I’ve read a lot of your writing, Shannon, including your first book. This is hands down the best and most important essay you’ve ever written. Thank you for this much needed message!
Wow. This is such a good piece. So true how women are expected to disappear if they haven’t won and yet Beto and literally every member of the GOP keeps going despite setbacks, embarrassments and failures. Thank you Shannon - good reminder not fall for this trap.
Shannon, I've read so much since the election and this is maybe the most important and needed piece yet. I wish every woman could read this and internalize this message. Like you said, we have been inundated with so much negative messaging since Harris's loss. It's nonsense and we should reject that. Look at the disaster that is running the ship now. Of course we can do better and if anything the incompetence of the current administration is making women look like the adults in the room. We will do this, we only need to believe it ourselves!
I don't disagree with your message and optimism; however, I can't help but notice that VP Harris has indeed disappeared. If 47 had lost I doubt he would have gone quietly into a private life. A ton of us are still out here doing the work - in the most distressing of times. Her silence and absence isn't particularly inspiring to potential and future women leaders. But she does have a book coming out...
It is NOT her responsibility to save us and to put herself in harm’s way. It is our own responsibility to work to save ourselves! She did every possible thing she could, including begging, to get people to come out and vote for her, and we declined to do it. WE didn’t fix the barriers to her being elected! It would be nice to hear from her, but this burden to lead falls on all of us, not just her. She deserves to rest and recharge and find her path forward, just like we all do!
I heard on Gavin Newsom’s podcast she is considering a run for CA governor. She’s not going away. The news media is just busy with all the chaos of 47 at the moment. Don’t count her out just because she is no longer in the news cycle.
I think people forget how close the election was considering how late in the game Kamal joined the race. I honestly think she would have won with more time. If Biden had stepped down when he said he was going too and she had been selected in a primary. To be honest, she kicked ass given she ran for less than 4 months.
I really wonder if the patriarchy will ever be crushed. You know that saying on tshirts and in certain circles: Let Women Run Everything? Seems feminist, at least to men. Don't know who coined that term but using the word 'let' drives me insane. Who's doing the 'letting'? Who is giving up power like it's a damn favor? As if men must bestow power to us. Hell no!
As a women’s studies major in the early 90’s, I love and agree with this post. However, I do believe that in the next Presidential election cycle, we need to run a moderate white male. Does that make me not a feminist or not believe what you write in the post above? No. It makes me a realist. I am 53 years old and I strongly believe that in my lifetime we will see a female president, but I don’t believe 2028 will be the election cycle to realize this. I would love to be proved wrong.
Not that I did bad things in high school but I feel like even my husband and I pissed in the past have been angry enough to want to run, but we feel we’ve done cringey things in our pasts that make it an automatic nonstarter for everyday people like us. But also on that note; if anything I feel like the bar should be or is lower for men since you have Cuomo leading NYC mayor, hedgseth, DJT president with all of his criminal cases, and now Mark Robinson.
If anything, Trump opened the door for all of us with shady stories in our past. If a conflicted felon, rapist, swindler and con artist can be president, why can’t we?
I’ve read a lot of your writing, Shannon, including your first book. This is hands down the best and most important essay you’ve ever written. Thank you for this much needed message!
Wow. This is such a good piece. So true how women are expected to disappear if they haven’t won and yet Beto and literally every member of the GOP keeps going despite setbacks, embarrassments and failures. Thank you Shannon - good reminder not fall for this trap.
Shannon, I've read so much since the election and this is maybe the most important and needed piece yet. I wish every woman could read this and internalize this message. Like you said, we have been inundated with so much negative messaging since Harris's loss. It's nonsense and we should reject that. Look at the disaster that is running the ship now. Of course we can do better and if anything the incompetence of the current administration is making women look like the adults in the room. We will do this, we only need to believe it ourselves!
Preach, Shannon!
I don't disagree with your message and optimism; however, I can't help but notice that VP Harris has indeed disappeared. If 47 had lost I doubt he would have gone quietly into a private life. A ton of us are still out here doing the work - in the most distressing of times. Her silence and absence isn't particularly inspiring to potential and future women leaders. But she does have a book coming out...
It is NOT her responsibility to save us and to put herself in harm’s way. It is our own responsibility to work to save ourselves! She did every possible thing she could, including begging, to get people to come out and vote for her, and we declined to do it. WE didn’t fix the barriers to her being elected! It would be nice to hear from her, but this burden to lead falls on all of us, not just her. She deserves to rest and recharge and find her path forward, just like we all do!
I heard on Gavin Newsom’s podcast she is considering a run for CA governor. She’s not going away. The news media is just busy with all the chaos of 47 at the moment. Don’t count her out just because she is no longer in the news cycle.
In total agreement. 🙂 I'm still waiting for the definitive 2024 election forensics, which would likely prove that Kamala really did win...
https://whowhatwhy.org/elections/2024-rigged-election-or-national-psychosis/
I think people forget how close the election was considering how late in the game Kamal joined the race. I honestly think she would have won with more time. If Biden had stepped down when he said he was going too and she had been selected in a primary. To be honest, she kicked ass given she ran for less than 4 months.
I really wonder if the patriarchy will ever be crushed. You know that saying on tshirts and in certain circles: Let Women Run Everything? Seems feminist, at least to men. Don't know who coined that term but using the word 'let' drives me insane. Who's doing the 'letting'? Who is giving up power like it's a damn favor? As if men must bestow power to us. Hell no!
As a women’s studies major in the early 90’s, I love and agree with this post. However, I do believe that in the next Presidential election cycle, we need to run a moderate white male. Does that make me not a feminist or not believe what you write in the post above? No. It makes me a realist. I am 53 years old and I strongly believe that in my lifetime we will see a female president, but I don’t believe 2028 will be the election cycle to realize this. I would love to be proved wrong.
Is there a way preorder your book and enroll in the firestarter university without buying it on Amazon?
Yep bookshop.com
Thanks!😊
Not that I did bad things in high school but I feel like even my husband and I pissed in the past have been angry enough to want to run, but we feel we’ve done cringey things in our pasts that make it an automatic nonstarter for everyday people like us. But also on that note; if anything I feel like the bar should be or is lower for men since you have Cuomo leading NYC mayor, hedgseth, DJT president with all of his criminal cases, and now Mark Robinson.
If anything, Trump opened the door for all of us with shady stories in our past. If a conflicted felon, rapist, swindler and con artist can be president, why can’t we?