While there were definitely many good things happening yesterday and in this election cycle generally, there are good reasons to feel sad, hurt, angry, sick, and maybe some worse things.
Bloody excellent analysis that acknowledges cis pain, loss, confusion and melancholia that then engenders (ha!) all that energy and fury. All the *rules* and all the norms around *everything* in society are made up, and deep deep down, we're all aware of that. The knowledge makes some of us feel free and energised for change; it makes some people feel terrified. With good analysis like this, we can discern more carefully what are the best strategies for action. Stay safe and looking forward to the next essay. If you want an anthropologist on the utter arbitrariness of society, Mike Taussig can be a good one to read.
This was so beautiful...and...it really made me cry thinking of this. We have to keep trying, for all of our sakes, it seems. Have to find a way to outnumber those who find that only people that fit in their narrow box have validity.
I couldn't care less about being a woman and I place zero priorities on that. Masculinity and femininity are bullshit social constructs. We all have varying levels of estrogen and testosterone and indigenous people have always acknowledged a third gender. Rules and traditions suck and are used to oppress us and to keep us fighting amongst ourselves.
I like your longer historical perspective, longer than most Substack writers. Thanks for that.
As long as I have been alive, the US has been overthrowing elected democracies and installing dictatorships — always labeling it “preventing communism“— but I believe it was always to maintain access to their oil, mineral resources and low wage labor, and to keep it that way.
in that historical context, it is almost our turn to have to struggle with this phenomenon, which we have injected into Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, Iran, and Iraq (if we go far enough back) and how many others?
This is such a good point. I hate that people care so much about gender norms that they need to police them for others.
It makes perfect sense for both things to be true: trans-rights issues are not important to many voters, and gender roles are supremely important to many voters. It explains a lot.
Thank you. What a welcome suprise to run into Dar here in your piece. She lives 5 minutes down the road from me and works regularly with my BFF, but our paths have not yet crossed to meet in person. Not unlike the welcome suprise of Jamie Raskin quoting Dar on the Floor.
I don't know what to think today, what to feel. Trying to do my own little piece of work, keeping a watchful eye on the Wonkette house, without engaging too much, as everyone will react to today differently...has been a challenge thus far.
I went to bed at about 11.30 last night, when nothing was even near being certain. Waking up to the worst of news, I thought of you first. That's something, at least. 💔✊
I'm sorry for what you've gone through. Thank you for sharing. This brought a lot of texture to what I'm feeling. I feel like my country hates me. How could they choose him? A rapist and convicted felon. Just because they couldn't bring themselves to let a woman lead. I'm empty. It's like a physical pain. I'm horrified that so many people are filled with such fear. It's made them hateful. It's made me hate them. I don't want that. I'm hoping I can process this but I'm having trouble figuring out where to start. Thanks for your words. They helped.
Noticing the part of your comment in which you say, "Just because they couldn't bring themselves to let a woman lead," I want to let you know that I was just saying yesterday that on the left we do tend to underestimate the amount of sexism in the average voter, including (perhaps especially) in the average "centrist" voter.
I do not argue that Dems should not nominate women (or people of color, though that is an additional issue). In fact, I have argue that we need to see women in leadership to rethink what power looks like and who can exercise it. In a note I wrote recently, I spoke of this as the "imaginarium of power" in which people who are not part of that imaginarium have more difficulty gaining, maintaining, and wielding power. Even when the Dems lose with a nominee of color or with a woman nominee, the repeated incursions into the land of the powerful candidate changes how those candidates are seen, and thus how they are treated. Sexist media outlets get called on their sexism, and some of them do better the next time. And doing better next time, they provide a more fair election the next time, one in which the woman or person of color or woman of color has a better, fairer chance to win.
The failures are part of our eventual successes, is what I'm saying. Stonewall didn't succeed in preventing homophobic police raids on gay bars, but that famous failure inspired more fights, more losses, even more fights, and, eventually some truly wonderful wins.
I don't envy Harris having to fight and lose the way she did, but when we someday win and put a progressive woman in the Oval Office, her work will be part of that victory. And to the extent that you pushed for Harris, that future victory will also be -- in some small part -- yours.
You have won something this year, even if you are not yet able to collect it.
The Carnival of Chaos: Trump’s Freak Show of Division and Distrust
How America’s Next Commander-in-Chief Turned the Presidency into a Three-Ring Circus of Fear, Hate, and Manufactured Threats
https://substack.com/home/post/p-151375042?r=4d7sow&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Sickening true. Ugly Truth's.
Bloody excellent analysis that acknowledges cis pain, loss, confusion and melancholia that then engenders (ha!) all that energy and fury. All the *rules* and all the norms around *everything* in society are made up, and deep deep down, we're all aware of that. The knowledge makes some of us feel free and energised for change; it makes some people feel terrified. With good analysis like this, we can discern more carefully what are the best strategies for action. Stay safe and looking forward to the next essay. If you want an anthropologist on the utter arbitrariness of society, Mike Taussig can be a good one to read.
Thank you for the compliments and for the link below.
Not everything you read here will be serious analysis, but I do try to make things worthwhile.
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/18/strauss_taussig.php
This was so beautiful...and...it really made me cry thinking of this. We have to keep trying, for all of our sakes, it seems. Have to find a way to outnumber those who find that only people that fit in their narrow box have validity.
I couldn't care less about being a woman and I place zero priorities on that. Masculinity and femininity are bullshit social constructs. We all have varying levels of estrogen and testosterone and indigenous people have always acknowledged a third gender. Rules and traditions suck and are used to oppress us and to keep us fighting amongst ourselves.
I like your longer historical perspective, longer than most Substack writers. Thanks for that.
As long as I have been alive, the US has been overthrowing elected democracies and installing dictatorships — always labeling it “preventing communism“— but I believe it was always to maintain access to their oil, mineral resources and low wage labor, and to keep it that way.
in that historical context, it is almost our turn to have to struggle with this phenomenon, which we have injected into Chile, Honduras, Guatemala, Iran, and Iraq (if we go far enough back) and how many others?
Thank you again.
This is such a good point. I hate that people care so much about gender norms that they need to police them for others.
It makes perfect sense for both things to be true: trans-rights issues are not important to many voters, and gender roles are supremely important to many voters. It explains a lot.
Thank you. What a welcome suprise to run into Dar here in your piece. She lives 5 minutes down the road from me and works regularly with my BFF, but our paths have not yet crossed to meet in person. Not unlike the welcome suprise of Jamie Raskin quoting Dar on the Floor.
I don't know what to think today, what to feel. Trying to do my own little piece of work, keeping a watchful eye on the Wonkette house, without engaging too much, as everyone will react to today differently...has been a challenge thus far.
I went to bed at about 11.30 last night, when nothing was even near being certain. Waking up to the worst of news, I thought of you first. That's something, at least. 💔✊
I'm sorry for what you've gone through. Thank you for sharing. This brought a lot of texture to what I'm feeling. I feel like my country hates me. How could they choose him? A rapist and convicted felon. Just because they couldn't bring themselves to let a woman lead. I'm empty. It's like a physical pain. I'm horrified that so many people are filled with such fear. It's made them hateful. It's made me hate them. I don't want that. I'm hoping I can process this but I'm having trouble figuring out where to start. Thanks for your words. They helped.
I am glad they helped.
Noticing the part of your comment in which you say, "Just because they couldn't bring themselves to let a woman lead," I want to let you know that I was just saying yesterday that on the left we do tend to underestimate the amount of sexism in the average voter, including (perhaps especially) in the average "centrist" voter.
I do not argue that Dems should not nominate women (or people of color, though that is an additional issue). In fact, I have argue that we need to see women in leadership to rethink what power looks like and who can exercise it. In a note I wrote recently, I spoke of this as the "imaginarium of power" in which people who are not part of that imaginarium have more difficulty gaining, maintaining, and wielding power. Even when the Dems lose with a nominee of color or with a woman nominee, the repeated incursions into the land of the powerful candidate changes how those candidates are seen, and thus how they are treated. Sexist media outlets get called on their sexism, and some of them do better the next time. And doing better next time, they provide a more fair election the next time, one in which the woman or person of color or woman of color has a better, fairer chance to win.
The failures are part of our eventual successes, is what I'm saying. Stonewall didn't succeed in preventing homophobic police raids on gay bars, but that famous failure inspired more fights, more losses, even more fights, and, eventually some truly wonderful wins.
I don't envy Harris having to fight and lose the way she did, but when we someday win and put a progressive woman in the Oval Office, her work will be part of that victory. And to the extent that you pushed for Harris, that future victory will also be -- in some small part -- yours.
You have won something this year, even if you are not yet able to collect it.
Thank you. I hope that I'll feel something, anything soon. I think for now I just need to be numb. 💙
Thank you for this, a hopeful message that even still rings true despite my unprocessed loss of hope and faith today.