players — but it’s a whole different atmosphere inside Norfolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts, for the retrial of Karen Read, who is accused of murdering her boyfriend John O’Keefe.
How Christian relationship advice author Lysa TerKeurst has a devoted Christian audience, a dozen best-selling books - and she’s divorced

1 month ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

For decades, Christian relationship advice has trended toward regressive ideas about gender: namely, that women should be submissive to their husbands, who in turn are the head of the household. Those ideas arguably penetrated the mainstream with the rise of the tradwife and the idyllic image of the monogamous home life she represents. Yet the romantic lives of modern Christian advice-givers are often a lot more complex than the traditional marriage roles they espouse.
What happens when a Christian relationship expert’s marriage falls apart?

1 month ago | flipboard.com | Aja Romano

If A Man Doesn't Do These 10 Things, He Doesn't Love You As Much As You DeserveLove shouldn't have you ever second-guessing, or leave you confused and questioning your worth. Instead, it should be obvious. Someone shouldn't have …
What happens when a Christian relationship expert’s marriage falls apart?

1 month ago | yahoo.com | Aja Romano

For decades, Christian relationship advice has trended toward regressive ideas about gender: namely, that women should be submissive to their husbands, who in turn are the head of the household. Those ideas arguably penetrated the mainstream with the rise of the tradwife and the idyllic image of the monogamous home life she represents. Yet the romantic lives of modern Christian advice-givers are often a lot more complex than the traditional marriage roles they espouse.
Minecraft, A Minecraft Movie mayhem, and chicken jockey, explained

2 months ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

The biggest movie in the world right now sends its characters on a journey through a building-block world full of zombies, talking pigs, and magical artifacts. A Minecraft Movie has raked in hundreds of millions of dollars in theaters around the globe since it opened last weekend, not only outperforming expectations by double but smashing them like a bunch of pixelated wooden blocks in the videogame it’s based on.
A serial killer eluded police for years. We finally understand why.

2 months ago | yahoo.com | Aja Romano

The arrest of Rex Heuermann, allegedly the infamous Long Island serial killer, makes for riveting drama in Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries Gone Girls — but while the series focuses on the victims and sheds light on Heuermann himself, viewers may find themselves more fascinated by another important facet of the investigation: just how close the case came to never being solved at all.
Why some victims of the Long Island serial killer may never receive justice

2 months ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

Aja Romano writes about pop culture, media, and ethics. Before joining Vox in 2016, they were a staff reporter at the Daily Dot. A 2019 fellow of the National Critics Institute, they’re considered an authority on fandom, the internet, and the culture wars.
Are repressed memories real? A hit memoir clashes with the science.

2 months ago | vox.com | Aja Romano

What if something terrible happened to you, and you weren’t able to remember it? That’s one of the questions at the center of Amy Griffin’s memoir, The Tell, which is quickly becoming one of the year’s most talked-about books.