December 31, 2014 • 37 mins
What do big butts, revenge porn and Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg all have in common? They were some of the most popular Stuff Mom Never Told You episodes of 2014 that got listeners talking.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you. From how Supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline. And since it is New Year's Eve,
as this podcast is coming out, although it might be
coming to your ears in two thousand and fifteen, we
nonetheless wanted to take a moment and look back over
(00:27):
the past year because since we put out two podcasts
a week, we covered a lot of territory. Yeah, to
the point where when I went back and looked at
the topics that we hit in let's say, January February
March oft I almost forgot that it was the same year.
It almost felt like it was a lot longer ago.
(00:48):
But I mean, we are so lucky to hear from
our incredible listeners as far as the episodes that they
loved and the topics that really resonated with them. And
so we kind of wanted to take a minute to
talk back at you guys, because you know, Kristen and
I we we talked about ourselves a little bit sometimes
in our episodes, but we really focus on the topic
(01:10):
at hand, and so we wanted to take this opportunity
to sort of fill you in on the episodes that
meant something to us, whether they were our favorite to record,
whether they were super fun, whether we learned a lot,
or whether they were things that kind of scared us
and upset us a little bit. So with that, I
want to ask you, Kristen, what was your favorite episode
or episodes that we hit in. Well, I think the
(01:33):
one that that scared me the most, Caroline, was the
Curse of Swearing Women, because I learned just how how
much women love profanity, and as a lady, that is
terrifying that we would even use such four letter words.
How dare wait? Like, lady, No, that one wasn't scary
at all, But that was an example of a really
(01:57):
fun one for me to research, because, uh, there are
sometimes topics that are a little bit selfish where I'm like,
you know what, I just want to know more about
this thing that I do all the time and listeners
might not know since we keep this the language on
our podcast as g rated as possible, aside from when
(02:17):
we cite Bitch magazine and well have entire episodes about
the history of the word bitch, which you should totally
listen to if you haven't already. Um, but you know
you and I you and I used some salty language
off Mike sometimes, yes, And that was a really fun
one and one that seemed to resonate a lot with
(02:38):
our listeners as well, because I know that we are
not alone in, you know, maybe having a penchant sometimes
for the F word, and we're not talking about feminism
in that case right now. And I do remember recounting
in that episode about overhearing a woman saying that she
did not let her daughter curse because it was not
lady like, and so of cos that sent me into
(03:01):
a spiral of not rage per se, but just like
wanting to know more about the motivation behind that that feeling.
I really hope that you turned around and said, wtf
did you just say? But actually using you know, the
full the full acronym right um. That one was also
interesting too, because we got into talking about cursing in
(03:23):
the workplace and how that ties into of gender dynamics
in the workplace and it is that whole transgressing the
construct of being ladylike, and how some bosses use it
it fit in you know, I'm cool, I'm cool like you,
and how that's harder for women to do, especially if
(03:46):
their bosses so if you haven't listened to the Curse
of Swearing Women, that's one that we did a little
bit earlier in the year that might have bypassed and
your listeners, so definitely give that one a listen. What
was another episode from teen that you really loved, Caroline, Well,
I mean, we have to mention the notorious RBG episode
(04:10):
because that was such a it has been such a
great moment and sort of, uh, an intersection of pop
culture history and actual American history that is important and
memes and memes to talk about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and how amazing she is, and that was a great
opportunity to look at where she came from, how she's
(04:33):
basically always been, you know, super amazing. Uh. Girls got
a lot of comption, a lot of get up and go,
and uh, it was neat to see how it took
one single court case for basically our generation and and
a little bit younger to finally latch onto how great
(04:54):
of a of an American resource Ruth Bader Ginsburg is
on a nice moment to of really putting the spotlight,
like you said, among women of our younger generation onto
this older woman because a lot of times we spent
a lot of time talking about the celebrities of our
(05:17):
our age, of our generation, the Beyonces and Lena Dunham's
and Taylor Swift's just just um, but I think it's
really nice to take an opportunity as well to talk
about I mean, she's RBG obviously is a celebrity in
a different kind of way. Um, but to talk about
these these other women who might not be making the
(05:38):
covers of magazines but should. But I mean, let's think
about this though. How great would it be for Ruth
Bader Ginsburg to come on stage with Beyonce in her
robe and have the you know, the Beyonce wind machine
going and just the wind whipping through that robe and
the shepe yeso with her jabau whatever it rhymes. It's
(06:02):
all French anyway. I mean a couple other ones that
I just want to give shout outs to. Loved our
literacy episode so fascinating, so empowering. Golden Girls was such
a fun ride. We got so much amazing listener feedback
from that, and then our whole Lady Explorer series that
we did this past summer was so much fun. Yeah,
that was a lot of fun because when it comes
(06:24):
to obviously the history of exploration. Rarely do you hear
about women because at the time that a lot of
this exploration was happening, and women would not have even
been allowed to be on the ships that were sailing
around trying to find the quote unquote New World, which
is a complete total misnomer. But it was really really
(06:48):
fascinating to learn about people like mountaineer Annie Smith Peck,
who made waves by tossing off her skirts and wearing
men's breeches because you can't climb mountains in really tight
Victorian skirts, and planning of votes for women signed at
the top of one of the mountains that she scaled,
(07:08):
I believe in Central America. Um. And then there was
Harriet Chalmers Adams, who founded the Women's Geographical Society. I
might be botching that name. And Jean Beret, who was
the first woman to circumnavigate the world, who were only
learning about just now, like in the past few years
did people uncover this woman, this botanist, although I guess
(07:32):
she was more of like what was it called, like
an herb woman. Herb woman, Yeah, kind of like a
den i wid Bombs who hopped on board the ship
dressed like a man because she wouldn't have been allowed
on a ship otherwise. Certainly not well, not on such
a journey as that, right, not an actual fun exploratory journey. Yeah,
And speaking of though these explorers, we got to give
(07:55):
a shout out right now to the Stuff Mom Never
Told You store that is an existance over at Stuff
Mom Never told You Dot spreadshirt dot com and an
illustrator and stuff I've Never Told You fan reached out
to us after that Explorer series instead. I really enjoyed
this and I would love to draw up some of
(08:17):
these badass explorer ladies, and Aaron Drice did that, and
we now have toad bags and coffee mugs and a
whole series of stuff that you can get with some
of these really incredible Explorer ladies on them. So you
should absolutely go check that out at Stuff I've Never
Told You dot spreadshirt dot com. And shout out again
(08:39):
to Aaron Dryce for reaching out to us in the
first place and drawing these awesome drawings. I should be
an art critic. Drawings drawings are awesome. Next, Well, okay,
this kind of ties and know what we were just
talking about? What was there anything that going into the
research an episode going into the research that you were
(09:01):
super excited about already. I mean, there are plenty of
things that as we read were like, holy goodness, goodness,
really goodness. I'm keeping it, you reating, we do say
that holy goodness. That's the thing humans say. Uh, you know,
as we get into it, we realize how fascinating something is.
But is there anything that you were like, I am
definitely pumped about reading about this. I was really pumped about, honestly.
(09:27):
I mean, going back to the celebritything, I was really
interested to read up for Beyonce's feminism because I love
Beyonce's music, and she's someone that I've followed since I
was in my early teens and kind of stuff have seen,
like her career evolution and her arrival to feminism, and
(09:47):
there had just been so much conversation and analysis like
about her and her music and her image and her
marriage and her motherhood and her feminism, and I was just,
honestly is curious to dive in more to that. UM.
I was also really interested to read up on the
history of cat calling and street harassment. That was one
(10:11):
where I came out learning came up with the information
that I was not expecting to find in terms of
the history of street harassment, of smashing the mashers, of
the fact that police women really emerged due to women
lobbying their municipal police forces to have women who could
(10:34):
help them get from place to place in public spaces.
I was super pumped. I mean, you know, you mentioned
uh selfish motivations for certain episodes. Super excited to look
into thyroids. Oh yeah, that was a great health episode. Yeah,
and it was one of those where I mean, if
we're going to talk about things that are frustrating too,
(10:54):
I mean, it seems like any sort of women's health
episode we do, we get all of these letters from
women who were like, oh my gosh, thank you so
much for talking about this. I was diagnosed with this,
or my mother was diagnosed with this and nobody knew
anything about it, or it took ten years to get
a diagnosis because the doctors wouldn't listen to me. And
it just seems like every women's health issue that we
(11:15):
talked about, it's just it's it's echoes of the same
sentiments about nobody would listen to me, nobody understands why
this is happening. And it's the same with endometriosis. It's
the same with migraines, which we didn't talk abouteen but
still it's like the same theme with a lot of
women's health issues. Yeah. Well, did you learn anything from
(11:36):
that that particular episode in terms of researching thyroids that
illuminated your your experience or well, I mean just reading
more about, um, the actual hormonal stuff that's involved in
I mean, because it's obviously like an endocrine system thing,
and so it's great to learn more about that and
(11:58):
educate myself about my own Hashimoto's disease diagnosis, and anybody
who was over at the blog in earlier this month
in December, I saw my post about the terrible experience
I had with an endochronologist, so that that happened. So
any time that I can actually educate myself, well, I
(12:18):
think that those kinds of health topics too are also
validating for listeners. Um, there was a stuff I've Never
told you video over on our YouTube channel. Um, they
got a lot of attention really fast, and I wasn't
surprised that it did because it was five Reasons Sex
Hurts Vagina Edition. There is a penis edition as well, folks,
(12:40):
because we think about penises too. Um. But in it,
I talked about um vagin nicemus, which is something that
will probably devote an episode two in listeners. So if
if you give a thumbs up to that, let us know. UM.
And I heard from a woman who had experienced all
the symptoms but never had terminology for it. She had
(13:03):
been to gynecologist who essentially shamed her and said, you're
just uptight, and it was. And she wrote in thanking
me for that video because it put all the pieces together,
it gave her language around it and validated her experience.
And I mean I was I was thrilled that she
(13:25):
had even found it because I can't imagine experiencing that
kind of pain and discomfort and going to your health
care provider and just being shunned. Yeah, and I think
that happens so often, not just when it comes to
issues of the vagina, but women's health issues in particular.
Because we did an episode I don't know that it
(13:47):
was in two thousand and fourteen. They do start to
all just blend together. But we did do an episode
on issues and documented in medical literature of doctor sometimes
not believing women because we're kind of just written off
as well, you just you're kind of making these symptoms up. Well,
(14:07):
it was the same thing. The thyroid issue ties into
the fibroid episode issues too, about how so many of
these conditions that are specific to women can present themselves.
They can really resemble something completely different. It can really
look like PMS, or it could really look like depression
or whatever, or PMS and depression can play a role
(14:29):
in whatever condition you have. It's it's easy to see
why it could be hard to spot some of these
ladies specific conditions. But then that almost makes it more
frustrating about why, Oh, I don't know, a gynecologist wouldn't
be more aware of something that women face that's not
that uncommon. Yeah, but I mean the glass have full perspective.
(14:51):
Is it does seem like in a lot of the
topics that health topics we've talked about, at least, the
takeaway is usually we are star in too. It's getting
a little bit better. Doctors are starting to finally understand
more about this. It's so it's so funny, you know
that women who've been around just as long as men,
(15:15):
but our health issues are finally getting figured out. Maybe, well,
Caroline not quite as long because we were created from
Adam's rib so there sounds delicious. Um. But there were
two mustless and episodes in my book that I also
want to shout out to which I was really interested
to learn about, even though they were not the sunniest
(15:38):
of topics. Um. And the first one is the revenge
Porn Wars, which was an episode that we did not
intend to be timely. It was actually almost a prophetic
episode because revenge porn is terminology for specific well it's
more specifically an issue of X romantic partners stealing or
(16:04):
just taking naked photos that women have sent them during
the course of a relationship or even just during the
course of hooking up, and posting them on the internet
to shame them, to sexually shame them. And it's this
huge problem. Um. And for one statistic that was terrifying, huh.
(16:24):
A survey found approximately ten percent of ex partners have
threatened to post sexually explicit photos online and about six
of those threats became reality. And then, of course all
this led up to the massive celebrity nude photo theft
and leak. And I think that it's still obviously they're
(16:46):
they're the legalities surrounding all of it are still developing.
But it's also the slut shaming involved in the response,
even when it comes to the celebrity nude photos of
we'll just stop taking pictures of your boobs, you know what,
people to see it. But this, I mean, the fact
(17:07):
of the matter is sexty ng and sexy photos, whether
it is a uh, female bodies or male bodies like
that is just a part of our sexual communication in
the twenty one century. It's not going to go away.
So that to me was a big one. And it's
also the domestic violence one oh one episode. Yeah, we
got a ton of letters from women sharing their experiences
(17:28):
of surviving domestic or intimate partner violence and thanking us
for covering it. Yeah, and also got requests for future
episodes focusing in on specific aspects of domestic violence. Um
for instance, in will most likely do a podcast focusing
in on stalking, because that was I mean, since it
(17:49):
was Domestic Violence one oh one, it was a broad
brush presentation of domestic violence and we didn't even have
time to get really in depth on the different forms
that it takes. And we heard from experts as well. Um.
In the domestic violence field, shedding more light on things like, uh,
(18:11):
the financial abuse that takes place of different ways that
UM abusive partners will isolate people. And so that's definitely
an issue where one podcast will never be enough, So
that's going to be an ongoing conversation, absolutely. Yeah. And
other episodes that tackled more serious topics and that definitely
(18:35):
were a little bit upsetting were the street harassment and
cat calling episode for instance. UM was very surprised personally
that the episode on butts Fat bottom Girls was so
upsetting to me. I don't know how our listeners felt,
but when we talked about Sarki Bartman uh a k
(18:55):
A Hot and top venus, her body parts being put
in jars after her death to serve as something that
people could goc at, UM basically just looking at the
evolution of why we as a global culture seemed to
be so obsessed with people's rear ends well because and
in tracing it back to that early fetishization of black women,
(19:19):
in particular women of African origins behind which I mean
lead It wasn't just you know, Sarki Bartman's body parts
being put on display, but also while after she died,
but while she was alive being put on display, and
she wasn't the only one, and and just that extreme
fetishization that you still see today. I mean, when Kim
(19:42):
Kardashian had her h the photo shoot for was It
Paper magazine, the cover where she shows her bear, her
bear behind and the whole like break the internet tag
like brought that episode into focus yet again. And because
there are all sorts of race and class dynamics that
(20:04):
are tied into our modern day re obsession with usually
a little bit lighter skinned but I mean, you have
Nicki Minages Anaconda video, but that is perceived in a
different way as Kim Kardashian's uh paper magazine cover shoot,
and also um Instagram but selfie queen jen Seltzer's who
(20:29):
Got a Spread in Vanity Fair? I mean, it's just
it was a more complicated issue and expected it really
was well, I mean, speaking of things that are unexpected,
were there any surprising things that jumped out to you,
whether stats or facts over the course of One of
the most surprising and exciting statistics I learned was about
(20:51):
the clitteral complex. I can't talk enough about the clitterests either.
Once we did that Clitteracy podcast. I think Caroline and I,
both in the studio and outside of the studio in
our own personal lives, have been preaching the gospel of
how incredible the clitterest is because it is composed of
at least eighteen functioning parts. What you see is merely
(21:14):
the tip of the iceberg. That's right. Yeah, yeah, we
we have an entire airplane neck pillow inside of us.
And yeah, what you see the glands is just well,
if if an airplane neck pillow came fully around your
neck and then a tip stuck out, that's what That's
what it is. I feel like people are are so
(21:35):
confused right now. Well, they wouldn't be confused if they
were what the amazing episode What's inside of You is
actually memory foam and no, Christen, it's inflatable. Oh sorry, sorry, sorry. Um.
I think one of the things that absolutely shocked me
was from our Cankles and Ankles episode, the fact that
(21:56):
so many women are spending upwards of four to six
thousand dollars to LiPo suction on their ankles, and that
once you do show out that much money, your uh,
your recovery time is almost a year long and that
What I also didn't realize going into that episode was that, hey,
your ankle shape, whether it's like super skinny and bony
(22:19):
or whether it's nice and stocky, it has everything to
do with genetics and just the way that your bones
and muscles are shaped and structured by the way. I
really like the description nice and stock and stocky. Gosh, um,
there is one thing that we love on stuff. Mom
(22:40):
never told you that. I think our our our die
hard listeners probably know is a good academic study title,
because I think one of the most delightful parts of
my job is playing the Is there an academic study
about this game? Because the answer is usually yes? So
can I share of a few of the very best
(23:03):
study titles that I found? So I think the the
episode that that took the cheesecake in the is there
an academic study title on this game was Golden Girls,
because I was so surprised to find not one, but
multiple studies on the Golden Girls. So here we go.
(23:24):
In the Journal of Pop Culture, we have Golden Girls
feminine archetypal patterns of the complete woman. There's also from
the Journal of American Popular Culture the Golden Girls. Shear
signature stories, narratives of aging identity and communal desire. And
then finally there is and finally there was an entire
thesis we found from Boston College called Sitcoms in a
(23:48):
League of their Own, a critical analysis of situational feminism
in the Golden Girls and Sex in the City. And
that one might be the best because not only do
they get the TV titles in there, there's also in
the of the reference. This thesis has it all. Yeah,
I was, I mean, the Golden Girls. It's such a
such a layered issue. Christens. Yes, you've got a layered cheesecake.
(24:09):
You've got feminism and gender. You have you have age,
race and class and age sexual orientation so much and
cheesecake and condoms, gondums, condoms. Well. Some of my favorite
study titles were of Ponies and Men, My Little Pony
Friendship is Magic and the brownie fandom. Brownies was a
(24:30):
fun episode. A fun episode. We got a lot of
letters from Mom's thanking us for that one. And brownies
and some brownies. Uh, let's see the Dark Prints and
dream Women Walt Disney and mid twentieth century American feminism.
That was a fan favorite as well. On female animators
in Classic Disney. Yeah. Absolutely, um breasts, buttocks and the
(24:53):
camel hump from our our Fat Bottom Girls episode, Real
Men Don't Eat Vegetable quiche masculinea and the justification of
meat consumption from our episode about vegetarianism. Caroline, I'm so
glad that you recalled that study title because I think
that one might be my favorite from two thousand fourteen,
Real Men Don't Eate keche. It sounds like a strange
(25:15):
self help book too, does it does? And then the
last one that I I wrote down was intolerance of
sexy peers intra sexual competition among women, and we cided
that in our Lady Lawyer dress Code episode. Oh, we
heard a lot from people on that one as well,
and not just lawyers, but just women dealing with workplace
(25:36):
dress code in quotes issues as well. It was interesting
to see, Like I mean, Krista and I definitely have
obviously a unique perspective when you guys send us letters,
because we're looking at not only the private letters and
emails and Facebook messages that you send us, but we're
looking at the stuff that's on our main Facebook page
as well. And when we posted the link to that
(25:56):
Lady Lawyer dress Code episode basically saying, you know, what
lady lawyers wear are their rules or their restrictions. A
lot of the feedback on the actual link itself was like, Oh,
they should wear whatever they want, who cares. But the
letters that we received after after people started listening to
the episode, it was an incredible division because so many
women were like, oh, thank you, this crazy making thing
(26:19):
that I have to deal with about policing myself constantly
about what I wear and making sure I please the
judge and please my peers, and I have to walk
a very fine line as far as not being too
masculine but not being too feminine, not being too brightly
colored but not being too drab, and what I wear.
It was just really interesting to see that so many women,
(26:41):
not just in the law field, but in so many
other fields are struggling with how to present themselves in
a way that they will be taken seriously. Which is
why I wish and have wished for a long time
that coveralls and jumpsuits were easier to just pull off
because you just zip it up and go that's right.
Well would they be would they be brightly colored? Or
(27:02):
were they would they be like if you want, you know,
beige washes me out, so I'd probably need to wear
a color. I am a winter I've had my colors
done Caroline, so I'd need more of a jewelto well.
I already have a bright yellow jumpsuit from when I
was April O'Neil a couple of years ago for Halloween.
Bring it to the office and then I can happily
spoke coffee on myself all morning. It won't be an issue.
(27:25):
We also, though, need to give some shout outs and
thank you to our incredible roster of guests that we
have had on the podcast. I think two thousand fourteen
was probably more uh guest tastic than the podcast has
ever been, and that's something we want to continue into
(27:45):
as well. Because we started off the year with local
music journalists Christina Lee coming by to talk about women
in hip hop, which was really really popular as well,
and that generated a lot of feedback. Yeah, and um
more recent Lee, we've had Jendall talking about weddings. We've
had Kate Sweeney talking about gender and mourning, and one
(28:08):
interview that was especially meaningful for me since I've been
a fan of hers for so long now was getting
to talk to Jane Pratt, who was delightful. Um she's
the founder of Sassy Magazine, Jane Magazine and is now
at the Helm of Exo Jane, and she had some
really great insights on girls then and now in feminism.
(28:28):
And we also talked to Anne Helen Peterson, who has
written a bunch across the Internet. I think she's now
full time writer at BuzzFeed and you should absolutely follow
her on Twitter. We talked to Sarah Martin not too
long ago from Belle and Sebastian. She gets the Best
Guest Accent Award. And we also of course talked to
(28:50):
Lori Tharpe's about our for our black hair episode. Again
got a lot of feedback about that that, in combination
with our curly hair episode, got a lot of women
writing in saying thank you for talking about my hair. Yeah, yeah,
I mean hair is I mean any time we talk
about hair, whether it is on our heads or at
any place on our bodies, women have a lot to
(29:11):
say about it. And we also did the manscaping episode
earlier this year too, which generated a lot of feedback
because guess what, guys, you're being sold similar lies about
body hair because companies are like, how can we make
more money? Well insecurity selves, shave your back hair. Um.
(29:32):
And then finally we had Jessica Lamb Shapiro on to
talk about her memoir Promised Land, which focuses around the
self help industry, and that was a great conversation too.
So thank you so much to our guests that we've
had on for enriching the podcast and sharing their expertise
with us. And if you have suggestions for stuff Mom
(29:55):
never told you guests who would be great to talk
about all things women under pop cultural history, science, we
would love your suggestions. You can email us Mom Stuff
at how Stuff works dot com or you can just
tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast. And Caroline, is it time,
speaking of our email address, to maybe read a few
(30:17):
listener letters before we close things out? I believe it is, Kristen,
before we button up and go drink some champagne. That's right,
I already have a bottle of champagne. That's what's in
my coffee mug right now. Oh, that explains so much,
so much. Well, before christ and I get into reading
full link letters that discussed episodes from that they loved,
(30:40):
I wanted to read some snippets of letters from women
who just kind of love Sminty and we love you back.
So first I wanted to read something from Rachel, who
said this was in response to the Vaping podcast specifically,
but she said, thanks for the great podcast I've been
listening for years. I realized while I was walking to
class the other day that your show was integral part
(31:01):
of the formation of my identity as a feminist. So
I wanted to thank you for that. Well, thank you, Rachel,
and I've got one here from Marie. She writes, thanks
so much for your excellent work. Ladies. Your podcasts have
helped shape who I am and when I prioritize as
a musician and a voice and piano teacher, I spend
most of my time working one on one with teenage
(31:21):
and young adult ladies, and I make sure that they
all learn how to stand up for themselves without apologizing,
how to deal with feelings of anxiety and doubt, and
how to recognize their own self values. Love you, ladies,
and love to you, Mari. That's that's really that warms
my heart. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so so we just
(31:43):
want to thank everybody for sending us very kind words
over the course of UM and now I have a
full length email from Elizabeth, who actually Kristen, we have
become a teaching tool. Yeah. Every now and then we
hear from teachers, whether they're in high school or at
(32:04):
the college level, who sometimes use our podcasts in class,
which makes us feel especially fancy. And Elizabeth is one
of those people. Yeah. So Elizabeth is a graduate student
in the Department of Sociology at u G a go Dogs.
She says she just recently discovered our podcast and has
been binge listening to episodes. She says, I wanted to
(32:28):
get in touch with you because I'm teaching a class
called Gender and Work next semester, and I'm planning to
assign your podcasts to my students, pairing them with specific
academic readings on topics such as the wage gap, understanding
gender versus sex, men, and masculinity in particular occupations like firefighting,
military in the law, among many other topics. She goes
(32:49):
on to list a bunch of things that the class covers,
including paid and unpaid labor, are working moms happier, getting
your body back, fitness expectations after childbirth, motivations to work out.
She says, Basically, your podcast is just a great fit
into the material we're covering in this course. She says,
I wanted to thank you for your awesome work in
(33:10):
making these complex and difficult topics more accessible with smart
commentary and honest reactions and discussions without sacrificing an emphasis
on existing research and statistics, while always citing your sources.
A plus, I want to especially thank you for remaining
well mostly neutral while you talk about these important topics,
which allows me to assign these podcasts to students who
might just shut down in reaction to a more joking
(33:32):
vibe sometimes ahem, myself included. Gender inequality feels so overwhelming
that a primary reaction is to one assume that everybody
already knows all these stats and to mock people who
think it's all made up. I get it, but a
lot of these students from rural Georgia really have never
thought about these issues before at all. And being able
to present this information to them at a time when
(33:54):
they're open to hearing it before they start their careers
is vital, and actually having them understand and be aware
of these difficut issues. I cannot over emphasize how important
it is to keep presenting information on gender inequality in
the workplace, and what better people to convince than future lawyers,
police officers, politicians, and policymakers of America. Okay, in of rant,
but I just wanted to thank you all for doing
(34:15):
such great work and let you know we'll be using
your podcast in our class. And Elizabeth goes on to
tell us a couple of the episodes she's using in class,
and I'll just read a couple of them. She is
presenting her students with what's the difference between gender and sex?
Is their gender wage? Get firefighting, women are working moms,
happier women in engineering, and the military fight for women
in combat, just to name a few. And thank you
(34:38):
so much, Elizabeth. That sounds like a class I wish
I could have taken. We're college Christian, we're taking it
right now. That's right, it's continuing education. And finally to
closings off, Caroline, what better not to end on than clitteracy,
because really, can we talk about clitterati? Is enough answer? No?
And this is coming from Catherine, who I just wanted
(35:01):
to say a huge thank you to you for your
recent podcast on the clitterest. Not only did it reveal
a very interesting history about this much neglected by science
body part. It taught me something. I never knew that
the clitterest is more than just the glands. I am
genuinely shocked. I never knew this before. I am twenty
two years old and always thought I was pretty knowledgeable
(35:21):
about my lovely lady parts. I thought I understood orgasms
and what was going on inside me. Nope, I can't believe.
This was never mentioned to me in sex education at
school and never appeared during my many teenage Internet searches
about issues I felt too awkward to discuss with my mother.
This might sound ridiculous, but after I finished listening to
the podcast and looking at the ultrasound of the internal structures,
(35:44):
I felt really proud of my clitterest and it's wonderful
complexities of neck billows and wishbone shapes. How did I
never know this? Is it just me who never knew?
And if I hadn't listened to the podcast would I
ever have found out? Thank you for all you do
and here's hoping widespread clitteracy is established soon. And to
(36:04):
answer your questions, Catherine, no, it wasn't just you who
never knew, because Caroline and I did not know, definitely
did not know the full extent of how awesome that
particular body part is. Yeah, So indeed, here's to literacy
for all in joy and speaking though, going back to
Elizabeth's letter about classrooms in school and all of that,
(36:27):
if you ever are interested in Caroline and me talking
to your classroom or your group, we have been known
to do live appearances, So if you're interested in something
like that, uh is speaking engagement, you can contact us
at Mom's Stuff at how stuffworks dot com. You can
(36:47):
also head over to our website, stuff Mom Never Told
You dot com and click on the about link at
the top of the home page and that will give
you all the information as well for getting in touch
with us. So, speaking of getting in touch, we love
hearing from you obviously, we love your suggestions. We want
to know what you want to hear about in and
(37:09):
also what mattered to you in let us know. Mom
Stuff at how stuffworks dot com again is our email
address and for links to all of our social media
as well as all of our blogs, videos and podcasts
with our sources so you can learn more as well,
head on over to stuff Mom Never Told You dot
com and Happy New Year's everybody, Happy New Year for moralness,
(37:37):
and thousands of other topics. Does it, How stuff works
dot com
Welcome to stuff Mom Never told you. From how Supports
dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Kristen
and I'm Caroline. And since it is New Year's Eve,
as this podcast is coming out, although it might be
coming to your ears in two thousand and fifteen, we
nonetheless wanted to take a moment and look back over
(00:27):
the past year because since we put out two podcasts
a week, we covered a lot of territory. Yeah, to
the point where when I went back and looked at
the topics that we hit in let's say, January February
March oft I almost forgot that it was the same year.
It almost felt like it was a lot longer ago.
(00:48):
But I mean, we are so lucky to hear from
our incredible listeners as far as the episodes that they
loved and the topics that really resonated with them. And
so we kind of wanted to take a minute to
talk back at you guys, because you know, Kristen and
I we we talked about ourselves a little bit sometimes
in our episodes, but we really focus on the topic
(01:10):
at hand, and so we wanted to take this opportunity
to sort of fill you in on the episodes that
meant something to us, whether they were our favorite to record,
whether they were super fun, whether we learned a lot,
or whether they were things that kind of scared us
and upset us a little bit. So with that, I
want to ask you, Kristen, what was your favorite episode
or episodes that we hit in. Well, I think the
(01:33):
one that that scared me the most, Caroline, was the
Curse of Swearing Women, because I learned just how how
much women love profanity, and as a lady, that is
terrifying that we would even use such four letter words.
How dare wait? Like, lady, No, that one wasn't scary
at all, But that was an example of a really
(01:57):
fun one for me to research, because, uh, there are
sometimes topics that are a little bit selfish where I'm like,
you know what, I just want to know more about
this thing that I do all the time and listeners
might not know since we keep this the language on
our podcast as g rated as possible, aside from when
(02:17):
we cite Bitch magazine and well have entire episodes about
the history of the word bitch, which you should totally
listen to if you haven't already. Um, but you know
you and I you and I used some salty language
off Mike sometimes, yes, And that was a really fun
one and one that seemed to resonate a lot with
(02:38):
our listeners as well, because I know that we are
not alone in, you know, maybe having a penchant sometimes
for the F word, and we're not talking about feminism
in that case right now. And I do remember recounting
in that episode about overhearing a woman saying that she
did not let her daughter curse because it was not
lady like, and so of cos that sent me into
(03:01):
a spiral of not rage per se, but just like
wanting to know more about the motivation behind that that feeling.
I really hope that you turned around and said, wtf
did you just say? But actually using you know, the
full the full acronym right um. That one was also
interesting too, because we got into talking about cursing in
(03:23):
the workplace and how that ties into of gender dynamics
in the workplace and it is that whole transgressing the
construct of being ladylike, and how some bosses use it
it fit in you know, I'm cool, I'm cool like you,
and how that's harder for women to do, especially if
(03:46):
their bosses so if you haven't listened to the Curse
of Swearing Women, that's one that we did a little
bit earlier in the year that might have bypassed and
your listeners, so definitely give that one a listen. What
was another episode from teen that you really loved, Caroline, Well,
I mean, we have to mention the notorious RBG episode
(04:10):
because that was such a it has been such a
great moment and sort of, uh, an intersection of pop
culture history and actual American history that is important and
memes and memes to talk about Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
and how amazing she is, and that was a great
opportunity to look at where she came from, how she's
(04:33):
basically always been, you know, super amazing. Uh. Girls got
a lot of comption, a lot of get up and go,
and uh, it was neat to see how it took
one single court case for basically our generation and and
a little bit younger to finally latch onto how great
(04:54):
of a of an American resource Ruth Bader Ginsburg is
on a nice moment to of really putting the spotlight,
like you said, among women of our younger generation onto
this older woman because a lot of times we spent
a lot of time talking about the celebrities of our
(05:17):
our age, of our generation, the Beyonces and Lena Dunham's
and Taylor Swift's just just um, but I think it's
really nice to take an opportunity as well to talk
about I mean, she's RBG obviously is a celebrity in
a different kind of way. Um, but to talk about
these these other women who might not be making the
(05:38):
covers of magazines but should. But I mean, let's think
about this though. How great would it be for Ruth
Bader Ginsburg to come on stage with Beyonce in her
robe and have the you know, the Beyonce wind machine
going and just the wind whipping through that robe and
the shepe yeso with her jabau whatever it rhymes. It's
(06:02):
all French anyway. I mean a couple other ones that
I just want to give shout outs to. Loved our
literacy episode so fascinating, so empowering. Golden Girls was such
a fun ride. We got so much amazing listener feedback
from that, and then our whole Lady Explorer series that
we did this past summer was so much fun. Yeah,
that was a lot of fun because when it comes
(06:24):
to obviously the history of exploration. Rarely do you hear
about women because at the time that a lot of
this exploration was happening, and women would not have even
been allowed to be on the ships that were sailing
around trying to find the quote unquote New World, which
is a complete total misnomer. But it was really really
(06:48):
fascinating to learn about people like mountaineer Annie Smith Peck,
who made waves by tossing off her skirts and wearing
men's breeches because you can't climb mountains in really tight
Victorian skirts, and planning of votes for women signed at
the top of one of the mountains that she scaled,
(07:08):
I believe in Central America. Um. And then there was
Harriet Chalmers Adams, who founded the Women's Geographical Society. I
might be botching that name. And Jean Beret, who was
the first woman to circumnavigate the world, who were only
learning about just now, like in the past few years
did people uncover this woman, this botanist, although I guess
(07:32):
she was more of like what was it called, like
an herb woman. Herb woman, Yeah, kind of like a
den i wid Bombs who hopped on board the ship
dressed like a man because she wouldn't have been allowed
on a ship otherwise. Certainly not well, not on such
a journey as that, right, not an actual fun exploratory journey. Yeah,
And speaking of though these explorers, we got to give
(07:55):
a shout out right now to the Stuff Mom Never
Told You store that is an existance over at Stuff
Mom Never told You Dot spreadshirt dot com and an
illustrator and stuff I've Never Told You fan reached out
to us after that Explorer series instead. I really enjoyed
this and I would love to draw up some of
(08:17):
these badass explorer ladies, and Aaron Drice did that, and
we now have toad bags and coffee mugs and a
whole series of stuff that you can get with some
of these really incredible Explorer ladies on them. So you
should absolutely go check that out at Stuff I've Never
Told You dot spreadshirt dot com. And shout out again
(08:39):
to Aaron Dryce for reaching out to us in the
first place and drawing these awesome drawings. I should be
an art critic. Drawings drawings are awesome. Next, Well, okay,
this kind of ties and know what we were just
talking about? What was there anything that going into the
research an episode going into the research that you were
(09:01):
super excited about already. I mean, there are plenty of
things that as we read were like, holy goodness, goodness,
really goodness. I'm keeping it, you reating, we do say
that holy goodness. That's the thing humans say. Uh, you know,
as we get into it, we realize how fascinating something is.
But is there anything that you were like, I am
definitely pumped about reading about this. I was really pumped about, honestly.
(09:27):
I mean, going back to the celebritything, I was really
interested to read up for Beyonce's feminism because I love
Beyonce's music, and she's someone that I've followed since I
was in my early teens and kind of stuff have seen,
like her career evolution and her arrival to feminism, and
(09:47):
there had just been so much conversation and analysis like
about her and her music and her image and her
marriage and her motherhood and her feminism, and I was just,
honestly is curious to dive in more to that. UM.
I was also really interested to read up on the
history of cat calling and street harassment. That was one
(10:11):
where I came out learning came up with the information
that I was not expecting to find in terms of
the history of street harassment, of smashing the mashers, of
the fact that police women really emerged due to women
lobbying their municipal police forces to have women who could
(10:34):
help them get from place to place in public spaces.
I was super pumped. I mean, you know, you mentioned
uh selfish motivations for certain episodes. Super excited to look
into thyroids. Oh yeah, that was a great health episode. Yeah,
and it was one of those where I mean, if
we're going to talk about things that are frustrating too,
(10:54):
I mean, it seems like any sort of women's health
episode we do, we get all of these letters from
women who were like, oh my gosh, thank you so
much for talking about this. I was diagnosed with this,
or my mother was diagnosed with this and nobody knew
anything about it, or it took ten years to get
a diagnosis because the doctors wouldn't listen to me. And
it just seems like every women's health issue that we
(11:15):
talked about, it's just it's it's echoes of the same
sentiments about nobody would listen to me, nobody understands why
this is happening. And it's the same with endometriosis. It's
the same with migraines, which we didn't talk abouteen but
still it's like the same theme with a lot of
women's health issues. Yeah. Well, did you learn anything from
(11:36):
that that particular episode in terms of researching thyroids that
illuminated your your experience or well, I mean just reading
more about, um, the actual hormonal stuff that's involved in
I mean, because it's obviously like an endocrine system thing,
and so it's great to learn more about that and
(11:58):
educate myself about my own Hashimoto's disease diagnosis, and anybody
who was over at the blog in earlier this month
in December, I saw my post about the terrible experience
I had with an endochronologist, so that that happened. So
any time that I can actually educate myself, well, I
(12:18):
think that those kinds of health topics too are also
validating for listeners. Um, there was a stuff I've Never
told you video over on our YouTube channel. Um, they
got a lot of attention really fast, and I wasn't
surprised that it did because it was five Reasons Sex
Hurts Vagina Edition. There is a penis edition as well, folks,
(12:40):
because we think about penises too. Um. But in it,
I talked about um vagin nicemus, which is something that
will probably devote an episode two in listeners. So if
if you give a thumbs up to that, let us know. UM.
And I heard from a woman who had experienced all
the symptoms but never had terminology for it. She had
(13:03):
been to gynecologist who essentially shamed her and said, you're
just uptight, and it was. And she wrote in thanking
me for that video because it put all the pieces together,
it gave her language around it and validated her experience.
And I mean I was I was thrilled that she
(13:25):
had even found it because I can't imagine experiencing that
kind of pain and discomfort and going to your health
care provider and just being shunned. Yeah, and I think
that happens so often, not just when it comes to
issues of the vagina, but women's health issues in particular.
Because we did an episode I don't know that it
(13:47):
was in two thousand and fourteen. They do start to
all just blend together. But we did do an episode
on issues and documented in medical literature of doctor sometimes
not believing women because we're kind of just written off
as well, you just you're kind of making these symptoms up. Well,
(14:07):
it was the same thing. The thyroid issue ties into
the fibroid episode issues too, about how so many of
these conditions that are specific to women can present themselves.
They can really resemble something completely different. It can really
look like PMS, or it could really look like depression
or whatever, or PMS and depression can play a role
(14:29):
in whatever condition you have. It's it's easy to see
why it could be hard to spot some of these
ladies specific conditions. But then that almost makes it more
frustrating about why, Oh, I don't know, a gynecologist wouldn't
be more aware of something that women face that's not
that uncommon. Yeah, but I mean the glass have full perspective.
(14:51):
Is it does seem like in a lot of the
topics that health topics we've talked about, at least, the
takeaway is usually we are star in too. It's getting
a little bit better. Doctors are starting to finally understand
more about this. It's so it's so funny, you know
that women who've been around just as long as men,
(15:15):
but our health issues are finally getting figured out. Maybe, well,
Caroline not quite as long because we were created from
Adam's rib so there sounds delicious. Um. But there were
two mustless and episodes in my book that I also
want to shout out to which I was really interested
to learn about, even though they were not the sunniest
(15:38):
of topics. Um. And the first one is the revenge
Porn Wars, which was an episode that we did not
intend to be timely. It was actually almost a prophetic
episode because revenge porn is terminology for specific well it's
more specifically an issue of X romantic partners stealing or
(16:04):
just taking naked photos that women have sent them during
the course of a relationship or even just during the
course of hooking up, and posting them on the internet
to shame them, to sexually shame them. And it's this
huge problem. Um. And for one statistic that was terrifying, huh.
(16:24):
A survey found approximately ten percent of ex partners have
threatened to post sexually explicit photos online and about six
of those threats became reality. And then, of course all
this led up to the massive celebrity nude photo theft
and leak. And I think that it's still obviously they're
(16:46):
they're the legalities surrounding all of it are still developing.
But it's also the slut shaming involved in the response,
even when it comes to the celebrity nude photos of
we'll just stop taking pictures of your boobs, you know what,
people to see it. But this, I mean, the fact
(17:07):
of the matter is sexty ng and sexy photos, whether
it is a uh, female bodies or male bodies like
that is just a part of our sexual communication in
the twenty one century. It's not going to go away.
So that to me was a big one. And it's
also the domestic violence one oh one episode. Yeah, we
got a ton of letters from women sharing their experiences
(17:28):
of surviving domestic or intimate partner violence and thanking us
for covering it. Yeah, and also got requests for future
episodes focusing in on specific aspects of domestic violence. Um
for instance, in will most likely do a podcast focusing
in on stalking, because that was I mean, since it
(17:49):
was Domestic Violence one oh one, it was a broad
brush presentation of domestic violence and we didn't even have
time to get really in depth on the different forms
that it takes. And we heard from experts as well. Um.
In the domestic violence field, shedding more light on things like, uh,
(18:11):
the financial abuse that takes place of different ways that
UM abusive partners will isolate people. And so that's definitely
an issue where one podcast will never be enough, So
that's going to be an ongoing conversation, absolutely. Yeah. And
other episodes that tackled more serious topics and that definitely
(18:35):
were a little bit upsetting were the street harassment and
cat calling episode for instance. UM was very surprised personally
that the episode on butts Fat bottom Girls was so
upsetting to me. I don't know how our listeners felt,
but when we talked about Sarki Bartman uh a k
(18:55):
A Hot and top venus, her body parts being put
in jars after her death to serve as something that
people could goc at, UM basically just looking at the
evolution of why we as a global culture seemed to
be so obsessed with people's rear ends well because and
in tracing it back to that early fetishization of black women,
(19:19):
in particular women of African origins behind which I mean
lead It wasn't just you know, Sarki Bartman's body parts
being put on display, but also while after she died,
but while she was alive being put on display, and
she wasn't the only one, and and just that extreme
fetishization that you still see today. I mean, when Kim
(19:42):
Kardashian had her h the photo shoot for was It
Paper magazine, the cover where she shows her bear, her
bear behind and the whole like break the internet tag
like brought that episode into focus yet again. And because
there are all sorts of race and class dynamics that
(20:04):
are tied into our modern day re obsession with usually
a little bit lighter skinned but I mean, you have
Nicki Minages Anaconda video, but that is perceived in a
different way as Kim Kardashian's uh paper magazine cover shoot,
and also um Instagram but selfie queen jen Seltzer's who
(20:29):
Got a Spread in Vanity Fair? I mean, it's just
it was a more complicated issue and expected it really
was well, I mean, speaking of things that are unexpected,
were there any surprising things that jumped out to you,
whether stats or facts over the course of One of
the most surprising and exciting statistics I learned was about
(20:51):
the clitteral complex. I can't talk enough about the clitterests either.
Once we did that Clitteracy podcast. I think Caroline and I,
both in the studio and outside of the studio in
our own personal lives, have been preaching the gospel of
how incredible the clitterest is because it is composed of
at least eighteen functioning parts. What you see is merely
(21:14):
the tip of the iceberg. That's right. Yeah, yeah, we
we have an entire airplane neck pillow inside of us.
And yeah, what you see the glands is just well,
if if an airplane neck pillow came fully around your
neck and then a tip stuck out, that's what That's
what it is. I feel like people are are so
(21:35):
confused right now. Well, they wouldn't be confused if they
were what the amazing episode What's inside of You is
actually memory foam and no, Christen, it's inflatable. Oh sorry, sorry, sorry. Um.
I think one of the things that absolutely shocked me
was from our Cankles and Ankles episode, the fact that
(21:56):
so many women are spending upwards of four to six
thousand dollars to LiPo suction on their ankles, and that
once you do show out that much money, your uh,
your recovery time is almost a year long and that
What I also didn't realize going into that episode was that, hey,
your ankle shape, whether it's like super skinny and bony
(22:19):
or whether it's nice and stocky, it has everything to
do with genetics and just the way that your bones
and muscles are shaped and structured by the way. I
really like the description nice and stock and stocky. Gosh, um,
there is one thing that we love on stuff. Mom
(22:40):
never told you that. I think our our our die
hard listeners probably know is a good academic study title,
because I think one of the most delightful parts of
my job is playing the Is there an academic study
about this game? Because the answer is usually yes? So
can I share of a few of the very best
(23:03):
study titles that I found? So I think the the
episode that that took the cheesecake in the is there
an academic study title on this game was Golden Girls,
because I was so surprised to find not one, but
multiple studies on the Golden Girls. So here we go.
(23:24):
In the Journal of Pop Culture, we have Golden Girls
feminine archetypal patterns of the complete woman. There's also from
the Journal of American Popular Culture the Golden Girls. Shear
signature stories, narratives of aging identity and communal desire. And
then finally there is and finally there was an entire
thesis we found from Boston College called Sitcoms in a
(23:48):
League of their Own, a critical analysis of situational feminism
in the Golden Girls and Sex in the City. And
that one might be the best because not only do
they get the TV titles in there, there's also in
the of the reference. This thesis has it all. Yeah,
I was, I mean, the Golden Girls. It's such a
such a layered issue. Christens. Yes, you've got a layered cheesecake.
(24:09):
You've got feminism and gender. You have you have age,
race and class and age sexual orientation so much and
cheesecake and condoms, gondums, condoms. Well. Some of my favorite
study titles were of Ponies and Men, My Little Pony
Friendship is Magic and the brownie fandom. Brownies was a
(24:30):
fun episode. A fun episode. We got a lot of
letters from Mom's thanking us for that one. And brownies
and some brownies. Uh, let's see the Dark Prints and
dream Women Walt Disney and mid twentieth century American feminism.
That was a fan favorite as well. On female animators
in Classic Disney. Yeah. Absolutely, um breasts, buttocks and the
(24:53):
camel hump from our our Fat Bottom Girls episode, Real
Men Don't Eat Vegetable quiche masculinea and the justification of
meat consumption from our episode about vegetarianism. Caroline, I'm so
glad that you recalled that study title because I think
that one might be my favorite from two thousand fourteen,
Real Men Don't Eate keche. It sounds like a strange
(25:15):
self help book too, does it does? And then the
last one that I I wrote down was intolerance of
sexy peers intra sexual competition among women, and we cided
that in our Lady Lawyer dress Code episode. Oh, we
heard a lot from people on that one as well,
and not just lawyers, but just women dealing with workplace
(25:36):
dress code in quotes issues as well. It was interesting
to see, Like I mean, Krista and I definitely have
obviously a unique perspective when you guys send us letters,
because we're looking at not only the private letters and
emails and Facebook messages that you send us, but we're
looking at the stuff that's on our main Facebook page
as well. And when we posted the link to that
(25:56):
Lady Lawyer dress Code episode basically saying, you know, what
lady lawyers wear are their rules or their restrictions. A
lot of the feedback on the actual link itself was like, Oh,
they should wear whatever they want, who cares. But the
letters that we received after after people started listening to
the episode, it was an incredible division because so many
women were like, oh, thank you, this crazy making thing
(26:19):
that I have to deal with about policing myself constantly
about what I wear and making sure I please the
judge and please my peers, and I have to walk
a very fine line as far as not being too
masculine but not being too feminine, not being too brightly
colored but not being too drab, and what I wear.
It was just really interesting to see that so many women,
(26:41):
not just in the law field, but in so many
other fields are struggling with how to present themselves in
a way that they will be taken seriously. Which is
why I wish and have wished for a long time
that coveralls and jumpsuits were easier to just pull off
because you just zip it up and go that's right.
Well would they be would they be brightly colored? Or
(27:02):
were they would they be like if you want, you know,
beige washes me out, so I'd probably need to wear
a color. I am a winter I've had my colors
done Caroline, so I'd need more of a jewelto well.
I already have a bright yellow jumpsuit from when I
was April O'Neil a couple of years ago for Halloween.
Bring it to the office and then I can happily
spoke coffee on myself all morning. It won't be an issue.
(27:25):
We also, though, need to give some shout outs and
thank you to our incredible roster of guests that we
have had on the podcast. I think two thousand fourteen
was probably more uh guest tastic than the podcast has
ever been, and that's something we want to continue into
(27:45):
as well. Because we started off the year with local
music journalists Christina Lee coming by to talk about women
in hip hop, which was really really popular as well,
and that generated a lot of feedback. Yeah, and um
more recent Lee, we've had Jendall talking about weddings. We've
had Kate Sweeney talking about gender and mourning, and one
(28:08):
interview that was especially meaningful for me since I've been
a fan of hers for so long now was getting
to talk to Jane Pratt, who was delightful. Um she's
the founder of Sassy Magazine, Jane Magazine and is now
at the Helm of Exo Jane, and she had some
really great insights on girls then and now in feminism.
(28:28):
And we also talked to Anne Helen Peterson, who has
written a bunch across the Internet. I think she's now
full time writer at BuzzFeed and you should absolutely follow
her on Twitter. We talked to Sarah Martin not too
long ago from Belle and Sebastian. She gets the Best
Guest Accent Award. And we also of course talked to
(28:50):
Lori Tharpe's about our for our black hair episode. Again
got a lot of feedback about that that, in combination
with our curly hair episode, got a lot of women
writing in saying thank you for talking about my hair. Yeah, yeah,
I mean hair is I mean any time we talk
about hair, whether it is on our heads or at
any place on our bodies, women have a lot to
(29:11):
say about it. And we also did the manscaping episode
earlier this year too, which generated a lot of feedback
because guess what, guys, you're being sold similar lies about
body hair because companies are like, how can we make
more money? Well insecurity selves, shave your back hair. Um.
(29:32):
And then finally we had Jessica Lamb Shapiro on to
talk about her memoir Promised Land, which focuses around the
self help industry, and that was a great conversation too.
So thank you so much to our guests that we've
had on for enriching the podcast and sharing their expertise
with us. And if you have suggestions for stuff Mom
(29:55):
never told you guests who would be great to talk
about all things women under pop cultural history, science, we
would love your suggestions. You can email us Mom Stuff
at how Stuff works dot com or you can just
tweet us at Mom's Stuff podcast. And Caroline, is it time,
speaking of our email address, to maybe read a few
(30:17):
listener letters before we close things out? I believe it is, Kristen,
before we button up and go drink some champagne. That's right,
I already have a bottle of champagne. That's what's in
my coffee mug right now. Oh, that explains so much,
so much. Well, before christ and I get into reading
full link letters that discussed episodes from that they loved,
(30:40):
I wanted to read some snippets of letters from women
who just kind of love Sminty and we love you back.
So first I wanted to read something from Rachel, who
said this was in response to the Vaping podcast specifically,
but she said, thanks for the great podcast I've been
listening for years. I realized while I was walking to
class the other day that your show was integral part
(31:01):
of the formation of my identity as a feminist. So
I wanted to thank you for that. Well, thank you, Rachel,
and I've got one here from Marie. She writes, thanks
so much for your excellent work. Ladies. Your podcasts have
helped shape who I am and when I prioritize as
a musician and a voice and piano teacher, I spend
most of my time working one on one with teenage
(31:21):
and young adult ladies, and I make sure that they
all learn how to stand up for themselves without apologizing,
how to deal with feelings of anxiety and doubt, and
how to recognize their own self values. Love you, ladies,
and love to you, Mari. That's that's really that warms
my heart. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And so so we just
(31:43):
want to thank everybody for sending us very kind words
over the course of UM and now I have a
full length email from Elizabeth, who actually Kristen, we have
become a teaching tool. Yeah. Every now and then we
hear from teachers, whether they're in high school or at
(32:04):
the college level, who sometimes use our podcasts in class,
which makes us feel especially fancy. And Elizabeth is one
of those people. Yeah. So Elizabeth is a graduate student
in the Department of Sociology at u G a go Dogs.
She says she just recently discovered our podcast and has
been binge listening to episodes. She says, I wanted to
(32:28):
get in touch with you because I'm teaching a class
called Gender and Work next semester, and I'm planning to
assign your podcasts to my students, pairing them with specific
academic readings on topics such as the wage gap, understanding
gender versus sex, men, and masculinity in particular occupations like firefighting,
military in the law, among many other topics. She goes
(32:49):
on to list a bunch of things that the class covers,
including paid and unpaid labor, are working moms happier, getting
your body back, fitness expectations after childbirth, motivations to work out.
She says, Basically, your podcast is just a great fit
into the material we're covering in this course. She says,
I wanted to thank you for your awesome work in
(33:10):
making these complex and difficult topics more accessible with smart
commentary and honest reactions and discussions without sacrificing an emphasis
on existing research and statistics, while always citing your sources.
A plus, I want to especially thank you for remaining
well mostly neutral while you talk about these important topics,
which allows me to assign these podcasts to students who
might just shut down in reaction to a more joking
(33:32):
vibe sometimes ahem, myself included. Gender inequality feels so overwhelming
that a primary reaction is to one assume that everybody
already knows all these stats and to mock people who
think it's all made up. I get it, but a
lot of these students from rural Georgia really have never
thought about these issues before at all. And being able
to present this information to them at a time when
(33:54):
they're open to hearing it before they start their careers
is vital, and actually having them understand and be aware
of these difficut issues. I cannot over emphasize how important
it is to keep presenting information on gender inequality in
the workplace, and what better people to convince than future lawyers,
police officers, politicians, and policymakers of America. Okay, in of rant,
but I just wanted to thank you all for doing
(34:15):
such great work and let you know we'll be using
your podcast in our class. And Elizabeth goes on to
tell us a couple of the episodes she's using in class,
and I'll just read a couple of them. She is
presenting her students with what's the difference between gender and sex?
Is their gender wage? Get firefighting, women are working moms,
happier women in engineering, and the military fight for women
in combat, just to name a few. And thank you
(34:38):
so much, Elizabeth. That sounds like a class I wish
I could have taken. We're college Christian, we're taking it
right now. That's right, it's continuing education. And finally to
closings off, Caroline, what better not to end on than clitteracy,
because really, can we talk about clitterati? Is enough answer? No?
And this is coming from Catherine, who I just wanted
(35:01):
to say a huge thank you to you for your
recent podcast on the clitterest. Not only did it reveal
a very interesting history about this much neglected by science
body part. It taught me something. I never knew that
the clitterest is more than just the glands. I am
genuinely shocked. I never knew this before. I am twenty
two years old and always thought I was pretty knowledgeable
(35:21):
about my lovely lady parts. I thought I understood orgasms
and what was going on inside me. Nope, I can't believe.
This was never mentioned to me in sex education at
school and never appeared during my many teenage Internet searches
about issues I felt too awkward to discuss with my mother.
This might sound ridiculous, but after I finished listening to
the podcast and looking at the ultrasound of the internal structures,
(35:44):
I felt really proud of my clitterest and it's wonderful
complexities of neck billows and wishbone shapes. How did I
never know this? Is it just me who never knew?
And if I hadn't listened to the podcast would I
ever have found out? Thank you for all you do
and here's hoping widespread clitteracy is established soon. And to
(36:04):
answer your questions, Catherine, no, it wasn't just you who
never knew, because Caroline and I did not know, definitely
did not know the full extent of how awesome that
particular body part is. Yeah, So indeed, here's to literacy
for all in joy and speaking though, going back to
Elizabeth's letter about classrooms in school and all of that,
(36:27):
if you ever are interested in Caroline and me talking
to your classroom or your group, we have been known
to do live appearances, So if you're interested in something
like that, uh is speaking engagement, you can contact us
at Mom's Stuff at how stuffworks dot com. You can
(36:47):
also head over to our website, stuff Mom Never Told
You dot com and click on the about link at
the top of the home page and that will give
you all the information as well for getting in touch
with us. So, speaking of getting in touch, we love
hearing from you obviously, we love your suggestions. We want
to know what you want to hear about in and
(37:09):
also what mattered to you in let us know. Mom
Stuff at how stuffworks dot com again is our email
address and for links to all of our social media
as well as all of our blogs, videos and podcasts
with our sources so you can learn more as well,
head on over to stuff Mom Never Told You dot
com and Happy New Year's everybody, Happy New Year for moralness,
(37:37):
and thousands of other topics. Does it, How stuff works
dot com
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