Jennifer Crawford - THE STAKES OF AUTHENTICITY

Jennifer Crawford is a gender creative queer who I could happily gush about for the entirety of this episode. 

We first met cooking for an organization called Sistering in Toronto, which does critical work with women and trans people who are predominantly street entrenched and fleeing violence.

You’ll hear that story upfront. (I promise, it’s a warm one.)

Jennifer is also the first queer winner of MasterChef Canada, and—wait for it—a professional wrestler who goes under the moniker of Moon Miss. BOTH of which make it super easy for us to talk about the inherent multi-dimensionality that comes with being a person (period), and that leads us right into talking about the trauma that first causes any of us to mask, and the secondary trauma that comes from the pain of masking.

It’s a lot of uncovering.

"There's a lot of peace in learning how your mind works and giving yourself that permission slip to treat the stakes as high as they are. When I think about authenticity, it's not something I think about a lot in terms of like, ‘Oh, am I being authentic?’ I think about the stakes being so high—and they are for so many. It's not just a thing we do for clout online. It is a thing we do to survive, and connect with other people, so that we can thrive together.” - Jennifer Crawford

Take that in. And get ready to feel a whole lot of permission.

(*Check the list of tools below for the full scope.)

WORKS:
- Winner of MasterChef Canada (Check their recipes at jenniferecrawford.com)
- Professional wrestler, under the name Moon Miss
- Columnist and author of the platform, “My Queer Kitchen" on Daily Xtra
- Columnist for SaltWire

TOOLS:
- Reminders that free you from having to mask who you are
- Truths that come from permission-granting lived-experience stories 
- How sobriety can help us discover more nuance about ourselves
- Insight into the beauty and gift that comes with noticing yourself 
- Reflections that help us depart from codependent patterns
- Lived lessons on finding the balance between humility and self-abandonment
- Truths that show you’re always worthy of nurturing
- Wisdom that creates doorways into small degrees of change (rather than the pressure to 180)
- Connection and truths revealed about lone-wolfing life and how to break away from the damage of this trauma response
- Ideas that free you from the trappings of niching down your life

 

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

BETTER is recorded on the unceded and ancestral territory of the hən̓q̓əmin̓əm̓ and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh speaking peoples, the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations, and has been stewarded by them since time immemorial.
 

BETTER with Mark Brand is produced by Pamela Rothenberg of I HEAR YOU STUDIOS and Adam Karch with Orbyt Media