Are we all going through it rn?

+ Keith Urban hard launches Bo Burnham and Phoebe Bridgers by accident, and you’ve heard of the glass ceiling, what about the glass cliff?

I’m writing to you from the departure gate on my way to Sydney (after a 4:30am start), where I’m gonna be speaking at a TikTok event (can’t wait to see their faces when I get up there and talk about how my strategy is just to shitpost about my latest crushes!!!) In front of me, I can see a Dad giving his daughter and wife a yoghurt and a rescue remedy (cute), beside me are two women who work in accounting (from what I can gather) and are venting about their workplace (valid) and all around me are a bunch of people buying expensive coffees and pushing the limits of what constitutes ‘carry on’ luggage.

It’s nice to just sit and watch all these people living their different lives for a sec and zoom out of mine. If I’m going to be honest (always) May has picked me up and slammed me down like I’m a losing wrestler (is that how wrestling works? lol) and after reading Bel’s Chime today I can confirm… we are all going through it (for me it’s all mostly due to a lack of sleep I must admit.)

So! I’m throwing some love into the universe for you today in hopes it comes back to me, but nothing can lift me up more than a trip to see Rubes, so look out for that cutie on Close Friends!

Love you! Ugh!

• 🔔Bel Chimes In: Are we all going through it rn?🔔

• You’ve heard of the glass ceiling, what about the glass cliff?

• KEITH URBAN HARD LAUNCHED BO BURNHAM AND PHOEBE BRIDGERS

• Some stray headlines 🔗

🔔Bel Chimes In: Are we all going through it rn?🔔

This section is written by my crush, the refreshing-as-a-house-chardonnay-on-a-steamy-day, Bel Hawkins. She also writes our Sunday newsletter ‘No News is Good News’ which all our paying supporters receive. Upgrade your plan to get her newsy here!

Mōrena crushes!

Woosh, it's gorge to be back after my first Chime hiatus in a year (did you miss me? cute if you did, but no big deal cos I'm a chill girl, and you know this by now, and I'll love you anyway).

How're you going? I know there's a bit of a ~jolt~ feeling in the air at the moment, or at least, that's how it feels for me and my universe. I have about seven close friends really going through it right now, and if you are, I just want to say you're not alone rolling around out here in these waves. Some of us met at a tiny noodle restaurant last Saturday night, and each of us looked like how you feel as you crawl to the end of the year. It's only May. What's up with that?

Luce affectionately describes these periods as 'unique' which I LOVE as a euphemism and have been using often. I've also been experimenting with the phrase 'Oh, you know, peaking and troughing,' if that's a helpful line for you to pick up and respond with when someone asks you how you are. 

So what's going on? Earlier this year, we spoke about the permacrisis: about our world being in a constant state of flux and change (fml do I sound like a school counsellor right now? doing my best at doing my best), and part of it, I think, is the flow-on effect of that. We're faced with questions only some experts can point us in the direction of answering. When will this climate changey season end? Will things be simple like they used to be? How does everyone around me seem to know what they want, despite all of this? Will super-rich people ever get taxed? When will going to the supermarket not torment me with how expensive it is? 

My simple advice this week, alongside adopting the above vocabulary, is to control what you can and try these small little things: Do one small thing each day to feel even a tiny bit good. Message an everything friend and tell them how you're really feeling. And see if you can make tiny plans for something to look forward to ~ there's always this!

love ya, xoxo

PS. Are you reading Romantic Comedy for Book Club yet? Bloody can't wait to unpack it with you next month. Ily!

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You’ve heard of the glass ceiling, what about the glass cliff?

After writing about Elon appointing a new CEO for Twitter, I got a few comments referring to the ‘glass cliff.’ I must admit, I’d never actually heard of this phrase before, but used in this context, it kinda made sense. Here are some of the comments:

“Since the new Twitter ceo was announced I keep seeing this phrase being tossed around called the ‘glass cliff’ - this idea that women are often put in charge of companies when they are already close to failing so the blame can be put on them.... honestly wouldn't put it past Elon to try it to get the heat off him.”

“I was coming here to comment on the same thing. It's a way to say "look, we tried having a woman and it got worse!! Have to go back to male leaders now since the female experiment didn't work". See also Liz Truss after Boris Johnson (not saying that Liz Truss was great…”

And then I saw that Vox had run a piece on this titled “Why struggling companies promote women: the glass cliff, explained” so naturally I read that, and it explained the ‘glass cliff’ like this:

The glass cliff is a relative of the “glass ceiling” — a metaphor for the invisible, societal barrier that keeps women from achieving the highest positions in business, politics, and organizations. The glass cliff is a twist on that: Women are elevated to positions of power when things are going poorly. When they reach the upper ranks of power, they’re put into precarious positions and therefore have a higher likelihood of failure, meaning there’s a greater risk for them to fall.

I’m all for putting words to things or feelings that we can’t otherwise explain, but when it comes to ‘corporate’ things like this I can’t quite put my finger on why, but I don’t love explaining them this way. To be clear, I think the concept is completely valid, and honestly - true! I think it’s the commodification (or the potential of it) that I don’t like (it’s similar to why I feel complicated-ly about Imposter Syndrome - as Laura and I discussed here).

Sometimes terms like this feel like things that can be used against women, rather than to ‘empower’ us. They’re marketed towards us, and then we buy into them, and then often spend our money on working our way out of them. It’s like if people were to put on conferences, or courses, or write books for us about how to 'avoid the glass cliff,’ (like they do for imposter syndrome), which then sees us hand our money over to someone to teach us how to avoid something that has been manufactured to us, or is not our fault in the first place. Feels like we’re losing, again.

Or maybe it’s just because terms like this remind me of the girlboss/ hustle era that I hate soooo much (another thing that felt packaged up and marketed towards me as a young woman) where we were told we ‘just had to work harder’ to break through the ‘glass ceiling,’ and ‘act like a man,’ or ‘do a power pose’ or whatever we were being told we had to do to be respected.

All of this is to say, don’t get women to only come in and clean up your messes, but also, please don’t make me pay for a $1000 course on how to avoid being that woman!! I’m broke from all the skincare you’re telling me I need!

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KEITH URBAN HARD LAUNCHED BO BURNHAM AND PHOEBE BRIDGERS

My fave story to come out of yesterday was Keith Urban posting what he thought was a harmless TikTok of him and Nicole Kidman at the Era’s tour, and Bo Burnham and Phoebe Bridgers (two of my favourite people in the world - sorry!) making out in the background. Bless this mess.

@keithurbanwe love ya @Taylor Swift 🫶 #erastour

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Ah, a rare time when I love panopticontent.

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Some stray headlines

You know me - whenever I’m about to catch a plane you know that I’m gonna just throw in all the headlines I would have liked to write about, but ran outta time:

• Cyclone Mocha kills dozens in Myanmar (BBC)

• OpenAI’s Sam Altman Urges A.I. Regulation in Senate Hearing (The New York Times)

• The Weeknd has officially changed his stage name (Fader)

• Tucker Carlson’s show is back, and it’s on Twitter (Vox)

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