First thing first: a massive congratulations and best wishes to our next vice president, Kamala Harris!
The rest of the election news is a mixed bag. A record 132 women will serve in Congress, including a number of “firsts.” For the first time in history, New Mexico’s House delegation will be made up entirely of women of color. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will be all women. Colorado voters shot down a restrictive anti-abortion law. And I want to give massive props to Stacey Abrams, who put heart and soul into fighting voter suppression in Georgia: her Fair Fight organization is doing amazing work, and will continue to do so in the Senate runoffs.
On the other hand, Louisiana passed an anti-abortion amendment to the state’s constitution. North Carolina elected white supremacist and alleged serial harasser Madison Cawthorn to the House. And in Kansas, WOW has reported earlier about Aaron Coleman, a 20-year-old “progressive” revealed to have committed revenge porn and horrendous bullying toward girls a few years earlier — and an ex-girlfriend accused him of domestic violence just months before he won his primary. Despite a write-in campaign by his predecessor, Coleman won the election by just 14 votes — and immediately showed he hasn’t changed, tweeting a threat to “take out a hit” on Kansas Governor Laura Kelly.
The hatefulness that *resident *rump tapped into, is not going away anytime soon. Danielle Campoamor observes: Can we please top having privileged white male pundits treat elections like a fun game when there are literally lives at stake?
As always, WOW is a team effort. Thanks to mettle fatigue, Angmar, ramara, elenacarlena and the WOW crew for links and discussion.
Violence:
At least 54 people, mostly women and children, killed in massacre in Ethiopia.
Torturing Kurdish women deemed legal by Turkish-backed mercenaries in Syria.
Media:
Thomas Chatterton Williams wrote a “profile” of model Emily Ratajkowski that alternated between drooling over her breasts and expressing disbelief that a beautiful woman claims to read books. Arwa Mahdawi has some thoughts on this.
Health:
Male birth control study ended because men reported side effects.
Good News:
A cafe in Yemen run by and for women.
Ancient remains found in the Andes suggest that the “men hunt/women gather” divide was not so clear-cut after all.