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The Party Planner · Aaron Mahnke's Cabinet of Curiosities

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Aaron Menke's Cabinet of Curiosities, a production of
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  Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and Grim & Mild.
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  Speaker 2: Our world is full of the unexplainable. And if history
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  Speaker 2: is an open book, all of these amazing tales are
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  Speaker 2: right there on display, just waiting for us to explore.
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  Speaker 2: Welcome to the Cabinet of Curiosities. You may have seen
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  Speaker 2: the Wood meme online, where a Japanese lawmaker is tackled
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  Speaker 2: by a massive group of his fellow legislators as he
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  Speaker 2: tries to speak into a microphone. Clearly, Japanese politics can
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  Speaker 2: be rough. But go farther south across the Pacific Ocean,
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  Speaker 2: and you'll find that the Japanese have nothing on the
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  Speaker 2: parliament brawls of Taiwan. It's practically a tradition there, going
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  Speaker 2: all the way.
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  Speaker 1: Back to 1988. It's part political theater... and part earnest
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  Speaker 1: political violence. It's shocking, entertaining, and definitely curious. In May
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  Speaker 1: of 2006, Democratic Progressive Party member Wang Shuhui was seething
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  Speaker 1: at the thought of the opposing party passing their latest bill.
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  Speaker 1: They were trying to lift restrictions on transportation across the
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  Speaker 1: strait to the mainland, which would give the government less
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  Speaker 1: ability to regulate their trade. It was a pro-China move
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  Speaker 1: that she wouldn't abide by. Just as the vote was
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  Speaker 1: about to be called on the legislation, she couldn't take
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  Speaker 1: it anymore. She rushed forward, grabbing the copy of the
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  Speaker 1: bill from her rival's hand. No one could have expected
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  Speaker 1: what she was about to do with it, too. She
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  Speaker 1: took the document, shoved it into her mouth, and started
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  Speaker 1: to chew. The floor erupted into chaos. Huang was soon
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  Speaker 1: surrounded by the opposition, who demanded that she spit the
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  Speaker 1: bill back up as if she were a child or
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  Speaker 1: a dog. but she kept her lips clamped shut with
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  Speaker 1: little bits of paper sticking out of the corners of
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  Speaker 1: her mouth. Soon, her fellow legislators reached up to her
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  Speaker 1: mouth trying to pry open her jaws. Others had a
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  Speaker 1: better idea. They started to pull on her hair as
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  Speaker 1: hard as they could. Her face twisted with pain, and eventually,
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  Speaker 1: they all gave up. But she was still cornered. She
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  Speaker 1: had the bill and nowhere to go. Then she wasn't
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  Speaker 1: about to swallow the whole document … So once the
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  Speaker 1: others stopped attacking her, she quickly spit it out and
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  Speaker 1: tore it up, which she probably should have done in
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  Speaker 1: the first place. It would have at least saved her
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  Speaker 1: all of that hair-pulling. Ultimately, she did delay the bill,
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  Speaker 1: and shortly after this, Parliament adjourned for the summer. That
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  Speaker 1: might sound awful, but what if I told you that
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  Speaker 1: it wasn't even the most stomach-turning Taiwan Parliament brawl of
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  Speaker 1: this century? No, that honor belongs to the infamous Pig
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  Speaker 1: Guts Brawl of November 2020. This brawl wasn't instigated by
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  Speaker 1: any one individual, but by an entire party. And this time,
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  Speaker 1: our previous minority party, the Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP,
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  Speaker 1: were the ones with the majority. They had implemented a
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  Speaker 1: new policy lifting restrictions on U.S. pork and beef imports
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  Speaker 1: into Taiwan. It seems an odd turn of events from
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  Speaker 1: an outsider's perspective, seeing as the DPP previously seemed to
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  Speaker 1: be against lifting restrictions. As the premier gave his speech...
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  Speaker 1: the shrill sound of a whistle was suddenly heard across
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  Speaker 1: the floor. Members of the Chinese Nationalist Party, or KMT,
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  Speaker 1: started to wave banners that decried the lifting of the
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  Speaker 1: ban as a danger to all of Taiwan. They believed
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  Speaker 1: that the chemical ractopamine found in U.S. meat products would
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  Speaker 1: negatively affect the health of their constituents. But they weren't
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  Speaker 1: content to interrupt the speech with just whistles and banners. No,
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  Speaker 1: they had something more significantly disgusting in mind. They revealed
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  Speaker 1: large trash bags and buckets full of pork entrails, long, stringy,
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  Speaker 1: fleshy bits of raw meat. They reached their hands into
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  Speaker 1: the containers and came up with big fistfuls and aimed
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  Speaker 1: them right at the opposition party. Soon, handfuls of meat
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  Speaker 1: were sailing across the aisle and striking members of the DPP. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: they didn't take this too well, and soon the DPP
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  Speaker 1: and the KMT members were in full brawl mode. Fists
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  Speaker 1: flew and made contact, and the violence soon spread across
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  Speaker 1: the floor. These supposedly dignified national leaders were now a
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  Speaker 1: tangle of bodies rolling around on the floor covered with
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  Speaker 1: raw meat, ripped up protest signs, and pages of legislation
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  Speaker 1: that clearly wasn't going to be voted on that day.
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  Speaker 1: And I get it. It might seem silly or even
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  Speaker 1: disrespectful to us, and there are those in Taiwan who
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  Speaker 1: feel the same. But to some of those legislators... They
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  Speaker 1: feel those protests and brawls are the only way they
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  Speaker 1: can show their constituents that they're standing up for them,
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  Speaker 1: even when they're the minority party and have no real power.
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  Speaker 1: It's a curious world out there, isn't it? Sometimes when
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  Speaker 1: words fail, it seems that all that's left is to
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  Speaker 1: let your fist do the talking. Thankfully, most politicians try
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  Speaker 1: to defeat the opposing argument with their mouths, a lesson
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  Speaker 1: that Wang Shuhui took literally. There is an item that
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  Speaker 1: is so commonplace in American households that you've probably never
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  Speaker 1: paid it any mind. It's a staple of daily life,
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  Speaker 1: so necessary and simple that it's hard to imagine a
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  Speaker 1: time without it. But this product would never have caught
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  Speaker 1: on if not for a stroke of marketing genius by
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  Speaker 1: a woman named Brownie Wise. In the 1940s, Brownie was
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  Speaker 1: a hardworking single mother struggling to make ends meet. She
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  Speaker 1: had recently divorced her abusive husband and and she and
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  Speaker 1: her son were living with her mother in Florida. Brownie
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  Speaker 1: was creative and ambitious, but she was also stuck in
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  Speaker 1: one of the only jobs available to women in that era,
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  Speaker 1: being a secretary. And needless to say, a secretary's salary
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  Speaker 1: wasn't enough to sustain a family. So to make some
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  Speaker 1: extra cash, she turned to the lucrative side business of
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  Speaker 1: direct sales. Now, at the time, many household products were
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  Speaker 1: sold by door-to-door salespeople. Think of them as spam emails
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  Speaker 1: that knocked and wanted to talk face-to-face. And these people
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  Speaker 1: had to convince their potential customers, who were typically housewives,
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  Speaker 1: that their product was worth buying. Brownie was persuasive, and
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  Speaker 1: she had no problem pawning off cleaning solutions and brushes
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  Speaker 1: from Stanley Home Products. But there was one product in
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  Speaker 1: her catalog that that was a particularly tough sell. It
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  Speaker 1: was made of plastic, an unfamiliar material at the time,
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  Speaker 1: and most people didn't understand how to open and close
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  Speaker 1: the innovative plastic seal without seeing a demonstration. This product
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  Speaker 1: had been in department stores for years, but no one
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  Speaker 1: had been buying it. Even the company's top managers couldn't
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  Speaker 1: figure out how to move the stuff. But Brownie could.
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  Speaker 1: As a woman and a mother herself, she knew exactly
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  Speaker 1: how to build trust with her target demographic of housewives—
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  Speaker 1: by throwing a party. And so Brownie invited all her
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  Speaker 1: friends and her neighbors over to her house, plied them
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  Speaker 1: with refreshments, and showed off beautiful piles of the new
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  Speaker 1: product in its various pastel shades. She used fun party
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  Speaker 1: games to demonstrate how to use it, and even chucked
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  Speaker 1: the plastic across the room to prove that it wouldn't break.
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  Speaker 1: And once these women had seen from a trusted friend
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  Speaker 1: how useful and convenient the product was, they were eager
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  Speaker 1: to buy some for themselves. And from there, Brownie recruited
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  Speaker 1: some of her customers to throw their own parties and
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  Speaker 1: sell stockpiles of the product to their friends. They quickly
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  Speaker 1: got on board because this wasn't just about selling household goods.
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  Speaker 1: It was also about empowerment. Sales parties, you see, were
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  Speaker 1: a way for housewives who'd been discouraged from working outside
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  Speaker 1: the home to build something for themselves and connect with
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  Speaker 1: other women in the process. The kitchen, the very place
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  Speaker 1: that gender roles had constrained them to, became a source
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  Speaker 1: of financial and social independence. Brownie's network of saleswomen grew
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  Speaker 1: and grew until it gained the notice of the company's
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  Speaker 1: top executives. In 1951, Brownie was hired as a vice
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  Speaker 1: president of marketing, becoming one of the only female executives
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  Speaker 1: of the era. She even became the first woman to
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  Speaker 1: appear on the cover of Businessweek. Her party plan was
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  Speaker 1: so successful, the company eventually took their plastic bowls out
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  Speaker 1: of stores entirely, and sold them exclusively through these home
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  Speaker 1: events that had become an emblem of the suburban life,
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  Speaker 1: a gathering that became known as the Tupperware Party. I
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  Speaker 1: hope you enjoyed today's guided tour through the Cabinet of Curiosities.
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  Speaker 1: This show was created by me, Aaron Manke, in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with iHeart Podcasts, researched and written by the Grim &
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  Speaker 1: Mild team, and produced by Jesse Funk. Learn more about
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  Speaker 1: the show and the people who make it over at
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  Speaker 1: grimandmild.com slash curiosities. You'll also find a link to the
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  Speaker 1: official Cabinet of Curiosity's hardcover book, available in bookstores and online,
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  Speaker 1: as well as ebook and audiobook. And if you're looking
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: for an ad-free option, consider joining our Patreon. It's all
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: the same stories, but without the interruption for a small
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: monthly fee. Learn more and sign up over at patreon.com
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: slash grimandmild. And until next time... Stay curious.