iTunes' #1 Christian album is by a drag queen
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No images? Click here  August 8, 2023 Hey Meteor readers, We’ve got a THICC newsletter for you today so I’m not going to slow you down. But before we get to the goods, a quick announcement: We’re launching a newsletter ambassador program. Just click the banner below to enter your information and get your unique code to share with friends and family—and earn a Meteor tote bag once five of your referrals sign up. And the prizes only get better from there!  In today’s newsletter we look at the USWNT’s World Cup loss and chat with Flamy Grant, a drag queen who has the number one Christian album on iTunes right now. Jammin’ with Jesus, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONNot goodbye, but see you later: On Sunday the US Women’s National Team was eliminated from the Women’s World Cup after its game against Sweden went into penalty kicks. It was a crushing defeat and not the send-off anyone was expecting for Megan Rapinoe’s final World Cup appearance. The loss is especially difficult to accept considering that it was the Round of 16 and even on their worst day, the USWNT is better than that. But hear me out for a moment. Perhaps this loss was actually a good thing for women in soccer overall? The USWNT and a bevy of European nations have been the dominant squads at the World Cup for 30 years. Occasionally China has made it into the quarterfinals but in general, when you think of the most competitive and dominant teams you’re thinking of England, The Netherlands, maybe France, and the United States, with a handful of strong threats like Brazil, Japan, or Canada, which can, under the right circumstances, topple the favorites. And there is a reason for this dominance: investment. Like many sports, soccer was intended to be a “gentleman’s” game, and the inclusion of women at the professional level is still a relatively young concept. The nations which have put the greatest time, money, and infrastructure behind their women’s teams have yielded the greatest results, and for some time it was the USA blazing that trail. Because of this initial investment, the USWNT was arguably the best team in the world from 1999 to 2019. But the cost of being the best is that everyone starts figuring out how to beat you. Which is exactly what happened. Sunday’s loss wasn’t as simple as poor on-field chemistry or Vlatko Andonovski’s lackluster coaching. It was the culmination of a lot of things, but most especially the growing talent and skill on the pitch. Women on teams like Jamaica, South Africa, and Colombia have been clamoring for more support and resources from their nations for years and are slowly but surely starting to get it from their local sport-governing bodies and their fans as well. Europe, as a whole, has also further stepped up its contribution to women’s athletics with some of the biggest organizations in soccer (like Manchester, Madrid, and PSG) pouring more money into the development of their women’s leagues. And now we find ourselves in a golden age for women’s soccer with an abundance of bona fide legends. In her final World Cup post-game interview Brazilian star Marta summed it up best, “When I started playing I didn’t have a…female idol. How could I? You guys didn’t show female games. Now when we go out on the street, parents stop us and say, ‘My daughter loves you…[she] wants to be just like you when she grows up.’” AND: 
 SLAYIN' AND PRAYIN'Serving Looks While Serving the LordMeet Flamy Grant, the drag queen with a chart-topping Christian music album BY BAILEY WAYNE HUNDL  FLAMY GRANT'S ALBUM COVER. (PHOTO BY HALEY HILL) Flamy Grant is a “shame-slaying, hip-swaying, singing-songwriting” drag queen from western North Carolina. Her name is a reference to 90s Christian pop star Amy Grant, and her album Bible Belt Baby centers on her journey as a queer person of faith—which, apparently, some people aren’t too happy about. On July 26, infamous MAGA pastor Sean Feucht angrily tweeted about Grant, lamenting that “these are truly the last days,” and that Christian music from a drag queen was the “end goal” of the progressive Christian movement. “End goal?” Grant tweeted back. “Baby, we’re just getting started. 😘” And she meant what she said. Feucht told Grant that “hardly anyone listens or cares what you do,” so she rallied her fans on social media to get her songs on the Christian music charts. And by the next morning, her album had reached No. 1 on iTunes. As a drag queen/queer Christian myself, I had to sit down with this diva and get into it all: the drama, the trauma, and what she hopes to give any Christian—both queer and the other kind.  GOD'S GORGEOUS CREATION (PHOTO BY HALEY HILL) Bailey Wayne Hundl: Over the last ten days, you have been in People, Rolling Stone, Billboard—when you put out your album, did you ever envision something like this happening? Flamy Grant: Not to this degree. You know, I saw what happened with Semler, a good friend of mine, and they're the first out queer artist to hit number one on the [Christian] iTunes charts. So I knew that it would be a big deal if a drag queen got on the iTunes charts. But I just thought it would be a cool moment of representation. I would've been happy with that, but like, my gosh, to have a Rolling Stone article that I can now point to… It's crazy. It's massive. When you started doing drag and mixing that with Christian music, was that your intention—to get as many eyes on it as possible? My intention has been to have a career, so whatever it takes to pay my bills. That's been my intention. And that's just the first rule of drag. Get your bag. (laughs) Exactly. Yes. My second purpose and intention is to— I always tell people that I write for queer folks, specifically queer folks who grew up in evangelicalism or other high-demand religions who will resonate to that story of having to unburden yourself of a whole heap of oppression that was dropped on you. And then finding freedom, finding liberation, finding your sparkle. You’ve been a worship leader in church since high school. What led you to add drag to that? Well, the pandemic, honestly. I got super into drag in my mid-thirties. I've always been a late bloomer at everything because, you know, religious trauma. I mean, I didn't even come out fully until I was 28. So it took a few more years to really become ingrained in queer culture. So once I fell in love with drag, I was just all about it. And the pandemic gave me the time. I live [in] this house with some housemates who are also musicians. So we started a livestream, like many artists did during the pandemic, where we would just sing cover songs every Thursday night to, like, 30 people on Facebook. I started showing up to those in drag and really that's where Flamy developed her chops, if you will. [One day] my pastor asked me to give the sermon in drag…so I made a TikTok video to practice and gave a little [uplifting message] in 60 seconds while I was painting my face. And I woke up the next morning and it had completely blown up and gone viral. And I was floored at the responses: “This makes me feel so seen.” “It makes me feel so safe.” And that inspired you to release a Christian album. First of all, my record feels like a spiritual record, and I come from the evangelical world, so why not call it a Christian record? It's telling a spiritual journey. It's speaking to people who are still in the church. It's speaking to people who have oppressed queer people in the church. That's the audience that it's for, really. So it just made sense to put it in the Christian category. I struggled with that a lot because the word “Christian” is so loaded in America—because it's been co-opted by evangelicals. I always like to make this point: Evangelicalism is a sect of Christianity. It is not representative of the entire faith. What we understand to be mainstream Christianity in America is not actually, like, historically Christian.  One thing that queer people of faith get asked a lot is, “How do you reconcile these two disparate worlds?” But I'm curious: Why do you continue to reconcile the two worlds? Well, I mean, first and foremost, I think the main reason is simple: It's representation. I don't see anybody else who's intentionally trying to be a Christian in the [contemporary Christian music] genre, trying to do that as a drag queen in particular. And then, because I grew up the way I did, I know what it's like to be a kid who has just nothing to look at that looks or feels like me—to feel like you are such an anomaly and to feel like you are such a broken thing. So knowing that I can be there, present, especially in such a visible way—because that's the thing about drag: It's a very visibly queer art form. You know, we can see a picture of a drag queen, but then if you get to spend 45 minutes with her, listening to her heart…to hear a full record where I'm talking about this stuff…that's gonna make [an impact]. And a good record, too, if you don't mind me saying. Thank you! I don't mind you saying it at all. You can say it many times. I'm very proud of it.  SHINING BRIGHTER THAN THE BURNING BUSH. (PHOTO COURTESY OF FLAMY GRANT) Last question: If you could get just one thing across to the church, what would that be? My answer might be a little skewed right now, because the past two weeks I've just been inundated and saturated with comments from Christians on the internet who make wild assumptions. But my encouragement to Christians would be to just listen a little bit. Go listen to three of the songs on my record. And if you don't wanna engage with me, at least take that posture to queer people in your life. And if you don't know any queer people in your life: Yes, you do. You just don't know that they're queer yet. Just push pause for just a little bit. I know you feel righteously compelled to speak. You feel educated about it because you've read six Bible verses. But there's a whole life story in each of us that I promise if you really hear—it's gonna have an impact on you. And it may not change your mind about homosexuality, but it may give you a window into a life that you would otherwise roll your eyes at or type a vomit emoji at. Just listen as hard as you can for as long as you can. And see what happens.  AROUND THE WORLD CUP ⚽️Just because the US is out doesn’t mean the action stops!
FOLLOW THE METEOR     Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? This newsletter was written by Shannon Melero and Bailey Wayne Hundl.
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"The world stopped paying attention"
  August 3, 2023 Hola, Meteor readers, I recently caught up on “And Just Like That,” and finally saw the episode where Steve gives Miranda a piece of his mind regarding their much-stalled divorce. As a SATC fan, one of my biggest issues with AJLT is the mistreatment of Steve’s character, and it really felt like his “This is my house” speech was vindication for the hours of Steve-slander I’ve had to endure. Give that man an Emmy. But more importantly, give the writer who penned that monologue a fair wage. In today’s newsletter, we take a look at Lizzo’s response to the lawsuit against her, offer some good reading for your weekend, and hear from an actual hero, Farkhunda Muhtaj, who helped evacuate teen soccer players from Afghanistan. Typing from Steve’s house, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONTruth hurts: As you’ve certainly been made aware of by now, on Tuesday, three of Lizzo’s former dancers filed a lawsuit against the singer, her production company, and her dance captain. The lawsuit painted a picture of a hostile work environment, rife with racist and fat-phobic comments, an “excruciating” 12-hour audition in which one dancer soiled herself, and the now-infamous instance in which a dancer was allegedly pressured to eat a banana out of a nude performer’s genitals. Lizzo posted her response this morning, and the messaging was…well, pretty much exactly what we’ve come to expect from celebrities called out on their behavior. In fact, there’s already a term for it, coined by Dr. Jennifer J. Freyd—DARVO: Deny, Attack, and Reverse Victim and Offender. Here are some examples straight from Lizzo’s post:
This is a well-worn roadmap. But seeing it used by this person, this time, stings. Lizzo represented so many things that felt new: self-celebration, body positivity, sexual liberation—wonderful qualities that people on the right have tried to “cancel” her for time and time again. She had a chance to do something different and new in her response, too—like address the charges with empathy and humility, rather than taking a page from the DARVO playbook and putting her hurt feelings first. But as a singer once sang, people are only great until they’ve gotta be great. AND:
 FLEEING AFGHANISTAN“The World Has Stopped Paying Attention”The soccer captain behind We Are Ayenda is still working to free the women of her home country.BY THE METEOR TEAM  FARKHUNDA MUHTAJ SPEAKING TO PRESS AFTER MEMBERS OF THE AFGHANISTAN YOUTH TEAM WERE GRANTED ASYLUM IN PORTUGAL. (IMAGE BY HORACIO VILLALOBOS VIA GETTY IMAGES) In August 2021, with the world’s eyes on Afghanistan, the teenage soccer players on that country’s Under-18 Women’s National Team left their homes and began a weeks-long journey to evacuate from their country. The experience of these players—many of whom now live in Portugal and compete as Ayenda, which means “future” in Farsi—is the subject of not one but two films this month, the first of which, We Are Ayenda, is out now on Amazon Prime. The second, Ayenda, will be available on Peacock later this summer. We talked to the extraordinary person who led the girls through the rescue process—not an intelligence officer, but a then-23-year-old Afghan-Canadian soccer player, Farkhunda Muhtaj, the captain of the Afghan Women’s National Team. The Meteor: The film shows your day-by-day work evacuating the youth team from Afghanistan. How did you come to be the person entrusted with the job to begin with? Farkhunda Muhtaj: Because I was the captain [of the women’s national team] and I also lived abroad…I was very much trusted from individuals within Afghanistan. And so I think immediately when they needed help, they turned to me. The women's department secretary...reached out and said to me that Canada was supporting 20,000 Afghans and could I help get the families to either Canada or any other kind of safe nation. What impressed you the most about the girls as they navigated the process of trying to leave the country? I would say their courage and determination and resilience for sure. The girls really went through hell. They were trusting me blindly—they didn't know what the next move was, where they were headed, why they were headed [to] a certain location, who they were waiting for, and how they were going to get into the airport and out of the country. But they risked everything and…whether it took them ten tries, 20 tries, traveling all over the region in order to [find a safe way out], they were doing that. And it's not easy for a 15- or 16-year-old girl to…convince their family that this is the best way out. At the time there was a lot of fraud; it was hard to trust anyone. And what really impressed me was their sisterhood as well, the fact that they recognized that they weren't the only ones trying to leave Afghanistan.  MEMBERS OF THE YOUTH TEAM ALONG WITH THEIR FAMILY MEMBERS IN PORTUGAL. (IMAGE BY HORACIO VILLALOBOS VIA GETTY IMAGES) You’re now living in Europe, and because the Taliban has banned women from playing sports, you’re not allowed to play for your home country. What are your hopes for your own future, and for the future of other Afghan women athletes? Just to quickly give you some context: I was a student-athlete in university. I was the captain of the women's soccer team there. And afterward I wanted to continue my education, so I completed my Bachelor of Education [at] a teacher's college in Canada, and became a science and high school teacher. Now I’ve decided to go pro [and play for Fortuna Sittard in the Netherlands]—it's something I've wanted to do since I was younger, but I realized that the girls saw me as a role model. And so I [went pro] just to show the girls that, you know, it doesn't matter that we're from Afghanistan, a war-torn country; we're just as capable as any other European, any other American or Canadian. And what I want for other Afghan women athletes is the same journey that I took: They deserve to be educated. They deserve to have the right to play football, and we deserve to represent our country. I want us to be able to represent and officially compete in FIFA competitions once again. Of course, since the Taliban took over, they have banned that. Beyond sport, I hope that Afghan women can be educated again. But we're kind of out of time. It's been two years already. The situation in Afghanistan is only getting worse, not better. Yes—there's a moment in We Are Ayenda when you say that you knew [in 2021] that you had to get the girls out quickly because the world was paying attention—and that it might stop. Two years later, has the world stopped paying attention? Absolutely. The world has stopped watching. Right when the Taliban had taken over Afghanistan, people cared—partly because the U.S.’s reputation was on the line as well. People cared and were very anxious about what the future of Afghanistan might look like. But after the war in Ukraine happened—and nothing against Ukraine, they deserve all the attention and care—everyone forgot about Afghanistan. And you really saw how Afghans were treated compared to Ukrainians…When I was trying to help [evacuate] Afghans and vulnerable communities [after evacuating the players], no country seemed to have space. But as soon as other issues around the world happened, they had the budget; they had the space; they had the time. It was really disheartening for me. It was something I didn't expect from the global community. And so the world has stopped paying attention. In Afghanistan, women are just there trying to [gain access to] education. I think the most powerful tool is education. Once you're educated, you're aware of your rights and responsibilities, and the fact that women cannot be educated shows that they're trying to silence them. And if our mothers, our sisters, our daughters are not being educated, then what can we expect for the future generations of Afghanistan? I don't think it's going to turn out well at all. But Afghanistan has been in a desperate situation for decades. And regardless of that, our generations continue to thrive. So although we want the global community to act and be a part of the change and help us, we are also very much trying to do our best to help from within.  WEEKEND READS 📚On the NFL: “It’s not every day a group of women defeat a white billionaire man.” But for the women who sued former Commanders’ owner Dan Snyder, that day is here. (The Athletic) On cool kids: A 10-year-old girl threw a water balloon at a local politician from 100 feet away. She got him right in the back of the head and he was so impressed, he suggested she should be playing for the Yankees. So the Yankees invited her for a game. (The Washington Post) On BookTok: Smutty. Hockey. Drama. Need we say more? (The Cut) On climate: The heat isn’t only on land. Unda the sea, an “astonishing” heat wave has been lethal for marine life. (The New York Times)  This newsletter was written by Shannon Melero and Bailey Wayne Hundl. FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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A "beacon of light" snuffed
  August 1, 2023 Beloved Meteor readers, Can you believe it is August? I actually can’t. I think I have an easier time believing that aliens are here on earth than believing we’re eight months into this year.  In today’s newsletter, we hold space for O’Shae Sibley, celebrate a hijabi champion, and take a spin around the Women’s World Cup. Boarding the spaceship, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONBreak my soul: O’Shae Sibley was a 28-year-old gay Black man, a professional dancer and choreographer. And on Saturday evening, while vogueing to Beyoncé’s “Renaissance” with his friends at a Brooklyn gas station, Sibley was approached by a group of men who assaulted him, first with homophobic slurs and then with a knife, stabbing him to death. Sibley’s friend Otis Pena described him in a Facebook Live as a “beacon of light” who was “always out and loud.” According to Pena, Sibley “was just saying we may be gay, and we’re listening to our music, but there’s no hate. It’s all love—when you stabbed him. You stabbed my brother.”  It’s ironic, but not accidental, that Sibley was voguing to “Renaissance,” one of the queerest albums of 2023 and a joyous love letter to ballroom culture and Black queer joy. All it took was that joy being displayed publicly for his attackers to decide to take his life. Unfortunately, this sort of violence is on the rise. According to a report issued by the Anti-Defamation League and GLAAD, the first three weeks of June saw 101 incidents of anti-LGBTQ+ harassment and violence—more than twice the number as during the same period last year. In his video, Pena said, “We as a community don’t deserve this. We’re not going to live in fear. We’re not going to live hiding.” And he’s right. Queer people have always battled beatings with brashness, and they will continue to do so. But that doesn’t make it any easier to face the onslaught of violence—and anti-queer legislation. To all of our queer readers: We feel this loss with you. And we believe in your—our—joy. You can contribute to Sibley’s memorial fund here.  AND:
 AROUND THE WORLD CUP ⚽Here’s what’s going on for those of us who can’t stay up until 3 AM to catch a game.
  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays.
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Understanding Florida's batshit curriculum
  July 27, 2023 Good evening, Meteor readers, As you have likely heard, singer and activist Sinéad O’Connor passed away yesterday at 56. The tributes pouring in in her honor have been gorgeous and gutting. I want to add one more. As a young transfemme person in the mid-2010s, I searched for examples of who I wanted to look like when I grew up. And so many versions of femininity seemed unattainable to me, too far a leap from my current reality. But Sinéad gave me a roadmap. In a 1991 Spin magazine interview I found online, she said, “Shaving my head to me was never a conscious thing. I was never making a statement. I was just bored one day and wanted to shave my head, and that was literally all there was to it.” When I read that, it occurred to me: Oh. I can do whatever the hell I want. So I shaved my head too. Women are told left and right how femininity should be expressed. But alongside her many other contributions, Sinéad gave me—and so many others—the power to realize my self-expression didn’t have to be this huge, profound decision. I could choose something just because I wanted to.  In today’s newsletter, Keisha N. Blain, professor of Africana Studies at Brown University, brings historical perspective to Florida’s curriculum whitewashing. You can read her discussion with Rebecca Carroll down below. But first, the news. Having a drink before the war, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT'S GOING ON
  IT'S ALWAYS FLORIDAWhat Exactly Does Ron DeSantis Want Students to Learn About Enslavement?A professor and historian breaks down Florida's new propaganda campaign disguised as a school curriculum. BY REBECCA CARROLL (IMAGE BY JOSHUA LOTT VIA GETTY IMAGES) Last week, the Florida Board of Education unanimously approved a new set of standards for how Black history will be taught in schools. Included in these new standards is an emphasis on teaching “the ways slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit,” and highlighting “acts of violence” perpetrated by Black folks against other Black folks during slavery. Neither of those claims are factual, and both attempt to mask the actual brutality of white people during enslavement. I needed to understand more, so I reached out to professor of Africana Studies at Brown University and MSNBC contributor Keisha N. Blain Ph.D., because, honestly, help. Rebecca Carroll: I know you’ve written about the Florida Board of Education’s new standards for teaching Black history in the classroom—but what was your initial reaction to the curriculum changes both as a historian and a teacher? Keisha N. Blain: As a professor, I know these standards are poorly designed. But far beyond the poor quality of these standards, I am deeply disturbed by the whitewashing of history and the negative impact these standards will ultimately have on the teaching of United States history in Florida—and beyond. Even if, in some instances, enslaved people developed skills that ultimately helped them survive/thrive, why does that immediately humanize the enslavers rather than emphasize the resilience of enslaved people? The new instructional guidance reveals a complete misunderstanding of chattel slavery as it was practiced in the United States. The goal of these standards is to hide the harsh conditions of enslavement and protect white Americans from grappling with the ugliness of slavery. The goal is clear: The Florida Board of Education wants to foreground a version of slavery wherein enslaved people could benefit. This framing underscores that the plan is not to discuss the resilience of enslaved people; they want to make slavery appear less evil. This effort also cannot be separated from past methods of instruction: Until the 1960s, white historians and educators often promoted a narrative of benevolent white slaveholders and content enslaved people. This discussion also ignores how the economic exploitation of Black Americans through sharecropping, prison labor, and redlining continued to rob them of opportunity. Emancipation did not free Black Americans from discrimination or racism; those practices continued as white Americans continued to reap all of the “benefits” from Black laborers. And what is the nuanced conversation that we should be having here? Because if I believe that the history of racism is about dehumanizing and terrorizing Black and brown people, and Florida believes the history of racism is biased against white people, we have a real problem. One of the reasons I became a historian is because I came to the recognition that a deep understanding of the past is one of the ways we can build a better future. If we don’t carefully access what has already taken place over the last few centuries, then we run the risk of making the same mistakes over again. We cannot be “wishy-washy” about topics such as slavery. We have to be firm in acknowledging that slavery was a brutal and exploitative economic and labor system that attempted to strip Black people of their inherent humanity. Anyone who dances around this fact has already embraced white supremacist ideology, and deep down inside, they don’t mind returning to an era of slavery. How do you think these new standards will affect classroom dynamics—will students start recording teachers in an effort to catch them saying something “bad,” meaning something accurate? On the one hand, students could absolutely weaponize these standards against teachers. Some of this will likely emerge from parents pushing their children to report these matters; some will also likely arise from students wanting to target certain teachers they don’t like. These standards are intended to curb free speech and push teachers to endorse a false version of history out of fear. On the other hand, I am also thinking about those students and educators who are bold and savvy enough to bypass these new restrictions. One of the benefits of living in the age of computers is that we have quick access to a lot of information. Banned books in schools can still be accessed elsewhere and students can find deeply researched and accurate accounts of history in other venues. Educators are also skillful at coming up with ways to share information with their students—even if it means defying these new standards. Ultimately, Black people have dealt with this before—others have tried to block our ideas and history in the classroom setting for decades. But Black history education has persisted through decades of repression. This all feels similar to the “stand your ground” laws, which say that if anyone (often a white person) feels threatened they can use force. I think the impact of these standards—and the Florida state government’s recent attempt to outlaw making white people uncomfortable—is to spread misinformation. Gov. Ron DeSantis and other conservatives are trying to render history into moral statements—such as “the United States is faultless”; “no one is to blame for slavery”; and “racism no longer exists.” This is nothing more than propaganda, [and] when public institutions are pushing this form of propaganda, conflict will emerge whenever someone points out historical facts. Seen from this perspective, this has a real chance of turning classrooms into powder kegs where fights can erupt at any moment. It also makes teachers’ jobs much more difficult. Educators in Florida are now fighting the state simply by telling their students an accurate and unadulterated version of history based on years of research. In your opinion, what do you think DeSantis wants students to learn? Like, specifically? I think the basic lesson that Gov. DeSantis and the Florida Board of Education want students to learn can be boiled down to the idea that white Americans carry no guilt for the enslavement and exploitation of Black Americans. This is why their standard that mentions the 1921 Tulsa Massacre and the 1923 Rosewood Massacre makes sure to state that the lessons should include the “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” They are designed to conflate the violence committed against Black communities with the actions of Black Americans defending themselves from white mobs. In short, they are trying to instill a narrative that exculpates white Americans and tacitly embraces the nation’s history of white supremacy. There is this sense that Black folks can (and should?) endure anything, which, in effect, is normalizing our trauma, no? We do run that risk. But I also think it is important to take pride in how our ancestors fought and resisted against white supremacist forces. We can avoid this pitfall of “normalizing our trauma” by recognizing how the history of Black liberation contains lessons for the present. When we look back on figures like Fannie Lou Hamer, Ida B. Wells, Sojourner Truth, and others, we cannot ignore the toll their activism took on them—but their lives also show us strategies and tactics we can use today to resist white supremacy.  Rebecca Carroll is a writer, cultural critic, and podcast creator/host. Her writing has been published widely, and she is the author of several books, including her recent memoir, Surviving the White Gaze. Rebecca is Editor at Large for The Meteor.  WEEKEND READSOn education: Sex ed teachers have been forced into hiding by right wing “activists.” On sports: U.S. Soccer is trying to support working moms on the pitch. How can the rest of us get some of that? On money: “How student loan debt has fueled the pay gap for Black women.” On gawd: How Catholics reconsidered their relationship with The Vatican after Sinead O’Connor tore an image of Pope John Paul II on national television.  This newsletter was written by Bailey Wayne Hundl, Shannon Melero, and Rebecca Carroll. FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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Barbie is a community organizer
  July 25, 2023 Hey Meteor readers, I hope you all enjoyed Barbenheimer weekend. I’m sure Greta Gerwig did, as she watched her film become the biggest box office opening for a female director ever. And I personally am just glad the world is finally getting on board with liking Barbie, an agenda I have been pushing since 1997. In today’s newsletter, we are spotlighting the World Cup, shaking our heads at Greg Abbott again, and discussing the power of community organizing in Barbieland. You didn’t think you’d only get one Barbie newsletter, did you? Cleaning my Misty Copeland Barbie, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ON
 THE INTENSITY! THE DRIVE! THE FUTURE! (IMAGE BY PATRICIA PEREZ FERRARO VIA GETTY IMAGES) AND:
 THINK PINKThis Barbie Is a Community OrganizerConsciousness-raising was effective in Barbieland. I bet it would be here, too.BY SAMHITA MUKHOPADHYAY  (IMAGE BY THE CHOSUNILBO VIA GETTY IMAGES) SPOILERS AHEAD There has been no shortage of ink spilled about the cultural, political, social, and feminist meaning of the new Barbie movie directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie. The fantastical pink plastic joyride is many things: a box office record breaker; an exploration of Barbie’s legacy; a meditation on gender and masculinity; a rigorous look at the impossible standards we hold women to; and a referendum on easy narratives about girl power. This was all a surprise to me—I had walked into Barbie with a good bit of skepticism. Barbie, the doll, was never a feminist mascot to me, even if she had certain qualities that were radical, especially for her time. At the end of the day, she represented the exact untenable beauty standards that grated at me as a young woman. My protests started young: I shaved all my Barbie’s heads, something that still horrifies my mother. (To be fair, I later shaved my own head as well—it was the ’90s!) But Barbie tackles my ’90s feminist judgments head-on—implying that simply hating Barbie was also limited in its scope. The movie ultimately sends the message that the problem isn't other women—it's the system. Midway through, America Ferrera’s character Gloria gives a powerful speech about the competing pressures of being a woman that serves as a turning point in the film, a profoundly earnest scene in what is up to that moment airy, humorous fare. She tells a despondent Robbie, “It is literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we have to always be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.”  Barbie has an awakening at this moment, what feminists including my friend Courtney Martin have called the “click moment”: the moment you realize you have been living a limited version of yourself thanks to the patriarchy™ and that feminism is a real and tangible thing that can make your life better. So the Barbies hatch a plot to convince other Barbies who have been brainwashed that they need to think for themselves, not in the service of their beer-drinking, Godfather-watching counterparts. They quickly come to their senses and band together to overthrow the Kens and, literally, rewrite the Constitution. And that’s the truly radical thing about Barbie. Like the feminists of the 1970s, who used consciousness-raising circles to let women air their grievances and figure out what to do next, the film uses coming together as Step One. Step Two is overthrowing the patriarchy. Before the film came out, the right was stressed about the movie being anti-man or too “woke.” They were right to be worried about this doll movie—but less for those reasons than for the road map it makes. As we navigate the aggressive assault on women’s rights, Barbie perhaps gives us a path forward: When we share our stories and come together—we can make anything happen. That is a lesson in community organizing and the power of democratic majorities we’d do well to consider.  PHOTO BY HEATHER HAZZAN Samhita Mukhopadhyay is a writer, editor, and speaker. She is the former Executive Editor of Teen Vogue and is the co-editor of Nasty Women: Feminism, Resistance and Revolution in Trump's America and the author of Outdated: Why Dating is Ruining Your Love Life, and the forthcoming book, The Myth of Making It.  AROUND THE WORLD CUP ⚽️If you’ve been waking up at all hours of the night to catch live matches, I salute you. If not, here’s a quick rundown of what the world’s best soccer players are getting into.
You can tune into Fox Sports and FS1, or stream games on YouTube TV. Here’s the match lineup for this week!  FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy, sent Tuesdays and Thursdays. |
The one thing Barbie never was
  July 20, 2023 Come on, Meteor readers, let’s go party, After years of anticipation, debate, hot pink outfits, and hot pink lake water, the Barbie movie premieres tomorrow. In today’s newsletter, culture critic Scarlett Harris combs through the 64-year history of the controversial doll to understand the (potentially radical) reasons why she never became a mother. And because we know you are obsessed like we are, we’ve also assembled The Ultimate Barbie Reading Guide, covering everything from the doll’s accidental feminist legacy to her impact on Black and brown girls. But first, the news. Thinking pink, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT'S GOING ON Texas women fight back: Three women testified yesterday as part of a 15-plaintiff lawsuit against the state of Texas for allegedly being denied life-saving abortion care due to the state’s draconian abortion ban. The ban, one of the most severe in the country, makes it a felony to perform an abortion, and doing so could result in a fine of up to $10,000, the loss of the doctor’s medical license, and up to a lifetime in prison. The suit brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights asks for the law to be temporarily blocked and for the state to clarify what constitutes a medical emergency that will allow for an abortion. One of the women who shared her harrowing experience on the stand was Amanda Zurawski, who first told her story to the Meteor last fall. Zurawski was denied the procedure, her life put at risk. “I survived sepsis, and I don’t think today was much less traumatic than that,” she said. Another plaintiff, Samantha Casiano, shared that she was forced to deliver her fetus even after learning it would not develop a skull or brainstem. As she told her story, she vomited on the stand, and the court had to go into recess. This hearing is nothing short of historic. According to the Texas Tribune, these women are likely the first to testify about the impacts of abortion bans on their bodies since 1973. Despite their courageous testimony, the state is pushing back, claiming the law doesn’t need to be amended and putting the onus instead on doctors. But that doesn’t change the fact that if these women win, Texans who need abortions will not have to go through what they did. AND:
 LIFE IN PLASTICBarbie, Child-Free IconBY SCARLETT HARRISThere's only one thing this doll hasn't done. Why, exactly?  A BARBIE DOLL LOUNGES IN HER PACKAGING. (PHOTO BY DAVID BENITO/GETTY IMAGES) The opening scene of Barbie, the much-anticipated movie event hitting cinemas tomorrow directed by Greta Gerwig and starring Margot Robbie, is a parody of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. In it, young girls smash their baby dolls in favor of Robbie’s Barbie. Outfitted in the fashion doll’s original get-up of a black-and-white-striped bathing suit, cat-eye sunglasses, and permed bangs, Robbie stands in the center, a glamazon, signaling the dawn of a new woman.  Barbie, the doll, was conceived by Ruth Handler, an executive at Mattel, in the 1950s. After observing her daughter, Barbara, for whom Barbie is named, assigning adult roles to her paper dolls, she came up with the idea—and modeled her creation after a doll based on a German comic strip chronicling the life of a sex worker, Bild Lilli. Before Barbie hit the market in 1959, dolls for girls were primarily babies meant to teach their owners the caregiving skills they would inevitably need for lives of housewifery and childrearing. But Barbie brought something new: She represented a wide range of fulfilling lifestyles outside of traditional feminine responsibilities. Barbie could be anything she wanted: an astronaut, an artist, even the President. But, in all these years, she’s never wanted to be a mother. Barbie’s impact has been widely debated, and Barbie leans into this. Is she a feminist icon or nightmare? But one thing cannot be denied: Since her inception, Barbie has been the main character of her own story. She was made to be someone rather than someone’s someone. And in keeping with Barbie tradition, the film’s fantastical Barbieland does away with traditional gender roles. Ken (launched as a boyfriend doll in 1961) lives in service of Barbie, even going so far as to be referenced as “and Ken” in his mugshot—a pure appendage, even if Ken doesn’t have one himself. In a reversal of the biblical creation myth, Ken is spawned from Barbie. “I only exist in the warmth of your gaze,” he says. And, unlike Barbie, he has no occupation—his job is literally described as “beach” in the film. The message was radical for its time: When the doll debuted, there were few images of female breadwinners. Women couldn’t even get a credit card in their own name without permission from a father or husband until 1974, almost twenty years after Barbie had enjoyed financial independence and career achievement in fields such as modeling (her first occupation), nursing (1961), space and aeronautics (1965 and 1966, respectively), surgery (1973) and Olympic gymnastics (1974). All those jobs become even more impressive when you consider that, canonically, Barbie is 19 years old. Maria Teresa Hart, the author of the book Doll, points out that her age at the time of her introduction would have put her on the precipice of two possible paths: marriage and babies or continuing her current lifestyle as a Career Girl with a bevy of friends. “That ambiguity is part of the attraction: she’s at this tipping point where she could make a variety of choices,” says Hart. “Every avenue is open to her.”  MARGOT ROBBIE AT A PRESS JUNKET FOR THE BARBIE MOVIE (PHOTO BY RODIN ECKENROTH/FILMMAGIC) And yet Barbie never travels down the avenue of parenthood, unless you count the amount of time she spent caring for her sisters, Stacey and Chelsea. (If, during your childhood, Barbie’s youngest sister was named Kelly: congratulations, you’re officially old and missed Kelly’s rebrand as Chelsea in 2011.) Barbie’s childlessness was intentional: Handler wanted to show her daughter that fulfillment can exist outside of the home. In the film, her open-plan, multi-story dream house is a dwelling for one—no child safety, no doors. “It’s very definitely a house for a single woman,” production designer Sarah Greenwood told Architectural Digest. Barbie’s other accessories weren’t made with would-be kids in mind, either—the Barbie Porsche convertible I had as a child definitely didn’t have a car seat, and the only baby in sight belonged to the much-maligned Midge, a visibly pregnant doll who was discontinued as Barbie’s bestie in 1967, only to reappear later as Barbie’s married mother friend sans baby bump (though she still angered conservative parents who thought she wasn’t coded strongly enough as a married woman). Documentary filmmaker Therese Schechter, who most recently directed the child-free doco My So-Called Selfish Life, expresses incredulity about Midge’s predicament. “No one has children in that world; why is Midge going to have a baby?” For some, Barbie might still just be a silly doll with an eternally perky and unattainable body. But, as Willa Paskin wrote, Barbie being child-free “remains one of the most radical things about her.” And in a country hell-bent on forcing more and more people to give birth, her childlessness takes on a new and refreshing meaning. As Robbie noted in Vogue, Barbie doesn’t have reproductive organs—which is probably why the elected representatives of Barbieland haven’t tried to police what she does in the Dreamhouse bedroom. Scarlett Harris is a culture critic and author of the book A Diva Was a Female Version of a Wrestler: An Abbreviated Herstory of World Wrestling Entertainment. You can follow her on Twitter @ScarlettEHarris and read her previously published work at her website, The Scarlett Woman.  WEEKEND READSTomorrow is the official premiere of the Barbie movie, so we’ve put together The Ultimate Barbie Reading Guide for everyone who loves—and hates!—the world’s most famous doll.
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What the Hollywood strike means for labor
  July 18, 2023 Hello hello, Meteor readers, As you may be acutely aware right now: We’re currently having the hottest summer of all time. In fact, yesterday was the hottest day the entire Northern Hemisphere has had in recorded history. (Mondays, am I right?)  In today’s newsletter, we’re looking at what the joint writer's/actor's strike means for the rest of us, as well as the largest oral history of activism from young girls. Cranking that fan, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT'S GOING ONHot labor summer, cont.: The Writers Guild of America (WGA), representing more than 11,000 film and TV writers, has been on strike since May 2. And last Thursday, July 13, those writers were joined by the 160,000 members of the Screen Actors Guild (known as SAG-AFTRA). That’s right: Hollywood is looking at a double strike for the first time in 63 years. No Teds will be Lassoed and no Things will be Strangered—not until the networks are willing to negotiate with their workers (and not just kill trees to deny them shade). It could be easy to write off the actors’ strike as symbolic as actors are already mega-rich. But that is not so, hypothetical dissident! Michelle Hurd, vice president of SAG-AFTRA’s Los Angeles chapter, says that the number of SAG-AFTRA members who do not have consistent work has risen to 98 percent. “There’s a perception out there that everyone is doing great, that this career choice is lucrative for everyone, when that’s just not true,” Hurd told actor/writer Amber Tamblyn last weekend. “In reality, most SAG members are worried about making rent, let alone buying a home.” In order to make the rent between jobs, actors and writers rely on residuals, recurring payments based on a share of the profits earned by a particular TV show or movie—or at least, that’s how it works in theory. Historically, this led to even minor actors on major hit films and television shows receiving reasonable residuals for years after their projects had wrapped. But things look different in the streaming era. For example, Kimiko Glenn, who played Brook Soso in one of the first big streaming hits on Netflix, “Orange is the New Black,” shared one of her recent residual statements on TikTok; for all 44 episodes she appeared in, her residual compensation was $27.30. For comparison, Ben Haist, who appeared for two minutes as a background actor in 2011’s “Pitch Perfect,” shared that he still receives a residual check for $200-300 per quarter. In other words, the economics have become more challenging for workers in this industry. But that’s before the rise of AI, which threatens to make things worse: SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland shared that during negotiations, the networks proposed “that background actors should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan...to be able to use it for the rest of eternity.” This would, presumably, include generating new scenes based on that character’s likeness—all for a paycheck of less than $200. All of this is just part of the reason these strikes matter to all of us, whether or not you’ve got anything to do with the entertainment industry. For one thing, the arts are a necessary part of a healthy and functioning society. (What would the pandemic have been without streaming TV?) But also, at a time when tensions around AI in the workplace are already rising, the writer’s/actor’s strike could be a watershed moment for all workers’ equity, one that lets employers know that employees deserve—and will demand—compensation for the labor that makes AI systems work. Studio executives have already claimed that their plan is to wait until union members “start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” If you’d like to keep that from happening, you can donate to the Entertainment Community Fund to keep striking workers afloat. Let’s hear it for the girls: An important report just dropped from UN Women at the Women Deliver conference in Rwanda—and the findings are jarring. Of the 114 countries surveyed, researchers found that not one had achieved true gender parity. What’s worse: Less than 1 percent of women and girls around the world live in a country with high women’s empowerment or a reduced gender gap—and on average, women only reach 60% of their potential in crucial categories like health, education, decision-making, and freedom from violence. (So maybe we can drop the idea that the fight for gender equality has gone too far, hm?)  If you need a shot of hope after reading this, you might consider looking at the next generation of girls, who are increasingly vocal and visible right now—as you know if you spotted a picture of Greta Thunberg flipping off members of the European Parliament in your Instagram feed last weekend. Now this powerful and passionate demographic have a history book of their own: The largest-ever oral history of girls’ activism comes out this week, and it was feted Sunday by Malala in Kigali, Rwanda. Stories of Girls’ Resistance chronicles 150 activists from 90 countries—from Mamta in Fiji, who resisted arranged marriage (“stop marrying me off!” she exclaims), to Naomi in Kenya, who joined a strike on behalf of political prisoners when she was 17. The book is timely: “At a moment when we are seeing rising authoritarianism and attacks on human rights across the world,” co-author Jody Myrum and creative strategist Laura Vergara told the Meteor, “we need to invest in [girls’] resistance more than ever—both because girls’ rights are deeply under attack and because they hold the vision, strategies, and tactics to lead us to our collective liberation.” And—like Mattie Kahn, whose new book Young and Restless warns of the dangers of glamorizing young female leaders as singular figures without supporting them more meaningfully—the oral history sends a message that celebrating girls’ heroism isn’t enough. “Girls do not need any more ‘fame,’ ” said Myrum and Vergara, “but rather clear accountability and support for their work…They need to be meaningfully funded rather than treated as beneficiaries. Specifically for funders – it is time to take girls’ resistance seriously. Move significant resources directly to girls, not thousands but billions.” AND:
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A historic day for the pill
  July 13, 2023 Hello again, Meteor readers, We are officially less than ten days away from the Barbie movie opening, and I don’t know about you, but I’m stoked. My boyfriend and I got matching outfits for the premiere, and today’s newsletter will actually be a 50,000-word essay unpacking the feminist significance of everyone’s favorite plastic doll.  Kidding! Today’s newsletter actually features a monumental step forward for reproductive rights, studio executives exhibiting “Christmas Carol” levels of villainy, trans people winning (what else is new?), and Justice Clarence Thomas’ latest ethics issues. Trying on every shade of pink I can find, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT'S GOING ONA huge birth-control victory: For the first time ever, the FDA has approved a birth control pill for all-ages use without a prescription. Opill, a progestin-only pill to be taken once daily, is set to be available for over-the-counter purchase by early 2024, according to Perrigo, the pill’s manufacturer.  How did this feel for contraceptive experts? “Like Christmas!” said Dr. Heather Irobunda, an OB-GYN and one of the founders of Obstetricians for Reproductive Justice. “I’m very happy this happened. It’s an important step in destigmatizing reproductive health meds.” And it’s hardly a radical step: Birth control pills are already sold over-the-counter in over 100 other countries. But this victory serves as a powerful message that birth control is safe and popular—at a time when conservatives are beginning to target contraception, both culturally and politically. As the director of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, pointed out, Opill is “safe and is expected to be more effective than currently available nonprescription contraceptive methods.” This decision does, however, raise questions we don’t yet have answers to:
And putting the pill—varieties of which have been safely used for five decades—on store shelves makes sense, says Dr. Irobunda. Keeping it prescription-only, she notes, signaled that “they didn’t trust us to know how to take it. This is a safe drug and can be easily managed, but ‘behind the counter’ made it something that we needed to consult with someone ‘who knows our bodies better’” in order to take. But as reproductive rights advocates have been saying this whole time, who knows our bodies better than us? AND:
 WEEKEND READSOn abortion rights: Last election cycle, all six states with abortion on the ballot scored a win for abortion access. This cycle’s game plan: Do it again, but even better. On (un)fair pay: “Orange is the New Black” was huge for Netflix—so why wasn’t it huge for all the people who worked on it? On positive masculinity: Toxic male gender roles can be like quicksand for young men. But there’s a way out. On “doing the work”: The Meteor’s Samhita Mukhopadhyay explores how social justice organizations can be as active in supporting their staffs as they are in supporting their causes.  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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The cops are sliding into your DMs
  July 11, 2023 High vibrations, Meteor readers, It’s 7/11! All my numerology girlies just nodded while the rest of you are wondering why I feel the need to state the date. But ~mystically speaking~ when those two numbers appear together, they become a powerful and affirming “angel number,” which numerologists say can serve as a reminder to move forward within your intuition and a sign that the universe is open to providing you with new opportunities.  Meanwhile, here on earth: we’ve got a troubling update on a Nebraska abortion case, an AI lawsuit, and a fond almost-farewell to Megan Rapinoe. Reading the stars, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONPrivacy: Last week, a mother in Nebraska pled guilty to helping her daughter obtain an illegal abortion and discard the fetus after it was expelled. Now Jessica Burgess and her daughter Celeste, 18, are both looking at jail time for their actions. You may remember Jessica and Celeste’s case from last August, shortly after the overturn of Roe v Wade, when charges were first filed against them. What made the case unique was not simply the fact that two women were going to be tried for acquiring and using abortion pills in a state where it was newly illegal—but also the questions the case raised about data privacy. A refresher: After Celeste found out she was pregnant, she and her mother communicated via Facebook messages and came up with a plan to end the pregnancy and discard the fetus so as not to leave behind any evidence. Because Celeste was already 20 weeks pregnant and Nebraska bans abortion after 12 weeks gestation, the two knew they could not go to a medical provider to do any of this—hence the secrecy. They thought the messages they shared about the ordeal were private. But Facebook’s parent company, Meta, turned over their correspondence to the police after being served with a search warrant (pertaining to a different investigation)—and the police had what they needed to charge the mother and daughter. The case was among the first to highlight just how vulnerable abortion seekers, many of whom rely heavily on online searches for care, had become in the immediate aftermath of Dobbs. As Shamira Ibrahim wrote for The Meteor last year, apps that use location data and cookie tracking “help law enforcement investigate and prosecute abortion-seekers and their respective networks of support.” That’s exactly what happened in the Nebraska case. Now the women face up to two years in prison, and a man who helped them bury the fetus was also charged and given probation. If you or someone you know lives in an abortion-ban state and needs care, Ibrahim suggests visiting the Digital Defense Fund, which provides steps for protecting your abortion-related data privacy—from Facebook, the phone company, and anyone else you don’t want to know your business. AND:
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Are legacy admissions inherently racist?
  July 6, 2023 G’day mates, It’s been a busy few days this week. First off, Wimbledon is underway. I’m trying to turn my infant into a tennis prodigy by osmosis, so we’re really getting into these matches together. Once it’s over, we’ll be hitting the court to see what she’s learned.  Also having a busy week: Mark Zuckerburg, who launched his latest offensive in the battle of the billionaires in the form of a new social media platform called Threads. Elon clapped back by threatening a lawsuit. Keeping all of the social media managers I know in my prayers tonight. If you’re one of the 10 million people who signed up for Threads in its first hours of life, give us a follow! In today’s newsletter, we’re chatting about college admissions, the attack on Jenin, and checking in on Greta Thunberg. Working on my forehand, Shannon Melero  WHAT'S GOING ONOut of your (Ivy) league: The Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate affirmative action in college admissions is only seven days old. But Harvard, one of the schools at the center of the decision, won’t be getting any breathing room. On Monday, three civil rights groups came together to file a complaint with the Department of Education (DOE) against the school, challenging its use of legacy and donor-based admissions. The groups are arguing that these practices are in direct violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and “are not justified by any educational necessity.” Quick refresher on what legacy admissions are: If Biff Moneysworth graduated from Harvard in 1999, then that means Biff Jr. will get special consideration when his application hits the admissions desk. Because Jr. is more likely to get in, that means one less spot for someone like Joanna, a first-generation applicant who has the grades but not the family connections. Considering that people of color weren’t allowed to even apply to Harvard (let alone any other Ivy league school) until after World War II, who is most likely to benefit from the maintenance of legacy admissions?  Harvard’s response to the SCOTUS decision and this latest complaint leaves much to be desired: “The University will determine how to preserve our essential values, consistent with the Court’s new precedent.” Yes girl, give us nothing. Obviously, this doesn’t mean that people of color will never get into Harvard, but the barriers just got a lot higher. And while affirmative action was an imperfect Band-Aid to the institutional racism that spawned legacy admissions, it was something. The groups behind the complaint are asking the DOE to investigate Harvard’s use of legacy admissions and decide whether or not it violates Title VI. They’re also asking the DOE to cut federal funding to Harvard unless the school removes legacy and donor considerations from the admissions process. If successful, this could once again change the landscape of college admissions—or at least force the courts to treat all forms of “preference” equally. But in such a secretive and subjective process, racism will always find a way through. As Dr. Anne A. Cheng told us last week, “The problem with college admissions is that it is itself such a vague process; it takes into consideration many factors, and every factor itself has the potential to hold racial and gender bias.” AND:
 WEEKEND READSOn immigration: How Trauma Migrates tells the story of migrant women’s journeys across America’s southern border and the untreated trauma that lingers once they make it. On SCOTUS: Did the Robed Ones quietly legalize stalking? Sort of. On sports: The iconic Venus Williams was defeated in the first round of Wimbledon this week, but her legacy reaches beyond even her 11 previous title wins. On parenthood: Diaper legislation? It’s a thing. And with the loss of abortion access, the once invisible problem of “diaper need” is more glaring than ever.  FOLLOW THE METEOR Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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