Rebecca Traister on why we’re afraid of full-grown women
NEWSLETTER
Brittany Packnett Cunningham speaks with the New York magazine journalist on this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED
This week is heavy on contradiction. With news of a COVID-19 vaccine on the horizon, we’re facing a record surge in cases. As pie photos flood Instagram, food insecurity across the country is spiking, with women and children, particularly BIPOC families, hit hardest. And as we continue to celebrate our first-ever female Vice President-elect, the U.S. is still, as Rebecca Traister, this week’s guest on UNDISTRACTED puts it, “deeply uncomfortable with women in positions of power.” Trying to make sense of it all? You won’t want to miss this episode.
THIS WEEK ON UNDISTRACTED
On the latest episode of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with journalist (and founding member of The Meteor) Rebecca Traister.
In their conversation, the writer at large for New York magazine and author of three books, including Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger, explains how young girls are being used in political messaging, why we’re so afraid of full-grown women and what to do now that the election is over.
A few highlights:
- On Kamala Harris’ victory: “Kamala Harris’ election to the vice presidency is historic and joyful and history-making. It is also true that Joe Biden won the nomination for the presidency over six women—including Kamala Harris. And we can’t lose sight of that.”
- On how we don’t give women leaders room to be human: “You can ideologically oppose John McCain morning till night and still say, ‘Yeah, but he was a war hero, and he did that good thing when he gave the thumbs down.’ We can integrate our mixed feelings about white men. We cannot do that with women. We are really bad at offering full-grown women the generosity of a view of them as full human beings.”
- On why we need to stay engaged right now: “If all these predictions of a landslide had been true—if the presidency, the House, the Senate, were all in the hands of Democrats, it was still going to be a massive challenge to start to do the corrective work to ‘unbreak’ some of the institutions that are in hard right-wing control right now. That was still going to be a really hard project.”
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
WHAT OUR COLLECTIVE IS INTO RIGHT NOW
The Meteor is guided by our collective; here’s what one founding member is up to this week!
Hi, I'm Rebecca Carroll and this is how I am keeping it pushing in an incredibly difficult year for the country:
WATCHING The Crown on Netflix—but only the Princess Diana episodes. How she continues to be such a beguiling figure I don’t quite know, but I think a lot of it has to do with the way she went through her young life wearing her empathy on the outside of her body.
LISTENING a Spotify playlist called “Mom” that my 15-year-old son made me. It has 73 songs, and it’s a mix of a few of my personal OG faves (Biggie’s “Juicy,” Jay-Z’s “Heart of the City,” Kendrick’s “Swimming Pools”), some of the stuff we both like (SZA’s “Love Galore,” Frank Ocean’s “Swim Good”) and then some of the newer stuff he wants me to connect with (J. Cole, 21 Savage).
READING Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday with William Dufty for a project I’m working on right now, and I’m just so bowled over by her strength of spirit, sense of self, playfulness with language and just her sheer fortitude as a Black woman living and working in 1950s America—when she wasn’t allowed to use public bathrooms while touring the country and giving audiences the gift of her voice.
FOLLOWING Duro Olowu. His IG feed is straight fire—it’s art, it’s elegance, it’s fashion, it’s an entire mood.
DOING MORE OF regular Zoom cocktails and FaceTime with girlfriends. I used to be that gal who was like, “Yo, sometimes we don’t need to see each other; we can just have a nice catch-up, tea-spilling chat on the phone.” But I miss seeing my girls in person so much, and have learned to just get easy with the fact that they’ve all done seen me looking my worst anyway, so whatever.
DOING LESS OF waiting on anyone or anything.
GETTING MY JOY FROM making good work.
Rebecca Carroll is a writer, cultural critic, host of the podcast “Come Through with Rebecca Carroll” (WNYC Studios) and The Meteor’s Editor-at-Large. Her forthcoming memoir, Surviving the White Gaze, has been optioned by MGM/TV and Killer Films, with Rebecca attached to adapt for a limited scripted series.
How Black women won the election
NEWSLETTER
Host Brittany Packnett Cunningham speaks with LaTosha Brown, one of the organizers who made it happen
America has emerged from Election Week, and two things are clear: One, we saw massive, record, historic turnout with more people voting in this election than in any in over 100 years. (You did that.) And two, the victory for the Biden-Harris ticket—a ticket that breaks a 231-year run of white male Vice Presidents—was won in part through the advocacy, and the voting, of BIPOC women. In the South, Black-woman-led organizations helped make Georgia a swing state—one of the reasons Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (that sounds nice, doesn’t it?) called Black women the “backbone of our democracy.”
THIS WEEK ON UNDISTRACTED
On this week’s episode of UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham sits down with one of the women who made the Biden-Harris victory possible: LaTosha Brown, co-founder of the Black Voters Matter Fund, which works to increase Black voter turnout in the U.S.
Brown, a Georgia native, tells Packnett Cunningham why she’s expecting some “poetic justice” in the state’s two Senate run-off races come January.
- Some of the other not-to-miss points in their conversation:
Brown on why Black women show up: “I really believe that we sit at this unique intersection of both race and gender, and we’ve had to navigate those things ever since we came to the shores of this nation.” - Brown on VP-elect Harris: “She’s put a crack in the ceiling—and whenever there is a crack in glass, the light enters the room…I am hoping that we will start seeing more progressive women take the reins of leadership and really be able to lead this country in a new direction.”
- Brown on what comes next: “This can’t be just a transactional moment about acknowledging what Black women have done…I hope that this administration is listening. I hope that President-elect Biden actually recognizes that his role…is to serve the people. That his agenda is actually the people’s agenda.”
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
WHAT OUR COLLECTIVE IS INTO RIGHT NOW
The Meteor is guided by our collective: an advisory group of filmmakers, writers and artists doing great feminist-minded work. Here’s what one founding member is up to this week!
Hola! I'm Paola Mendoza and this is what is giving me strength, joy and clarity now:
WATCHING Pen15 It makes me laugh out loud and I need that right now!
LISTENING This Joy, The Resistance Revival Chorus. If you haven’t listened, do yourself a favor and do it!
READING Sontag: Her Life and Work
FOLLOWING @LasAmericasIAC This immigrant rights organization based in Texas provides legal services to asylum seekers, migrants and families that have been separated.
DOING MORE OF Sleeping
DOING LESS OF Doom scrolling
GETTING MY JOY FROM Winning the election!
Paola Mendoza is a director, activist, author and artist whose work focuses on human rights. A co-founder of The Women’s March, she served as its artistic director. Paola’s most recent book is the critically acclaimed YA novel Sanctuary.
MARIANE PEARL: LOVE, LIFE AND WHY I VOTED
In the month before the election, artists, filmmakers and writers spoke out about what was at stake in The Meteor’s series 30 Days Till Tomorrow. You can see their work on our Instagram now—and don’t miss journalist Mariane Pearl’s intensely personal story of her own vote, with beautiful illustrations by Debbie Millman.
Let's stay in touch
Thank you for signing up to receive news about everything we’re creating at The Meteor—newsletters, podcasts, conversations and events. (We’ll launch officially in 2021.) Got this from a friend? Sign up for your own copy.
Listen now to our new podcast: UNDISTRACTED
WELCOME TO THE METEOR!
Thank you for being part of our community
If you’re getting this email, it’s because you signed up to hear more about The Meteor. And hello! We’re a group of creative people using the power of storytelling, journalism and art to advance gender and racial equity. Maybe you’ve seen some of our early work; if not, roam around on our site or our Instagram and enjoy. We’ll launch officially in 2021, and there’s lots more to come.
In the meantime, we’re five days out from the end of an election the world is watching. We’re ready for a new tomorrow, one built by the voices and the vision of women. With that in mind, we’re thrilled to share our newest project with you:
INTRODUCING: UNDISTRACTED
Listen to The Meteor’s new podcast with Brittany Packnett Cunningham—live today!
Hosted by educator, activist and TV commentator Brittany Packnett Cunningham, UNDISTRACTED takes on the most pressing issues of our time with a laser focus on the underrepresented angles of gender, race, ability and more. The goal? To create a more just world—one that works for all of us.
You probably already know Packnett Cunningham, but here’s a refresher: Described by President Barack Obama as a leader “whose voice is going to be making a difference for years to come,” she was a member of the White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing and the Ferguson Commission, and a co-host of “Pod Save the People” for the last three years.
Today’s launch episode features Cecile Richards, co-founder of Supermajority, who’s been working since the day after the last election to help drive women to the polls for this one. She talks to Packnett Cunningham about how that’s going, and you don’t want to miss their raw, real discussion.
Listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
Presented by
30 DAYS TILL TOMORROW
Take a break from your pre-election routine and dive into 30 days of inspiration about voting rights on our Instagram—including these two minutes of joy from poet Nikki Giovanni.
