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February 5, 2020 • 41 mins

SMNTY circles up some news stories, from the ERA to the Oscars, and takes a look at how 2020 is going so far.

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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff.
I've never told you a production of I Heart Radios
how stuff works. Today, it is time for another update.
A lot of stuff has happened, uh since we did

(00:26):
our last update in November, a long time ago. So yeah,
a lot of things have happened. A lot of things
have happened in this new year. Yeah, yeah, Quickly, we're
going to try to make this a more regular occurrence
because there's a lot to keep up with. Breathe trigger
warning for discussion of sexual assault. And yeah, as we

(00:47):
started this year, world War three was trending and we're
in the middle of an impeachment a lot, a lot, yeah,
and we wanted to start with the e r A
that Coal Rights Amendment boom, Yes, very quick recap. In
nineteen three, the National Women's Party drafted the Equal Rights
Amendment reading and its main passage, equality of rights under

(01:09):
the Law shall not be denied our bridge by the
United States or by any state on account of sex.
Decades later, with the work of women from both parties,
it passed with majorities in nineteen seventy one. In nineteen
seventy two in the House and Senate, respectively. This meant
the two thirds that Congress needs to propose an amendment
under Article five, next three fourths of the states have

(01:31):
to ratify it for the amendment to become part of
the Constitution within seven years. Only thirty five states did so.
The whole thing in part influence by Phillis Schlafley's Stop
e r A movement stop standing for Stop taking Our Privileges.
In nWo, it was widely reported that the e r
A was dead, and it pretty much was till the

(01:52):
two thousand and sixteen election and the ensuing Women's March. Woo. Yeah,
I just don't like to pause there, because you know,
it was such a big rand thing and I love it.
Nevada ratified in two thousands seventeen, in Illinois eighteen, and
in January twenty both of Virginia's legislators ratified the e
r A. Maybe thirty eight state to do so and
meaning that three fourth threshold. The date is particularly powerful

(02:17):
about one years after the ratification of the nineteenth Amendment,
which gave American women the right to vote right and
after the vote, Attorney General Mark R. Herring said, today
is an absolutely historic day for our Commonwealth. And a
major milestone in the fight for equality in this nation.
Women in America deserve to have a quality guaranteed in
the constitutions, and Virginians should be proud that we will

(02:39):
be the state that makes it happen. And Delegate Jennifer
Carroll Foy said before the vote, which side of history
do you want to be on? The world is watching
your mother's, your sisters, your daughters now. Detractors point to
two main problems. The original deadline was in two and
despite widespread belief that the deadline could be changed, the
Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel recently stated, we conclude

(03:02):
that the e r A resolution has expired and has
no longer pending before the states. They gave instructions to
the National Archives and Records Administration to ignore Virginia's ratification,
and the administration has indicated that they intend to follow
those instructions. The second issue, as we discussed in our
last update on the e r A, five states have
taken back the ratification Kentucky, Tennessee, South Dakota, and Nebraska

(03:25):
and Idaho. However, legal experts argue that neither of these
should get in the way of Congress if they want
to proceed, they have the power to extend deadlines, which
they've already done for the ei A once, and there
are plenty of other legal precedents and to reject with
sydneys of ratification. Right, extending the deadline is the next step,
and bills to do so or in both the House
and the Senate with bipartisan sponsors. Some argue that the

(03:48):
e R is no longer necessary, particularly in the wake
of the nineteen four Civil Rights Act that barred discrimination
on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and sex.
There's still plenty of ways we could improve equality, and
at the very it's an acknowledgment of everything women have
already fought hard to get past. There are concerns around
the e R A. For one, it could open previously

(04:08):
passed laws and directives to renewed attack. For another, the
use of the word sex could be interpreted as biological sex.
The word gender wasn't widely used in the nineteen twenties,
and the nineteen seventy two version kept the word sex.
This could exclude gender nonconforming, gender, queer, non binary, all
of that for transgender folks, it would likely depend on
where they were in their transition. However, it's great to

(04:31):
see that places like Virginia has advanced Senate Bill six seven,
which would allow a person to receive a new birth
certificate to reflect in the change of sex without the
requirement of surgery. And the individual seeking a new birth
certificate also may list a new name if they provide
a certified copy of a court order of the name change. Now,
again this is only at the beginning process. They did

(04:51):
pass the Senate and now must go keep continuing on.
But that's a really good note news that they are
looking at how this can be affected in the in
the hiccups with the bill. Yeah, and it was really
cool to see the pictures of people with their sashes
and all the buttons from when they had marched for
the r A before. It was a really moving, moving

(05:11):
thing witness. And that is not all you have to
talk about when it comes to politics. But first we
have to take a quick break for word from our
sponsor and we're back, Thank you sponsor. All right, I'm

(05:37):
just waiting for what's coming up. Yeah, well, why don't
you dive into Yeah, I need to talk about it though.
It's the whole controversy and it's what divides us many times,
or divides people in politics many times. But the Warren
Bernie fiasco controvarsy all of those things. So in this
between Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, a

(06:01):
few weeks ago, CNN reported on a story with unnamed sources,
now confirmed to be associated with Warren's camp. The question
whether she knew is still debatable. Sanders told Warren that
a woman could not win the twenty twenty presidency. Warren
later confirmed the story, while Sanders denied it. His campaign
called such statement a lie, and the Democratic debate that

(06:22):
came soon after they both seemed to want to avoid
discussing it, both agreeing, of course a woman can be president.
But at the end of the debate we see Warren
appeared to refuse to shake Sanders hand, and the next
day hashtag never Warren and hashtag Warren is a snake
were trending and snake emojis were everywhere everywhere. It was
absurd quotes and videos of Bernie saying a woman should

(06:43):
be president or circulating, along with the fact that he
encouraged Warren to run in twenty six worth noting, while
a lot of these definitely came from Bernie supporters, some
almost definitely came from bots, foreign influencers and conservatives. And
I know, like when I was looking through all of
the it Are debates and back and forth, which was
really disheartening in itself, there was obvious bots in there

(07:07):
that was kind of just fueling that whole idea. And
I think also it's good to know, and I know
we weren't talk a little more that when we paraphrase conversations,
it is dangerous because I don't think it's an all
or none type of situation. And that's just my personal
opinion because I could absolutely I have made the statement

(07:27):
this was in two thou four, no, two thousand, when
I said I think there will be a black president
before there is a woman president. And those are not
necessarily because I wanted it that way, which either one
I was very happy with. I miss Obama, Um okay,
yeah uh, But I think what it came down to

(07:49):
is whether or not the world or the country will
would accept that as a possibility. Yeah. And I'm gonna
put a time stamp on this one or recording this
January because it is changing a lot. Yeah, but from
what I've ascertaining from all this stuff I've read. Basically
what Bernie said was sexism. Trump will use anything that

(08:15):
he can as a weapon, including racism and sexism, right
to prevent someone from getting elected. Elizabeth Warren interpreted that
as a woman can't get elected. You think a woman
can't get elected against Trump? And I do remember her
making the statement saying that, yes he said it, but
it doesn't matter. Let's move on. And then again, like
I said, I wish it none of this. I wish
no one, no one had just addressed that, just moved on.

(08:37):
That would be better or at least different timing. Maybe. Yeah. Um,
And that kind of goes back to differing interpretations. That's
what a lot of people reporting on this say. Warren
interpreting it as oh, okay, a woman can't be elected
president and Bernie telling it like he thinks it is.

(09:00):
Is um. Although Warren probably did not need to be
told that sexism would come up in her ability in
itself and women in itself, Yes, we know, yes, And
going back to that snake, snake is a pretty loaded
term when it comes to sexism, hearkening all the way
back to even the apple, applying that women are not
to be trusted, manipulative or downright evil in the internet world.

(09:22):
It represents complete hatred of someone. Most believe it originated
with the Kim Kat Swift controversy. That's what I know
it from. She definitely Kim k definitely tweeted out it's
National snake Day and she right yeah. This was apparently
in response to belief that Warren had broken the pack
between herself and Sanders to remain friendly and not attack

(09:43):
each other on the campaign. People accused her of stabbing
Bernie in the back, and many people have pointed out
this is why women don't call out sexism in the
first place. Right. Adding fuel to this rift was a
political report that found a script for volunteers on Sanders
campaign with this line describing Warren's supporters quote highly educated,
more affluent people who are going to show up and

(10:04):
vote democratic no matter what. Warren called it disheartening that
the campaign was going out and trash talking her. This
actually happened prior to the leak or whatever it was
about the comment, and no one accused Sanders becks habbing Warren.
Right now, if I remember correctly, I think the statement
from Sanders was that he didn't approve it, but he
has many of staffers. I mean, okay, he's not wrong,

(10:28):
and I get that, but I did think it was
interesting how we quickly bypassed that to the other. Oh,
he said women can be presidents, which to me, I'm like, well,
both of those are not very encouraging for the other,
and not that it needs more. But then tane Vogue
also continued with the narrative with the op ed titled
Elizabeth Warren's fake beef with Bernie Sanders is a sign

(10:48):
the primaries are heating up, which was also followed by
many people tweeting it and retweeting it or responding to
it with hashtag refund Warren and bringing back the narrative
of dividing and feviushly attacking each other details that diminished
who the real opposition is. And I think it also
was a call to take back money from the campaign,
which I was like, what Act Blue is the organization

(11:13):
that has collected a lot of money for many Democratic candidates,
But I don't understand how this process would go. But
people are really behind this idea of taking money back,
which is again very disheartening. Yeah. Yeah, and and we're
not really, We're more concerned with the the opposition and
also the difference in reactions between right as opposed to

(11:36):
write Obviously, as we said, we are more concerned about
the opposition in the head and then just more of
oh no, it's coming back to where we were yes
in elections. Yes, because for many all of this is
disturbingly similar to that election when supporters of Hillary couldn't
reported that they received harassment when talking about sexism in politics.

(11:58):
I r l and online from this called Bernie Bros.
Which is the stereotype. It's actually more divided around age
and women make up more than half of Bernie supporters
in his twenty campaign, although it was largely white male
and several female staffers complained about pay in equity and
sexual misconduct. Also, there was that hashtag burn the witch
problematic but to too combat that Bernie Sanders has hired,

(12:22):
that he has hired a lot of women in diversity
for this campaign. Anyway, Uh, for my own personal experience
among my extremely liberal side of the family, I mentioned
kind of after the election the election off handedly that
I thought there was a double standard when it came
to the press coverage of Hillary Clinton, and that I
wasn't as big as a Bernie fan as everyone else.

(12:43):
Note not I didn't like him right, and I paid
the price for it. Oh, it was an argument for
the ages. I got yelled at for hours by primarily
the men at this event, and I literally ended up
backed into a corner with people yelling at me. My

(13:04):
mom and I took shots at three am. There's a
tweet about it, some of my few tweets. I'm in
the kitchen. This is how Christmas ends, not with thing,
but that's deservedly so. And again we want to emphasize
we're not saying one way or the other. I don't
think that what we're looking at is the biases that
are here. And then also the concerns of the fact

(13:26):
that it is again divisive. Yes, yes, because I was
so shocked, I just thought, oh yeah, yeah, do you know,
no harm comment liberal they understand exactly no um And
kind of related to that, just remindering the episode I
did with the Daily Z eight Guys around women, politics
and likability in seen during that election cycle. Reporters were

(13:50):
asking why didn't we go with a more likable female
candidate like Elizabeth war Right, So Manny said, so many
people said they'd be fine with female candidate Jess not
Hillary Clinton, they'd be ecstatic to vote for Elizabeth Warren.
I guess not. Nope, Nope. It's literally the same stuff
people complained about with Clinton. Unlikeable, elitist liar. Yeah. Also,

(14:13):
Hillary just said in a documentary, no one likes Barnie Sanders,
and the internet is freaking out whether or not this
is true. If someone had said this about Hillary, and
I'm going to say, yeah, they probably did. Actually a
lot of people did. People said that to me, They
just didn't like her. They couldn't tell me why other

(14:33):
than I don't trust her, I don't like her. There
wouldn't have been and there wasn't as much back as
it is now. And you can argue this comes down
to the individuality. But again, yeah, sexism, there's a part
of that. And yes, Sanders faces media bias as well.
We know those ages and comes in here as well,
and and and he he is he is a big

(14:54):
supporter in open healthcare, all of those things, and it
is very very problematic war Obviously the Republican Party they've
always been against that and would always fight that in
every way. So yes, he does deal with a lot
of bias as well. I think he's dismissed a lot
by a lot of mainstream is true. Um, also just
his he shouts a lot, right, he shouts that's that's

(15:17):
a that's a bias. Let him talk how he wants
to talk, I say, as I yell into the mic.
So some Clinton supporters are still angry at Bernie's supporters
who stayed home, voted independent or worse, Trump and Bernie
supporters are still angry that Clinton and the Democratic Party
in their minds quote unquote, stole Bernie's nomination. And we're
seeing that it goes of that now. As in fact,

(15:38):
I just saw an interview saying once again, if Bernie
was not the actual candidate, they would not vote or
that they would vote independent. Please stop it. I did
have a friend that told me that as well. We
were sitting together a big group of us, and he
said he would not vote for Hillary and said there's
no way Trump wiwin, and in come back plast foward,

(16:02):
we started yelling at him. Now I had friends that
did that too, and they were the ones doing signing
the petition, like, oh, take it back. I'm like no,
I can't take it back, you stop talking. And unfortunately,
as as you were saying, Samantha, this whole thing really
helps out Trump and Biden, two candidates that committed much

(16:22):
more out in the open acts of sexism. And with that,
adding a side note, there is a rumor that Kamala
Harris will be endorsing Biden, and with that there's a
call that if Biden was elected, that he would put
Harris on his ticket, which sounds interesting. You know, that's
that's very strategic, I will say with Julian Cashow, he

(16:45):
who was endorsed one, yeah at this point. Well, and
then that's another controversy that I guess we'll just mention
but not really get into detailed when New York Times
endorsed both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Kocher, and the Internet
was not happy about that either. That's rolling around right now.
Oh yeah, oh yeah. And then just to put that
Corey Booker has not endorsed anyone, but seems to be

(17:07):
very much the middle child who is trying to make
amends between Bernie and Warren. Have you seeing any of
the statements, But I like that as a middle child
can appreciate that something else we wanted to touch on
here um is the sexual assault of Evelyn Yang because

(17:27):
this was a recent story in our political cycle. She is,
of course, the wife of presidential candidate Andrew Yang Um
and she detailed her alleged sexual assault while pregnant at
the hands of her O B G y N and
according to her, after reading a letter a woman wrote
to her on her husband's campaign about her, this woman
deciding to press charges of against somebody who had sexually

(17:48):
assaulted her. Evelyn Yang reported Um feeling this connection with
this person and wishing she could reach out and say basically,
I feel you. And that wasn't the first time she'd
heard stories like this on the campaign, so she decided
to go public for the first time. Sitting down with CNN,
she shared the story of her first pregnancy and how
she sought out a well known Columbia based O B

(18:10):
G y N Dr Robert Hadden. Both her and Andrew
Yang went to Columbia. I believe at first everything seemed
totally fine, but then he started asking for these really personal,
unprompted sexual questions. He asked for more frequent visits, longer visits,
assumedly taking advantage of her anxiety around her first pregnancy

(18:31):
and the difficulty of changing doctors. At one visit, he
allegedly claimed that she may need a C section and
examined her ungloved um and after this assault was over,
Eveliniang left and never returned. In her words, she kept
it to herself for so long because she didn't want
other people to feel guilty. Are too upset them and
as we've talked about before, that is a very common thing.

(18:53):
But she did go on to report it. Eighteen other
female patients of Hadden have reported him as well. He
took a plea deal in twenty sixteen. His license was removed.
I think he had to register as a level one
sexual offender, but he did not go to prison. He
had been arrested for sexual assault before Evelyn Yang ever
even showed up at his office, but it was allowed

(19:13):
to return, along with thirty one others. Yang issuing Columbia
University for a cover up and allowing a known sexual
predator to keep working, which is unfortunately a continuing routine
of many of professional level then who get to get
away with these types of things with a slap on
the wrist and return and return to keep um and

(19:33):
still not in jail. Yeah, and while we're discussing the topic,
we did want to add the current proceedings of the
Weinstein trial. Actress Annabelle SiO testified against him, describing traumatic
details of the rape. Also, it was stated that it
seemed during the testimony, Weinstein may have nodded off, which
was you know, yeah, for the course, I guess. His lawyer,

(19:54):
Donna Ratana, seemed to continue the unnecessary tactic of victim
blaming and rephrasing as a cross examination practice. She asked
questions like did you scream? Did you hit him? Try
to poke him in the eyes? And of course the
why didn't you tell anybody? I think that that again
is one more problematic issue that this is being used
again by female who also has already made a statement

(20:17):
stating that she felt that me too movement was problematic
and actually harmful, which says a lot for her personality.
Maybe I don't know. It's also rumored if you continue
to keep track, and I know it's very very very triggering,
just enough why I just reading some of these things.
It's also rumored that Rosie Perez will be testifying against

(20:37):
him as well, so that could be an interesting moment.
In the conversation as well, we wanted to talk about
Deborah Dogan, who was the Grammy CEO who got ousted,
and after that there came many a many a paperwork
that showed that she had allegedly been fired after she
filed a complaint about sexual harassment against the Grammy's lawyer.
Within this document, it talks about all the different bias,

(21:00):
this racism, sexism that's been occurring, including the fact that
the predecessor of her, the previous CEO, had actually been
accused of rape as well, and that it was all hidden.
There's a lot of things to be uncovered here, obviously,
but she was only there for I wanted six months
or a short amount of time, and during that time

(21:20):
she had stated that she was unable to see what
was going on and it was really really stifled by
the industry and not being able to do what she
was hired for and essentially as a way to bring
in inclusion. Yeah, so it's gonna be interesting to see
how that it folds, especially as we've already talked about
and we will be talking about rather with all of
the issues within the awards ceremonies. This is kind of

(21:43):
coming seeing the background of what might be happening with
the grammates, and it kind of makes sense. Yeah, we
will be getting into that in a second. But I
also wanted to touch on this. There's been this whole kerfuffle,
I guess, around this doctored photo. So if you haven't
heard about this, UM, there was discovery of photos that

(22:04):
have been doctored by the National Archives to censor references
to women's anatomy and negative things about Donald Trump from
the twenties seventeen Women's March after he was elected. The
images showed UM protesters holding signs. Only the language on
the signs, including God hates Trump and Trump and the

(22:26):
GOP hands off women were blurred out, like you could
read God hates but Trump was blurred out. Um Yeah,
things like that. UM, as were the signs that read
vagina in Possey. Those were that was blurred out. When
called out about it, they did admit. The National Archives
admitted that they had made a mistake and that they
would restore the images as soon as possible, But the

(22:47):
a c l U has filed a suit demanding to
know who ordered the altering of the image. The National
Archives claimed it was a nonpartisan move to avoid current
political controversy backfire. Yeah, and they went asked they could
not provide evidence of ever doing so before. Um and

(23:09):
also I doubt this would ever have come to light
if a reporter hadn't kind of he saw the image
and thought that looks blurred and then asked for the
original from Getty and realized that they had been doctored.
And yeah, this was part of an exhibit to commemorate
women's suffrage. By the way, no problem there. So the

(23:31):
National Archives claims they did this because they got a
lot of young visitors, but they could just you know,
just chosen difference photos. Yeah, no need to alters your concern, which,
by the way, it is more intriguing about like what
was there? Why what? And then yell. Historian Joanne Freeman wrote,
don't get me started on the irony Women's Voice being

(23:52):
erased dot dot dot from the Women's March. Yeah. Yeah,
so that's also ongoing. We'll see what happens there. And
we do want to return to some some controversy in
these awards there. Yeah, but first we're gonna take one
more quick break for word from our sponsor, and we're back.

(24:25):
Thank you, sponsor. Let's talk about the Oscar. Here we go,
Here we go, Here we go. The day the nominations
came out, I had a friend staying with me and
she woke up to me like shouting, the Irishman, the Joker.
They both lead the way for most nominations. The Joker
head slightly with eleven. That's yep, the most. And I've

(24:48):
seen all of the nominations except The Joker and Ford
versus Ferrari and y'all know I love comic books, but
The Joker was too close to in Cell for comfort
for me. I'll see it eventually. It. Yeah, I haven't
seen The Irish Men, but I have seen The Joker,
and yes, it was um an interesting movie, but nothing

(25:09):
that I would recommend. And I told you not to
watch it, right, and I was like, don't do it.
There seems to be a general dislike of women inside
the story, and I don't know if it's purposeful. I
don't know what the point of it is. Maybe it's
to show how messed up a system is. I don't know,
but you're you know. Protagonist slash antagonist sees this perspective

(25:31):
of kind of the fact that women and the rich
are problematic to his life. So you have an abusive mother, um,
and an imagined slight from a neighbor woman and a
dismissiveness of a social worker, which I take personally, Come on,
why why do they have to be portrayed that way
all the time? Um? But it's obvious what this kind

(25:52):
of sentiment is, and it is kind of alarming that
this is the best movie we've had. Well, it's really
funny because I was when I was researching this, I
was reading past reviews of it from critics, and a
lot of critics were like, it's empty, it's and then
they these same people went and gave it all these right,
And I do find it funny that the director originally

(26:13):
stated that he was doing this because he was tired
of the cancel culture and the dangerous Yeah, and then
you're like, so we're gonna reward because we call people
out and you find that you don't offensive or something,
or you find that stifling for you because you can't
say everything you want to say or do whatever you want. Right,
that's a whole other that's a whole other conversation. But

(26:36):
I do find that problematic that we're celebrating it in
such a way as in fact, and not only celebrating it,
but ignoring the other things that are out there that
should also be celebrated, if not more right, because this
is kind of another instance of Oscar so white, Oscar
so male. Women did get about the nominations, which sadly
slash happily enough, is the most Ever, most of those

(26:57):
were four behind the screen stuff though, which is still important,
still hugely important. Despite getting nominations for acting and screenplay
and all kinds of other things, a Little Women's Credit
Gerwig and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhoods director Mary
el Heller, they both weren't nominated for Best Director, and
say when she read the nomination said congratulations to those men.

(27:17):
She's created a fantastic mean bet. Midler also tweeted, maybe
we just get our own show called the Oscar Hers.
I guarantee you'll be way better organized and way more entertaining.
I'm telling you, That's why I put it in there,
like she's been on her mind. I love them that,
I love them that that needs to be on a pillow,

(27:38):
just saying. Arguably Jordan Peel for us and Lulu Wong
for writing and directing The Farewell with Aquafina Molina, Matt
Sukas for Queen and Slim, Cassie Lemons for Harriet, Lorene
Scafaria for Hustlers, and Alma Harrell for Hunting Boy. That
those all came up in this conversation of why didn't
we nominate them? Also, Aquafina herself specifically Beyonce nominated for

(28:00):
Lion Kings song Spirit. Right, only five women have been
nominated for Best Director and only one has one. It
was for a military movie. Yes, and that is interesting, Yes,
because that's something we're going to talk about a minute. Um,
there's kind of a genre bias for masculinized genres. Also,
you're curious about twenty of the seventy hosts of the
Oscars War Women this year there will be no host,

(28:24):
which is probably smart. Yeah for now right, I'm just
I don't know, Well, do you know next year for
Golden Globe any Pollarantina Fay are back. They're back. They're back. Baby.
I want to put in their knives out. My favorite
was not nominated, but only for one thing, ridiculous. We

(28:45):
are going to see it. I'm going to see it
for the first time. I love that. You're like, hey,
you can see a movie It's like to thirty in
the morning. Because I was hanging out with my and
I was like, I want to go see it. I
was like, okay, I got another friend. You have another
friend time. Oh no, only you. That's what I thought,
all right. So I think it's also noted that only
two non white actors were nominated. Jennifer Lopez was passed

(29:07):
over for Best Supporting Actors for Hustlers, and Lapida and
Yngo for Best Actors for US. Yeah, and going back
to that genre thing, I read a lot of articles
about this of genre bias for masculinized genres like war
movies being favored over feminized genres like comedy and surprisingly horror.
A lot of the movies nominated for Best Picture UM

(29:29):
are also movies about white men afraid of losing their
culture and lashing out because of it, and the bath
Does weren't much better. They also might have actually been worse.
Not a single woman of color was nominated for an
acting award in the BATHTA nominations, and all the director
nominations were also right. Santia Rivo, actress singer I actually
turned down an invitation to perform in protests of Baptist

(29:53):
so white essentially, and that one thing I read that
might be There's a lot of a lot of things
happening here, obviously, but one part of the problem that
I hadn't really considered is the lack of female critics.
This is actually pretty huge, and I'm sure we'll probably
return to it for a future episode. But in brief,
men make up about sixty of film critics and women

(30:15):
thirty four. Men write most of the reviews for most
genres except movies about women, So reviews four movies about
women are getting written less because women are the ones
that write them, and they are less women writing. Female
reviewers are likelier to mention the name of a female
director as compared to male reviewers, and when you do
that a lot of times you list other things they do,

(30:35):
which gives them more exposure. So that's not really happening.
Male critics give lower ratings to movies with female protagonists. Surprise,
so shocking, so shocking. And then we want to into
this one, I guess, with kind of a many update
on some problematic women, though there are there are, um yeah,

(30:57):
and we've got to start with Jillian Michael's and her
ridiculous interview on busfeed essentially, and which he decided it
was appropriate to use Lizzo as an example of unhealthy
glorification of obesity, insinuating she was promoting diabetes and heart problems,
and yeah, that didn't go over very well. I did
love Lizzo's response, in which she continued to twerk all

(31:19):
the way throughout her instagram is not ever calling her
out directly, but making sure it was pointed towards her.
I also do love that she also featured herself doing
her performances every night, in the stamina and the dances
and the routines that she has to go through, which
I thought about. That's the first thing I thought, like,
if anybody's out of shape, it's me. If anyone's out

(31:42):
of shape, crazy, right, because I can only last about
forty five minutes before I'm like, I'm going to die now.
And I love doing that. But the intensity, the singing,
the performance, in the continuation of her having to do
all of these things takes a lot just watching some
of the documentary for behind the scene stages or performance
as you know, as an intense level. So yeah, I

(32:03):
think it was very interesting. And and then even Jillian's
quote unquote apology was so absurd and so backhanded that
it just it's one more of the things of please
stop talking. Yeah, just why why why must you? And
we understand health and fitness is something that is your profession,
but no one really asked you about these specific people,

(32:24):
which are old co host from Biggest Loser Bob Harper
was asked, you know, what do you think? And he
made sure then let them know, he goes, I don't
give an opinion if it's not asked. If you asked
me an opinion, I may tell you because you came
directly to me and asked for it. But why do
we need to go out there and just make claims
or make criticisms for no reason. That's not my business.

(32:46):
And I think that's a great reminder it's not your business. Yeah. Yeah,
And if people don't know, because I would. I'm actually
not really familiar with Jillian Michaels. I just have seen
her background my Big Protein Way Protein Day. She was
one of the options for protein. That's all I knew
about her. There you go, but she Yeah, she's big

(33:07):
into getting fits working out right. She became known through
the show Biggest Loser, which capitalized on the weight loss
industry in the US in a major, major way. Don't
get me wrong. A lot of the people who chose
to be there it was great for them, wonderful whatever.
There was some success stories. There was a lot of
not success stories that needs to be said. But yeah,

(33:28):
she her money is made as being a personal trainer,
and that's fine, and she has a whole industry based
on that, protein shakes being one of them. Yes, in
books and all kinds of videos and such. I think
I had bought her videos a while back. They yeah,
I will say that. But again, there's no reason to

(33:50):
call out people without even knowing or even being asked
to rack about that specifically. Now she was in an
interview and trying to give an example and why why
no need? Yeah, yeah, I guess Speaking of our second
problematic women I want to talk about is JK. Rolling.
It was very disappointing so this we had just done

(34:12):
our episode on woman Harry Potter and we were like
done for the year, and then we see on Twitter
trending JK Rolling is a turf because she tweeted support
for UM, an anti trans researcher, basically UM saying biology
is a thing, like, we can't say it's not a thing.

(34:32):
And if you don't know what a turf is, it's
trans exclusionary radical feminists. And this is basically women who
who define womanhood through biology rather than gender identity. Um,
and it's it's pretty toxic. It's a way of keeping
people out and is and and they feel it as

(34:54):
a threat to the gender, which is absert in itself.
I don't understand how it's a threat. Yeah yeah, I'm
thinking statistic why why? Why? Right? What is the point?
There was no need to even talk about it, and
I guess for those out there, they would rather know

(35:15):
than not. Oh this is who you really are. I
see you now, that's fantastic. But at the same time,
you're kind of thinking there was no need, so no
one really is. Well, actually, she's Maine statements about it before,
for sure, but they kind of bypassed because it wasn't
absolutes in the statement. But now with her coming in
and conveying that she absolutely agrees that this woman has

(35:37):
the right to ignore a request of a coworker and
that's not discrimination. M that's not that's not how that goes.
If they don't want to talk to them, Okay, as
long as you're not being biased or harassing them as
an individual. There's a lot of people I don't like
at work. Has nothing to do anything else. I might,
you know what I mean. It's finally coming out, But

(36:01):
there's no need to do all of that and purposely
go out of your way to make someone uncomfortable or
hurt someone. And to say that that is a right
is even one upped to Oh, you're a horrible person
to say that that's your right to do that to
someone because you're ignorant. I don't know what makes you uncomfortable.

(36:22):
That you're exactly your rights and comfort. And unfortunately, on
top of that, she actually got the support of many
of the people that she would rally against for being whatever, sexist, biased,
any of those things, politically incorrect, hateful. She gained their
support a majority of the tweets that she would get.

(36:42):
And I don't know if she noted was I never
agreed with her before, but she's absolutely right. I never
really liked you now, But no, no no, no, I don't
believe in witchcraft like supporting Yeah, that was supporting that tweet,
and I feel like that should have been. But she
just she has and has not made any changes to

(37:03):
that opinion. And we can't change people's opinions. But people
with influence like that, you need to understand there is
a price to pay it, whether it does cancelation when
she has the billions of dollars. So I'm guessing she
don't care. Yeah, I mean you can hope, you can
hope that you can change people's mind. I mean that's

(37:24):
the benefit of being a privileged, rich white woman, isn't
it true? Um? And that it's funny because as everyone knows,
I I love Harry Potter, and I remember UM having
this moment because I also love fan fiction, fan fiction.

(37:48):
What I'm writing a fan fiction right now, I'll admit
it is it about us. No, but I wish someone
would write a fan fiction amount I don't. I can't
imagine what that would be. I'd be happy to Um.
I you know, I I opened the whole world of
fan fiction, and you just realized in the Harry Potter universe,

(38:08):
it's you marry your high school sweetheart and it's heterosexual,
and it says, so that's kind of it's um And
so fan fiction gave me all the use of wonderful
other options. Yes, and speaking of for our out here today,
one of our listeners wrote in after we did our
episode on women of Harry Potter, Sophia. Sophia wrote, I

(38:30):
have my own podcast about Harry Potter called Potter Nonsense,
where our mission is to discuss and question the aspects
of the world which JK. Rowling is uninterested in exploring.
Great great title. Yes, I really love that name. Just
joined with that out there. It's awesome keeping yes, she
continues as feminist. My co host Ray and I have

(38:51):
to temper our love of the series with the more
unfortunate aspects of J. K. Rowlings personal politics which come
through in the books racism, fat phobia, able is um,
internalized misogyny, and the more recent ways she has been
problematic using her public platform, most notably her transphobia. We
have had episodes where we go deep on the female
characters we feel we're underserved by the series, including one
of the most interesting discussions I think I've ever had

(39:12):
regarding Harry Potter about the fact that adult women who
aren't mothers are either evil are peable in the world.
Were presented with McGonagall is not a mother in the
traditional sense, but she serves as a parential figure to
Griffin Doors and talks as a mother by the end
of the series, so we excluded them from our ranks
of the childless scolds and the spinster weirdos. While our
discussions are often critical, we come from a place of

(39:33):
loving the series and a genuine desire to figure out
how the world works. Is there another wizarding prison or
does everyone have to go to evil skeleton jail? Is
wizarding Britain a democracy? And we also have a bit
of fun with things like assigning houses to Marvel superheroes.
Oh Sofia, can you assign us the house? I mean truly,
not just because what we want it to be. I

(39:53):
mean I would love that. I feel pretty confident, which
what I am. We also need to include, of course,
producer Andrew Yes Mitron is. By the way, is the
swift I told you mine it's some kind of horse,
right Yeah. And You're like, oh, no, You're gonna die
or something. I was like, what, No, I think I
might have just been figuring because you are a nightmare.

(40:14):
Oh all day, all day? Well, that podcast sounds right
at my alley and if any listeners, um, I want
to check it out please please do so. And hey, y'all,
guess what we're going to be in l A soon.
We are, that's right, So if you all you know
I want to tell us what to do in l A,
that'd be awesome as well as if you know anybody's around,

(40:37):
maybe you want to come get some coffee with us,
let us up. Yes, yes, a chess. We will be
in l A from February twelve through the fifteenth. I
think we fly out on the sixteenth, but we'll we'll
be too busy flying out that day, so we'll see
what I meet is at the airport. That's cool. You
give them specific days. I don't give them a specifics.
You're just going to be vague. And yeah, because I
don't want them to come if they don't like us
to come get us. Oh well that's okay, that would

(41:02):
be a really interesting hateless Look. I always think someone's
gonna try to kidnap bus. Okay, Oh well that's great,
Please don't do that. But where we will be speaking
at podcasts Movement Evolutions in l A at that time
and we would love to meet up here from you
if if you're not going to be in l A
and you'd still like to contact us, you can. Our

(41:23):
email is Stuffed Media mom Stuff at iHeart media dot com.
You can also find us on Twitter at mom Stuff
Podcast or on Instagram at Stuff I've Never Told You.
Thanks as always to our super producer Andrew Howard, and
thanks to you for listening. For more podcasts on my
heart Radio, you can listen to the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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