June 23, 2017 • 32 mins
From pussy hats to "nevertheless, she persisted" swag, who profits off of the movement?
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Emily, and this is Bridget and this is
more stuff Mom never told you. So this time we
want to look a little bit closer at how the
resistance will be commercialized. The resistance will be commercialized, like, um,
(00:30):
everyone knows and you can't really avoid it. These days,
protests and activism seems to be the hot new thing, right,
Like I've seen people with shorts to say things like
protest is the new brunch d C. Obviously some DC
person came up with that. It's very d C. Um.
I actually had friends that they wanted to They have
(00:50):
like a brunch club every couple of weeks, and so
they have it on Saturdays, and so now they have
it like enveloped into into like protests, So like we're
gonna go to this protest then brunched. Well, here in
d C, I feel like you can find a protest
everywhere you can. It's a pretty crowded schedule. Um. You know,
with protests and activism being sort of the hot new thing,
(01:11):
I think inevitably we'll find places where commerce and activism
seem to intersect, right. So I think it's important when
we're buying all these mugs and hats and shirts et cetera,
that we're spending our money in the right places and
that we're not just going to you know, give profits
to people who are actually helping the resistance, are helping
a cause, right, And I think there's a lot of
(01:32):
companies that are attempting and getting this so wrong. And
of course, the first most flagrant fall on your face
failure that we saw with this resistance marketing was Pepsi
enough a coke here enough just kidding, but Coca Cola
calls winks where this is not sponsored now. But I
(01:56):
just think, I mean, how delightfully pissed was the internet?
So just revel in what a failure the Pepsi commercial was.
So if you don't remember this commercial, um, it starts
with Kendall Jenner. Um, the is she the youngest Kardashian
question mark? I think it's Kylie. Oh yeah, yeah, it
is Kindlie, you're right. Um. So she is at a
(02:20):
photo shoot, she's a model, She's got like a blond
wig and a face full of makeup. She sees that
there is like a protest happening outside, and it seems
to be like most people of artists and like young people,
they're like token millennial. Yeah, like like basically what you
would think of as if like you were like a
casting manager and someone was like, get me some like
(02:40):
edgy millennials like that undercut Asian rummy. It's like it's
like exactly what you think of as like edgy hip millennials.
And it's like so obvious the diversity. So let's have
one person from every corner totally, the racial totally. It's
like a better it's very like it's very very clear. Um.
(03:04):
And so someone like walks by and sort of given
Mike gives her like a nod of approval, like like,
come on, girl, break free from your chains of oppression
in the form of your blonde. So she takes off
her blonde wig, hands it to like her assistance of
color in her face and then like pushes her aside
to join the protest. So then she she she smears
(03:26):
off her lipstick. It's very defiant. Um. She barges outside,
she joins the protests. She somehow becomes like the leader
of the protests very quickly. Well she's a white one, Yeah,
she should be in front of the pack, right she
you know, but barges in. She grab this protest is
like very well that they've got. You know, cooler is
full of ice with pepsi. She grabs a protest with
(03:50):
the cooler, never notart of it, not part of it.
So Kendall hands the soda to this police officer who
was standing in a line of other police officers, also white,
kind of playing off of this really famous image that
came out of a Black Lives Matter protest where this
this woman kind of standing in a flowing kind of
gray dress um and her name is Aisha Evans, and
(04:12):
she is sort of approaching the police officers and this
very defiant, sort of like just defiant way, and they're
clearly sort of having this kind of oversized reaction right
fact that she's I mean, they're super militarized, right, and
what are they doing Instead of her handing them a pepsi,
she's handing over her risks right to be like zip locked.
And so it's interesting that they've chosen to sort of
(04:35):
play off of this, like do you think do you
think they actually did that on purpose? By the way, oh,
PEPSI played on this image, I don't know. I mean
when you see that, when you see the images side
by side, it's difficult to say that they didn't know.
It's like almost identical. It's almost identical. Um, it really is,
and so you know, clear supper power, privileged classes. It's identical,
(04:57):
but like in reverse, right, like mean, who let that
I would love to be the like a fly on
the wall in this you know where this happens brilliant.
So essentially, you know, they played on this very famous
image and not surprisingly, people on the internet lost their
(05:17):
collective minds. Um. People were tweeting how awhol it was,
making fun of it. You know what was really funny
is that um mL k's daughter actually tweeted if only
daddy had known him at the power of pepsi. Um,
because again, like this idea that handing a police officer
a drink would be the thing that like solves police brutality.
(05:39):
Of course I didn't know that pepsi was so powerful.
And somehow Candle Jenner is less threatening to white police officer.
I want to imagine that, Imagine that than I Usua Evans.
This young woman, like I mean, is treated like a
criminal for being at a protest. It's the third And
I also think, um, what's kind of funny about this
ad is that I don't like that it like presents
(06:01):
you know, this person who wasn't even really involved as
being the like you know and all be all solution.
But then you also can back up there's a macro
narrative behind it, all about the Kardashians and race. I
that used to be an episode. I will say I
am obsessed with the Kardashians. I've seen every episode, I've
watched every spin of I'm a fan because I'm fascinated
(06:23):
by the story. But I also think that when he
comes to cultural appropriation, that is, we have to we
have to do it. Yes. Also a fun fact, I
own Kim Kardashian's book Selfie. It's just a bunch of
selfies and why may I ask? I got it as
a gift. I also am like, I'm it's a it's
(06:44):
a fascinating book. I mean, I think she's fascinating. I
love selfies and I have other people's selfies. Um, and
I think you know, I was reading some article or
some reviews. Yeah, so I'm pro selfie. I don't think
a lot of selfies, but I'm pro selfie. There was
a review in The New York Times by um, I
think it's to you Cole who said that like it was.
(07:05):
He ranked it as the best art book of like
whatever year it came out. And I do think that,
like if Kim Kardashian was a man, that book would
be considered like a high art book. Like, I think
it's hard to not respect the empire they've felt totally,
but it's also it's like there's this voyeuristic fascination anyway,
so we will have to definitely do a whole Kardashian episode.
(07:27):
Did you guys know you were tuning into a Kim
Kardashian related pud right, Well, I'm sure that stuff Mom
never told you or me. So Kendall Jenner's like smacked
ab in the front and center of Pepsi's phenomenal fail,
like what a face palm moment. Internet freaks out. They
pull the ad, the apologize, So what's the funny is
that they apologized but in Pepsi's apology and this was
(07:48):
like such an interesting tidbit, they specifically apologized to Kendall
Jenner for quote putting her in this situation. It's like,
we're sorry. This ad was clearly like we missed the
mark and a special apology to Kendall Jenner for putting
her in this situation, And what's funny is it? Like,
because I read a lot of like trashy magazines and
stuff I don't remember before this ad even came out,
(08:11):
reading a little blurb and like US Weekly or something
where Kendall was describing the ad before it had ever
come out and be like, I'm so excited, I'm so
excited that we can. You know, well, creative director and
talent are two different worlds, and so I think first
of all, they missed the marketing apology. They should not
(08:32):
have apologise to Kendall Jenner publicly. She should have maybe
done that privately. I'm sure they did, but um, but
I think it's your job as talent to be mindful
of who you choose to work with and what the
big picture is. Yeah, I mean I wonder part of
me even wonders, like in that situation. Let's say that
Kendall was like something about this ad doesn't feel right
(08:55):
to me, and she'd spoken up and voiced that, like
like what does that look like? Well, you know, Nicki
Minaj actually has a really great example of being assertive
in that kind of a setting that I actually draw
from and all of my certific interview. It's from her
e true Hollywood story. Yes, but like, here's the thing
about that interview. She pulled this section off of it,
(09:17):
so you have to kind of, you know, go to
the recesses of the internet to find this video version
of it that was created by an art student UM
in New York City. I think it's n y T
or something n y I T. I'm not sure what
the college is, but I've been in touch with her
to get her permission to use her UM video version.
That's actually just about the text. So it's it's like
(09:38):
a phonetic typography version of Nicki Minaj saying, you know what,
if there's a fifty dollar closed budget, I am going
to leave. I am going to be assertive. Now in
that instance, it's about budget, it's about quality. But she
models exactly the kind of behavior you have to exhibit
to draw boundaries for yourself and say, here's the kind
of respect I expect. Here's how I can condition others
(10:00):
to treat me the way I deserve to be treated.
And I think those same skills can be applied to causes.
You know, those same skills can be applied to I'm
not going to be a part of this. This is
a pr disaster waiting to happen. I honestly feel like
there needs to be a case study on Nicki Minaj
because there's an There's an amazing interview where the interviewer
basically asks her about this like beef between her then
(10:23):
boyfriend who was also a rapper whose name I cannot
remember um and another rapper And she's like, the interviewer
is like, do you feel like you know drama follows you?
And she was like, what is two grown men having
drama have to do with me? Like, like, I am
an artist and I'm a person and I have my
my own person Like why don't you even bring that
up in an interview? So I really do feel like
she is someone who is constantly love her but you know,
(10:46):
reaffirming friend of the show, right, n we can we
do an episode on Nicki please? Yeah? Okay, so we'll
come back to that. So I think the point here
is that Pepsi coke. Wherever we spend our doll ers,
however we reward or don't reward companies and hold them accountable,
We as consumers have massive power here. We have massive
(11:07):
influence and especially in the age of social media where
everybody like joyfully complained, joyfully trashed Pepsi for their mistake.
We have really um more power as consumers to show
companies what kind of messaging we do and do not
approve of. And in the age of resisting Trump, in
that sort of backlash against the feeling of being under
(11:29):
attack for minorities and women and different groups of all kinds,
I think we can take that power into our hands
and harness it totally. And I also um and we'll
talk a bit more about this going forward, but I
think it's important to lift up that like it doesn't
have to be all bad, right, right, we can reward
companies who do the right thing with praise, right like
(11:50):
we can if a company makes a good choice, like
a lot of companies were giving making a big show
of giving money to the A C l U and
so like, you know, if you want to as consumers,
it's out of it is saying like I'm not going
to give my money to x y Z company because
they fund crappy things, and also saying everyone should go
out and buy x y Z brand because they're giving money,
and then an ambassador exactly I know here in d
(12:11):
C during the weekend of the inauguration when so many
people were pouring into d C to attend protests, um
a lot of it and all because it's DC. It
always goes back to brunch. But a lot of local
restaurants were saying, like, if you buy, if you come
for brunch on inauguration weekend, x amount of the proceeds
are going to go to the A C l U.
(12:32):
And it's like, you really did get to feel like
by going out to eat and spending money at your
favorite restaurant and buying a few drinks that you were
actually you know, helping the support the cause. And it's
good for business. Becus does have seen this work for them,
so are doing more of it. And it's also interesting
for us as consumers to see this as a new
form of activism. Everybody wins. Now, when we come back
from this quick break, we're going to talk about a
(12:53):
few companies that are doing this right. But first let's
take a quick break. We'll be right back, So bridget
it's not all bad news, right, It's not all bad.
It seems very bad. Pulling a PEPSI should be a
new like phrase that is to judge companies trying to
(13:16):
commercialize the resistance. But I'm excited to say that there's
a great example. There's a couple of great examples out there, um,
particularly around key phrases that have been capitalized on very quickly.
So when nasty woman was a comment leveled by Donald
Trump against Hillary Clinton in a debate, all the T
(13:37):
shirt companies right, all the Etsy creators, all the independent peeps,
and you know, it seems like everywhere you go on
the Internet, all of a sudden, I'm getting hit with
like Facebook ads saying you should buy this nasty woman.
Algorithm knows you're a nasty woman. They're like, yeah, this
woman is what urban dwelling, you know, between and thirty
five female. I'm gonna market the hum And so, you know,
(14:00):
with a lot of the it's important to say that
with a lot of the sort of feminist, e empowering
slogans that take off onto mugs and T shirts and stuff,
not all of them do something good in terms of
like giving proceeds to organization or a cause. But the
creator of what you might think of as like the
iconic nasty woman shirt, which is the phrase nasty woman
in a heart at Google ghosts, Google R. So that
(14:25):
was actually a kind of a huge wind. So they
raised a hundred and thirty k for Planned Parenthood right
off of the bat on that shirt. And I'm sure
it's trickled in over time as well, totally between the
nasty woman shirts proceeds. And nevertheless she persisted, um, which
was the phrase that came about when actually, I'm like blaking,
(14:48):
was told that she could not oh, she couldn't speak
on the Senate floor and it was the speaker of
somebody or the minority leader. Yeah, she was told it
was the majority leader. So m McConnell basically like I
made her stop because she was warned, she was given
a fair warning, but nevertheless she persisted. We were like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(15:09):
there's another kind of interesting tidbit about a bunch of
women who actually, you know, got that phrase tattooed on them.
You know, hundred plus women in Minneapolis and same million years.
If you were, if you were like like a progressive woman,
would you ever think that you'd be getting a Mitch
McConnell quote. G Please sminty listeners, if you have a
resistance related tattoo, we have to see it. Instagram, Please
(15:33):
shoot us on Instagram at stuff mom never told you
on Insta. But another thing to note about nevertheless, she
persisted that shirt is that Barney's is also selling a
shirt for a hundred and nine dollars a pop. Feel,
I mean, such a good bargain, right, I know, it's
like the one per center resistance, Like who's that marketed to?
(15:56):
You know, no idea? And then it's like Cheryl Crow
like you know right. But the of course, the interesting
thing is where is that profit going to? I mean
asumably Barnies. I mean, you know, when you go to
the site, the shirt looks amazing, it's like a great shirt,
but like it doesn't say, you know, money goes to
plan Parent and a C L you whatever. You've got
(16:18):
to look closely and read between the lines. And I
don't want people to think that I'm saying, like, don't
buy that Nasty Woman shirt or whatever, or don't create
their creators. I'm sure listening to this or like, but
I want to create these shirts. If I'm going to
design something to sell, might I not? Might as well
design for the resistance totally. I mean there's I think
(16:38):
the challenges if you are a creator, if you are
an independent seller and you are creating cool stuff. Shout
out to all the designers out there, because that is
hard to do. I've been struggling. If anyone wants to
help me make some cool swag, let me know, um,
because it's it really does take a lot of work.
It does think about proceeds going to the organizations you
(17:00):
want to support, and I should really do more of that.
A boss stop. Yeah, I mean, are you cashing in
on the resistance? Well, I'm resistant of that because I
feel like it's appropriating something. I feel like, you know,
we we saw a dramatic downturn actually after the inauguration
because our message is about empowerment and tools and tactics
(17:24):
for taking your career into your own hands and your
own power. But people weren't actually feeling that, like ready
to navigate career transition. After January. People were depressed. Our
audience was depressed. And whereas they're signing up for how
to run for office trainings, they weren't signing up for
our trainings. And so I asked. I. We had a
moment with our team when we were thinking and my
(17:46):
board saying, Okay, should we change our marketing in the
age of Trump? Should I make bossed up like positioned
as an answer to the like demise of hope and change,
and we I can't say that we've resolved that issue
because I think there are some tweeks we could make,
but we feel good as a business owner, like cashing
(18:09):
in even though we're not you know, we're not selling
T shirts. Yeah. I mean, I think in the in
terms of how people are resisting Trump, I think it's
different for everybody. For some that might mean like, now,
what's the time to take my career into my own hands.
I've always wanted to like start this business. Yeah, you know,
the world's on fire, I'm gonna do it, right, think,
But I think there was an early hunkering down that happened,
(18:31):
and that we are coming out of that hunker. I agree,
and thank god, because I can't hunker anymore. I'm hungered down.
I'm hungered out. But I also think it's in stark
contrast to for instance, another really gross example here, which
is vogues Um spread like their resistancy photos that featured
(18:52):
a Mark Jacob's safety pin, which is like that was
I don't think it really took off, but it was
that symbol too. It was like hot for a minute.
Basically this idea that like you know, if I think
after Brexit people started wearing people in the UK, Yes,
so after the Brexit vote, people started wearing safety pins
to better together, better together, to symbolize like, hey, I
(19:16):
didn't vote for this, like don't write me in. And
so that idea sort of spread here in the States
where people started wearing safety pins to be like I
didn't vote for Trump. I am a designated like quote
unquote safe person. Um so like really it was supposed
to be like a way to show that like I'm
with you and what I what I so want. I
(19:38):
will say that like as someone who has last months
of Facebook friends who are very sort of like progressive people,
I saw so many people sort of like being into this,
and I just want to say, like you were into it,
I am not coming for you or like bashing you.
I think it was like very well intentioned, but I
think what I think it's interesting about the safety pin
thing and why for me it just like it was
(19:58):
not something I found, you know, empowering, appreciate. It's put
yourself out there, right, because like if you're gonna it's
halfway exactly exactly and I think they're like I read
this really interesting article that I think nailed the point,
which is that like, as people of color, we are
used to getting lumped in with like the group always
(20:21):
and so you know, if you're a black person, you're very,
very used to people being like, well, all black people
are X y Z, and like you're you just have
to accept that that's part of being a person of color.
And I think that for a lot of white people
it was the first time that they had to confront
this idea of like people are going to look at
me and think I voted for Trump and I didn't
and like wanting to do something to make it clear
(20:42):
like no, I am not like you know, white person
who voted for Trump. I didn't vote for him exactly.
And I think that like that is that was I
could never really articulated into about this article that like
laid it out where it's like we as people of color,
deal with this every day, all day, all the time,
and that like for the first time, or maybe at
(21:02):
the first time, like at a time where you know,
white people were actively not actively wanting to be seen
as like good white people. It's like a visible white
gilt expression exactly, um, and so it's was already like
not something I loved. But then the Vogue spread of
like a three hundred and fifty dollars safety j Where
(21:26):
do I even start? So basically Vogue had an entire
spread that's like, here's how you can, you know, fast,
you can accessorize your you know, resistance with our like
high fashion resistance. And I just think it's things like
that where it's like if I could almost be okay
with that, if like the proceeds when somebody good or
(21:47):
I felt like, you know, when you buy that safety pin,
you're contributing to something good financially or supporting something good,
but you're not right. And you know what's a in
the past sort of a surefire that I've been able
as a consumer to be more careful with that is
through the campaigns that I've supported. So what's cool is
(22:08):
that these high fashion designers typically get roped into presidential campaigns.
And HRC store was on fire. Yes, her store was
like actually did have Mark Jacobs design and you know what,
all of the proceeds go to the campaign. So when
you want to buy some high fashion resistance care, I mean,
it's not presidential season yet, but remember that you can
(22:31):
always purchase through the official campaign that you support through
their online store. And I have tons of cool swag
from Obama Day is especially, like, yeah, I have a lot,
I mean like and it doesn't even have to necessarily
be um, you know, attached to some sort of electoral campaign,
like plenty of campaigns like advocacy campaign and some really stuff.
I love. I love it. That's becoming more of a
(22:52):
thing that activists have to do. So all right, let's
take a quick break, and when we come back, we're
going to talk through what we as consumers can do
in the midst of this sort of mine field of
resistance swear and resistance consumer culture to be better. Sound good,
Let's do it. Okay, alright, bridget what can we do
(23:18):
about this so it's not all doom and gloom? You know,
as we said, there are plenty of ways that we
can be savvy consumers and sort of really know where
our money is going. And I mean, I, like I
said earlier, I mean I actually think it's the idea
that people can feel like they're making it like doing
some sort of activism by spending money. I think that's
kind of empowering. I also think that people like, we're
(23:41):
well practiced online shoppers anyway, true, you're already gonna buy
crap totally, totally. And I think like for people like
my mom who like probably will not be going to
a protest anytime soon, she can feel good when she
goes to you know, buy X, y Z thing and
they give the money some place. So I think that
like knowing where your money goes is really key and
(24:02):
then also really thinking through you know, intentional ways that
people are using commerce to sort of make a statement
like grab your wallet. That really encouraged consumers to know
which products were you know, um not making the okay,
like not a good kind of nesting. Not like Walmart's
selling all Lives Matter shirts right next to their Black
(24:23):
Lives Matter shots and they're what is a blue lives
blue Yeah? So yeah, if it's a company that you
know isn't doing that, you should not be spending money
on if you want, if you're someone who's actively involved
in like the resistance, you know, so really knowing kind
of where your money is going and making intentional purchasing
decisions based on that, I want to shout out to
(24:44):
grab your wallet, dot org which you can go to
and it's an active spreadsheet that's constantly being updated, and
they are as organizers in communication with companies that are
not doing it right to give them an opportunity to
get put on the nice list. So it's like a
naughty list nice list in real hime that I think
is a good thing because they're actually keeping in communication
with the companies. Yeah, and that's what's what I'm saying.
(25:06):
I love the model of kind of love It Shove
It where it's like you can shout out companies that
are doing the right thing and tell all your friends, right,
you don't google love It shove It. Yeah, that's probably
wilts for you. But yeah, it's not. It's not all
just scolding companies that are doing it wrong, but it's
also shouting out companies that are doing it right, which
I really really appreciate. And then the other thing I
(25:28):
want to make mention of is, first of all, not
everybody lives in Washington, d C. Where you can protest
and brunch every weekend. Um, So for those of us
who are looking for an opportunity to be engaged, I
want to encourage us to not see consumerism as the
only path forward. To me, it feels kind of it
reminds me of clicktivism, which is like when we were
(25:48):
all obsessed with UM signatures and petitions, like online petitions,
which our industry, like the political are super into it
because it's a list building like moneymaker. But I'm here
to say that, you know, signing a petition online and
buying uh. Nevertheless, she persisted, sure is not sufficient. I
(26:10):
think back to I'm such a constitutional geek that I
think of UM the sort of quote the price of
liberty is eternal vigilance. I think that's a luck quote.
Somebody correct me on. That's funny because my mom used
to always she modified that quote and said, like the
cost of the clean house is constant vigilance. She would
she would say that all the time to justify George Lamadad.
(26:34):
She well, she's evoking our nation's straight to carry us
forth to a cleaner future. She's got my vote. But really,
like eternal vigilance doesn't mean buy some stuff and feel
like you can sleep at night. I think we have
to be more engaged. I think we have to see
what's happening in our community. Is whether you live in Washington,
d C. Or you know, the rural countryside of of America.
(26:57):
It's not about like starting your own thing, about finding
the organizations on a community level that are doing the
work you believe in and get your butt to a
volunteer role, like getting it out there, get you know
it matters to show up and protest whenever and however
you can. Some people, we should do a whole podcast
on women and protests totally. Some people really loathe protesting,
but solidarity is not limited to clicktivism totally. And I
(27:22):
just want to lift up something else that you said,
which is that you know a lot of people and
this is something that like is a personal pet peeve
of mine as a long time organizer. A lot of
people Basically, I feel like when Trump got elected, after
the inauguration, it was like January one, or everybody's in
the gym because it's like their new year's solution to
go to the gym, and like they all they all
tried to be personal trainers, right, Like a lot of
(27:43):
people who have not really been in the movement for
a long time sort of like now that like the
resistance is like the hot thing, thinking they can like
start an organization. I want to empower folks to like
do what feels right, but like, there are probably people
doing the work who like I have been doing it,
who have have been doing it, and like, you know,
I think it's important to think through like, do do
I feel like I'm the right person to sort of
(28:05):
like be the face of this thing or are there
people already doing network that's like a personal petieve of
mine were like, Oh, it's not personal. That's a real thing,
because I feel like there are a lot of people
now who are like, oh, like the hot new thing
is like running training to people to run for office,
and it's like I used to work in that space,
and you know what, it's really hard. Getting people to
run for office. Takes more than like a week long
(28:25):
seminar in a hotel lobby or whatever. It's a lot
of work that goes into that, you know. I was
sort of relieved to hear say some good things about this.
Was Glennon Doyle Milton. Who is this woman in the
professional development or spiritual guru type space. I have to
be honest, I've never been very I haven't paid a
lot of attention to her until I saw her make
(28:46):
this really powerful statement and use her platform, even you know,
as a white woman, she used in the in the media,
she used her platform to set send a really powerful
message specifically to white women about and we need to
make our feminism intersectional or it's not feminism at all.
And in that quote, she actually said, what we need
to remember is that this is just a touch of
(29:08):
the pain that so many marginalized people in this country
has have been feeling for ages, for black people and
brown people, and trans people and gay people and muslim
people and Native Americans and poor people. She says what
sucks is that it took us being personally affected, and
she means us, like white women, to finally show up.
We cannot show up for the movement and say here
(29:30):
we are until we say we're so damn sorry. It
took us so long. So it's about like not showing
up and saying here we are. I'm going to start
a thing necessarily, it's like, how can we be of
support to communities who've been in their own resistance before
it was like the plurality or majority of us totally
And I think that like that's completely my um my
(29:52):
mindset about this kind of work is that you know,
oppression is linked right, Like it might not be my
personal struggle, but you know, it's if they're not able
to show up for other people where they're at and
what issues they're facing, and you can only really face
someone it's like your specific pet issue. And again, like
we I think we said this in an earlier episode.
Of course we all have blind spots. I have my
own blind spots where I don't remember what the issue was,
(30:15):
but I was organizing some event and someone was like, oh,
well the event be accessible for folks with disabilities and
I was like, oh, it's not. And I didn't even
think about that, right, And so we have a checklist now, Okay,
So like we're we do a lot of event planning.
We don't always get it right right and my company,
so it's like, how can we not just count on
our individual blind spots being corrected is a huge part
(30:38):
of it, but how can we then institute systems for
preventing blind spots from you know, systemically being a part
of how you do what you do. So it's it's tricky,
it's tricky, and we don't always get it right, but
we're getting better together. You know, I love it so
many lovely bumber stickers are necessary in the age of
(30:58):
the resistance. So moving forward, I think for all of
us to be woke consumers, it requires doing our due diligence.
It requires doing more than just buying and putting something
in the cart online, and it requires listening to one
another about not only how can we show up as
white women I'm talking white women especially and lead something,
(31:21):
but how about listen to what else is being done already,
Who's who's been in this movement for a long time,
and how can we support their work? And then for entrepreneurs,
for my creatives out there, my side hustlers, and for me,
I'm like having a moment of realization here, like, how
can we be more institutionalized about supporting those organizations like
the a c l U and Plant Parenthood have been
(31:43):
doing the work for a long time, Because I think
consumers also appreciate that. So I know there's a billion
things for business owners to think about, but let's add
this one to the priority list. Have to love it cool.
So alright, y'all, we want to hear from you. How
are you resisting? How does consumer resinistons fit into your
(32:04):
schmorga spard of activism? Right? Now and does it. If
there's a company out there that's doing it super super right,
let us know there's a company out there that is
guy your blood boiling because they're doing it, they're doing
it super wrong. And again, if you've got a resistance
related tattoo, let us know if you want to see it.
So you can tag us in your pictures on instas
(32:26):
stuff Mom Never told You on Instagram. You can tweet
at us at Mom's Stuff podcast on Twitter, or send
us a good old fashioned email at mom Stuff at
how stuff works dot com
This is Emily, and this is Bridget and this is
more stuff Mom never told you. So this time we
want to look a little bit closer at how the
resistance will be commercialized. The resistance will be commercialized, like, um,
(00:30):
everyone knows and you can't really avoid it. These days,
protests and activism seems to be the hot new thing, right,
Like I've seen people with shorts to say things like
protest is the new brunch d C. Obviously some DC
person came up with that. It's very d C. Um.
I actually had friends that they wanted to They have
(00:50):
like a brunch club every couple of weeks, and so
they have it on Saturdays, and so now they have
it like enveloped into into like protests, So like we're
gonna go to this protest then brunched. Well, here in
d C, I feel like you can find a protest
everywhere you can. It's a pretty crowded schedule. Um. You know,
with protests and activism being sort of the hot new thing,
(01:11):
I think inevitably we'll find places where commerce and activism
seem to intersect, right. So I think it's important when
we're buying all these mugs and hats and shirts et cetera,
that we're spending our money in the right places and
that we're not just going to you know, give profits
to people who are actually helping the resistance, are helping
a cause, right, And I think there's a lot of
(01:32):
companies that are attempting and getting this so wrong. And
of course, the first most flagrant fall on your face
failure that we saw with this resistance marketing was Pepsi
enough a coke here enough just kidding, but Coca Cola
calls winks where this is not sponsored now. But I
(01:56):
just think, I mean, how delightfully pissed was the internet?
So just revel in what a failure the Pepsi commercial was.
So if you don't remember this commercial, um, it starts
with Kendall Jenner. Um, the is she the youngest Kardashian
question mark? I think it's Kylie. Oh yeah, yeah, it
is Kindlie, you're right. Um. So she is at a
(02:20):
photo shoot, she's a model, She's got like a blond
wig and a face full of makeup. She sees that
there is like a protest happening outside, and it seems
to be like most people of artists and like young people,
they're like token millennial. Yeah, like like basically what you
would think of as if like you were like a
casting manager and someone was like, get me some like
(02:40):
edgy millennials like that undercut Asian rummy. It's like it's
like exactly what you think of as like edgy hip millennials.
And it's like so obvious the diversity. So let's have
one person from every corner totally, the racial totally. It's
like a better it's very like it's very very clear. Um.
(03:04):
And so someone like walks by and sort of given
Mike gives her like a nod of approval, like like,
come on, girl, break free from your chains of oppression
in the form of your blonde. So she takes off
her blonde wig, hands it to like her assistance of
color in her face and then like pushes her aside
to join the protest. So then she she she smears
(03:26):
off her lipstick. It's very defiant. Um. She barges outside,
she joins the protests. She somehow becomes like the leader
of the protests very quickly. Well she's a white one, Yeah,
she should be in front of the pack, right she
you know, but barges in. She grab this protest is
like very well that they've got. You know, cooler is
full of ice with pepsi. She grabs a protest with
(03:50):
the cooler, never notart of it, not part of it.
So Kendall hands the soda to this police officer who
was standing in a line of other police officers, also white,
kind of playing off of this really famous image that
came out of a Black Lives Matter protest where this
this woman kind of standing in a flowing kind of
gray dress um and her name is Aisha Evans, and
(04:12):
she is sort of approaching the police officers and this
very defiant, sort of like just defiant way, and they're
clearly sort of having this kind of oversized reaction right
fact that she's I mean, they're super militarized, right, and
what are they doing Instead of her handing them a pepsi,
she's handing over her risks right to be like zip locked.
And so it's interesting that they've chosen to sort of
(04:35):
play off of this, like do you think do you
think they actually did that on purpose? By the way, oh,
PEPSI played on this image, I don't know. I mean
when you see that, when you see the images side
by side, it's difficult to say that they didn't know.
It's like almost identical. It's almost identical. Um, it really is,
and so you know, clear supper power, privileged classes. It's identical,
(04:57):
but like in reverse, right, like mean, who let that
I would love to be the like a fly on
the wall in this you know where this happens brilliant.
So essentially, you know, they played on this very famous
image and not surprisingly, people on the internet lost their
(05:17):
collective minds. Um. People were tweeting how awhol it was,
making fun of it. You know what was really funny
is that um mL k's daughter actually tweeted if only
daddy had known him at the power of pepsi. Um,
because again, like this idea that handing a police officer
a drink would be the thing that like solves police brutality.
(05:39):
Of course I didn't know that pepsi was so powerful.
And somehow Candle Jenner is less threatening to white police officer.
I want to imagine that, Imagine that than I Usua Evans.
This young woman, like I mean, is treated like a
criminal for being at a protest. It's the third And
I also think, um, what's kind of funny about this
ad is that I don't like that it like presents
(06:01):
you know, this person who wasn't even really involved as
being the like you know and all be all solution.
But then you also can back up there's a macro
narrative behind it, all about the Kardashians and race. I
that used to be an episode. I will say I
am obsessed with the Kardashians. I've seen every episode, I've
watched every spin of I'm a fan because I'm fascinated
(06:23):
by the story. But I also think that when he
comes to cultural appropriation, that is, we have to we
have to do it. Yes. Also a fun fact, I
own Kim Kardashian's book Selfie. It's just a bunch of
selfies and why may I ask? I got it as
a gift. I also am like, I'm it's a it's
(06:44):
a fascinating book. I mean, I think she's fascinating. I
love selfies and I have other people's selfies. Um, and
I think you know, I was reading some article or
some reviews. Yeah, so I'm pro selfie. I don't think
a lot of selfies, but I'm pro selfie. There was
a review in The New York Times by um, I
think it's to you Cole who said that like it was.
(07:05):
He ranked it as the best art book of like
whatever year it came out. And I do think that,
like if Kim Kardashian was a man, that book would
be considered like a high art book. Like, I think
it's hard to not respect the empire they've felt totally,
but it's also it's like there's this voyeuristic fascination anyway,
so we will have to definitely do a whole Kardashian episode.
(07:27):
Did you guys know you were tuning into a Kim
Kardashian related pud right, Well, I'm sure that stuff Mom
never told you or me. So Kendall Jenner's like smacked
ab in the front and center of Pepsi's phenomenal fail,
like what a face palm moment. Internet freaks out. They
pull the ad, the apologize, So what's the funny is
that they apologized but in Pepsi's apology and this was
(07:48):
like such an interesting tidbit, they specifically apologized to Kendall
Jenner for quote putting her in this situation. It's like,
we're sorry. This ad was clearly like we missed the
mark and a special apology to Kendall Jenner for putting
her in this situation, And what's funny is it? Like,
because I read a lot of like trashy magazines and
stuff I don't remember before this ad even came out,
(08:11):
reading a little blurb and like US Weekly or something
where Kendall was describing the ad before it had ever
come out and be like, I'm so excited, I'm so
excited that we can. You know, well, creative director and
talent are two different worlds, and so I think first
of all, they missed the marketing apology. They should not
(08:32):
have apologise to Kendall Jenner publicly. She should have maybe
done that privately. I'm sure they did, but um, but
I think it's your job as talent to be mindful
of who you choose to work with and what the
big picture is. Yeah, I mean I wonder part of
me even wonders, like in that situation. Let's say that
Kendall was like something about this ad doesn't feel right
(08:55):
to me, and she'd spoken up and voiced that, like
like what does that look like? Well, you know, Nicki
Minaj actually has a really great example of being assertive
in that kind of a setting that I actually draw
from and all of my certific interview. It's from her
e true Hollywood story. Yes, but like, here's the thing
about that interview. She pulled this section off of it,
(09:17):
so you have to kind of, you know, go to
the recesses of the internet to find this video version
of it that was created by an art student UM
in New York City. I think it's n y T
or something n y I T. I'm not sure what
the college is, but I've been in touch with her
to get her permission to use her UM video version.
That's actually just about the text. So it's it's like
(09:38):
a phonetic typography version of Nicki Minaj saying, you know what,
if there's a fifty dollar closed budget, I am going
to leave. I am going to be assertive. Now in
that instance, it's about budget, it's about quality. But she
models exactly the kind of behavior you have to exhibit
to draw boundaries for yourself and say, here's the kind
of respect I expect. Here's how I can condition others
(10:00):
to treat me the way I deserve to be treated.
And I think those same skills can be applied to causes.
You know, those same skills can be applied to I'm
not going to be a part of this. This is
a pr disaster waiting to happen. I honestly feel like
there needs to be a case study on Nicki Minaj
because there's an There's an amazing interview where the interviewer
basically asks her about this like beef between her then
(10:23):
boyfriend who was also a rapper whose name I cannot
remember um and another rapper And she's like, the interviewer
is like, do you feel like you know drama follows you?
And she was like, what is two grown men having
drama have to do with me? Like, like, I am
an artist and I'm a person and I have my
my own person Like why don't you even bring that
up in an interview? So I really do feel like
she is someone who is constantly love her but you know,
(10:46):
reaffirming friend of the show, right, n we can we
do an episode on Nicki please? Yeah? Okay, so we'll
come back to that. So I think the point here
is that Pepsi coke. Wherever we spend our doll ers,
however we reward or don't reward companies and hold them accountable,
We as consumers have massive power here. We have massive
(11:07):
influence and especially in the age of social media where
everybody like joyfully complained, joyfully trashed Pepsi for their mistake.
We have really um more power as consumers to show
companies what kind of messaging we do and do not
approve of. And in the age of resisting Trump, in
that sort of backlash against the feeling of being under
(11:29):
attack for minorities and women and different groups of all kinds,
I think we can take that power into our hands
and harness it totally. And I also um and we'll
talk a bit more about this going forward, but I
think it's important to lift up that like it doesn't
have to be all bad, right, right, we can reward
companies who do the right thing with praise, right like
(11:50):
we can if a company makes a good choice, like
a lot of companies were giving making a big show
of giving money to the A C l U and
so like, you know, if you want to as consumers,
it's out of it is saying like I'm not going
to give my money to x y Z company because
they fund crappy things, and also saying everyone should go
out and buy x y Z brand because they're giving money,
and then an ambassador exactly I know here in d
(12:11):
C during the weekend of the inauguration when so many
people were pouring into d C to attend protests, um
a lot of it and all because it's DC. It
always goes back to brunch. But a lot of local
restaurants were saying, like, if you buy, if you come
for brunch on inauguration weekend, x amount of the proceeds
are going to go to the A C l U.
(12:32):
And it's like, you really did get to feel like
by going out to eat and spending money at your
favorite restaurant and buying a few drinks that you were
actually you know, helping the support the cause. And it's
good for business. Becus does have seen this work for them,
so are doing more of it. And it's also interesting
for us as consumers to see this as a new
form of activism. Everybody wins. Now, when we come back
from this quick break, we're going to talk about a
(12:53):
few companies that are doing this right. But first let's
take a quick break. We'll be right back, So bridget
it's not all bad news, right, It's not all bad.
It seems very bad. Pulling a PEPSI should be a
new like phrase that is to judge companies trying to
(13:16):
commercialize the resistance. But I'm excited to say that there's
a great example. There's a couple of great examples out there, um,
particularly around key phrases that have been capitalized on very quickly.
So when nasty woman was a comment leveled by Donald
Trump against Hillary Clinton in a debate, all the T
(13:37):
shirt companies right, all the Etsy creators, all the independent peeps,
and you know, it seems like everywhere you go on
the Internet, all of a sudden, I'm getting hit with
like Facebook ads saying you should buy this nasty woman.
Algorithm knows you're a nasty woman. They're like, yeah, this
woman is what urban dwelling, you know, between and thirty
five female. I'm gonna market the hum And so, you know,
(14:00):
with a lot of the it's important to say that
with a lot of the sort of feminist, e empowering
slogans that take off onto mugs and T shirts and stuff,
not all of them do something good in terms of
like giving proceeds to organization or a cause. But the
creator of what you might think of as like the
iconic nasty woman shirt, which is the phrase nasty woman
in a heart at Google ghosts, Google R. So that
(14:25):
was actually a kind of a huge wind. So they
raised a hundred and thirty k for Planned Parenthood right
off of the bat on that shirt. And I'm sure
it's trickled in over time as well, totally between the
nasty woman shirts proceeds. And nevertheless she persisted, um, which
was the phrase that came about when actually, I'm like blaking,
(14:48):
was told that she could not oh, she couldn't speak
on the Senate floor and it was the speaker of
somebody or the minority leader. Yeah, she was told it
was the majority leader. So m McConnell basically like I
made her stop because she was warned, she was given
a fair warning, but nevertheless she persisted. We were like, yeah, yeah, yeah,
(15:09):
there's another kind of interesting tidbit about a bunch of
women who actually, you know, got that phrase tattooed on them.
You know, hundred plus women in Minneapolis and same million years.
If you were, if you were like like a progressive woman,
would you ever think that you'd be getting a Mitch
McConnell quote. G Please sminty listeners, if you have a
resistance related tattoo, we have to see it. Instagram, Please
(15:33):
shoot us on Instagram at stuff mom never told you
on Insta. But another thing to note about nevertheless, she
persisted that shirt is that Barney's is also selling a
shirt for a hundred and nine dollars a pop. Feel,
I mean, such a good bargain, right, I know, it's
like the one per center resistance, Like who's that marketed to?
(15:56):
You know, no idea? And then it's like Cheryl Crow
like you know right. But the of course, the interesting
thing is where is that profit going to? I mean
asumably Barnies. I mean, you know, when you go to
the site, the shirt looks amazing, it's like a great shirt,
but like it doesn't say, you know, money goes to
plan Parent and a C L you whatever. You've got
(16:18):
to look closely and read between the lines. And I
don't want people to think that I'm saying, like, don't
buy that Nasty Woman shirt or whatever, or don't create
their creators. I'm sure listening to this or like, but
I want to create these shirts. If I'm going to
design something to sell, might I not? Might as well
design for the resistance totally. I mean there's I think
(16:38):
the challenges if you are a creator, if you are
an independent seller and you are creating cool stuff. Shout
out to all the designers out there, because that is
hard to do. I've been struggling. If anyone wants to
help me make some cool swag, let me know, um,
because it's it really does take a lot of work.
It does think about proceeds going to the organizations you
(17:00):
want to support, and I should really do more of that.
A boss stop. Yeah, I mean, are you cashing in
on the resistance? Well, I'm resistant of that because I
feel like it's appropriating something. I feel like, you know,
we we saw a dramatic downturn actually after the inauguration
because our message is about empowerment and tools and tactics
(17:24):
for taking your career into your own hands and your
own power. But people weren't actually feeling that, like ready
to navigate career transition. After January. People were depressed. Our
audience was depressed. And whereas they're signing up for how
to run for office trainings, they weren't signing up for
our trainings. And so I asked. I. We had a
moment with our team when we were thinking and my
(17:46):
board saying, Okay, should we change our marketing in the
age of Trump? Should I make bossed up like positioned
as an answer to the like demise of hope and change,
and we I can't say that we've resolved that issue
because I think there are some tweeks we could make,
but we feel good as a business owner, like cashing
(18:09):
in even though we're not you know, we're not selling
T shirts. Yeah. I mean, I think in the in
terms of how people are resisting Trump, I think it's
different for everybody. For some that might mean like, now,
what's the time to take my career into my own hands.
I've always wanted to like start this business. Yeah, you know,
the world's on fire, I'm gonna do it, right, think,
But I think there was an early hunkering down that happened,
(18:31):
and that we are coming out of that hunker. I agree,
and thank god, because I can't hunker anymore. I'm hungered down.
I'm hungered out. But I also think it's in stark
contrast to for instance, another really gross example here, which
is vogues Um spread like their resistancy photos that featured
(18:52):
a Mark Jacob's safety pin, which is like that was
I don't think it really took off, but it was
that symbol too. It was like hot for a minute.
Basically this idea that like you know, if I think
after Brexit people started wearing people in the UK, Yes,
so after the Brexit vote, people started wearing safety pins
to better together, better together, to symbolize like, hey, I
(19:16):
didn't vote for this, like don't write me in. And
so that idea sort of spread here in the States
where people started wearing safety pins to be like I
didn't vote for Trump. I am a designated like quote
unquote safe person. Um so like really it was supposed
to be like a way to show that like I'm
with you and what I what I so want. I
(19:38):
will say that like as someone who has last months
of Facebook friends who are very sort of like progressive people,
I saw so many people sort of like being into this,
and I just want to say, like you were into it,
I am not coming for you or like bashing you.
I think it was like very well intentioned, but I
think what I think it's interesting about the safety pin
thing and why for me it just like it was
(19:58):
not something I found, you know, empowering, appreciate. It's put
yourself out there, right, because like if you're gonna it's
halfway exactly exactly and I think they're like I read
this really interesting article that I think nailed the point,
which is that like, as people of color, we are
used to getting lumped in with like the group always
(20:21):
and so you know, if you're a black person, you're very,
very used to people being like, well, all black people
are X y Z, and like you're you just have
to accept that that's part of being a person of color.
And I think that for a lot of white people
it was the first time that they had to confront
this idea of like people are going to look at
me and think I voted for Trump and I didn't
and like wanting to do something to make it clear
(20:42):
like no, I am not like you know, white person
who voted for Trump. I didn't vote for him exactly.
And I think that like that is that was I
could never really articulated into about this article that like
laid it out where it's like we as people of color,
deal with this every day, all day, all the time,
and that like for the first time, or maybe at
(21:02):
the first time, like at a time where you know,
white people were actively not actively wanting to be seen
as like good white people. It's like a visible white
gilt expression exactly, um, and so it's was already like
not something I loved. But then the Vogue spread of
like a three hundred and fifty dollars safety j Where
(21:26):
do I even start? So basically Vogue had an entire
spread that's like, here's how you can, you know, fast,
you can accessorize your you know, resistance with our like
high fashion resistance. And I just think it's things like
that where it's like if I could almost be okay
with that, if like the proceeds when somebody good or
(21:47):
I felt like, you know, when you buy that safety pin,
you're contributing to something good financially or supporting something good,
but you're not right. And you know what's a in
the past sort of a surefire that I've been able
as a consumer to be more careful with that is
through the campaigns that I've supported. So what's cool is
(22:08):
that these high fashion designers typically get roped into presidential campaigns.
And HRC store was on fire. Yes, her store was
like actually did have Mark Jacobs design and you know what,
all of the proceeds go to the campaign. So when
you want to buy some high fashion resistance care, I mean,
it's not presidential season yet, but remember that you can
(22:31):
always purchase through the official campaign that you support through
their online store. And I have tons of cool swag
from Obama Day is especially, like, yeah, I have a lot,
I mean like and it doesn't even have to necessarily
be um, you know, attached to some sort of electoral campaign,
like plenty of campaigns like advocacy campaign and some really stuff.
I love. I love it. That's becoming more of a
(22:52):
thing that activists have to do. So all right, let's
take a quick break, and when we come back, we're
going to talk through what we as consumers can do
in the midst of this sort of mine field of
resistance swear and resistance consumer culture to be better. Sound good,
Let's do it. Okay, alright, bridget what can we do
(23:18):
about this so it's not all doom and gloom? You know,
as we said, there are plenty of ways that we
can be savvy consumers and sort of really know where
our money is going. And I mean, I, like I
said earlier, I mean I actually think it's the idea
that people can feel like they're making it like doing
some sort of activism by spending money. I think that's
kind of empowering. I also think that people like, we're
(23:41):
well practiced online shoppers anyway, true, you're already gonna buy
crap totally, totally. And I think like for people like
my mom who like probably will not be going to
a protest anytime soon, she can feel good when she
goes to you know, buy X, y Z thing and
they give the money some place. So I think that
like knowing where your money goes is really key and
(24:02):
then also really thinking through you know, intentional ways that
people are using commerce to sort of make a statement
like grab your wallet. That really encouraged consumers to know
which products were you know, um not making the okay,
like not a good kind of nesting. Not like Walmart's
selling all Lives Matter shirts right next to their Black
(24:23):
Lives Matter shots and they're what is a blue lives
blue Yeah? So yeah, if it's a company that you
know isn't doing that, you should not be spending money
on if you want, if you're someone who's actively involved
in like the resistance, you know, so really knowing kind
of where your money is going and making intentional purchasing
decisions based on that, I want to shout out to
(24:44):
grab your wallet, dot org which you can go to
and it's an active spreadsheet that's constantly being updated, and
they are as organizers in communication with companies that are
not doing it right to give them an opportunity to
get put on the nice list. So it's like a
naughty list nice list in real hime that I think
is a good thing because they're actually keeping in communication
with the companies. Yeah, and that's what's what I'm saying.
(25:06):
I love the model of kind of love It Shove
It where it's like you can shout out companies that
are doing the right thing and tell all your friends, right,
you don't google love It shove It. Yeah, that's probably
wilts for you. But yeah, it's not. It's not all
just scolding companies that are doing it wrong, but it's
also shouting out companies that are doing it right, which
I really really appreciate. And then the other thing I
(25:28):
want to make mention of is, first of all, not
everybody lives in Washington, d C. Where you can protest
and brunch every weekend. Um, So for those of us
who are looking for an opportunity to be engaged, I
want to encourage us to not see consumerism as the
only path forward. To me, it feels kind of it
reminds me of clicktivism, which is like when we were
(25:48):
all obsessed with UM signatures and petitions, like online petitions,
which our industry, like the political are super into it
because it's a list building like moneymaker. But I'm here
to say that, you know, signing a petition online and
buying uh. Nevertheless, she persisted, sure is not sufficient. I
(26:10):
think back to I'm such a constitutional geek that I
think of UM the sort of quote the price of
liberty is eternal vigilance. I think that's a luck quote.
Somebody correct me on. That's funny because my mom used
to always she modified that quote and said, like the
cost of the clean house is constant vigilance. She would
she would say that all the time to justify George Lamadad.
(26:34):
She well, she's evoking our nation's straight to carry us
forth to a cleaner future. She's got my vote. But really,
like eternal vigilance doesn't mean buy some stuff and feel
like you can sleep at night. I think we have
to be more engaged. I think we have to see
what's happening in our community. Is whether you live in Washington,
d C. Or you know, the rural countryside of of America.
(26:57):
It's not about like starting your own thing, about finding
the organizations on a community level that are doing the
work you believe in and get your butt to a
volunteer role, like getting it out there, get you know
it matters to show up and protest whenever and however
you can. Some people, we should do a whole podcast
on women and protests totally. Some people really loathe protesting,
but solidarity is not limited to clicktivism totally. And I
(27:22):
just want to lift up something else that you said,
which is that you know a lot of people and
this is something that like is a personal pet peeve
of mine as a long time organizer. A lot of
people Basically, I feel like when Trump got elected, after
the inauguration, it was like January one, or everybody's in
the gym because it's like their new year's solution to
go to the gym, and like they all they all
tried to be personal trainers, right, Like a lot of
(27:43):
people who have not really been in the movement for
a long time sort of like now that like the
resistance is like the hot thing, thinking they can like
start an organization. I want to empower folks to like
do what feels right, but like, there are probably people
doing the work who like I have been doing it,
who have have been doing it, and like, you know,
I think it's important to think through like, do do
I feel like I'm the right person to sort of
(28:05):
like be the face of this thing or are there
people already doing network that's like a personal petieve of
mine were like, Oh, it's not personal. That's a real thing,
because I feel like there are a lot of people
now who are like, oh, like the hot new thing
is like running training to people to run for office,
and it's like I used to work in that space,
and you know what, it's really hard. Getting people to
run for office. Takes more than like a week long
(28:25):
seminar in a hotel lobby or whatever. It's a lot
of work that goes into that, you know. I was
sort of relieved to hear say some good things about this.
Was Glennon Doyle Milton. Who is this woman in the
professional development or spiritual guru type space. I have to
be honest, I've never been very I haven't paid a
lot of attention to her until I saw her make
(28:46):
this really powerful statement and use her platform, even you know,
as a white woman, she used in the in the media,
she used her platform to set send a really powerful
message specifically to white women about and we need to
make our feminism intersectional or it's not feminism at all.
And in that quote, she actually said, what we need
to remember is that this is just a touch of
(29:08):
the pain that so many marginalized people in this country
has have been feeling for ages, for black people and
brown people, and trans people and gay people and muslim
people and Native Americans and poor people. She says what
sucks is that it took us being personally affected, and
she means us, like white women, to finally show up.
We cannot show up for the movement and say here
(29:30):
we are until we say we're so damn sorry. It
took us so long. So it's about like not showing
up and saying here we are. I'm going to start
a thing necessarily, it's like, how can we be of
support to communities who've been in their own resistance before
it was like the plurality or majority of us totally
And I think that like that's completely my um my
(29:52):
mindset about this kind of work is that you know,
oppression is linked right, Like it might not be my
personal struggle, but you know, it's if they're not able
to show up for other people where they're at and
what issues they're facing, and you can only really face
someone it's like your specific pet issue. And again, like
we I think we said this in an earlier episode.
Of course we all have blind spots. I have my
own blind spots where I don't remember what the issue was,
(30:15):
but I was organizing some event and someone was like, oh,
well the event be accessible for folks with disabilities and
I was like, oh, it's not. And I didn't even
think about that, right, And so we have a checklist now, Okay,
So like we're we do a lot of event planning.
We don't always get it right right and my company,
so it's like, how can we not just count on
our individual blind spots being corrected is a huge part
(30:38):
of it, but how can we then institute systems for
preventing blind spots from you know, systemically being a part
of how you do what you do. So it's it's tricky,
it's tricky, and we don't always get it right, but
we're getting better together. You know, I love it so
many lovely bumber stickers are necessary in the age of
(30:58):
the resistance. So moving forward, I think for all of
us to be woke consumers, it requires doing our due diligence.
It requires doing more than just buying and putting something
in the cart online, and it requires listening to one
another about not only how can we show up as
white women I'm talking white women especially and lead something,
(31:21):
but how about listen to what else is being done already,
Who's who's been in this movement for a long time,
and how can we support their work? And then for entrepreneurs,
for my creatives out there, my side hustlers, and for me,
I'm like having a moment of realization here, like, how
can we be more institutionalized about supporting those organizations like
the a c l U and Plant Parenthood have been
(31:43):
doing the work for a long time, Because I think
consumers also appreciate that. So I know there's a billion
things for business owners to think about, but let's add
this one to the priority list. Have to love it cool.
So alright, y'all, we want to hear from you. How
are you resisting? How does consumer resinistons fit into your
(32:04):
schmorga spard of activism? Right? Now and does it. If
there's a company out there that's doing it super super right,
let us know there's a company out there that is
guy your blood boiling because they're doing it, they're doing
it super wrong. And again, if you've got a resistance
related tattoo, let us know if you want to see it.
So you can tag us in your pictures on instas
(32:26):
stuff Mom Never told You on Instagram. You can tweet
at us at Mom's Stuff podcast on Twitter, or send
us a good old fashioned email at mom Stuff at
how stuff works dot com
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