The Sound of Protest

Good afternoon, everyone. Hope your day is going well. It's nice out. Smell the flowers. Onward.

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When we talk about the protests up at the capitol, what tends to go unmentioned is that they’re primarily driven by women. Before you blanch, that's just a statement of fact. Look at the photos from the state capitol yesterday. Go up there and see for yourself.

Some questions I’m interested in asking: Is the sex of the protestors irrelevant, or can it tell us something about the reactions to policies passed? What effect does it have on policy decisions? There was a damn "die-in" for chrissake, a statement that is almost entirely owed to women ("I'm literally dying").

One thing we can say with certainty is that it's the “outdated” code of chivalry that's stopping  men from criticizing these women in a manner that no man would be spared. Imagine if these protests were helmed by men.

I don’t think there’s a universe in which that would be the case, but just imagine for a second that there is. Do you think the public would be more or less sympathetic to their cause? Would they tolerate the crass political tourism that has defined the past year of anti-gun activism?

Most people will believe a cause is more worthy if women are protesting. It’s like the ancients’ practice of hiring professional mourners at a funeral to make the dead seem more loved and important. Additionally, as noted in an Axios article, “ women playing visible roles in protests have become symbols of freedom and progress.” A protest without women is no protest at all.

Christopher Hitchens has a great essay titled ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny’ (before you balk, it’s a charming read). In the essay, he wonders what it is about the particular male and female predicaments that more readily cultivate a sense of humor in men than in women.

“For women, reproduction is, if not the only thing, certainly the main thing,” he writes. “Apart from giving them a very different attitude to filth and embarrassment, it also imbues them with the kind of seriousness and solemnity at which men can only goggle.”

“The question of funniness is essentially a secondary one,” he later notes. “[Women] are innately aware of a higher calling that is no laughing matter.” This isn’t directly related to the protests at the capitol, but betokens a line from Rudyard Kipling, which Hitchens invokes: 

And to serve that single issue,
Lest the generations fail,
The female of the species must be
Deadlier than the male.

None of this is to say that women cannot be funny, of course. I’ve laughed at a woman before (I swear no one is holding a gun to my head), but for women, children and safety are no laughing matter. “Is there anything so utterly lacking in humor as a mother discussing her new child?” wonders Hitchens.

So, when we peer up to the capitol, we see the women in our lives — saddled with the serious matter of birthing children, no matter what our culture does to diminish its importance — and our hearts soften. On one hand, you understand their anguish at the capitol, defending children from threats of violence. On the other, it’s taken too far. The histrionics are too much. The emotion has begun to interfere with our ability to reason as a governing body. “Babe, calm down,” you sigh, bracing for a slap.

In a prior time, when your P.E. teacher was a hardened Vietnam Veteran with a square jaw and a bad smoking habit, the bill at the center of the recent performance — the dreaded teachers-with-guns bill — wouldn't have caused a stir. But that was a time when kids would drive to school with rifles on gun racks in the back of their pickups because they'd been out scouting deer before class.

Those days are over. What led to their death is a discussion for another time, but suffice it to say, the patriarchy is on the ropes. The matriarchy — or whatever you want to call it — is on the offensive, and there is nothing to negotiate here. Combine the gravity of children with the dictates of a political mission to “destroy the patriarchy,” and you get what we’re witnessing. Now, how about a little humor to lighten the mood. Ladies? DAVIS HUNT

🚷 Sidewalks to Nowhere On the Tennessee Star Report, Ben Cunningham, founder of the Nashville Tea Party, pointed out that Mayor O’Connell’s transit referendum may be illegal. Part of O’Connell’s plan is to utilize the state’s IMPROVE Act funds to subsidize the plan. But, the IMPROVE Act, Cunningham says, only allows for increasing taxes through a voter referendum for mass transit systems – such as bus routes – and not for installing simple projects such as sidewalks and traffic signals. An interesting interview throughout with many good points. 

Some napkin math on my end. In 2021, according to the Census Bureau, about 300,000 people commuted into Nashville from surrounding counties on any given day. An additional 215,000 commuted within Davidson County, while 104,000 commuted out of Davidson County. According to a 2022 assessment by the Tennessean, 2.5 percent of commuters use public transport to get to work.

We can safely assume that those commuting from surrounding counties, with rare exceptions, are not riding WeGo; neither are those leaving the county. So that leaves us with 2.5 percent of people commuting within Davidson County (or about 5,000 people). This doesn’t include the people who ride the bus purely for transport. If you include these riders, the number of people who use the bus on a given day is somewhere around 30,000 — and that’s a generous estimate.

Now, let’s take the $3.1 billion price tag and divide it by the number of actual bus riders. That gives us a value of over $100,000 per bus rider. With that money, the city could buy each existing bus rider a few cars — which they’d probably prefer. DAVIS HUNT

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⚾️ Will Lee Strike Out This Session? Negotiations over Governor Lee’s franchise tax reform bill have resulted in a delay of game in the General Assembly. This morning, a joint conference committee meeting to discuss retroactive tax cuts for Tennessee businesses was bumped. According to the Tennessean, over half of these refunds would flow out-of-state; with this in mind, legislators have been haggling over whether the bill should require the revenue department to disclose claimants–- thus exposing exactly where the Tennessee tax dollars would go. For his part, Lee has come out against the change, claiming that the transparency would be “unprecedented.” This is the third time this year that the GA has thrown a curveball at one of the governor’s major initiatives. Will it result in another swing… and a miss? MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

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📸 Jones’ Personal Paparazzi “These are the odd dynamics on Tennessee's Capitol Hill,” News5 investigative journalist Phil Williams posted yesterday. “Rep. Justin Jones brought [Justin Kanew] with him to record my interview.” This isn’t the first time Kanew, the editor in chief of the Tennessee Holler, has been called out for being Jones’ personal tag-along. “I mean listen, he goes with Justin Jones to the White House to record that,” said Rep. Jeremy Faison (R-Cosby) of Kanew on the Climbing the Charts podcast. “That’s like Justin Jones’ personal PR guy.”

The irony is not lost on us, given that the Holler recently complained about being rejected from the press corps for the second time. “The Capitol Hills Press Corps unanimously voted no on The Holler after I directly asked Kanew if he would agree to stop accepting campaign funds from Democrats and stop actively working to spike or support various legislative bills,” AP’s Kimberlee Kruesi wrote on X. “He refused to answer.” MEGAN PODSIEDLIK

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❤️ Ellison Knights Nashville The king has arrived. At long last, Oracle has made its presence known. During his first public appearance in Nashville, CEO Larry Ellison declared, "Nashville will ultimately be our world headquarters. It's the center of our future." Finally, the "Oracle" wordmark will grace the glimmering eaves of the River North development complex; the sun's rays never to be displaced by the bright, cherry-red opulence we associate with integrated database management systems. DAVIS HUNT

DEVELOPMENT

• Mixed-Use Project To Engage Upcoming Fort Negley Master Plan In Nashville (Now Next)
• Tennessee's Meta data farm to expand capacity for memes, photos, status updates (Tennessean)
• L.A. retailer taps Fifth + Broadway for second Nashville shop (Post)

THINGS TO DO

View our calendar for the week here and our weekly film rundown here.

📅 Visit our On The Radar list to find upcoming events around Nashville.

🎧 On Spotify: Pamphleteer's Picks, a playlist of our favorite bands in town this week.

👨🏻‍🌾 Check out our Nashville farmer's market guide.

TONIGHT

🌌 The Otherworldly Sounds of the Steel Guitar @ The Blue Room, 8p, $23.30, Info
+ featuring Eddy Dunlap, Chris Scruggs, Russ Pahl and Whitten

🎸 Great American Canyon Band @ Vinyl Tap, 6p, Free, Info
+ indie-folk duo

🎸 Ty Segall @ Brooklyn Bowl, 8p, $30, Info
+ psych/ garage rock

💻 George Clanton @ The Mil - Canery Hall, 8p, $26, Info
+ vaporwave

🪕 Bluegrass Night @ The American Legion Post 82, 7p, Free, Info