A Familiar Sound

Hi friend,

Upon “researching” (heavy on the air quotes) the history of yacht rock to try to appropriately write about the genre for this week’s recommendations, we found an interesting explanation.

Yacht rock, the Guardian explains, was the sound of social change – a shift from the “mass-movement idealism’ of the 1960s to the “introspective individualism” of the ‘70s. The music offered “reassuringly vague escapism” for listeners trying to tune out the crises of Watergate and Vietnam. It also reflected shifting gender roles; it was a time where women “were now controlling household spending and would enjoy smooth but heartfelt ballads, with the flip side of that gender emancipation being that men felt freer to convey their emotions in song.”

Does this mean we are due for a similar sound?

Rolling Stone emphasizes that the “placid seas of Yacht Rock” were awash in male vulnerability, quoting one fan of the genre who says, “There’s something about yacht rock where men just embrace being the sad sack loser in a really big way.”

And maybe we’re a bit unhinged from the stress of the past few weeks colliding with the stress of the holidays, but: We need a place where sad sack loser men can feel seen again — one that isn’t also extremely toxic. Right?

Speaking of the past few weeks, we have a feature about where all the movements of women activated by the first Trump presidency will go from here. Read on for that, plus a few recommendations for your weekend.

Bye,
Your friends at Gloria

A few days after the 2016 presidential election, I gathered with some friends at a bar in lower Manhattan. We had come together to grieve Donald Trump’s win, but in the course of the conversation we found that we were all feeling oddly energized – fueled by our rage at the outcome. The four of us worked in women’s media at the time – two of us at Bustle and two of us at HuffPost Women – and though we were scared about the future and bewildered by the country’s choice, we were also struck by the combined powers of our outlet’s audiences, and motivated to turn that power into something useful. Between tears and cocktails, we hatched a plan. 

We would go on to throw an event called Watch Us Run in Washington D.C. on January 20, 2017, billed as a day of counterprogramming to Trump’s inauguration. There were phone-banking and sign-making stations, a photo booth, an interactive art project, and panels about grassroots organizing and how to turn resistance into art with the likes of Ashley Judd, Aisha Moodie-Mills, and Michael Moore. The next day we all attended the Women’s March together. At the time, it felt so good to make something out of our anger and to be around like-minded people. It felt like the start of something.

This feeling was replicated across the country during those weeks and months following Trump’s win. People knitted pussy hats and declared themselves members of Pantsuit Nation. The Women’s March staged subsequent events and protests. Countless local Democratic clubs and political action groups were formed. A million rabid group chats were initiated. There was a tsunami of support for “the resistance.”

And yet, eight years later, here we are. Donald Trump is about to serve a second term as president. Republicans have control of Congress. There is a 6:3 conservative majority on the Supreme Court. Roe vs. Wade has been overturned. The Women’s March organization itself has been tainted by allegations of antisemitism and racism, and mentions of a People’s March before Trump’s second inauguration were met with a collective groan. It begs the question: How did we get here? Did we actually accomplish anything? And what should resistance look like in 2024 and beyond?

“The Women’s March is an example of something that more privileged people were able to show up for for one day and then kind of tune out,” said Emma Gray, a writer, podcast host, and author of the 2018 book A Girl's Guide to Joining the Resistance. Gray was part of that small group that gathered at a bar in November of 2016 to plan Watch Us Run, and she and I went on to help form a political action group called Women To The Front (WTTF), which raises money for progressive causes but has been mostly inactive for the last couple of years. “I look back on those years and I see people trying to do their best to respond to the moment. I see that we did things that built community, but perhaps did not move the needle in a material way as much as we wanted them to.”

Marching needs to be the start of something, not the action in and of itself, Gray says. And some actions born out of the Women’s March community created meaningful change. The subsequent #MeToo movement changed the culture around sexual harassment. Record breaking numbers of women ran for office in the 2018 midterms, and their victories helped propel Democrats to retake the House. Grassroots women’s groups like WTTF funded organizations already doing the work to support communities that were imperiled under a Trump administration – WTTF raised money for organizations like Higher Heights, The Florence Project, and The Human Utility. After Roe was overturned, the communities formed during the Women’s March era were able to effectively mobilize to help pass ballot measures protecting abortion access. And the November 5 election had its bright spots for Democratic candidates further down the ballot. It was not all for nothing, even if it was not enough to halt a second Trump term.

“It was beautiful to see mass participation as opposed to mass apathy,” says Nelini Stamp, Director of Strategy for the Working Families Party. “But eight years later, it’s good that nobody’s calling for a mass march. People need to do some introspection and reflection in their communities.” 

Some of that introspection needs to focus on the lessons of past women’s movements.

Our Black Friday wish list includes only one major purchase: this mattress. Because without good sleep, we’re barely functional.

It's high-quality, extremely comfortable, and EWG VERIFIED® and GOTS-certified organic (no polyurethane foam or flame retardants), so you can feel great and safe about where you spend one-third of your time. Check it out here; for black Friday they’re offering 20 percent off everything plus a free pillow with a twin mattress size and up. #partner

TO STREAM The music was smooth and jazzy. The crooning was top-tier. HBO’s Yacht Rock: A Dockumentary tells the story of the genre popularized by the likes of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan. Also, we’re interested in the new Matlock, mostly because Kathy Bates is incredible, and who doesn’t want to watch her succeed as a 75-year-old lawyer in a revamp of the classic series?

TO GIFT Shopping for the teens in your life can be hard, but we love this holiday sleep bundle.  It helps them wake up with gentle alarm tones (which you can customize), and offers white noise or nature sounds to relax and wind down at night. They can also access meditations, sound baths, and more via “playlists” directly on the clock, so they can keep their phones out of their bedrooms. Cool! Shop Loftie BFCM sale now here, up to 50 percent off on all bundles. #partner

TO BROWSE We try not to impulse shop on Black Friday, but we are doing plenty of window shopping. A few places we are looking: Hawkins New York, for absolutely stunning kitchen stuff (the wooden spoons!); Perfectwhitetee for luxe sweats and yes, perfect-fitting tees; Kule for stripey tops; Westman Atelier for the fancy beauty products we’ve been wanting to try; LLBean for cozy shearling slippers; and Lisa Corti, where we’ve been eyeing a very eccentric quilt to use as a throw.

This firsthand account of homelessness is as good as everyone is saying it is. • A very interesting, thinky article about the election. • Tech CEO Susan Wojcicki’s message before her death from lung cancer. • Pizza Hut’s ‘Book It!’ program turns 40. • “I thought my biological family didn’t want me. But they'd never stopped looking for me.”

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