Happy Friday, everyone. About a month ago, my boyfriend and I sat down to watch the 2018 documentary, RBG. In one of the opening scenes, Ruth Bader Ginsburg is shown wielding a pair of weights over her head in what was no doubt a part of her notoriously tough workout routine. Reader, I squealed. I’m not sure what Steve, a Brit, must have thought of this octogenarian Supreme Court Justice’s massive celebrity. By the end of the film, though, I think he too understood that this wasn’t just any American jurist. RBG was, and forever will be, notorious.
Perhaps it was because we’d watched the film together that when Steve saw the news of Ginsburg’s death before I did, he went to great lengths to break it to me gently (and, gratefully, spared me from discovering even more bad news via Twitter). Like many, I was pretty heartbroken by the loss. I was even more gutted by how the conversation so quickly—yet, understandably—turned to what happens next. Given that Ginsburg was preoccupied by much of the same in her final days, I’d like to think she’d understand.
May her memory be a blessing. But who am I kidding? It so clearly already is.
What I’ve written
The prodemocracy demonstrations in Belarus enter their seventh consecutive week this weekend. We’ve already talked about the different strategies being used in these protests and how they’ve mirrored movements from elsewhere around the world. In this correspondence, I want to talk to you about women.
Women have played an outsize role in this historic moment in Belarus. It was a woman, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who emerged as the unlikely political challenger to longtime Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Two of the country’s highest-profile opposition figures, who have been abducted or compelled to flee the country, are women. One of them, Maria Kolesnikova, tore up her passport to prevent her forced exile. And it is women who have made up some of the earliest demonstrations against the election result.
I wrote about how this moment in Belarus is indicative of a broader trend in global mass movements: Protests that feature women are typically larger, less violent, and more versatile than those that do not. Most important of all, they are also more likely to succeed. Keep reading here.
What I’ve read
The Atlantic's November cover story explores a chilling question: What would happen if Donald Trump tried to subvert an unfavorable election result?
“The worst case, however, is not that Trump rejects the election outcome. The worst case is that he uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If Trump sheds all restraint, and if his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all. He could seize on that uncertainty to hold on to power.”
This heartbreaking (and incredibly visual) story about Florida’s abandoned motels and the residents struggling to survive:
“The aging motels along Florida’s Highway 192 have long been barometers of a fragile economy. In good times they drew budget-conscious tourists from China, South America and elsewhere … In tough times, the motels degenerated into shelters of last resort in a city where low-income housing shortages were among the most severe in the nation and the social safety net was collapsing. Now they were fast becoming places where it was possible to glimpse what a complete social and economic collapse might look like in America.”
This beautifully written and harrowing essay about celebrity, objectification, and what it means to own your own image (Due warning: this piece discusses sexual assault):
“I’ve become accustomed to large men appearing suddenly between cars or jumping out from behind corners, with glassy black holes where their faces should be. I posted the photograph of me using the bouquet as a shield on my Instagram because I liked what it said about my relationship with the paparazzi, and now I was being sued for it. I’ve become more familiar with seeing myself through the paparazzi’s lenses than I am with looking at myself in the mirror.
And I have learned that my image, my reflection, is not my own.”
What I’m thinking about
Apologies to those who might have noticed the slightly later-than-usual arrival of this correspondence. What can I say: It’s been a long week. On the bright side: A story I’m quite proud of is (hopefully) coming out next week! Stay tuned.
Until next time (which will be on time - I promise),
Yasmeen
P.S. If you’re a fellow American abroad, you should have received your overseas ballot! If you haven’t, votefromabroad.org is a useful resource. Get ‘er done!