March 13, 2020 • 41 mins
Time for another update! On the docket: politics, culture, sports, and personal check-ins.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Annie in Samita and welcome to stuff
I'll never told your production of I Heart Radio. Another month,
another update, because news doesn't stop, surprise, surprise, and it
(00:26):
seems to be happening a lot of things happening very quickly.
I feel like, yeah, I think things are changing very quickly,
and so therefore we've got to keep up. We do.
And for our March Update edition, we are going to
touch briefly on things around sexual assault and death. So
quick trigger warning there, and we're gonna timestamp it because
(00:48):
things are happening so rapidly, and just so we're all
on the same page here. If you listen to this
and you're thinking what it is March tenth as we
record this, right and obviously there's a lot happening with
politics right now, um, and so if you haven't been
keeping up at this time, Warren, Booker, Buddha, Judge, Klobuchar,
(01:09):
and Bloomberg have all dropped out of the Democratic primaries,
leaving Sanders and Biden at the helm. And right now
we know that Buddha, Judge, Booker, and Harris have all
endorsed Biden with the idea that he's the most moderate
quote unquote or more likely to be elected, right, and
we didn't want to focus specifically on Elizabeth Warren dropping
(01:30):
out and narrative that we heard a lot from pundits
and from other politicians that she was mean or angry,
and so prior to her dropping out, there was a
lot of talk about the erasure of Elizabeth Warren in
this presidential race, especially as it progressed um and how
(01:53):
that in part led to her dropping out. And this
was something I definitely noticed for sure. She wasn't even
mentioned and handful of national polls about presidential matchups, despite
finishing before some of the other male candidates included in
those matchups. Her campaign even addressed it in a message
to supporters, and the viral hashtag president Warren started trending,
(02:16):
with supporters questioning the lack of coverage on her. And yes,
there are plenty of factors at play here. As always,
it's hard to just point to one single thing in
these complex systems, but certainly her gender was one of
the things at play. There was the assumption that she
can't win, even though we know Hillary Clinton won the
(02:38):
popular vote, record numbers of women winning in mid terms,
and Warren herself having a record of winning races. And
as I typed this, which I think was two weeks ago,
I started typing this, so at the time I didn't
know this was gonna happen, right, But as I typed it,
the hashtag Warren drop out was trending on Twitter, and
(03:00):
of course she did. As you listen to this, she
has left the race. Yeah, after winning zero stays on
Super Tuesday, which t l d R look at me,
I'm trendy. Is when Americans in a handful of the
states can vote in the presidential primary Elizabeth Warren and
now she was going to drop out and exit polls me.
He said basically, quote I'd vote for a woman, just
(03:20):
not one. Sounds familiar, very familier um. And when asked
about the role of sexism in the race, she said,
if you say yeah, there was sexism in this race,
everyone says winer. If you say no, there were no sexism.
But a Brazilian women think, what planet do you live on?
And she joked about her electability on SNL and a
lot of late night monologues about her campaign mistake of
(03:41):
quote not having a penis. Yeah, yeah, I saw. I
saw a lot of jokes about that following her dropping
out of the race, An exit poll a while back
found that only four percent of the respondence, and that
poll rated Warren as likable the mysterious likable, and they
gave Kamala Harris five person it Wow. Meanwhile, both Joe
(04:02):
Biden and Bernie Sanders poll over twenty cents likability, despite
a history of getting elected again. For both of these women,
the electability question when posed towards women who have this
history of being elected but told no woman can never win,
just baffles. Trump commented about war and dropping out that
(04:24):
she was mean and people don't like her, that they
want a person like me. I'm not mean, and then
he got up abruptly and just left. And yeah, these
critiques are something we're unfortunately very familiar with, it being
too mean, too angry. In Warren's case, especially towards Bloomberg
in particular, Oh no, she was mean, doing right, I
(04:46):
will say not to like people were upset that she
was mean, because you know, no woman should be mean ever,
but most people were like, yeah, he kind of deserved it.
Did not hold back, did not hold back Comen in
this time frame, people are also now, and I say
now as in the last few days as she has
exited the race, people are now angry that she's not
(05:09):
endorsed anyone, that she was fake and didn't care about
the bigger picture and was divisive and selfish quote and
even pointing to the fact that her being on shows
like S and now is selfish and how dare she
do something besides campaigning after she was repeatedly scolded for
not dropping out immediately, which I find tiresome I do
(05:30):
as well, And speaking of Bloomberg kind of related. We
didn't want to talk about the whole issue of the
NDIA and accusers UM, and I did want to touch
on this because it's relevant. After a series of gaffs,
news pundit Chris Matthews resigned and one of these gaffs
(05:52):
that recently caught her eye has to do with Bloomberg
and these India's. In the wake of the most recent
democratic to bait, Elizabeth Warren sat down with Chris Matthews
and he asked about these India's and he grilled around
the India and UM the case she cited during the debate,
asking her you believe that the former mayor of New
York said that to a pregnant employee, to which Warren replied,
(06:15):
well a pregnant employee, Shure said he did, why shouldn't
I believe her? Matthews looked visually flaw mixed at having
the question flips right. Their conversation continued, with Warren discussing
pregnancy discrimination and mistrusts of women, culminating in Matthew's demanding
why would he Bloomberg lie just to protect himself? And
(06:35):
Warren said, yeah, why would she lie? The look on
his face it was just total shock and bewilderment, like
it never literally never occurred to him that that could
be the case. And this in the face of so
many batterns, sworn testimony a witness, and Bloomberg's telling history
right and again about the Indias and his refusal to
(06:58):
release people from the d a s, which makes you
question a lot in itself. Um and even in the debate,
gil Kane asked Warren what proof she had, and Warren
responded incompletely her words, but she was being tweated as
though she made the allegation, and the burden of proof
is on her again, this is public information, right, reminder,
(07:21):
And somehow I missed this tidbit from Yes, I did
none know it is Chris Matthews just got on camera, oh,
joking about slipping Hillary Clinton quote that Bill Cosby pill
I brought with me. Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, not
creepy at all. This has gotten me thinking a lot
(07:41):
about women and lying and perceptions of women and lying,
and I really want to do a whole episode on it,
and the default assumption that women must be lying, especially
in the case of if a man it's a he said,
she said, she must be lying. And I recently had
a major panic attack a couple of weeks ago about
(08:02):
everyone thinking that I'm a liar and no one believing me,
especially if a man's involved, And it freaked me out right,
and it's something I've I know, we all hear that
we talked about on the show all the time, but
just having that moment of that, people are just going
to kind of assume, oh, yeah, she's the liar, she
must be So just recently, and on a kind related
(08:25):
thing about lying, Duffy released in a statement about her
being gone from the music world for a while now,
in which she publicly stated that she had been raped.
She had been kidnapped and raped and assaulted and that's
why she's been gone, and she's been ruminating some things,
and she finally had to sit down an interview where
she talked about it, and the many comments of critics saying, yeah,
(08:49):
but why did you wait till now? Are you sure
this is a one word against another person, like just
going after this musician who all she really said, she
didn't say anything about who it was in that statement,
She didn't say anything about details that she just you know,
needed time, And this is why she's been gone, and
she's been working through some things, and people who are
attacking her on her social media saying pretty much calling
(09:09):
her out as a liar, saying prove it. And it's
like if she has been gone, she has been obviously
gone from social media and the music scene. And she
comes back with this is why. Why is the first
reaction from everyone to be like, you're a liar unless
you tell show us video essentially, but not even that
show us as if we had been there, then we're
(09:30):
not going to believe you. How dare you ruin a
person's life whose name was not mentioned at that point
in time? And I'm speaking of I guess believing and
trusting women, And yes, Again, we know some people don't
love our conversations on stuff like this, but the current
state of reproductive rights is something that we have to
be following and look at today. So do medical services.
(09:52):
LLC versus Russo, which is currently in the Supreme Court,
which is a new case created by the state of
Louisiana which requires doctors performing abortions to have admission privileges
at a state authorized hospital within thirty miles or forty
eight kilometers of the abortion clinic, as in Texas, which
they tried to do this as well with the Supreme
Court case Whole Women's Health versus Hello Stet which was
(10:14):
struck down as unconstitutional. In of course, we know some
things have changed, but the same law limits the care
to one single doctor in the state as other doctors
had not yet gained admission privileges or are outside the
given range, which makes it really difficult to get these
types of services and could be a big conversation of
(10:37):
the threat of Roe versus Wade. As of now, the
decision has not been made yet, but it is a
very tense moment of what is happening with the state
of yeah Row versus Wade, with the argument seemingly looking
kind of like the previous case of whole women's health,
but now with two brand new conservative justices on the bench,
one who made a name for himself with the anti
abortion stances and loving beer and having tantient and being
(11:00):
angry and what was his friend's name, squeeze. I think
it might anyway sad, but yes, we must find humor
where we can. We can, so if you're taking note
on Ginsburg and Sodomaya have been key justices in opening
up the real dialogue behind the reasoning of this Louisiana law,
and at this point it seems Justice John Roberts may
(11:23):
be the one to make the overall decision. So that's
kind of an overview of what's happening in our very
tumultuous political world right now. But there are other things happening.
But first we're gonna get into a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor,
(11:53):
And we're back with some other relevant stories that have
happened recently are continuing to happen. Just to add to
our updates about Harvey Weinstein, he has been sentenced and
surprisingly twenty three years. I'm not gonna lie. I did
not expect that. I didn't either. I honestly thought that
(12:14):
it would be so sure that it wouldn't. It would
just be he would just be at home. I didn't
think anything was gonna happen for one. But it isn't
a weird place of feeling like not enough right right,
that's still like, yes, there's justice, and that he actually
got a longer sentence than expected, but not as long
as should be because he also didn't they didn't find
(12:36):
him guilty for a chunk of the charges that was
filed against him. I'm really interested to see what would
happen in l A. However, it was reported that he
had a mild heart attack after the sentencing and that
he is in the infirmary at Rikers. But I don't
think I've seen anything else on it, and on that also,
just the many of celebrities and the many women who
have been a part of this conversation about Weinstein have
(13:00):
made comments, including Mayor Servina, who said twenty three years.
Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to twenty three years in
prison for his crimes of rape and sexual assault. I
literally cried tears of amazement and gratitude that the justice
system has worked on behalf of all of his victims today.
Rosie Perez also said, twenty three years convicted and sentenced,
today the world shifted that much more for justice. May
(13:22):
my dear friend Annabella Sciarra and all those brave women
continue to heal and finally find some peace with this
victory hashtag Harvey Weinstein is guilty And if you remember,
she actually um was a character witness for Annabella at
the trial. Rose McGowan also tweeted, who was one of
the big voices during this time? Let us be free?
So there is some small bit of justice, but again
(13:44):
it's kind of like still, yeah, there's still a little
bit of that, but it wasn't enough, um, in comparison
to the many of lives that he is harmed. But hey,
we'll take the justice where we can, right right, And
with that, Unfortunately this is a little more of a downer,
but we could not go on and not talk about
the transgender Puerto Rican woman murdered for using the women's bathroom.
(14:06):
Alexa Ruiz was killed a few hours after someone called
the police on her for using a woman's bathroom at
a fast food restaurant. A video was uploaded and if
you do decide to watch it or find it, it
is really heartbreaking and triggering. So just to put that
out there, it showed her being targeted and and they
assumed was when she was murdered. So far this year,
(14:29):
there's already been two deaths that's just been reported, and
that's again reported that we know of that was specific
to being transphobic deaths. And I'm and that's again what's
being reported out there. Uh, And this was again when
we were researching this, what two weeks ago, UM. And
then on top of that, last year, the twenty six
deaths of UM transgender or gender nonconforming people in the
(14:52):
US due to violence, and a majority of them being
made up of black trans women and people of color.
So I think it's just really important that we recognize
the tragedies of what is happening and the fact that
the rights of these people are being ignored and oftentimes dismissed,
UM with the fact that they are transgender originder not
conforming and unfortunately having these moments, which is super sad
(15:16):
and I'm sorry that is super sad, but it's a reality,
and we recognize it as a reality and then have
a conversation and at least talk about it and mourn
with the community that this is such a horrific, horrific,
painful part of their lives. And I think we can't
ignore that and we can't pretend it's not happening just
(15:37):
because we were sad. Sorry. Yes, absolutely, and that's um
an episode we want to do in the future. And
UM if if anyone listening feels like they have any
good connections or someone we should talk to you about that,
please send them our way. UM. But in the meantime,
we did want to touch on International Women's Day because
(15:59):
that as a couple of days ago as we record
this on March eight, the year's theme was I Am
a Generation Equality, Realizing Women's Rights. Some marches across the
world were met with violence, like in Pakistan with men
reportedly angry by the marches slogan my body, My Choice,
and there was violence with the march in Kouragistan and
(16:21):
in Turkey and Chile there were confrontations with the police
and these marches. Several marches were canceled because of concerns
around COVID nineteen slash coronavirus, but one one pictured I
found that I really loved as In Paris, the march
went on as planned, with several women dressed as Rosie
the Riveter, but with yellow cleaning gloves actually looked really good.
(16:45):
In Mexico, the day was followed by a women's strike
in protests of the violence and sexual faced by women.
According to you government stats in that country, ten women
are killed a day in Mexico, so that is another
quite a huge problem I to be talking about, um
(17:05):
if we move on to culture, some things that are
happening in the entertainment world. A couple of weeks ago,
an opinion piece in New York Times called I Don't
Want to be the strong female lead, written by Britt Marling,
went viral. I can always tell when something goes viral,
and in our kind of wheelhouse, because I'm not on
social media that often, but all of a sudden, I'll
(17:27):
get twenty text have you read this? And then we'll
be at work and we'll get a bunch of messages
you should talk about this, And one was this article,
and she articulated a lot of things I've been grappling
with recently and have even tried to say on this show.
But I don't think I said it as as simply
as she did. When it comes to what we mean
when we say strong female lead, and often what we
(17:51):
mean is women with masculine traits, So their stoic, violent, angry,
feminine coated traits are perhaps seeing in makeup or clothes,
but other than that, when it comes to a strong
female lead are erased. That's a generalization. It's not in everything,
(18:11):
of course, but that has been something I've struggled with,
where when I hear, oh, it's a strong female lead,
and then you go and essentially violence, that is really
what it means. And I'm being loud, yeah, are you
minutive for some reason? That's it is volatile. It's these
things we associate with men. And that's fine, Like there's
(18:33):
a space for that to exist, right absolutely, But it's
I struggle to think of a strong female lead that
is really feminine. And I do think that is changing.
We're seeing some versions of that, but we need to continue, right,
you can be there's plenty of feminine strengths. I don't
know why we have to dismiss them all the time.
(18:55):
Well I do, but it's I'm glad it's changing, and
it's changing for the better. Oh. And then, unfortunately, in
the news of why the hell is this happening, the
lawsuit filed for the US women's soccer team for equal pay.
The employers of the U S women's national team argued
recently that the team should not receive the same pay
as a men's team because, quote, the job of men's
(19:17):
national team player carries more responsibility within US Soccer than
the job of a woman's national team player, and there
was an indisputable science that women biologically were less skilled
than men, so therefore should be paid less, even to
the extent of questioning the female athletes about how strong
they were or how fast slash slow they were in
(19:39):
comparison to the men. Wow, oh yeah, how many have
they want? Again, those indisputable science. In the beyond infuriating
a nuances of this lawsuit, apparently trying to change the narrative,
the US Soccer president tried to claim they sent an
offer with the equal pay structure of men this year,
(20:02):
but it was from twenty eleven, right, Yeah, And just
a reminder, the US women's team has made more of
a profit since and the men's team. We've talked about
this before. Yeah, And as international women's day was March eighth.
The event she believes Cup was held from March five
to eleventh. And this is an event hosted in the
(20:24):
US for many of the amazing female athletes in the
soccer community. Joining the US are the teams from England,
Japan and Spain. Yeah, and while we're speaking on the
subject of sports, a huge shoutout and congrats to Heaven
Fitch from Ashboro, North Carolina, who, as she put it,
and we would absolutely agree, dominated in her state division,
(20:45):
becoming the first female to win an individual title in
wrestling in high school wrestling and garnered most Outstanding Wrestler
award in that division. So shout out as she has
become an icon for so many Yeah, congrats, that's awesome.
And we do you have not one, but two tampon updates. Yes,
(21:10):
so first Germany, recently the tampon book by a startup
focused on sanitary products called The Female Company, That's what
the startup is called, debuted in protest to Germany's tax
on tampons under the umbrella of luxury goods, books are
taxed at five per cent. If you're curious. Inside the
(21:32):
cover of this book, readers will find fifteen tampons and
the book is priced at little over three euros. So
the first run of it sold out in one day,
the second sold out in one week. This was a
part of a push to educate people about the tampon
tax and pressuring the government to lower that tax. And
(21:53):
if you're rendering it is actually a book as well.
The plot traces administruation from now all the way back
to biblical times. And this is a really interesting take
on that whole conversation around the tampon tax, because the
fact that books are tax at a lower reads than tampons,
(22:18):
and the fact that it's sold out so quickly. And
I would assume some of that is novelty, but I
would assume some of it is it's cheaper to buy
the book tampons. Um is that going to be on
our future book club list? You know? It certainly could
be saying. So. Meanwhile, Scottish Parliament past the Period Products
(22:39):
Free Provision Scotland Bill in February twenty the first of
three steps to becoming law and making Scotland the first
country to offer free sanitary products to those need woo
and this following another first, the adoption of making free
tampons and pads available in schools and universities. Alice Johnstone,
a member of parliament, said, why is it in twenty
(23:01):
twenty that toilet paper is seen as a necessity but
period products aren't. This is so often characterized as a
woman's issue, but it's not. It is a social justice
issue and equalities issue and a rights issue. She said.
It is estimated that a woman will over her lifetime
has been approximately five thousand pounds on period products. Being
(23:22):
financially penalized for a natural bodily function is not equitable
or just being unable to afford or access period products
denies women access to education, work, sports, and so much
more true true, So this is this is the first
and three steps. I obviously perhaps I'm not super familiar
(23:42):
with how Scottish Parliament works, but so this is a
big it's a big step, but they do have two
more steps before it becomes law, so we'll be keeping
an eye on that. Their European Union has avowed that
period taxes will be phased out by two and just
to note, some money for period taxes does go to
charities and organizations based on helping women, so that is
(24:05):
something that will need to be addressed for sure. And
then finally, I want to talk about the dictionary. You.
I'm so excited about this because you all know I
love language, and there's language news. Yes, because the Oxford
(24:27):
English Dictionary recently got called out for their sexes language
and the definition of women are specifically the synonyms included okay,
here you go, are you ready? Ready? Bitch, made peace,
bit mayor baggage and in the similar words section popsy, chick, bent,
(24:48):
WIFEI and which examples of usage include god women, will
you just listen? Yeah? Yeah. Meanwhile, one of the definitions
of man reads a person with the qualities associated with males,
such as bravery, spirit, our toughness. So a little different there. Yeah.
(25:10):
A petition calling for the Oxford English Dictionary to change
the definition has over thirty two thousand signatures. When I
first wrote this, it was thirty thousand, Now it's thirty two.
This is important too because Apple and Google use the
Oxford English Dictionary as their source, so this impact search results.
That's huge. I'm going to say, the first person that
(25:30):
calls me a piece is gonna get smack in the face.
We don't condone violence, but don't we also don't calling
anyone a piece. This is the thing. Um. When you
hear it, you think, surely, nah, surely this can't be
true in our modern time. Like it almost seems like
(25:51):
an urban dictionary level, right right, I mean, we don't
even use most of these words anymore. Or mayor. You
don't want to be called a mayor have bent a wife? Popsy?
I don't even know. I'm gonna call you a popsy
because that's just fun. I've never heard that popsy. That
sounds like it. That's a Transatlantic like a character. She's
(26:14):
a spitfire and a detective movie. Well, I am very
excited to see where this goes and to see what
the if they do update it, which they absolutely should,
would recommend, would recommend, Yes, what words are they're gonna
update it with? M We will see exciting language times
(26:38):
we live in. All right, Well, that's all I have
to say about language for now. But we do have
some personal updates we wanted to share with you listeners.
But first we have one more quick break for word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, and
(27:06):
as you right now, especially if you follow us on
social media. Samantha and I have been on some trips recently.
It's true. It's true. So Samantha, you went to Orlando.
I did go to Orlando without you. Felt really really odd.
I even made a statement. So we had to do
a panel with Holly from the Few miss in History
(27:28):
class and Ease from This Day in History Class, as
well as Popular and of course our segment Feminist First,
and also with Anna Hasnia from Ethnically Ambiguous and produces
like ten thousand shows over in l A. We all
got to sit down and have a keynote with Jessica
from She Podcasts, who was fantastic and I have a
(27:48):
big conversation. But while we were there, I also did
some interviews with several of the women who are attending
the festival Podfest, which I think I forgot to say. So, yeah,
we didn't go on us which is a conference for
media podcasters or those who want to be involved in podcasting,
and so it was really really interesting. I will say
(28:08):
when we were on the panel, I did talk about
how you abandoned me and I felt very alone and scared.
You're without your work life. That exactly what was what
I said. I was like, my work wife is not here.
I'm very upset with her because she said Montreal. We'll
talk about that in him and the bitterness I carry,
but it's okay. But yeah, it was really fun and
the people were there were super amazing. Um. I got
(28:29):
to meet several of those who are up and coming
in podcasting world. I got a few T shirts? How many?
I only got three this time? Well, I got all
the ones that were available except for a couple. Samantha
and I listeners are notorious free T shirt collectors. They
recognize as that podcast they did in this time, and
(28:50):
I think it was you because it was also too
close back to back SIRL friends, but this one they did,
they were the one that recognized you. Um ran out
of to s by the time I got him. So
I got a Fannie pack from them. Oh I'm actually
wearing that T shirt right and you? Well, so did
you have a good time? I did? It was nice.
Um it was very very sunny, which was delightful because
(29:13):
I have not seen the song since we came back
from l A. Essentially it's been raining for literally forever
and literally forever. But yeah, so I did get to
interview several old women who were attending or a part
of it, And I'm really excited to do that as
an episode because we just talked about how this new medium,
because we've talked about it before, I know it was
one of the things that you and I talk often
(29:34):
about empowering women. And since we are women podcasters talking
to women who are interested in doing this, talking to
those who identify as female or film and those who
are non binary to become a part of this UH community,
how important it is that we bring in as many
people to this new medium that does can make a profit,
but also reaches out and gives you a voice. Right,
(29:56):
It's very important to us. So I'm glad if I
couldn't have been there that you were holding the sminty torch. Yes,
because while you were enjoying your son in Montreal, where
it was no joke, ten degrees fair Knight one day,
but then it warmed upisode was a generally thirty degrees
(30:17):
kind of situation. Um, it did snow. There was so
there was so much snow on the ground, just feet
and feet and feet of it. Really, yeah, see that
when you send me that picture, I'm like, I'm okay,
I was trying to make you feel better. Whatever, I
was still a little better that I wasn't invited and
loved as you. But it's okay, right there, So I
guess the back check to explain why in the world
I was in Montreal. You may remember from our episode
(30:39):
a couple of months ago on Women in Puppetry that
our guest Louise Laplant invited me to the fifteen edition
of the Castilier Festival in Montreal. And this happens a
lot where it's it's I kind of assume it's similar
to the conversations that you end with a polite Oh, yes,
we'll definitely hang out again, but you know, in the
back of your head, probably right. But she totally followed through.
(31:04):
So I went to Canada for five days and I
saw over a dozen shows puppet shows. This festival perhaps
obviously is focused on puppetry, right um, and I had
an amazing time and I met so many amazing women.
I would say it was definitely predominantly women. Did you
also go for the bagel? You know what? I missed
(31:28):
that bagel thing? Did you? Because, as I've said before
on this show, I time has lost all meaning to me,
and I thought that the bagel thing. So there was
also an invitation since I am on a food podcast
as well, to come and have smoked salmon, and Montreal
has their own type of bagel. Right. Um, And that
was the evening before the festival started. I thought it
(31:51):
was on the last evening, so I stayed an entire
night after everyone laugh. I was by myself in Montreal
and very sad that I didn't get to try all
of the salmon. I did try it on my own,
but I'm sure it wasn't as good as. Um what
Louise and her sister throwze this party before the festival
every year. Um. She Louise is right here now. She
(32:12):
I love her. She was fantastic. I thought we wanted
apparently apparently maybe next time. Um. And my favorite show
that I saw was one that used these tiny little
figurines to tell the story of a difficult journey of
a group of refugees that plays out on the performer's bodies.
So it really got me thinking about how we objectify
(32:35):
people and like the fact that it was playing out
on them. It was really good. It was really good.
There was also a puppet made of ice that was
the whole playing There was like a time constraint of
it's melting. Um, so that makes me nervous. Well, I
think that was part of the whole thing, part of
the whole thing. If anyone's curious about that or any
(32:58):
other show as I saw, because I did see a
lot could keep going, UM, please email us happy to share. Also,
it sounds like we might be speaking at Dragon conn
On about where in pubpetry you want to be speaking
about that, right, Not probably me, but we'll see thot like,
I know we're doing something, but that's not our panel,
is it. No? Yeah, our panels gonna be a little different,
(33:18):
I think if we have one. If we have this
is all in the works, but exciting times, exciting times,
UM and I did want to put in there. It
was really interesting to hear perspectives from people outside the
United States about the elections happening. That's so one thing
about the social media Twitter world, when you have people
talking about the like what's going on? Why are you're
(33:38):
doing this? Yeah? People, because they were a handful of Americans,
but it was mostly not Americans at the at this festival,
at least in the group of people I was with
UM and people would ask me questions like, oh my god,
what is it like over there, are you scared? It's
not all of us? I swear? Um, So that was interesting, yes,
(34:02):
And then we wanted to include in here, Um we
should probably say spoiler warning. Yeah, well I think it
would be mostly spoiler free. But if you're worried at
all about spoilers of spoilers of Birds of Prey the
movie and the fantabulous emancipation of Harley Quinn, you might
want to shut it off now, because we did want
to give our brief review on it, since we did
a whole episode on it about a month back when
(34:24):
it came out, and I loved it. I thought it
was super fun and it was really colorful and visually stimulating.
The acting was top notch. I love the soundtrack. I
probably listened to it so many times and it's all
women on the soundtrack. Um. The movie touched on so
many issues that we've talked about before, from everyday sexism.
(34:44):
I would agree with your Wan McGregor. You know what
he said about man's plating all the way to sexual assault. UM,
Women in Revenge a lot of that that that kind
of trope, and even specifically Harley Quinn's journey to becoming
her own woman instead of just the joker's girlfriend, because
it's kind of like a breakup movie. It really is,
and she emerges well at the beginning for sure, her
(35:08):
tagline and her storyline, it is absolutely a breakup movie
for all the other women. Is different portions of what
it is, whether it's Rosie Perez saying, you know, stick
it to the man after they screwed me over after
so many times, I'm done with this and how I'm
going to take care of things, which could be that
whole trope again about the revenge slash justice in your
own hands type of level. And then you have the
(35:30):
Black Canary who's finding her own voice essentially kind of
what she was doing from being the stage singer and
being the pretty girl in the club to coming into
our own voice and finding her own voice. I think
it's definitely all well in those lines. Yeah, and it
was really fun to see a movie where it is
mostly women kicking ass, and you know, it's just little
(35:53):
things that you don't you don't realize that, oh, I've
been missing this, Like when Harley Quinn offers Black Canary
like a hair tie, just phenomenal, and then there's a
tampon joke and it's just you can tell, oh, women
were involved in all of this, right, And then they
also talk about the fact but her and and this
is something that we talked about at the original bars
(36:14):
of Prey episode when we were talking about the fact
that she changed her own outfit from what they wanted
her to be to what she wanted Robbie Margot Robbie Margot.
Robbie specifically did that She's like, Okay, I can be sexually,
but I don't have to wear that stupid bs right,
and I can make my own you know that in
itself was like, yeah, you can definitely see the difference
at the functionalities of the outfits even right. And sadly, um,
(36:38):
my friend I went to go see this with her
after Samantha and I saught together, and I saw it
with another friend of mine. She's really big on Reddit,
and she told me afterwards how upset it made her
because Reddit let her and to believe it was this
awful movie and it was so like social justice and
terrible and it was very upsetting with social justice. Everybody
(37:00):
really get upset about that. Right now, I'm like, they do,
they do? And you know, I want to underscore this.
I think it was a really fantastic movie, but it
wasn't like it and it doesn't have to be. That's
the thing. It was just a fun superhero movie. You
feel like it's any like revenge or origin story almost
of who you've become. Any of them, like Batman, would
(37:21):
be the same level of social justice. So I'm a
little confused. Like he was literally indicating his parents death
and then went to become the Dark Warrior to come
and clean up crying. That was his whole basis, So
I'm kind of confused the difference. Yeah, well it's because
(37:43):
it's a man doing it versus a woman. But the
thing is, like even the Rotten Tomatoes had given it
a pretty high scoring originally, not originally, but towards the
beginning of when it was coming out as well as
I don't think I think it's lower on the IMDb.
But I'm kind of confused why people didn't. Well I'm
not confused because we saw it very clearly on Twitter,
Um you know, yeah, how people just hated it and
(38:05):
saying they weren't sexy enough, which again they're wearing tight leather. Yeah,
I thought that was the dream the dream Metal Dreams like, yeah,
get tight anything, so huh yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate, and um,
I hope that d C doesn't stop making movies like
(38:31):
that because of that reaction, because we need to see
more of that. Um, And it might feel a little
hypocritical of me to be like strong female women always violence.
And then I'm like, but I love this, but I
just think there's a space for so much more stories
(38:51):
with women in them, and because we don't see them
that often, they get judged much more harshly or seen
as oh, it's just another one of this trope or
what what have you. But also, now you have your
costume for I'm thinking about it. I know, I have
this thing where I tried to predict what the biggest
costume will be every year, and last year I had it.
Nailed it. I nailed it, but I definitely counted the
(39:15):
entire time Steve from Scoops Away from Stranger Things and
also Midsummer Um, but yeah, I predict Birds of Prey
will be a big one there. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm
also going to do I'm working on a I'm working
on a Princess Leah one. So I have so many ideas,
(39:37):
so many ideas but in the mean time, if any
listeners would like to send us their costume it is
Oh my gosh, I would love that, or anything in
the news we should include in our next update or
do a whole episode on. Please let us know I
did want to include in here before we wrap everything
up for our next book club. Yes, we're doing Ash
(40:01):
by Melinda Low. I've had this book forever and have
not read it yet, so I'm very excited. Yes, so
if you want to read along participates in this your questions. Yes,
And our feminist movie Friday will be a Girl walked
home Alone at night in honor of International Women's Day
(40:23):
slash month Stay all the things. Yes, So some homework
for you, hopefully of the fund variety. And if you
have suggestions for what our next book pick and movie
picks should be, you can send them to our email
and we would love to receive them. Our email is
Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeart Media dot com. You
(40:45):
can find us on Twitter, app, Mom Stuff Podcast, or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never told You. Thanks as
always to our superproducer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening Stuff i Never told You. The production of Iheartradias,
How stuff Works. For more podcasts from Iheartradios, our radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(41:16):
M
Hey, this is Annie in Samita and welcome to stuff
I'll never told your production of I Heart Radio. Another month,
another update, because news doesn't stop, surprise, surprise, and it
(00:26):
seems to be happening a lot of things happening very quickly.
I feel like, yeah, I think things are changing very quickly,
and so therefore we've got to keep up. We do.
And for our March Update edition, we are going to
touch briefly on things around sexual assault and death. So
quick trigger warning there, and we're gonna timestamp it because
(00:48):
things are happening so rapidly, and just so we're all
on the same page here. If you listen to this
and you're thinking what it is March tenth as we
record this, right and obviously there's a lot happening with
politics right now, um, and so if you haven't been
keeping up at this time, Warren, Booker, Buddha, Judge, Klobuchar,
(01:09):
and Bloomberg have all dropped out of the Democratic primaries,
leaving Sanders and Biden at the helm. And right now
we know that Buddha, Judge, Booker, and Harris have all
endorsed Biden with the idea that he's the most moderate
quote unquote or more likely to be elected, right, and
we didn't want to focus specifically on Elizabeth Warren dropping
(01:30):
out and narrative that we heard a lot from pundits
and from other politicians that she was mean or angry,
and so prior to her dropping out, there was a
lot of talk about the erasure of Elizabeth Warren in
this presidential race, especially as it progressed um and how
(01:53):
that in part led to her dropping out. And this
was something I definitely noticed for sure. She wasn't even
mentioned and handful of national polls about presidential matchups, despite
finishing before some of the other male candidates included in
those matchups. Her campaign even addressed it in a message
to supporters, and the viral hashtag president Warren started trending,
(02:16):
with supporters questioning the lack of coverage on her. And yes,
there are plenty of factors at play here. As always,
it's hard to just point to one single thing in
these complex systems, but certainly her gender was one of
the things at play. There was the assumption that she
can't win, even though we know Hillary Clinton won the
(02:38):
popular vote, record numbers of women winning in mid terms,
and Warren herself having a record of winning races. And
as I typed this, which I think was two weeks ago,
I started typing this, so at the time I didn't
know this was gonna happen, right, But as I typed it,
the hashtag Warren drop out was trending on Twitter, and
(03:00):
of course she did. As you listen to this, she
has left the race. Yeah, after winning zero stays on
Super Tuesday, which t l d R look at me,
I'm trendy. Is when Americans in a handful of the
states can vote in the presidential primary Elizabeth Warren and
now she was going to drop out and exit polls me.
He said basically, quote I'd vote for a woman, just
(03:20):
not one. Sounds familiar, very familier um. And when asked
about the role of sexism in the race, she said,
if you say yeah, there was sexism in this race,
everyone says winer. If you say no, there were no sexism.
But a Brazilian women think, what planet do you live on?
And she joked about her electability on SNL and a
lot of late night monologues about her campaign mistake of
(03:41):
quote not having a penis. Yeah, yeah, I saw. I
saw a lot of jokes about that following her dropping
out of the race, An exit poll a while back
found that only four percent of the respondence, and that
poll rated Warren as likable the mysterious likable, and they
gave Kamala Harris five person it Wow. Meanwhile, both Joe
(04:02):
Biden and Bernie Sanders poll over twenty cents likability, despite
a history of getting elected again. For both of these women,
the electability question when posed towards women who have this
history of being elected but told no woman can never win,
just baffles. Trump commented about war and dropping out that
(04:24):
she was mean and people don't like her, that they
want a person like me. I'm not mean, and then
he got up abruptly and just left. And yeah, these
critiques are something we're unfortunately very familiar with, it being
too mean, too angry. In Warren's case, especially towards Bloomberg
in particular, Oh no, she was mean, doing right, I
(04:46):
will say not to like people were upset that she
was mean, because you know, no woman should be mean ever,
but most people were like, yeah, he kind of deserved it.
Did not hold back, did not hold back Comen in
this time frame, people are also now, and I say
now as in the last few days as she has
exited the race, people are now angry that she's not
(05:09):
endorsed anyone, that she was fake and didn't care about
the bigger picture and was divisive and selfish quote and
even pointing to the fact that her being on shows
like S and now is selfish and how dare she
do something besides campaigning after she was repeatedly scolded for
not dropping out immediately, which I find tiresome I do
(05:30):
as well, And speaking of Bloomberg kind of related. We
didn't want to talk about the whole issue of the
NDIA and accusers UM, and I did want to touch
on this because it's relevant. After a series of gaffs,
news pundit Chris Matthews resigned and one of these gaffs
(05:52):
that recently caught her eye has to do with Bloomberg
and these India's. In the wake of the most recent
democratic to bait, Elizabeth Warren sat down with Chris Matthews
and he asked about these India's and he grilled around
the India and UM the case she cited during the debate,
asking her you believe that the former mayor of New
York said that to a pregnant employee, to which Warren replied,
(06:15):
well a pregnant employee, Shure said he did, why shouldn't
I believe her? Matthews looked visually flaw mixed at having
the question flips right. Their conversation continued, with Warren discussing
pregnancy discrimination and mistrusts of women, culminating in Matthew's demanding
why would he Bloomberg lie just to protect himself? And
(06:35):
Warren said, yeah, why would she lie? The look on
his face it was just total shock and bewilderment, like
it never literally never occurred to him that that could
be the case. And this in the face of so
many batterns, sworn testimony a witness, and Bloomberg's telling history
right and again about the Indias and his refusal to
(06:58):
release people from the d a s, which makes you
question a lot in itself. Um and even in the debate,
gil Kane asked Warren what proof she had, and Warren
responded incompletely her words, but she was being tweated as
though she made the allegation, and the burden of proof
is on her again, this is public information, right, reminder,
(07:21):
And somehow I missed this tidbit from Yes, I did
none know it is Chris Matthews just got on camera, oh,
joking about slipping Hillary Clinton quote that Bill Cosby pill
I brought with me. Oh yeah, Oh my gosh, not
creepy at all. This has gotten me thinking a lot
(07:41):
about women and lying and perceptions of women and lying,
and I really want to do a whole episode on it,
and the default assumption that women must be lying, especially
in the case of if a man it's a he said,
she said, she must be lying. And I recently had
a major panic attack a couple of weeks ago about
(08:02):
everyone thinking that I'm a liar and no one believing me,
especially if a man's involved, And it freaked me out right,
and it's something I've I know, we all hear that
we talked about on the show all the time, but
just having that moment of that, people are just going
to kind of assume, oh, yeah, she's the liar, she
must be So just recently, and on a kind related
(08:25):
thing about lying, Duffy released in a statement about her
being gone from the music world for a while now,
in which she publicly stated that she had been raped.
She had been kidnapped and raped and assaulted and that's
why she's been gone, and she's been ruminating some things,
and she finally had to sit down an interview where
she talked about it, and the many comments of critics saying, yeah,
(08:49):
but why did you wait till now? Are you sure
this is a one word against another person, like just
going after this musician who all she really said, she
didn't say anything about who it was in that statement,
She didn't say anything about details that she just you know,
needed time, And this is why she's been gone, and
she's been working through some things, and people who are
attacking her on her social media saying pretty much calling
(09:09):
her out as a liar, saying prove it. And it's
like if she has been gone, she has been obviously
gone from social media and the music scene. And she
comes back with this is why. Why is the first
reaction from everyone to be like, you're a liar unless
you tell show us video essentially, but not even that
show us as if we had been there, then we're
(09:30):
not going to believe you. How dare you ruin a
person's life whose name was not mentioned at that point
in time? And I'm speaking of I guess believing and
trusting women, And yes, Again, we know some people don't
love our conversations on stuff like this, but the current
state of reproductive rights is something that we have to
be following and look at today. So do medical services.
(09:52):
LLC versus Russo, which is currently in the Supreme Court,
which is a new case created by the state of
Louisiana which requires doctors performing abortions to have admission privileges
at a state authorized hospital within thirty miles or forty
eight kilometers of the abortion clinic, as in Texas, which
they tried to do this as well with the Supreme
Court case Whole Women's Health versus Hello Stet which was
(10:14):
struck down as unconstitutional. In of course, we know some
things have changed, but the same law limits the care
to one single doctor in the state as other doctors
had not yet gained admission privileges or are outside the
given range, which makes it really difficult to get these
types of services and could be a big conversation of
(10:37):
the threat of Roe versus Wade. As of now, the
decision has not been made yet, but it is a
very tense moment of what is happening with the state
of yeah Row versus Wade, with the argument seemingly looking
kind of like the previous case of whole women's health,
but now with two brand new conservative justices on the bench,
one who made a name for himself with the anti
abortion stances and loving beer and having tantient and being
(11:00):
angry and what was his friend's name, squeeze. I think
it might anyway sad, but yes, we must find humor
where we can. We can, so if you're taking note
on Ginsburg and Sodomaya have been key justices in opening
up the real dialogue behind the reasoning of this Louisiana law,
and at this point it seems Justice John Roberts may
(11:23):
be the one to make the overall decision. So that's
kind of an overview of what's happening in our very
tumultuous political world right now. But there are other things happening.
But first we're gonna get into a quick break for
a word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor,
(11:53):
And we're back with some other relevant stories that have
happened recently are continuing to happen. Just to add to
our updates about Harvey Weinstein, he has been sentenced and
surprisingly twenty three years. I'm not gonna lie. I did
not expect that. I didn't either. I honestly thought that
(12:14):
it would be so sure that it wouldn't. It would
just be he would just be at home. I didn't
think anything was gonna happen for one. But it isn't
a weird place of feeling like not enough right right,
that's still like, yes, there's justice, and that he actually
got a longer sentence than expected, but not as long
as should be because he also didn't they didn't find
(12:36):
him guilty for a chunk of the charges that was
filed against him. I'm really interested to see what would
happen in l A. However, it was reported that he
had a mild heart attack after the sentencing and that
he is in the infirmary at Rikers. But I don't
think I've seen anything else on it, and on that also,
just the many of celebrities and the many women who
have been a part of this conversation about Weinstein have
(13:00):
made comments, including Mayor Servina, who said twenty three years.
Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to twenty three years in
prison for his crimes of rape and sexual assault. I
literally cried tears of amazement and gratitude that the justice
system has worked on behalf of all of his victims today.
Rosie Perez also said, twenty three years convicted and sentenced,
today the world shifted that much more for justice. May
(13:22):
my dear friend Annabella Sciarra and all those brave women
continue to heal and finally find some peace with this
victory hashtag Harvey Weinstein is guilty And if you remember,
she actually um was a character witness for Annabella at
the trial. Rose McGowan also tweeted, who was one of
the big voices during this time? Let us be free?
So there is some small bit of justice, but again
(13:44):
it's kind of like still, yeah, there's still a little
bit of that, but it wasn't enough, um, in comparison
to the many of lives that he is harmed. But hey,
we'll take the justice where we can, right right, And
with that, Unfortunately this is a little more of a downer,
but we could not go on and not talk about
the transgender Puerto Rican woman murdered for using the women's bathroom.
(14:06):
Alexa Ruiz was killed a few hours after someone called
the police on her for using a woman's bathroom at
a fast food restaurant. A video was uploaded and if
you do decide to watch it or find it, it
is really heartbreaking and triggering. So just to put that
out there, it showed her being targeted and and they
assumed was when she was murdered. So far this year,
(14:29):
there's already been two deaths that's just been reported, and
that's again reported that we know of that was specific
to being transphobic deaths. And I'm and that's again what's
being reported out there. Uh, And this was again when
we were researching this, what two weeks ago, UM. And
then on top of that, last year, the twenty six
deaths of UM transgender or gender nonconforming people in the
(14:52):
US due to violence, and a majority of them being
made up of black trans women and people of color.
So I think it's just really important that we recognize
the tragedies of what is happening and the fact that
the rights of these people are being ignored and oftentimes dismissed,
UM with the fact that they are transgender originder not
conforming and unfortunately having these moments, which is super sad
(15:16):
and I'm sorry that is super sad, but it's a reality,
and we recognize it as a reality and then have
a conversation and at least talk about it and mourn
with the community that this is such a horrific, horrific,
painful part of their lives. And I think we can't
ignore that and we can't pretend it's not happening just
(15:37):
because we were sad. Sorry. Yes, absolutely, and that's um
an episode we want to do in the future. And
UM if if anyone listening feels like they have any
good connections or someone we should talk to you about that,
please send them our way. UM. But in the meantime,
we did want to touch on International Women's Day because
(15:59):
that as a couple of days ago as we record
this on March eight, the year's theme was I Am
a Generation Equality, Realizing Women's Rights. Some marches across the
world were met with violence, like in Pakistan with men
reportedly angry by the marches slogan my body, My Choice,
and there was violence with the march in Kouragistan and
(16:21):
in Turkey and Chile there were confrontations with the police
and these marches. Several marches were canceled because of concerns
around COVID nineteen slash coronavirus, but one one pictured I
found that I really loved as In Paris, the march
went on as planned, with several women dressed as Rosie
the Riveter, but with yellow cleaning gloves actually looked really good.
(16:45):
In Mexico, the day was followed by a women's strike
in protests of the violence and sexual faced by women.
According to you government stats in that country, ten women
are killed a day in Mexico, so that is another
quite a huge problem I to be talking about, um
(17:05):
if we move on to culture, some things that are
happening in the entertainment world. A couple of weeks ago,
an opinion piece in New York Times called I Don't
Want to be the strong female lead, written by Britt Marling,
went viral. I can always tell when something goes viral,
and in our kind of wheelhouse, because I'm not on
social media that often, but all of a sudden, I'll
(17:27):
get twenty text have you read this? And then we'll
be at work and we'll get a bunch of messages
you should talk about this, And one was this article,
and she articulated a lot of things I've been grappling
with recently and have even tried to say on this show.
But I don't think I said it as as simply
as she did. When it comes to what we mean
when we say strong female lead, and often what we
(17:51):
mean is women with masculine traits, So their stoic, violent, angry,
feminine coated traits are perhaps seeing in makeup or clothes,
but other than that, when it comes to a strong
female lead are erased. That's a generalization. It's not in everything,
(18:11):
of course, but that has been something I've struggled with,
where when I hear, oh, it's a strong female lead,
and then you go and essentially violence, that is really
what it means. And I'm being loud, yeah, are you
minutive for some reason? That's it is volatile. It's these
things we associate with men. And that's fine, Like there's
(18:33):
a space for that to exist, right absolutely, But it's
I struggle to think of a strong female lead that
is really feminine. And I do think that is changing.
We're seeing some versions of that, but we need to continue, right,
you can be there's plenty of feminine strengths. I don't
know why we have to dismiss them all the time.
(18:55):
Well I do, but it's I'm glad it's changing, and
it's changing for the better. Oh. And then, unfortunately, in
the news of why the hell is this happening, the
lawsuit filed for the US women's soccer team for equal pay.
The employers of the U S women's national team argued
recently that the team should not receive the same pay
as a men's team because, quote, the job of men's
(19:17):
national team player carries more responsibility within US Soccer than
the job of a woman's national team player, and there
was an indisputable science that women biologically were less skilled
than men, so therefore should be paid less, even to
the extent of questioning the female athletes about how strong
they were or how fast slash slow they were in
(19:39):
comparison to the men. Wow, oh yeah, how many have
they want? Again, those indisputable science. In the beyond infuriating
a nuances of this lawsuit, apparently trying to change the narrative,
the US Soccer president tried to claim they sent an
offer with the equal pay structure of men this year,
(20:02):
but it was from twenty eleven, right, Yeah, And just
a reminder, the US women's team has made more of
a profit since and the men's team. We've talked about
this before. Yeah, And as international women's day was March eighth.
The event she believes Cup was held from March five
to eleventh. And this is an event hosted in the
(20:24):
US for many of the amazing female athletes in the
soccer community. Joining the US are the teams from England,
Japan and Spain. Yeah, and while we're speaking on the
subject of sports, a huge shoutout and congrats to Heaven
Fitch from Ashboro, North Carolina, who, as she put it,
and we would absolutely agree, dominated in her state division,
(20:45):
becoming the first female to win an individual title in
wrestling in high school wrestling and garnered most Outstanding Wrestler
award in that division. So shout out as she has
become an icon for so many Yeah, congrats, that's awesome.
And we do you have not one, but two tampon updates. Yes,
(21:10):
so first Germany, recently the tampon book by a startup
focused on sanitary products called The Female Company, That's what
the startup is called, debuted in protest to Germany's tax
on tampons under the umbrella of luxury goods, books are
taxed at five per cent. If you're curious. Inside the
(21:32):
cover of this book, readers will find fifteen tampons and
the book is priced at little over three euros. So
the first run of it sold out in one day,
the second sold out in one week. This was a
part of a push to educate people about the tampon
tax and pressuring the government to lower that tax. And
(21:53):
if you're rendering it is actually a book as well.
The plot traces administruation from now all the way back
to biblical times. And this is a really interesting take
on that whole conversation around the tampon tax, because the
fact that books are tax at a lower reads than tampons,
(22:18):
and the fact that it's sold out so quickly. And
I would assume some of that is novelty, but I
would assume some of it is it's cheaper to buy
the book tampons. Um is that going to be on
our future book club list? You know? It certainly could
be saying. So. Meanwhile, Scottish Parliament past the Period Products
(22:39):
Free Provision Scotland Bill in February twenty the first of
three steps to becoming law and making Scotland the first
country to offer free sanitary products to those need woo
and this following another first, the adoption of making free
tampons and pads available in schools and universities. Alice Johnstone,
a member of parliament, said, why is it in twenty
(23:01):
twenty that toilet paper is seen as a necessity but
period products aren't. This is so often characterized as a
woman's issue, but it's not. It is a social justice
issue and equalities issue and a rights issue. She said.
It is estimated that a woman will over her lifetime
has been approximately five thousand pounds on period products. Being
(23:22):
financially penalized for a natural bodily function is not equitable
or just being unable to afford or access period products
denies women access to education, work, sports, and so much
more true true, So this is this is the first
and three steps. I obviously perhaps I'm not super familiar
(23:42):
with how Scottish Parliament works, but so this is a
big it's a big step, but they do have two
more steps before it becomes law, so we'll be keeping
an eye on that. Their European Union has avowed that
period taxes will be phased out by two and just
to note, some money for period taxes does go to
charities and organizations based on helping women, so that is
(24:05):
something that will need to be addressed for sure. And
then finally, I want to talk about the dictionary. You.
I'm so excited about this because you all know I
love language, and there's language news. Yes, because the Oxford
(24:27):
English Dictionary recently got called out for their sexes language
and the definition of women are specifically the synonyms included okay,
here you go, are you ready? Ready? Bitch, made peace,
bit mayor baggage and in the similar words section popsy, chick, bent,
(24:48):
WIFEI and which examples of usage include god women, will
you just listen? Yeah? Yeah. Meanwhile, one of the definitions
of man reads a person with the qualities associated with males,
such as bravery, spirit, our toughness. So a little different there. Yeah.
(25:10):
A petition calling for the Oxford English Dictionary to change
the definition has over thirty two thousand signatures. When I
first wrote this, it was thirty thousand, Now it's thirty two.
This is important too because Apple and Google use the
Oxford English Dictionary as their source, so this impact search results.
That's huge. I'm going to say, the first person that
(25:30):
calls me a piece is gonna get smack in the face.
We don't condone violence, but don't we also don't calling
anyone a piece. This is the thing. Um. When you
hear it, you think, surely, nah, surely this can't be
true in our modern time. Like it almost seems like
(25:51):
an urban dictionary level, right right, I mean, we don't
even use most of these words anymore. Or mayor. You
don't want to be called a mayor have bent a wife? Popsy?
I don't even know. I'm gonna call you a popsy
because that's just fun. I've never heard that popsy. That
sounds like it. That's a Transatlantic like a character. She's
(26:14):
a spitfire and a detective movie. Well, I am very
excited to see where this goes and to see what
the if they do update it, which they absolutely should,
would recommend, would recommend, Yes, what words are they're gonna
update it with? M We will see exciting language times
(26:38):
we live in. All right, Well, that's all I have
to say about language for now. But we do have
some personal updates we wanted to share with you listeners.
But first we have one more quick break for word
from our sponsor, and we're back. Thank you sponsor, and
(27:06):
as you right now, especially if you follow us on
social media. Samantha and I have been on some trips recently.
It's true. It's true. So Samantha, you went to Orlando.
I did go to Orlando without you. Felt really really odd.
I even made a statement. So we had to do
a panel with Holly from the Few miss in History
(27:28):
class and Ease from This Day in History Class, as
well as Popular and of course our segment Feminist First,
and also with Anna Hasnia from Ethnically Ambiguous and produces
like ten thousand shows over in l A. We all
got to sit down and have a keynote with Jessica
from She Podcasts, who was fantastic and I have a
(27:48):
big conversation. But while we were there, I also did
some interviews with several of the women who are attending
the festival Podfest, which I think I forgot to say. So, yeah,
we didn't go on us which is a conference for
media podcasters or those who want to be involved in podcasting,
and so it was really really interesting. I will say
(28:08):
when we were on the panel, I did talk about
how you abandoned me and I felt very alone and scared.
You're without your work life. That exactly what was what
I said. I was like, my work wife is not here.
I'm very upset with her because she said Montreal. We'll
talk about that in him and the bitterness I carry,
but it's okay. But yeah, it was really fun and
the people were there were super amazing. Um. I got
(28:29):
to meet several of those who are up and coming
in podcasting world. I got a few T shirts? How many?
I only got three this time? Well, I got all
the ones that were available except for a couple. Samantha
and I listeners are notorious free T shirt collectors. They
recognize as that podcast they did in this time, and
(28:50):
I think it was you because it was also too
close back to back SIRL friends, but this one they did,
they were the one that recognized you. Um ran out
of to s by the time I got him. So
I got a Fannie pack from them. Oh I'm actually
wearing that T shirt right and you? Well, so did
you have a good time? I did? It was nice.
Um it was very very sunny, which was delightful because
(29:13):
I have not seen the song since we came back
from l A. Essentially it's been raining for literally forever
and literally forever. But yeah, so I did get to
interview several old women who were attending or a part
of it, And I'm really excited to do that as
an episode because we just talked about how this new medium,
because we've talked about it before, I know it was
one of the things that you and I talk often
(29:34):
about empowering women. And since we are women podcasters talking
to women who are interested in doing this, talking to
those who identify as female or film and those who
are non binary to become a part of this UH community,
how important it is that we bring in as many
people to this new medium that does can make a profit,
but also reaches out and gives you a voice. Right,
(29:56):
It's very important to us. So I'm glad if I
couldn't have been there that you were holding the sminty torch. Yes,
because while you were enjoying your son in Montreal, where
it was no joke, ten degrees fair Knight one day,
but then it warmed upisode was a generally thirty degrees
(30:17):
kind of situation. Um, it did snow. There was so
there was so much snow on the ground, just feet
and feet and feet of it. Really, yeah, see that
when you send me that picture, I'm like, I'm okay,
I was trying to make you feel better. Whatever, I
was still a little better that I wasn't invited and
loved as you. But it's okay, right there, So I
guess the back check to explain why in the world
I was in Montreal. You may remember from our episode
(30:39):
a couple of months ago on Women in Puppetry that
our guest Louise Laplant invited me to the fifteen edition
of the Castilier Festival in Montreal. And this happens a
lot where it's it's I kind of assume it's similar
to the conversations that you end with a polite Oh, yes,
we'll definitely hang out again, but you know, in the
back of your head, probably right. But she totally followed through.
(31:04):
So I went to Canada for five days and I
saw over a dozen shows puppet shows. This festival perhaps
obviously is focused on puppetry, right um, and I had
an amazing time and I met so many amazing women.
I would say it was definitely predominantly women. Did you
also go for the bagel? You know what? I missed
(31:28):
that bagel thing? Did you? Because, as I've said before
on this show, I time has lost all meaning to me,
and I thought that the bagel thing. So there was
also an invitation since I am on a food podcast
as well, to come and have smoked salmon, and Montreal
has their own type of bagel. Right. Um, And that
was the evening before the festival started. I thought it
(31:51):
was on the last evening, so I stayed an entire
night after everyone laugh. I was by myself in Montreal
and very sad that I didn't get to try all
of the salmon. I did try it on my own,
but I'm sure it wasn't as good as. Um what
Louise and her sister throwze this party before the festival
every year. Um. She Louise is right here now. She
(32:12):
I love her. She was fantastic. I thought we wanted
apparently apparently maybe next time. Um. And my favorite show
that I saw was one that used these tiny little
figurines to tell the story of a difficult journey of
a group of refugees that plays out on the performer's bodies.
So it really got me thinking about how we objectify
(32:35):
people and like the fact that it was playing out
on them. It was really good. It was really good.
There was also a puppet made of ice that was
the whole playing There was like a time constraint of
it's melting. Um, so that makes me nervous. Well, I
think that was part of the whole thing, part of
the whole thing. If anyone's curious about that or any
(32:58):
other show as I saw, because I did see a
lot could keep going, UM, please email us happy to share. Also,
it sounds like we might be speaking at Dragon conn
On about where in pubpetry you want to be speaking
about that, right, Not probably me, but we'll see thot like,
I know we're doing something, but that's not our panel,
is it. No? Yeah, our panels gonna be a little different,
(33:18):
I think if we have one. If we have this
is all in the works, but exciting times, exciting times,
UM and I did want to put in there. It
was really interesting to hear perspectives from people outside the
United States about the elections happening. That's so one thing
about the social media Twitter world, when you have people
talking about the like what's going on? Why are you're
(33:38):
doing this? Yeah? People, because they were a handful of Americans,
but it was mostly not Americans at the at this festival,
at least in the group of people I was with
UM and people would ask me questions like, oh my god,
what is it like over there, are you scared? It's
not all of us? I swear? Um, So that was interesting, yes,
(34:02):
And then we wanted to include in here, Um we
should probably say spoiler warning. Yeah, well I think it
would be mostly spoiler free. But if you're worried at
all about spoilers of spoilers of Birds of Prey the
movie and the fantabulous emancipation of Harley Quinn, you might
want to shut it off now, because we did want
to give our brief review on it, since we did
a whole episode on it about a month back when
(34:24):
it came out, and I loved it. I thought it
was super fun and it was really colorful and visually stimulating.
The acting was top notch. I love the soundtrack. I
probably listened to it so many times and it's all
women on the soundtrack. Um. The movie touched on so
many issues that we've talked about before, from everyday sexism.
(34:44):
I would agree with your Wan McGregor. You know what
he said about man's plating all the way to sexual assault. UM,
Women in Revenge a lot of that that that kind
of trope, and even specifically Harley Quinn's journey to becoming
her own woman instead of just the joker's girlfriend, because
it's kind of like a breakup movie. It really is,
and she emerges well at the beginning for sure, her
(35:08):
tagline and her storyline, it is absolutely a breakup movie
for all the other women. Is different portions of what
it is, whether it's Rosie Perez saying, you know, stick
it to the man after they screwed me over after
so many times, I'm done with this and how I'm
going to take care of things, which could be that
whole trope again about the revenge slash justice in your
own hands type of level. And then you have the
(35:30):
Black Canary who's finding her own voice essentially kind of
what she was doing from being the stage singer and
being the pretty girl in the club to coming into
our own voice and finding her own voice. I think
it's definitely all well in those lines. Yeah, and it
was really fun to see a movie where it is
mostly women kicking ass, and you know, it's just little
(35:53):
things that you don't you don't realize that, oh, I've
been missing this, Like when Harley Quinn offers Black Canary
like a hair tie, just phenomenal, and then there's a
tampon joke and it's just you can tell, oh, women
were involved in all of this, right, And then they
also talk about the fact but her and and this
is something that we talked about at the original bars
(36:14):
of Prey episode when we were talking about the fact
that she changed her own outfit from what they wanted
her to be to what she wanted Robbie Margot Robbie Margot.
Robbie specifically did that She's like, Okay, I can be sexually,
but I don't have to wear that stupid bs right,
and I can make my own you know that in
itself was like, yeah, you can definitely see the difference
at the functionalities of the outfits even right. And sadly, um,
(36:38):
my friend I went to go see this with her
after Samantha and I saught together, and I saw it
with another friend of mine. She's really big on Reddit,
and she told me afterwards how upset it made her
because Reddit let her and to believe it was this
awful movie and it was so like social justice and
terrible and it was very upsetting with social justice. Everybody
(37:00):
really get upset about that. Right now, I'm like, they do,
they do? And you know, I want to underscore this.
I think it was a really fantastic movie, but it
wasn't like it and it doesn't have to be. That's
the thing. It was just a fun superhero movie. You
feel like it's any like revenge or origin story almost
of who you've become. Any of them, like Batman, would
(37:21):
be the same level of social justice. So I'm a
little confused. Like he was literally indicating his parents death
and then went to become the Dark Warrior to come
and clean up crying. That was his whole basis, So
I'm kind of confused the difference. Yeah, well it's because
(37:43):
it's a man doing it versus a woman. But the
thing is, like even the Rotten Tomatoes had given it
a pretty high scoring originally, not originally, but towards the
beginning of when it was coming out as well as
I don't think I think it's lower on the IMDb.
But I'm kind of confused why people didn't. Well I'm
not confused because we saw it very clearly on Twitter,
Um you know, yeah, how people just hated it and
(38:05):
saying they weren't sexy enough, which again they're wearing tight leather. Yeah,
I thought that was the dream the dream Metal Dreams like, yeah,
get tight anything, so huh yeah, yeah, it's unfortunate, and um,
I hope that d C doesn't stop making movies like
(38:31):
that because of that reaction, because we need to see
more of that. Um, And it might feel a little
hypocritical of me to be like strong female women always violence.
And then I'm like, but I love this, but I
just think there's a space for so much more stories
(38:51):
with women in them, and because we don't see them
that often, they get judged much more harshly or seen
as oh, it's just another one of this trope or
what what have you. But also, now you have your
costume for I'm thinking about it. I know, I have
this thing where I tried to predict what the biggest
costume will be every year, and last year I had it.
Nailed it. I nailed it, but I definitely counted the
(39:15):
entire time Steve from Scoops Away from Stranger Things and
also Midsummer Um, but yeah, I predict Birds of Prey
will be a big one there. Yeah. Yeah, but I'm
also going to do I'm working on a I'm working
on a Princess Leah one. So I have so many ideas,
(39:37):
so many ideas but in the mean time, if any
listeners would like to send us their costume it is
Oh my gosh, I would love that, or anything in
the news we should include in our next update or
do a whole episode on. Please let us know I
did want to include in here before we wrap everything
up for our next book club. Yes, we're doing Ash
(40:01):
by Melinda Low. I've had this book forever and have
not read it yet, so I'm very excited. Yes, so
if you want to read along participates in this your questions. Yes,
And our feminist movie Friday will be a Girl walked
home Alone at night in honor of International Women's Day
(40:23):
slash month Stay all the things. Yes, So some homework
for you, hopefully of the fund variety. And if you
have suggestions for what our next book pick and movie
picks should be, you can send them to our email
and we would love to receive them. Our email is
Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeart Media dot com. You
(40:45):
can find us on Twitter, app, Mom Stuff Podcast, or
on Instagram at Stuff I've Never told You. Thanks as
always to our superproducer Andrew Howard, and thanks to you
for listening Stuff i Never told You. The production of Iheartradias,
How stuff Works. For more podcasts from Iheartradios, our radio app,
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(41:16):
M
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