Ken, Jonah Hill, and Keke Palmer’s boyfriend — or, the patriarchy just keeps striking again
Maybe it’s the Barbie effect, but we’ve been thinking a lot about the patriarchy. And no, we don’t mean horses — it’s the recent real-world examples we can’t seem to shake. Last month, Jonah Hill’s ex-girlfriend, surfer Sarah Brady, made waves when she called out the actor for his misuse and weaponization of “therapy speak” to control and gaslight her during their relationship. Keke Palmer’s boyfriend publicly shamed her for the way she dressed at an Usher concert, citing his “standards and morals” for how his wife and family behave. It’s bad enough for the conservative Supreme Court to try to control women’s choices, but since when have millennial men been so patriarchal? According to therapist Iraa Nasir, it may be more deep-seated than we think:“We’re raising our girls to be really strong, but [until recently] we’ve not changed the way we raise our boys. Gen Z has been raised to view men and women as largely equal, but millennial men were raised, to a large degree, in old schools of thought, in which systemic inequities between men and women persisted. They may have gone to therapy, but they still operate with many of the systemic inequities of the patriarchy embedded into their way of thinking.”
Millennial men, we get it. We feel for you. It’s hard to unlearn generations of societal expectations and behaviors that have been modeled for you your whole lives. But we love that these topics are taking off and pushing the conversation forward, because there are so many insidious ways the patriarchy still persists. If the Barbie movie opened your mind, keep going! Maybe next, women can get a little more help with the dishes, too.
The case for early mini retirements — or, a new story arc for life in the 21st century?
We’ve all heard the grim headlines… young people are woefully low on savings, behind on retirement planning, and even opting out of future planning altogether because they “don’t see the point.” Clearly, millennials and Gen Z aren’t buying the “work hard until you die” plot that society used to take for granted. And now, those who do have savings are considering a new story arc — multiple, periodic “mini retirements” to punctuate your career throughout life. As blogger and Creative Director Rosalee Lewis puts it:“We (Americans) are supposed to toil away under fluorescent lights for 40 years before ever getting substantial relief. What if, at the end of all that, we’re not healthy enough to travel? What if, by then, Europe is 120°F in May?”
Of course, mini-retirements come with a cost. But can we work around it? She continues:
“I consider this a DIY trust fund. I trust myself to make money. I trust myself to have the discipline and focus to find more work after stepping away from it. I’m uber-capitalist part of the year, taking on multiple bookings and juggling side-hustles when I can, and a light socialist the rest. I work in order to not-work.”
Could this actually work? Will remote work, the freelance economy and digital nomadism make it easier for us to pull off mini-retirements? Will we learn that, just like with so many other areas of life, taking breaks can refill the tank enough to propel us further? Or, with skyrocketing costs of living, will the opportunity costs simply be too much? One thing is clear — with the rise of quiet quitting, the disillusionment with hustle culture, and so much frustration playing nice within a broken system, it’s a conversation that’s been a long time coming.
Time to monetize ocean creatures? — or, a potential new asset class for climate activists and cynics alike
How can you get people to actually care about protecting ocean life? What about their dying planet? Hint: show there’s money to be made. Economists have claimed for years that putting a dollar value on natural resources can empower policymakers to protect them and draw the attention of investors and philanthropists looking to diversify their portfolios. Now, economist Ralph Chami and marine biologist Carlos Duarte have launched a new project to reframe ocean creatures from liabilities to investible assets with real, quantifiable value.”Ocean creatures soak up huge amounts of humanity’s carbon mess…. Any plant or creature that packs away carbon, like a tree or a seagrass meadow—and perhaps an elephant or a whale—is a tool for hitting climate goals. It’s worth something.”
Will this framework generate behavioral change, or is it just another distraction in the fight against climate change? There certainly are plenty of skeptics who’ve questioned the math behind their valuations, cautioned against “carbon cowboys,” and worried that polluters could use these investments to justify increased carbon emissions. But similar ideas (like the Grand Prix-winning Earth IPO, “Terr4”) suggest maybe Chami and Duarte are onto something.
Our take: wealthy people will invest in all sorts of things, but that doesn’t mean they inherently care about them. Will it be enough to catch the eye of a few rich individuals? Will fractional ownership change the game, or just make people even more removed from the problem? Will conversations like these will spark new conversations about other, equitable ways of monetizing natural resources — or even conferring legal rights onto nature? Time will tell, but there’s one thing for sure…. it’s better than nothing.