Thanks for all the kind words and notes of encouragement, post-surgeries. I had the last of my staples removed from my head this week (uh… yay??!?). This means I am well enough to hold myself together entirely under my own power, and I have been cleared to lift more than a gallon of milk. See me for breakfast!
While laid up, I burned through a pile of Netflix shows featuring vampires and witches and have now gotten back to reading. Thanks for your patience as I return to my usual missives, but I thought in the meantime I’d share some pieces and news I don’t want you to miss.
Our kids
It’s back-to-school season in an election year, which means our kids have already been confronted with a mass shooting and schools in (near to me) Springfield, Ohio have had to close due to bomb threats… following Donald Trump and JD Vance’s nonsense claims that Haitian immigrants have been eating pets.
Families and kids face a surreal and awful reality. I am grateful that
tackled both topics recently for The Minnesota Star Tribune.Here’s an important excerpt: “Every day they go to school and come home, safely, is some kind of little miracle. But the stress adds up and lodges in my chest — the fear and intense worry and lack of trust that heightens with every new news story of school shootings and bomb threats.
As parents, we can only hope and pray. Our politicians and media figures, though, have a lot more power. Shouldn’t we expect more from them? Aren’t our kids worth it?”
Afghanistan’s women and girls
I spend considerable time reporting on women who have suffered the strictures of America’s extreme Christian Right. I fear how far women’s rights could be stripped away if Christian nationalists win political races at every level.
What’s happening in Afghanistan is a horrible manifestation of power without limit, directed at robbing women of basic autonomy, under the guise of religious necessity. As The Washington Post reported this week, thanks to the Taliban, women are now prohibited from raising their voices in public. They can be cited for laughing or looking at men who are not their husband or relatives.
As ever, one path to controlling women and girls is denying them an education. From The Post: “While girls were banned from going to school above sixth grade and women barred from universities soon after the Taliban took power three years ago, some still attended English classes as recently as a few weeks ago. But after the Taliban’s morality police issued warnings to male teachers, according to students, many families now refuse to let their daughters participate. Other women have decided to stay home out of fear."
Speaking out—again
Readers of Disobedient Women, please prepare the way! Many women whose stories you know well from DW are about to be featured in a documentary borne out of
’s Jesus & John Wayne. Please watch, and visit again with Jules Woodson, Tiffany Thigpen, Cait West, Rachael Denhollander, and .The film, called For Our Daughters, begins streaming September 26. Please watch the trailer and consider setting aside some time later this month to support these wise, strong women.
Classless anti-wokeism
Last, if you’d rather listen than read, Today Explained just dropped an excellent episode (Republicans are getting raunchy) that traces the pendulum swing toward feminism since the “naughty aughties” (my new favorite moniker for the period that featured the gross normalization of The Man Show and height of Girls Gone Wild), and what may be the start of a retrograde swing back. The episode has some salty language, but features two women who Vox’s Constance Grady says represent Republican’s war on “wokeness”… through tight shirts and catchy verbiage such as the viral “hawk tuah” comment.
I know, not exactly cunning strategy, but in Grady’s treatment includes a savvy commentary on the tensions within conservative culture that historically objectified women at the same time as other conservatives demanded purity, that views the sexualization of white women as empowering (for men) and sex-positivity for Black women as dangerous.
As for my health, I just returned from a walk. I’m no longer in pain—though some parts of my body are still tender. My DBS device gets turned on at the beginning of October, and then within a few weeks, I’ll see how well it all works, get re-tuned, wait, try again.
I hope to be back with fresh writing next week. Thanks for your care and support!