On Feb. 9, 2017, the Senate invoked Rule 19, effectively barring Sen. Elizabeth Warren from speaking on the floor.
Warren was silenced after reading parts of a letter Coretta Scott King wrote to Sen. Strom Thurmond in 1986 to oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship.
"They can shut me up, but they can't change the truth," Warren told CNN's Don Lemon of her colleagues' decision to revoke her speaking privileges.
In response to invoking the rule and removing Warren from the Senate floor, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell explained: "She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted."
With that declaration, Warren was instantly added to the long long of women and girls throughout history who've persisted, even as those who opposed them try to shut them down. As Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich wrote in 1976: "Well behaved women seldom make history."
McConnell didn't realize it at the time, but he had just coined a feminist rallying cry. What he presented as a rebuke of Warren's behavior quickly picked up steam on social media, where people used it to highlight powerful women from history who refused to be silenced.
Here are some of the strong, badass women who nevertheless persisted against all odds:
1. Dolores Huerta, founder of the nation's largest farmworkers union.
2. Ruby Bridges, one of the first black children integrated into an all-white school.
3. Edie Windsor, whose lawsuit against the federal government paved the way for marriage equality.
4. Harriet Tubman, a former slave and spy who led hundreds of slaves to freedom.
5. Bree Newsome, who climbed a pole at the South Carolina capitol and removed the Confederate flag.
6. Ida B. Wells, iconic writer, activist, and suffragette.
7. Hillary Clinton, former senator and secretary of state, and winner of the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election.
8. Rosa Parks, a seamstress trained in civil resistance who helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
9. Vera Rubin, the astrophysicist who confirmed the existence of dark matter.
10, 11, and 12. Supreme Court Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, who hold it down for women in the judicial branch.
13. Angela Davis, an activist, educator, writer, and fierce advocate for prison reform and gender equality.
14. Nellie Bly, the pen name of Elizabeth Cochrane, a pioneering journalist.
15. Ieshia Evans, who stood strong at a demonstration in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
16. Anita Hill, who stepped forward with accusations of sexual harassment against Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas.
17. Grace Lee Boggs, a Chinese-American social activist and revolutionary from Detroit.
18. Kathrine Switzer, the first woman to enter the Boston Marathon.
19. Dorothy Height, esteemed educator and advocate for civil rights and women's rights.
20. Elizabeth Blackwell, the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States.
21. Alice Allison Dunnigan, the first black female journalist to earn White House credentials.
22. Shirley Chisholm, unbought and unbossed, the first black woman elected to Congress and the first black woman of a major party to run for president of United States.
23. Gloria Richardson, civil rights activist and leader of the Cambridge Movement in Cambridge, Maryland.
24. Rachel Carson, ecologist and nature writer who stood up to chemical companies and private science.
25. Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist who helped organize the 1964 Freedom Summer voter-registration drive.
Sen. Warren joins a long line of women throughout history who've stood up and remain unbowed in the face of adversity.
She's not the first, and she won't be the last. Who among us will stand up and be next?
Who knows? It might even be you.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."