Hello friends, Recently, I caught myself lowering my voice in a room where I should’ve been speaking louder. We learn it early, don’t we? To shrink. To soften. To be small, even when we have something to say. And still—we speak. We write. We take up space.
Ask Barbara Walters. Ask Madonna. Ask any woman who’s ever dared to be loud, smart, or a little bit smutty. This week, we’re making no apologies for the space we take up. And no edits to our volume, either. –Susan | 🔥 FEATURE THIS WEEK
Cougar Fatigue
Hollywood keeps making the same mistake with older women. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. They call it empowerment. But is it? | 🔥 CALL IT WHAT IT IS
Truth bombs. Name drops. Not sorry. This week’s stories. | | | What Does it Mean to Have Everything?
I checked every box. Then I realized I was living someone else’s idea of success. What if “having it all” was never the point? READ MORE | | | | Jennifer Jones: The Price of Firsts
You’ve probably never heard of her. She broke Radio City’s biggest racial barrier. What happened next says it all. READ MORE | | | | Online Crush? That’s Called a Parasocial Relationship
Why we become obsessed with people we’ve never met—and what it really says about us. P.S. Blame social media. READ MORE | | ⚡WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL?
HOLY DNA! The Pope’s Rebellious Cousin The delicious contradiction runs deeper than her crucifix necklace. Here’s a woman who built her entire career subverting Catholic imagery—Like a Prayer, rosaries as accessories, the Vatican calling for boycotts. She’s been condemned by popes and by her own count, “excommunicated three times.” And now? Plot twist: Madonna is literally related to the pope. The rebellious daughter of pop culture turns out to be papal kin. The woman who embodied everything the church tried to suppress—female pleasure, power, provocation—turns out to share DNA with the very institution that tried to shut her up. Sometimes the universe throws the best family reunions. | 🎬 NOT YOUR BOOK CLUB
Ready to level up your list? Book, Podcast, Netflix, whatever the binge—just make it good. The Original Woman Who Refused to Be Nice Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything: the new Hulu documentary about the woman who asked the questions no one would. A must-watch for anyone who’s ever been told to smile more or speak softer. Walters didn’t just report the news—she made it. While her male peers coasted, she endured decades of scrutiny, was labeled everything from “pushy” to worse. The documentary doesn’t flinch from the truth: the cost of visibility, the weight of being first, the exhaustion of it all. She paved the way by being unapologetically herself—exactly what every woman needs permission to do.
There, I said it. | Stop “Mankeeping”—You’re Not His Emotional Janitor You know the drill: tiptoeing around his moods, playing part-time therapist, cleaning his messes. A gender researcher, in a must read, just gave it a name—mankeeping—and women everywhere are saying hell no.
It’s not just 20-somethings walking out. Women over 50 are finally asking why they spent decades explaining, absorbing, and swallowing it all. The emotional labor gap? Still real. This isn’t about denying men feelings—it’s about refusing to be their full-time manager.
The mankeeping era? Over. | 👍🏼 FILED UNDER: HELL YES
Joan Collins, 91, Isn’t Done Yet At 91, Dame Joan is filming The Bitter End, playing none other than Wallis Simpson—the American who seduced a king and upended the monarchy. The film explores Simpson’s final years under the thumb of a controlling lawyer, played by Isabella Rossellini, 73. Collins calls it a “dream project,” and we believe her. Still glamorous, still sharp, still refusing to fade quietly. She’s bringing heat to a woman history tried to bury. Another reminder that being seen might come with consequences—but disappearing quietly was never the plan. | What does having everything mean to you? | At 65, everything isn’t about acquiring—it’s about appreciating. It’s waking up without pain, having a partner who still surprises me after 40 years, and children I genuinely enjoy spending time with. Everything is the freedom to say no to things that drain me and yes to what feeds my soul. It’s enough money that I don’t check my bank account before buying a bottle of wine, and enough wisdom to know that the stuff I thought mattered in my 30s was mostly noise. Everything turned out to be simpler than I expected. —Barbara, 65, NYC ✅Share and we’ll feature responses in a future PROVOKED piece.
| This is PROVOKED. Smart stories for women who are done waiting for permission. Women who want to be seen and heard. Women who are old enough to know better. If you loved this, share it with a friend.
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