Coalition Brat Summer
Dreams can come true. With voting.
Folks, I’m not saying Biden is secretly reading this newsletter, but you’ll remember I did suggest that stepping aside for Harris would be the right, feminist thing to do, and well, what do you know? Dreams can come true!
I am pumped for the obvious reasons, glass ceiling, maybe a woman president in my life time, good for the girl children to see, etc. etc. but my overwhelming emotion at the moment is glee, with a dash of hope. It’s so fun to see an uberqualified Black and South Asian woman take down the king of the bros.
Speaking of bros, my last newsletter crossed over into the Maga side of Substack and I got a lot of messages about being a batshit crazy cat lady who drinks boxed wine. The obvious misogyny aside (to attack a woman writer as insane, yawn), I was so confused at first, like cats and wine are amazing? Sure, I’d totally hang out with some cats (after taking some Zyrtec, I’m allergic, if they had thought to ask!) and drink some wine. Then I realized they’re just all still mad about Taylor Swift and liberated womanhood free of men generally. Poor babies.
Follow Lorenzo The Cat on X for more!
The other absolutely delightful thing about having Harris run for president is that she understands the internet, woohoo! And all the pop culture responses are just making my life (hope scrolling instead of doom scrolling, yes!!!!). One of my favorites has been the Charli XCX mashup, which led to her endorsement of Harris on Twitter, proclaiming her “brat” (the title of her most recent album and a new term for the feminist arsenal, meaning someone who refuses to conform to social norms). I loved the album, you should listen.
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I’m also really excited about what Harris’s candidacy will mean for down-ballot races. Kathryn Harvey’s campaign just announced they raised more money than Timmons in this last quarter (keep the ball rolling, donate here). We have so many women stepping up to run throughout the state, and a strong youth vote turnout coupled with the gender gap in women voters might make a real difference in these races.
On the topic of women voting… while most people, even nonfeminists, wouldn’t say out loud that they don’t think women should vote, one of our Trump-supporting Greenville police captains posted on her social media account that maybe we’d be better off if women didn’t vote, since we’re so emotional.
From community organizer Jalen Elrod’s X post.
Captain Paramore, are you ok? One bummer about the Republicans is that by going all in on Christian nationalism and toxic masculinity, they’ve made it completely impossible to support women within their party (see: Nikki Haley). Paramore’s internalization of misogyny leads her to advocate for the stripping of her own rights, a classic example of being a patriarchally-identified woman. And hey, I’m sure supporting the patriarchy earns her some cop points with her more bro-y officers, and probably she goes to some bizarro Christian nationalist church, and maybe she feels like her police uniforms strip her of her emphasized femininity, so that even the makeup and the hair won’t make her the real woman she needs to be to be loved, but don’t take us all down with you, Captain! We’ll be here with some Women’s and Gender Studies classes when you need us, Greenville Police.
I’m loving reading about the Win With Black Women and Win With Black Men Zoom calls that each raised over a million dollars for Harris in a night. Following in their footsteps, there will be a call with LGBTQ+ supporters and another call with white women supporters tonight (Thursday July 25th).
RSVP for this call here.
I hope in this call they have a little talk about 53% of white women voting for Trump in 2016. Let’s do a little anti-racism work, please! Speaking of, don’t forget you should be reading
and ’s Do The Work for book club discussion in a couple of weeks. Looking forward!
Let’s all revel in this brat summer.
Don’t forget it’s my birthday next week and you were all thinking of upgrading your subscription to support feminist writing in the South! Many thanks as always for reading and sharing (even you, Maga bros). xo.
I just cannot with that female police officer.
Let’s gooooo!!!