Welcome to the "TikTokalypse"
 October 3, 2023 Evening, Meteor readers, On October 3rd, he asked me what day it was. The first person to respond to this email with the correct movie title for this iconic line gets a special shoutout in Thursday’s newsletter. And don’t google, because I’ll know! Speaking of shoutouts, I’m sending a big virtual high-five to reader Camila for setting the record for most referrals of The Meteor in a single day. There’s a sweet tote coming your way!  In today’s newsletter, Scarlett Harris chats with Taylor Lorenz about who really made the internet, men do a weird thing, and we tell you some good news. Watching that movie, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON
 BOOK TALKA Brief History of the Internet...And the Women Who've Been Left Out of ItJournalist Taylor Lorenz sets the record straightBY SCARLETT HARRIS  PHOTO BY BRIAN TREITLER I put off reading Taylor Lorenz’s new book, Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence and Power on the Internet, because after a whole day of being extremely online, the last thing I generally feel like doing is reading about it. But I’m glad I did, because Lorenz—a reporter for The Washington Post who’s known both for tirelessly covering topics like online political extremism and doxxing, and for being extremely online herself—has written a light, breezy dispatch of the last 20 years of the internet. “I wanted to write a book that was a fun read that people could move through…and a little bit nostalgic, too, for people who lived through all of this,” she tells The Meteor. This achievement is no mean feat given that Lorenz herself has been harassed and targeted by the likes of Tucker Carlson and Elon Musk. Despite this, Lorenz describes herself as a “tech optimist:” “I have experienced the best of the internet—it’s given me my career and a job that I love—and I’ve experienced some of the worst of the internet.” Here, she tells The Meteor about writing about a medium that pendulates wildly from one day to the next, which generation is most likely to fall victim to online scams (spoiler: it’s not who you think. Or maybe it is…), and how, despite the rise of the “tech bro,” women played a huge role in making the internet what it is. Scarlett Harris: There’s a quote in the book from one of your interviewees who says that the internet is “not the same as it was even a year ago”—and that was in 2019! What was it like to write a book in which the subject matter is changing on a daily basis? Taylor Lorenz: This is why I wrote an internet history book! Because [it’s] changing so quickly you don’t have much time to contextualize things. It’s really hard to zoom out and look at what the internet has wrought [over] the past 20 years and really tell that story. [I end the book] in 2021. We’re at this weird moment right now—especially with COVID, which shoved everyone inside and online—that felt like a bookend to an era. I thought I should end it around then. We’ve seen a lot of platform-specific stories, like The Social Network. We understand the history of social media through these corporate, Silicon Valley narratives. I wanted to help people understand how this all emerged without telling it through the lens of this genius tech man. I really wanted to tell this story from the user’s side. You mention these “tech man” figureheads of industry, but interestingly Extremely Online is centered on women. Why did you choose to approach it from that angle? So much of the internet was pioneered by women, and they’ve been completely written out of history. When you look at who were the influential content creators or whatever you want to call them, they’re often young women. [Lorenz has a chapter in the book that dissects the recent move from the women-coded “influencer” to the male-friendly “content creator.”] It’s known in the tech world that if you have a product that’s used by teen girls, that’s a good sign because they’re some of the most hyper-engaged social media users. I wanted to tell the stories of some of these women, what they went through, and the level of misogyny that happened and continues to happen. A lot of people who are marginalized helped build [the internet]. Stay-at-home moms ushered in the blogging revolution. People like Tay Zonday, who wrote “Chocolate Rain,” ended up being the blueprint for virality, and his song is about systemic racism! [Proto-influencer] Julia Allison I write a lot about; I wish I had more time to write about what she went through. Look at what happened with the Johnny Depp trial more recently and these misogynistic harassment campaigns that are being levied against women. It’s really important to think critically about misogyny, [and] how the internet and our media landscape facilitate misogyny—because let’s be real, a lot of hate these women got were from legacy institutions who wanted to keep these women in their place. We do have to talk about the TikTok of it all. I think a lot of people found solace in it during lockdown…but as you say, we really saw how much of a cesspool it can be—or what you call the TikTokalypse—during last year’s Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial. Do you see TikTok as harmful or helpful? I think it’s neutral at this point. There’s reason to be concerned about it, not in terms of ownership but the instant mobs that can be generated there. Suddenly the whole app will mobilize for or against someone, whether that’s Johnny Depp or West Elm Caleb or Couch Guy. But it’s an incredible portal into our world and a valuable communication tool. It’s about how we use these tools, what we use them for, and, if we do regulate them, that we do it in a smart, not restrictive way in which people’s privacy is invaded. Some bills [that seek to regulate TikTok] are ostensibly about keeping kids safe online, but are really about taking away people’s privacy. The verdict’s still out on TikTok. A recent tweet I saw contended that Boomers and Gen Z were the most vulnerable to online scams. Do you agree? What makes them so susceptible to the deception and fabrication of social media? Boomers grew up in a time without the internet, so they don’t understand it and don’t know how to navigate it. Gen Z grew up with too much access to information and not enough contextualizing of that information. I don’t think anyone has media literacy—in America, especially. The majority of Americans can’t tell an opinion article from a reported article, so they certainly can’t tell the nuance of information in this content creator-driven ecosystem, especially with things like TikTok where you develop parasocial relationships with people who are telling you information that you’re so primed to believe because of the [intimacy of the] platform. This is a failure of the public education system. We don’t teach civics or [media] literacy, and there’s all of these political actors who have a very vested interest in people not having that. You have the institution of journalism which I also don’t think is interested in people having media literacy outside of their own interests. You shouldn’t trust the mainstream news all the time, either. We see all the problematic, transphobic stuff that gets published in major news outlets, so we all need better media literacy education, and there’s no authority that we should trust. We have a huge crisis of trust. One of the influencers you profile said, “No therapist was even trained in internet hate back then. It was hard to get help for the emotional breakdowns I was having from people lashing out at me.” We hear about law enforcement still being clueless about cyberstalking and doxxing. Do you think that’s changed? No, it’s gotten worse. I wrote a story a couple of months ago about another horrible Supreme Court decision about online stalking being totally fine as long as the stalker intended it in a nice way! Hello, have you ever had a stalker? They’re completely delusional. It’s horrible. It’s that old trope of Oh, just turn off your phone. We live in an internet-mediated world. I could quit the internet tomorrow and these people would still be showing up at my job or harassing my family members and getting me kicked off TV shows for being too controversial. It shuts women, people of color, and LGBTQ people out of opportunities. It’s not getting better. It won’t get better until we have this gerontocracy out of power. We need people who actually get it writing the laws and figuring out policy. Right now, we have a bunch of Boomers who don’t know how to turn their computer on. Given all this, how do you maintain your levity when it comes to the internet? Would you ever consider stepping away from social media or think that others should? I’m very much a tech optimist. The power of the internet is its ability to connect people. Human connection is good, as opposed to isolation. I truly believe in a better world through technology. I don’t love what the internet has become right now. The problem we’re facing is that for the past 15 years, these tech conglomerates have emerged that have taken the beauty of the internet and corporatized and commodified it. I don’t think that we want a less connected world, but I don’t think that our connections should be mediated, warped, and exploited by these completely irresponsible, terrible tech companies. We’re in a fluctuation period. It’s still very early in the course of internet history, and overwhelmingly I do consider it a positive thing.  Scarlett Harris is a culture critic, author of A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment, and editor of The Women Of Jenji Kohan.  TELL ME SOMETHIN' GOOD 🎶
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GOP accidentally helps trans kids
  September 28, 2023 Hey, Meteor readers, Yesterday, I stayed up quite late (9:30 pm) watching the 45th season premiere of Survivor, and my body hasn’t quite recovered from listening to Emily talk her way into the Crappiest Player Hall of Fame. But it’s always worth it to see Jeff Probst, who is aging like fine Italian wine. Drop the skincare routine, Probst!  In today’s newsletter, we explain what led to an unexpected win in Montana, confront the “childcare cliff,” and share some weekend reading. Calling it an early night, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONHorse dewormers for trans rights (somehow): Yesterday morning, a Montana judge blocked SB99, the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth—the same ban that State Representative Zooey Zephyr spoke out against last spring, leading to her censure and removal from the House floor. Many parties can be thanked for this win, among them the relentless Zephyr and the Montana citizens who showed up in force to testify against the bill. But one factor might surprise you: Republicans’ fondness for using ivermectin, a horse dewormer, to treat COVID-19. In the same session that saw SB99 become law, Montana Republicans also passed SB422, protecting people’s “right to try” experimental medication not approved by the FDA (such as ivermectin) as long as they—or, if they’re a minor, their parent/legal guardian—have given informed consent. Now listen: Is using ivermectin to treat COVID-19 safe? Survey says no. But in the interest of bodily autonomy, and as someone who’s been receiving gender-affirming medical care for some time now, I’m all for a “you do yours, I’ll do mine” policy when it comes to what we choose to put in our bodies. So why, for these legislators, does informed consent and the “right to try” medication apply to one drug but not another? Zephyr noted this glaring hypocrisy back when SB422 was first introduced. Thankfully, the court agreed: Missoula County District Judge Jason Marks, who was appointed by a Democratic governor, wrote in his decision yesterday that these two laws together allow parents to give consent for their child’s medical treatments “regardless of efficacy or risk…unless the minor is transgender.” He ended up concluding the same thing Zephyr did: that “the purported purpose given for SB99 is disingenuous.” Right wing legislators’ cherry-picking embrace of bodily autonomy is well-documented; they love it when it comes to the right to refuse vaccines or wearing masks, but hate it when it comes to any right exercised by trans or pregnant people. So it’s a real treat to see that, for once, the courts aren’t buying it. —Bailey Wayne Hundl AND:
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 WEEKEND READS 📚On censorship: In America, most book bans are driven by a group of 11 people. Jennifer Petersen, a Virginia mom, is one of them. She has already challenged 73 books—and she has no plans to stop. (The Washington Post) On gender politics: Women and children who fled Afghanistan have been denied entry to the United States in astounding numbers. One family tells their story. (Slate) On the floor: Get ready for the literal Olympics of breakdancing. (The Athletic)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Half of organized workers are women
 September 26, 2023 Hey there, Meteor readers, Many, many people in my life have inquired and I want to confirm to all of them—and you—that yes, I did see that Taylor Swift was at Sunday’s Kansas City Chiefs game. Allegedly Taylor is dating tight end Travis Kelce, but if you ask me, a certified Swiftologist, I’d say this is all part of a larger riddle connected to the re-release of her next album and not an actual romantic relationship. The signs are there if we just connect the dots…  Today’s newsletter is sunnier than normal: We tick off labor’s recent wins, celebrate Carson Pickett’s history-making moment, and share a little good news. Yours in Swiftness, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONBigger than Hollywood: There’s light at the end of the tunnel for WGA workers! While SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, the writer’s union reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Sunday after a 146-day strike. (The WGA’s board and members are set to vote on the terms today.) The agreement comes on the heels of another, less publicized victory: a WGA-backed California law that was recently passed in the state’s senate. The bill would allow striking workers to collect unemployment benefits—a pro-labor law that exists in only two other states: New York and New Jersey. If you ask us, this is a Big Deal. Gov. Gavin Newson has yet to sign the bill, but its success and timing is just the latest example of labor’s growing power. Organized labor has been flexing its muscle all over the place lately, and not just in Hollywood: President Biden joined the auto worker’s picket line today in Michigan, UPS workers won a favorable five-year contract in August after they threatened a work stoppage, and American Airlines’ flight attendants recently voted to authorize a strike. Even though the share of workers who are unionized continues to shrink, there’s still an unmistakable pro-labor energy sweeping the country. As Sarita Gupta (who oversees the Future of Work(ers) program at the Ford Foundation) remarked last week at the Free Future summit, “We’re just seeing workers across the economy organize in ways that, at least in my lifetime, I have not experienced.” Let’s be real: The president wouldn’t join a strike unless he knows it’s politically popular. And it’s popular with—and important for—women. When someone mentions “union,” many will think of dudes in hard hats, the kinds of manual laborers that Biden joined today. But that stereotype is inaccurate, both now and throughout history. Nearly half of today’s organized workers are women, and Black workers are more likely to be represented by unions than members of any other racial group. The labor movement is increasingly making headway in industries that are more likely to hire women and people of color, from retail to Amazon warehouses. These are “the exact workers that common wisdom or whatever has told us are not organizable,” labor journalist Kim Kelly told The Meteor last spring. “They are organizing, and they’re winning.” AND:
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"Parenting in America feels so nonconsensual."
 September 21, 2023 Salve, Meteor readers, Do you think about the Roman Empire a lot? Turns out lots of men on the internet do, and I too have to admit to frequently pondering the legitimacy of Gaius Octavius’s claim to the throne. But tonight, instead of reading through the Cesarean family tree (again), I’m thinking about The Meteor’s newest podcast In Retrospect, which launched today! Woo! The Meteor’s own Susie Banikarim (whose Emmy I stare at whenever we chat on Zoom) and New York Times editor Jessica Bennett look at how some of the biggest cultural moments of the ‘80s and ‘90s shaped our understanding of the world. Their first episode? All about how General Hospital’s Luke and Laura became everyone’s favorite soap-opera couple…but actually started off when Luke raped Laura. (There’s a lot to dissect there.)  In today’s newsletter, writer Scarlett Harris talks to author Amanda Montei about her new book Touched Out, Rupert Murdoch's exit has us examining his dystopian legacy, and we share a little something about work. Retrospectively, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONDo let the door hit you on the way out: Rupert Murdoch is officially stepping down from his role as dark overlord of Fox Corp. and News Corp. after a nearly 70-year career in the news industry. Although to say he was “in” the industry is a bit of a downplay, considering that this man shaped the conservative and rightwing news landscape as we know it. For longer than I’ve been alive, Rupert Murdoch has been The News. You might think that as a journalist, I have some respectful words for this magnate who was technically an innovator. But you’d be wrong! Because Murdoch was so powerful and rich, the outlets he owned will share flowery accounts of his success and influence, painting a picture of a controversial entrepreneur. But the reality is that Murdoch wielded his influence like a machete to wreak international havoc. Remember when Fox News knowingly broadcasted election-related lies and escorted Trump to victory in 2016? Or when Murdoch pretended that the allegations of rampant sexual misconduct at Fox were just “nonsense” cooked up by his lefty enemies? Let’s also remember that Murdoch frothed up enthusiasm for the Iraq War, let Tucker Carlson peddle racist conspiracy theories, and brought us the witches’ coven that is The Fox Blondes. (I would like to apologize to any witches who find that comparison offensive. Please do not hex me.) Sadly, his exit doesn’t mean that the Murdochs’ grip on American news is loosening. Not only will his son run the show, but 92-year-old Murdoch intends to remain “chairman emeritus” at Fox. It’s giving something familiar…  AND:
 BOOK TALKWhere Rape Culture Meets MotherhoodAmanda Montei on being "touched out"BY SCARLETT HARRIS  IMAGE COURTESY OF BEACON PRESS “Parenting in America feels so nonconsensual.” That’s the thesis of Amanda Montei’s new book, Touched Out: Motherhood, Misogyny, Consent and Control, which charts how rape culture—the idea that young women’s bodies are not our own—prepares us for the expectation that we should ignore pain and discomfort in motherhood. Montei offers all-too-relatable visuals of how this manifested with her own children, who were climbing all over her like a jungle gym. That scenario, along with breastfeeding and obligatory sex, has “mothers hiding in bathrooms, pressing hands out around them to create imaginary barriers between body and world... husbands and children.” As a mother, Montei got the feeling that her “body was a play thing”—the same message she’d gotten as a girl. We spoke to her about what it means to be “touched out,” how #MeToo forced her to confront past trauma, and what it feels like to raise kids during such a fraught time in American history. For those who may not know already, what does “touched out” mean? “Touched out” is this term that has become popularized over the last decade or so online, mostly with millennial, cis, hetero, married women [and especially mothers]. Usually when we see descriptions of this phenomenon it’s “skin crawling”: that desire to jump out of one’s skin and a longing for personal space. It became a metaphor for the way a lot of us feel living in systems of power that’s like, I need a break from all these expectations and scripts and hands. A lot of the early writing around this feeling was that it’s normal and natural but it will pass. That didn’t sit well with me. Is that what led you to [connect] your experience with being touched out as a mother with the #MeToo movement and your own experiences with sexual assault and harassment? That’s how I experienced #MeToo: I was a new mother. I had been pushed out of my academic career in many respects. I was working at a daycare, taking care of a young kid while pregnant again, and I was parenting mostly alone. I was kind of watching all of this unfold and processing all this new language and the invitation to let go of the other kind of shame that comes with blaming oneself for being violated. That was a lot to respond to while having a small child, so I wanted to take the reader through that feeling because I think it’s a common experience, from speaking with other mothers. With that in mind, do you think pregnancy, childbirth, and parenting can be traumatizing? Birth can be and is traumatizing for plenty of people, not to mention pregnancy, especially now in this post-Roe era. In an American context, the terms of trauma and triggering get a really bad rap in the sense that “everything’s trauma,” but I think that’s unfortunate because we are still very much living in a time when women’s trauma and violation aren’t taken seriously. [And with] parenthood, there’s aspects that can be traumatizing. Being with children all the time…forces us to face a lot of our unresolved issues, not just about our bodies but about everything [such as breastfeeding, care work, and consent]. The stuff that we buried through addiction and other coping mechanisms. We don’t talk about that in postpartum care at all. You write about the dichotomy between the medicalization of pregnancy and childbirth in America versus “natural childbirth,” which, removed from their political ideologies, contribute to…pregnant and postpartum bodies being objectified. Can you tell me a little more about that? Childbirth especially is this ideological battlefield: It’s either this medical institution built on distrust of pregnant voices, particularly when it comes to race and the disbelief of Black women’s pain, or it’s this proving ground: In certain “natural childbirth” mentalities, we go through pain and suffering in order to prepare us to be parents, which is problematic because there are plenty of non-gestational parents who don’t go through childbirth. There’s that Nike campaign, which has this line that mothers are the toughest athletes and only the strongest survive. And that sounds empowering, but it comes from a long line of thinking that [normalizes] suffering and pushing through pain. How does it feel to have this book coming out now during such a fraught time, with the fall of Roe and the childcare crisis, amongst other things? I began working on it before COVID, but I was really working on it during the pandemic and it felt urgent because suddenly people were having these conversations that previously were radical, like giving parents money for the work they do inside the home. This is a sad and horrible time in the sense that we have this aggressive rollback of rights, but it’s also a time when more and more people want to have these conversations about caregiving, how capitalism is set up, the exploitation of women’s work in the home and how that is a major source of male power. Writing and parenting are interrelated in the sense that we want to be honest about what’s hard but we also want to create some imagined other future. That’s the creative, intellectual work of parenting. Motherhood is this unfinished territory, so I hope with this book we can see how…motherhood and family as an institution are related to these other issues around autonomy and consent and sexuality. They’re not this niche, unserious thing. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.  Scarlett Harris is a culture critic, author of A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment, and editor of The Women Of Jenji Kohan.  LET'S GET TOGETHER!Planning to be in New York on October 12? Crazy, so are we! We’ll be at Neueue House hosting Work Shift, a half-day summit exploring the ways work is changing for women and nonbinary people—and how to navigate those shifts. You can reserve your seat by clicking on the image below. Hope to see you there!   FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
Some men are losing their jobs 😈
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No images? Click here  September 20, 2023 Fair Monduesday*, Meteor readers, Well, it’s that time of year. Students and teachers have returned to school—or, in some parts of the country, they haven’t. I find this new school year particularly tense: My oldest niece Ezra is starting her senior year of high school 😭 and with the fall of affirmative action, she and her peers will have to decide whether it will help or harm them to mention race in their college application essays. I don’t envy the young. In today’s newsletter we’re pointing and laughing at Ken Paxton, learning our soccer history, and spreading a little good news. Staring at Ezra’s baby photos, Shannon Melero *For those of you who are new here, a Monduesday is any Tuesday after a three-day weekend that is behaving as a Monday. Patent pending.  WHAT'S GOING ONImpeachy keen: Today was the first day of Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. Why I’m gleefully watching the livestream: Paxton is a hard-core Trump ally, vocally anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ+, and last year supported a “Women’s Bill of Rights” meant to delegitimize trans women. (We wrote all about it here.) Not that these offenses have anything to do with Paxton’s trial. Paxton was suspended from his position in May after the 16 articles of impeachment brought against him by the Texas House accused him of “bribery, disregarding his official duty, making false statements, and abusing the public trust.” Astonishingly, this impeachment trial (the first Texas has had in almost 50 years) was brought against him by his fellow Republicans. Never did I think I’d live to see the day the GOP held one of their own accountable. Also making this trial soap-opera-adjacent is the fact that Paxton’s wife, Angela, is a state senator and must be present for the proceedings but cannot vote on the outcome. That little factoid is key because back in May, Angela said she would not recuse herself and was going to carry out her duties through the end of the trial. But her peers barred her from voting or participating in deliberations. Which is good news for Paxton, considering that a chunk of the evidence against him revolves around an extramarital affair. It’s like we’re living in a House of Cards episode. AND:
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Have you crossed the WGA picket line?
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No images? Click here  September 20, 2023 Buenas noches, lectores del Meteor, Tomorrow marks the beginning of Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month, which also marks the month the gente explain that just because many of us fall under this invented ethnic category doesn’t mean we are of the same culture. (But we do all love platanos and that is what binds us. Don’t @ me.) In today’s newsletter we identify the scabs of the writer’s strike, put the “win” back in Wisconsin, and give you some good weekend reads. Using my ancestral name this month, Shannon Lebron Valles Melero-Ureña  FREE FUTUREToday, The Meteor was at the Ford Foundation for the inaugural Free Future summit, focusing on the global rise of gender-based violence (GBV). There was a stellar line-up of speakers on everything from the importance of how we talk about sexual assault to the rise of deadly laws in Uganda. Here are some powerful moments from the summit: “As a culture, we breed predation.” “The problem in this country is that we do not see sexual violence as a social justice issue…and it is. Anything that happens every 68 seconds is a public health crisis!” “Even me speaking on a stage like this is illegal.” “[The] Supreme Court [is] shifting away from a rights-protection mode to a rights-denial mode. And having done that, what is happening throughout the country are policies that are doing existential harm.” You can watch the entire day of programming here.  QUE 'TA PASANDODon’t be a scab: The Writers Guild of America (WGA) has been on strike for more than 100 days. In July, they were joined by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). As in any labor strike, both groups agreed to withhold their most precious asset: their work. Actors are also not promoting any of their projects in compliance with strike rules. But on Sunday, SAG member Drew Barrymore announced that her talk show was returning, and all hell broke loose. Is this a strike violation? Is she a scab? Should writers try to get on her show? What does this say about Drew’s values? Let’s break all that down. Full disclosure: I’m a card-carrying WGA member, so if it seems like I’m angry about all this, it’s because I am. After initially supporting the strike—even refusing to host an MTV awards show in solidarity—Drew shared that her talk show will resume production because they are “in compliance” with the strike. That term, though, is misleading, especially for viewers who aren’t familiar with how the SAG and WGA function. As a SAG member, Drew herself is in fact compliant with the strike because her show is produced under what’s called the “Network Television Code,” because this specific agreement is not what SAG or the WGA are striking over. In the world of the WGA, different kinds of writers are covered under different collective bargaining agreements. For example, as a digital media writer, I operate under “workplace-specific agreements,” which means my circumstances change based on where I work. But film and television writers work under the Minimum Basic Agreement regardless of what show they’re on. Right now, the strike is concerned with that MBA. The WGA also distinguishes between film/TV writers and broadcast news writers, even though they both work for television shows. This means the writers of Succession work under the Minimum Basic Agreement, but the writers of Good Morning America work under workplace-specific agreements. GMA is a news broadcast, which requires a different skill set than writing ten episodes of prestige television. Which group can’t work right now? The latter—which includes the three television writers Drew employs. Drew isn’t the only one making a return; other talk shows like Real Time with Bill Maher and The View will be going forward without any writers at all. Make no mistake: This is still scab behavior, but distinct from Drew’s strategy. A spokesperson for CBS Media Ventures claimed that the show would return but “will not be performing any writing work covered by the WGA strike,” which leaves the door open for hiring non-striking WGA writers and pretends that’s the same thing as compliance. If you’re finding writers to replace the ones on strike, you’re absolutely crossing the picket line—full stop. Look, I get it: At this point in the strike, writers desperately need work and it’s hard to get mad at someone doing what they must to pay rent. Still, as Drew’s co-head writer Christina Konan put it in the L.A. Times: “If you feel like you’re sacrificing three writers for a crew of hundreds, I see that perspective. But then if you zoom out a little bit more, you’ll see that it isn’t about those three writers. It’s about an entire union of 11,000-plus writers.” TAMBIÉN:
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 📚POR FIN DE SEMANAOn government: What’s the latest threat to American national security? Congressional leaders developing dementia. (The Intercept) On Betty: Moira Donegan revisits the legacy and the likability of Betty Friedan. (The New Yorker) On besties with babies: Ever wonder why friendships get more complicated after someone has a kid? Us, too. (The Cut)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Rolling Stone's White-man Complex
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No images? Click here  September 19, 2023 Hey, Meteor readers, Okay, let’s get the big news out of the way: Josh and Jackie from Love is Blind have broken up, and I am thanking all the deities that our girl Jackie is away from that man-child.  In today’s newsletter, Nona Willis Aronowitz, guest editor for The Meteor, explains the fraught history behind the Rolling Stone controversy; Drew Barrymore has a change of heart; and a Michigan school board kills creativity. Love has 20/20 vision, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONLike my mama said: On Friday, the New York Times ran a truly wild interview with Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner that boiled blood across the internet and beyond. Asked why his new book “The Masters” only profiles white guys with guitars, Wenner explained that neither women nor Black musicians met his criteria of being “articulate enough on this intellectual level.” (Whatever that means.) Joni Mitchell? “Not a philosopher of rock ‘n’ roll.” Marvin Gaye? Curtis Mayfield? “They just didn’t articulate at that level.” Never mind that Black artists literally invented rock ‘n roll. Not the “masters” in Wenner’s book. The reaction was swift: The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, which Wenner co-founded, removed him from the board. Rolling Stone—which has been run by Wenner’s son, Gus, since 2019—officially denounced his comments. It might be tempting to file away this dust-up as yet another white male Boomer saying the quiet part out loud. But it’s hard to overstate how much Rolling Stone in its heyday set the tone for pop culture and determined which artists mattered—and which artists didn’t. Practically since its founding in 1967, critics have pointed out how hostile the magazine can be toward women and people of color—including my own mother, rock critic and feminist essayist Ellen Willis. In 1970, my mom wrote a letter to Rolling Stone co-founder Ralph Gleason declining his invitation to write for him. Though she believed RS was “the best rock magazine going,” she found it to be “viciously anti-woman…RS habitually refers to women as chicks and treats us as chicks, i.e. interchangeable cute fucking machines.” She didn’t want to be a “token woman writer for a magazine that doesn’t print women in general.” She also criticized RS’s lazy tendency to dismiss politics as having nothing to do with the “cultural revolution” of sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll: ![Text from a 1976 letter written by Ellen Willis to Ralph Gleason. In this excerpt Willis mentions "What [Rolling Stone] wants is more bread and circuses; I like to have fun too, but what I really want is an end to my oppression."](http://i3.cmail20.com/ei/y/E1/AD3/55A/065042/csfinal/IMG_0533-9900000000079e3c.jpg) IMAGE COURTESY OF NONA WILLIS ARONOWITZ In the days since Wenner biographer Joe Hagan posted excerpts from this letter on X, several news outlets have reported that my mother refused to write for Rolling Stone. But that’s not the full story. In fact, she did end up publishing several pieces in the magazine, including 1975’s “The Trial of Arline Hunt,” a prescient account of a woman who was blamed for her own rape. My mother died in 2006, but if she were still here, she’d make a point to mention Marianne Partridge, the editor who assigned that piece and was one of several women who pushed back against the magazine’s male-centric culture in the ‘70s. Still, these women’s efforts only went so far; in the last few days, more recent stories of racism and sexism at Rolling Stone have trickled in. One former female editor who worked there about a decade ago alleged on her private Instagram account (which she allowed The Meteor to quote) that she was “treated like trash on eight levels for getting pregnant.” The problem wasn’t with the staff so much as “the policies that were either in place or made up as they went along to avoid poking the bear that was Jann”—policies, she later elaborated to The Meteor, like zero maternity leave and a strict no-work-from-home rule. Cultural critic Nelson George commented that Wenner’s remarks “reflect the continuum of thought that defined [Rolling Stone’s] coverage and why they never really caught up to rap.” Several people pointed out that magazines like VIBE and The Source were founded precisely because RS ignored hip-hop. Rolling Stone has a far more diverse (though still pretty white) masthead today. As the Wenner controversy simmers down, let’s remember that it’s often the workers who end up reshaping institutions, despite their founders’ retrograde views. —Nona Willis Aronowitz AND: 
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Voices From Inside Iran's Freedom Movement
NEWSLETTER
Mahsa Amini's death was only the beginning
By Gelareh Kiazand
Today marks exactly a year since the death of Mahsa “Jina” Amini, a young Kurdish woman who had been detained by what’s known in Iran as the Morality Police for “improperly” wearing her hijab, and who went into a coma while in custody and died shortly after. Despite the government’s attempts to cover up the circumstances of Amini’s arrest, pictures of her in the hospital and the eventual news of her death sparked massive protests and set the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in motion, the scale of which took many by surprise. Tens of thousands of people spilled into the streets in around 100 cities, in an explosion of suppressed pain over years of censorship, patriarchy and government coverups.
The government harshly retaliated: It’s estimated that in the first six months of the protests, more than 500 police and protesters were killed, 20,000 people arrested—and at least six executed. Internet access was disrupted in an attempt to suppress the protests.
The brutality and murders did scare some people off the streets. By January, many acts of defiance had migrated to social media, where high school girls were dancing, removing their headcovers, and pulling down the pictures of government officials, including the supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei. Soon, people began reporting cases of school poisonings that ultimately affected more than 1,000 girls, most suffering from breathing problems. Even though the government arrested those who carried out the so-called “nitrogen” gas poisonings, many parents suspect authorities were involved, or at the very least looked the other way.
In April, the streets of Tehran were again filled—this time with women not wearing any form of hijab, in violation of national law. The government started issuing economic fines to celebrities, business, and ordinary citizens. Small cafes with customers who refused to cover became prime targets of police harassment and closures. Around 150 businesses were shut down.
As the anniversary of the protests approached this summer, authorities are still arresting, intimidating, and threatening protesters and their families. Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, the two women journalists who first reported on Amini’s death, are still under arrest and awaiting trial with charges of espionage. Seventeen more journalists remain detained.
Whatever comes next may make history. The government has taken no steps to address the movement’s cries of injustice, and President Ebrahim Raisi, who won in a highly engineered election with the lowest turnout on record, hasn’t improved Iran’s struggling economy. But voices seeking to topple the regime, both on the ground and online, have only grown louder.
Women have always been a political force in Iran. We spoke with several of these women (and one man), all of whom have been profoundly affected by the past year’s uprising. All of them have been given pseudonyms to protect their identities.
Pardis, 24, runs her family’s small cafe in Tehran. During the peak of the uprising, she sheltered injured and runaway protesters. The authorities ordered her to refuse the protesters or be arrested. She chose the latter, and was taken to prison for 24 days.
“If anyone can change this situation, it is the people of Iran. Look, I was not a political person at all; I was thinking about parties and boys and these things. I went to prison because of my beliefs—it’s ridiculous to be afraid now. They are forcing us to show a reaction to the killing of Mahsa Amini, which was not even justified. Why should teenagers be killed? I was living my life, but after these events, how can we remain silent? [The movement] has changed everything, in my opinion. Even the most distant people, the most religious people, whether they like it or not, are affected by this revolution.”
Ameneh is a 28-year-old woman from Zahedan, Baluchistan, a conservative and underserved province that was one of the country’s most active areas during the uprising. Her family prohibited her from continuing her studies at a young age, and never let her venture far from her home city. The uprising was the first time her family allowed her true independence.
“Here, the conditions are again like those first weeks. The city is very controlled. People’s phones are checked. They are very sensitive to the anniversary and scare the people so they don’t come out. People have no right to participate in the rally and the mosque.
“From the first day, [prominent Sunni spiritual leader] Molavi Abdul Hamid criticized the killing of Mahsa Amini. The people of Zahedan are very fond of Molavi and they also supported him. [As a result] Friday prayers were and still are strictly controlled, and they even put checkpoints in the city a day or two before. My brother was arrested by intelligence forces in mid-November [for being] a member of mosque security and the liaison to deliver medicine to the injured people of Zahedan’s Bloody Friday. Later they attacked our house many times and searched and took all my brother’s belongings. At that time, one of our acquaintances said that these drugs should be brought from Tehran, but it was very risky. Finally, I decided to go to Tehran and bring these medicines.
“[Growing up] I really wanted to study or dress the way I like, but it was impossible. At that time, when I said I wanted to do this, I was alone, there was no one to support me, there was no other girl like me. But now I don’t feel alone anymore and I have more courage. I see this change in both women and men.”
Soha is a 17-year-old student who is religious and attended the protests with a headscarf. For her, the movement was about standing for the freedom of women, who should not be defined by hijab. Her mother, Mitra, 54, who also is religious, joined her in the protests.
Soha: “I have never been insulted by people who don’t believe in hijab. But I have seen many times that girls who don’t wear a headscarf are insulted or made to feel insecure by the morality police or by women who are hired by the Islamic Republic to intervene in the issue of hijab.”
Mitra: “As a Muslim woman, I cannot allow them to kill people under the pretext of my religious beliefs. In my opinion, the Islamic Republic is not only not Muslim, but [also] fueling anti-Islamism. In the religion of Islam, it is not said to keep people hungry and to keep the hijab. Islam does not say kill or imprison anyone who disagrees with you. Hijab is important in Islam, but not as important as a person’s life. Was there a problem with [Amini’s] hijab from the point of view of Islam?”
Soha: “The new wave of the movement will start soon, and in my opinion, religious people will play a big role in this new wave.”
Mehdi, 19, is a student in Tehran. At the rallies, he witnessed his friend getting shot, and he himself was beaten by the security forces. He and his friends believe the forced ruling of “old men” needs to end.
“In 2009, I was very young, but I understood that people were protesting and I saw that they were being suppressed. At that time, my family was not against the Islamic Republic and my father even worked in the Revolutionary Guards, but he had seen things up close that had an impact on him, and since then, his perspective changed. So he resigned from his job. Many people who thought that the Islamic Republic had no problems realized that they were on the side of corruption. People see that this government is only lying to them and this is no longer acceptable to many. My father always said that if anyone can oppose the [clerics in the Islamic republic], it is women.
“People want stability. They want a good economic situation. A few nights ago, one of my friends told me to go to the embassy for immigration. I said that the future is here; we just have to build it.”
Rana, 35, is a teacher from Kurdistan, the province where Amini is from. Kurdistan, like Baluchestan, faced some of the harshest crackdowns. Doctors were working secretly in people’s basements to help the wounded. Many homes were open to neighbors so the community would not be weakened.
“In Kurdistan, I feel the meaning of women is different than in the rest of the country. They are raised as fighters, live as fighters, and die as fighters. Because we as Kurds have always fought for our ethnicity, this seems to have been born within the women. The slogan “Woman, Life, Freedom” [signifies] a freedom of humanity which shouldn’t be defined by what is worn or not worn. It is the freedom…of choosing who I am, bearing its responsibilities, and shaping my life through that. I feel the women of Iran are finally starting to understand what freedom can hold.”
Gelareh Kiazand is a Canadian-Iranian based between NYC and Toronto who has worked in Iran’s film and documentary industry for 12 years as well as covering stories in Afghanistan and Turkey. In 2016, she became Iran’s first female DoP for a fiction feature film, post-’79 revolution.
Big white lies
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No images? Click here  September 20, 2023 Greetings, Meteor readers, The first week of school is just about done. Congratulations, you’ve all survived! Only an entire academic year to go.  In today’s newsletter, we examine the new(ish) way conservatives are trying to reshape history, applaud successful women, and share some weekend reads. Academically yours, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONBig white lies: Over the last few months, a particular threat has been in the air: inaccurate historical teachings. What once felt like a uniquely red-state problem has now crept its way into the curriculum of a Pennsylvania school district. According to Popular Information, the Pennridge School Board is requiring teachers to incorporate lessons from the 1776 Curriculum into their social studies classes. The simplest way I can think to explain this curriculum, developed by Hillsdale College in Michigan as a right-wing guideline for educators (and in direct response to the historically accurate 1619 Project), is slavery apologetics for kids. This new K-12 curriculum teaches students that although the founding fathers participated in slavery, not all of them actually wanted to and eventually freed their slaves. It also trots out the tired argument that the Civil War wasn’t really about slavery at all but was instead about states’ rights. (Ahem, no.) Ninth graders will be served a piping hot plate of propaganda that claims “what was unique to America was the right to vote at all” and the “rapid rate” in which the vote was given to women. (The latter is demonstrably false.) The 1776 Curriculum is just the latest far-right attempt to rewrite history—and cater to the relatively small but loud voices reinvigorating American exceptionalism. It’s become so pervasive that Florida’s public university system is about to approve a heavily Westernized Christian alternative to the SATs called the Classic Learning Test. Previously only used as an admission test for private Christian colleges, the CLT promotes a “classical” curriculum and will be an option for students applying to public universities across the state. What’s clever about the CLT is that its inherent racism is not immediately obvious. The reading comprehension portion of the exam focuses on writings by figures like Martin Luther and Thomas Aquinas. It also places “an emphasis on Greek, Roman, and early Christian thought.” That’s fine if you’re trying to get into seminary school, but a “classical” education isn’t exactly a marker of a student’s readiness to enroll in Florida State. Not to mention that the test legitimizes a style of teaching that cuts out the works of women and writers of color. This move toward a revisionist, borderline-white-power version of history would be laughable if it weren’t all so insidious. Even before modern white supremacists and Moms for Liberty started infiltrating school boards, most American history classes were struggling to provide the full picture to students. It’s bad enough that most Millennials got a gentle, glossed-over version of world events like Columbus “discovering” America (i.e. committing genocide), but now basic, long-held facts are up for debate. AND: 
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 WEEKEND READS 📚On fútbol: Spanish soccer has been holding our attention for the last few weeks. But the women of La Roja have been fighting an uphill battle for years. (The Athletic) On the optimal self: Fitness and sleep tracking can be great. Until your tracker starts gaslighting you. (Slate) On trial: Google. (The New York Times)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Let Us "Girl Walk" In Peace
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No images? Click here  August 24, 2023 Hey there, Meteor readers, I was mindlessly scrolling through Instagram the other night and I came across a Story from Peloton instructor Cody Rigsby, in which he described having the Sunday scaries but for the end of summer. So now, of course, I’m having summer scaries. Summer is almost over? That means the year’s almost over. Literally, where did 2023 even go?  In today’s newsletter we attempt to take the clown car of Republican candidates running for president seriously, consider “girl trends,” and share some reading for your weekend. Already wearing a sweater, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONJust girl things: It seems like everywhere you turn, normal everyday activities that women do are now “girl” trends with a bevy of accompanying think pieces: Girl dinner. Girl math. Strawberry girl. That girl. Soft girl. Tomato girl summer. Hot girl walks. Lazy girl jobs. The reaction to the girlification of women’s lives has been largely negative. The trend has been called infantilizing and toxic, particularly the idea of “girl dinner,” which shows women eating snacks like popcorn and calling it dinner. Are these videos reinforcing eating disorders or is it reflective of the varied ways in which American women approach food and mealtimes? Is it both? Is it neither? But let’s think about this for a sec. Is it being called a girl that’s supposed to be so offensive? It wasn’t offensive when Beyoncé told us that girls run the world. In what context are we okay with “girl”? Does the hot girl walk I take every day to clear my head betray my allegiance to intersectional feminism? Here’s my two cents on it (which, in girl math, is worth about 100 USD): The act of turning adult behaviors into cutesy girl trends may just be a new way in which young women are using social media to communicate longstanding gender disparities to their peers. What is a girl dinner if not commentary on food insecurity? What is girl math if not highlighting how women uphold the economy despite inflation and the gender pay disparity? What are lazy girl jobs if not a referendum on the idea that we should be working all the time? What are Strawberry/Soft/Tomato girls if not eviscerating the unnatural standards women are expected to adhere to when they present themselves to the world? So maybe the question shouldn’t be “does girl math make sense” and should instead be why do women have to figure out such creative ways to explain how cost, worth, and value are all completely different concepts? Maybe the “girls” are just too smart for everyone.  LOLsob: Your evening hours are limited and your mental health is precious, so we’ll understand if you opted out of watching the first debate of the 2024 presidential race last night and mostly enjoyed the memes about Chris Christie today. But since each of the eight Republican candidates on display (Trump, awaiting arrest, wasn’t there) represents a vision of America that is one election cycle away from becoming our next reality, it’s worth considering who they are. A majority of these candidates, including front-runner (behind Trump) Ron DeSantis, don’t believe in climate change. Mike Pence and Tim Scott want to institute national abortion bans after 15 weeks of gestation. The whole lot of them want to revive the failed war on drugs and use the military to suppress the import of fentanyl and slow immigration. And while some of that seems absolutely absurd, it also seemed absurd that the guy from The Apprentice could be president…and look what happened there. While Nikki Haley was voted Closest to An Adult in the Room by debate analysts last night, we all know that Ron DeSantis has the most potential to snatch this nomination out of Donald Trump’s hands. If you live in a blue state, perhaps you are checked out. But the fact of the matter is, he’s coming into this election with the might of Florida behind him, the support of powerful mom groups, and his youthful appearance. (That last one shouldn’t matter, but, alas, it does.) Sadly—and I literally hate to say this—we can’t afford to discount DeSantis or the other contenders; even if they don’t win, chances are high they’ll land somewhere in the cabinet should a Republican win the presidency. And the road to an election day isn’t as clear cut as Democrats might hope it is. AND:
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 WEEKEND READS 📚On Afghanistan: Two years after Yalda Royan fled Afghanistan, she examines why so many refugees are still trapped in “legal limbo.” (Slate) On shopping IRL: The experience of actually going to a store is becoming an artifact of the past. But why? (Vox) On rush week: Unpacking the inherent whiteness of the internet phenomenon Bama Rush. (The New York Times)  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Subscribe using their unique share code or snag your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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