All Episodes

March 21, 2025 73 mins

Sonja and Vanessa delve into recent history to ask if it’s even possible to be your own woman in a world that is designed and controlled by men?  Through the lens of five prominent women of the 1980’s and 90’s, IWAW asks if female odysseys are doomed to follow in the footsteps of–or be a reaction to–male expectations.  Sonja and Vanessa dip into stories of women in politics and pop culture to ask what these real-life heroines gained and lost on their journeys.  If you are a fan or contemporary of Madonna, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana, Cyndi Lauper or Sinead O’Connor, this episode offers a probing conversation about the forces at work in the lives of women who decided to enter traditionally male institutions and put themselves in front of the unforgiving male gaze. 

Margaret Atwood’s novel, The Robber Bride (1998)

For Purchase @ Penguin Books

John Berger’s 4 Part BBC Documentary Series, Ways of Seeing (1971)

Ways of Seeing Series on You Tube

Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema” (1975)

Mulvey Article in PDF

Sinead O’Connor’s memoir, Rememberings (2021)

For Purchase @ Harper Collins

Allison McCabe’s Why Sinead O’Connor Matters (2024)

For Purchase @ University of Texas Press

Allison McCabe’s Website:  AllisonMcCabe.com

Legacy Season 8: Margaret Thatcher

Let the Canary Sing (documentary)

Sinead's 1989 Mandinka Performance


Sinead Protest on SNL & Rejection by Bob Dylan Fans a Few Weeks Later


Madonna's Material Girl Vid that is all shot through the male gaze of a rich guy trying to go out with her...and succeeding


Article on the Diana Sheer Skirt Pic, and the male photographer who felt that, regardless of embarrassment to the 19 year old woman in the pic, felt it was "too good" not to publish:Diana Sheer Skirt Revealing Legs Pic


Brilliant Cyndi Lauper "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" Video

Mark as Played

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