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SMNTY Classics: SMNTY Builds a Community · Stuff Mom Never Told You

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Smantha.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Welcome stuff, I'll Never Told you Protection by Heart video,
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: And I just got back from a summer trip I
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: do with some of my really old friends, and every
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: time I take that trip, I think of this episode
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: we did about building a community, you know, the dream
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: of having just your friends in an area and making
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: a community and being self sufficient and independent. And I
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: know we've been talking a lot about your garden, Samantha,
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: and I remember that was an important part of our
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: communities that we would design if we could have them.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: And yes, I would love I would love it. It's
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: a wonderful idea. I swear every time around this year,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I'm like, be so nice. I only make it work. Yeah, yes,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Well as always, listeners, if you have a community that
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: you would like to describe to us, please write in.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: But in the meantime, please enjoy this classic episode.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and Samantha.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: I'm not come to stepon Never Told You a Protection
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: of iHeart radio.
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: And welcome to today's episode, which is again featured by
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: me and my moment in life. Okay, and so therefore
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: I'm going to reflect with y'all because I've had some
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: thoughts in my head. Yeah, and if you've been around,
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: you know that I've been needing to do something. I
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: think I was like, I need some big change. Well,
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: I've actually been looking at purchasing a home recently, and
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: not just because I'm having a midlife crisis or a
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: crisis at all, but actually for living reasons, because you know,
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: rent is bad, it's Atlanta, everything is skyrocketing, and we're
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: trying to make life choices that are smart. Yeah, but
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: damn capitalism sucks. Indeed, indeed say just saying, and y'all
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: it's a whole endeavor. I'm sure many of you have
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: already passed this threshold of trying to buy a house.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I feel like it's called adulting. I'm not good at it.
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I think I tweeted recently about the fact that I
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: actually had an anxiety attack after having a real conversation
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: with a professional about purchasing a home. Still thinking about
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: it makes my heart flutter a bit. And there's so
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: much to do, And to be honest, part of this
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: is like what if you know, scenarios like trying to
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: create the best case scenario for myself, not going in
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: too much debt, not going overboard, finding something that I
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: love all of these things, and one of the things
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: I've been trying to plot any I know you're very
• 2:58
  Speaker 3: well aware it is trying to have all my ladies
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: in an area with me, because that's something that I've
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: been thinking about a lot. In college, I had this,
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: and I don't know if you did. Of course, we
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: had roommates, but we had a little section where all
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: of our little friends were close to each other. It
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: wasn't just ladies, but just like we were all close
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: to each other and there was something to it. And
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: I loved being able to like relying on each other.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: If we needed a company, it was there. If not,
• 3:23
  Speaker 3: we could go our separate ways. You know, all of that.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: And again, you know, I'm like, what would it look
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: like if we try to make a community of our own. Yes,
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: I may or may not have been sending any houses
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: to look at and say would you live in.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: This with me?
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: It's definitely you did do that, Absolutely that you did.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: So I do have a partner that we will be
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: moving in together officially. But I was like, Annie, if
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: we got a basement apartment, would you come and hang
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: with us? And I've seriously been sending her pictures like, look,
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: this could be your place.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: It's true, that's true, And I'm like, how much Star
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: Wars decor?
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Can I get away with.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: All of it?
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: Spot?
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: It's your spot. And to be honest, like, it's been
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: a thing that we've talked about a lot, Caroline from
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Unlady Likes previously from stuff Mom and never told you
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: and I have been talking about it for a while.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: We're like, man, it would just be nice to be
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: close to each other but separate from each other, wouldn't it.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, yes, yes, yes, And especially during.
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: The quarantine when we were self locked down because Atlanta
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: wasn't doing that necessarily, it was like, you know, it
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: would be nice to be able to like sit across
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: porches and yell at each other.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just have a porch, right again.
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: So this made us start wondering could it be possible
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: to create our own communities? And we know there are
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: some and we're going to talk more about it, but
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: before we start, Annie, if you could create your own community,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: what would it look like?
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: I So, as you said, we've talked about this a
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: lot before, and we've talked about it on the podcast,
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: and several listeners have written in and said that this
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: idea really resonated with them that they've thought about it too,
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: and they gave like excellent reasons why, some like societal
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: and pressure reasons and some just fun reasons. So I
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: have thought about this for a while and I have
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: a pretty good vision in my head. But it's like
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: you know in movies when they have that like flashback
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: scene where you're remembering the better days and the light
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: is kind of soft, the focus is soft and bright.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: So like I have this general vision, but it's not
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: I have it honed in on all the details, but
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: some key things I know.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: I want a garden.
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: I want like a functioning, beautiful garden that we all
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: contribute to in one way or the other, because I
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: think you can help out in various ways. As you said,
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I want together but separate. I want everyone to have
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: their own spaces and even maybe their own kitchens. Are
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: either a huge ass kitchen, right huge, because I feel
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: like a lot of tensions that happen in living situations
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: is based around the kitchen.
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: So I want a big kitchen.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: I want it to be somewhere that has a lot
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: of like greenery and maybe trails around and we can walk.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I want to be able to see stars at night,
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: like a lot of stars. If a water is close by,
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: that'd be nice, whether it's a river or anybody of water,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: that'd be really nice.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: Would like nice weather.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: I like seasons, but like maybe not too strong of seasons,
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: because you know the.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: Garden right right.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And I want to like theater area where we can
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: do like movies or plays or whatever. I thought about
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: having like a planetarium situation, but I think if the
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: stars are good enough and the planetariums overkill, and then
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: obviously some kind of like Star Wars area for me,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: maybe that's in my own space, but that has to
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: exist somewhere. And then there would have to be like
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: a division of labor that we can agree upon all
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: those like logistics that I've really get into in this
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: like soft focused, beautiful, idealized version. But there would have
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: to be like some type of leadership thing and uh
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: or place to air grievance because.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: I like it.
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: I don't want to fall apart.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: It is really good.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you gotta you gotta address those things or
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: else like the seeds of annoyance will sew and then
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: the whole thing falls apart.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Also, people are free to come and go they want.
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: I want it to be a very like peaceful experience, right, And.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: You know what, that's You're not far off because a
• 7:33
  Speaker 3: lot of those conversations have happened.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: And that same thing and the whole like being in
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: the open and seeing stars. That's actually a part of
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: the requirements that happened in the past.
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: Uh.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: And we're gonna talk a little more about it. But
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: I know you and I have talked about this about
• 7:47
  Speaker 3: how we were going to be neighboring communes because we
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: were a little bit different in what we wanted. I
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: think we would share garden. I think they definitely would
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: need to share a garden. I do think of our
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: MySpace would have to be individual kitchens because yeah, law
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: of contingent happens about dirty dishes, who does what chores
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: and everybody can do it themselves. As long as it's
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: like reasonable as in like you're not bringing an infestation,
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: then it shouldn't be a big deal. Right, So my head,
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: my commune, Yeah, it's not just all women necessarily, but
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: understand that it's probably to be women run, which actually
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: exists today too, And we'll talk about that a little later. Yeah,
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: I really like the idea. Honestly, it's more about you know,
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: not necessarily commune, but the community, meaning we live there,
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: but we go and do our own thing. We can
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: sustain there, but we're also able to go buy the
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: Rito's if we want it. There's no shame in bringing
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: that in. Yes, of course I will need my TV
• 8:42
  Speaker 3: so I can keep watching all of my episodes on
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: repeat for my trauma Wi Fi important. Yes, and also
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: we would have therapists on hands. That was definitely another
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: part to that. It's that you need to do therapy,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: whether it's once a month's check in, how are things going,
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: or once a week, let's get down to it. Like
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: that's my other big part to that. If you want family, wonderful,
• 9:05
  Speaker 3: we'll have that worked out. I feel like we should
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: create our own schools because I don't love what's happening
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: in public schools, especially in the South right now, with
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: also giving livable wages for teachers and therapists. So just saying,
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: just saying, maybe bring in my own doctor team to
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: like my own little healthcare team. Yeah, so that everybody
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: gets access to healthcare that is communal as well.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: It's funny because we briefly discussed this beforehand, very very briefly,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: and Samantha was telling me all about her ideas and
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I was like, where's the funding coming from? And She's like, don't.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Ask questions, don't worry about this.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: You're right, Like I said, mine is also a soft, focused, beautiful,
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: idealized vision. I haven't hammered out the details.
• 9:55
  Speaker 3: I mean it may end up being like, yes, like
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: as if we are in a socialist country, we would
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: have not taxes, but we would fund to freely, Like okay,
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: half of this, but knowing that this takes care of
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: all of that, including education and da da da da
• 10:11
  Speaker 3: being a community.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: Right, But that's a whole different conversations.
• 10:16
  Speaker 3: But yeah, so we do have all these ideas but
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: not necessarily true. But we also want to talk about
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: and look at some of the past communities and some
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: that are still here today and talk about what they
• 10:30
  Speaker 3: looked like and why it was important for that time,
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: and just talking about whether or not can they be
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: successful because they are kind of dying out. So a
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: big chunk of them actually started in the seventies or
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: late sixties thanks to second wave of feminism, which as
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: we know, didn't look great in the nineteen nineties, and
• 10:49
  Speaker 3: so a lot of shit went down. Maybe we should
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: go ahead and put a content warning. It's not we're
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: not getting into any deep specifics about people domestic violence
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: or abuse or anything, but we are going to talk
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: about them a little bit. We all are going to
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: mention turfs, because obviously when we talk about all women,
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: there's a lot of conversations to be had about it
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: as well. So if any of these things are like, eh,
• 11:14
  Speaker 3: it's too controversial right now, I don't want to deal
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: with it, I understand. Move on, here we go. So
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: before we start, let's talk about a little bit of history.
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: So in eighteen sixty there actually was a US community
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: started here. It started about Martha mcgwerter, who was a
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Bible study leader who happened to be a confidant for
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: many unhappy married women who had no options. So during
• 11:51
  Speaker 3: this time, of course we know eighteen sixties even now,
• 11:54
  Speaker 3: actually in a lot of religious communities it is frowned
• 11:57
  Speaker 3: upon for women to leave their husbands, no matter how abusive,
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: no matter how bad it was, And she would often
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: be a confidant at these Bible studies which she led
• 12:07
  Speaker 3: for women who would tell her about all of the
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: bad things, a lot of them about alcoholism and their
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: husbands being abusive, but rating or neglectful in general, and
• 12:17
  Speaker 3: she would actually advise them and started off with like,
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: well cut them off. So she had these ideas and
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: today we'd be like, this is weaponizing some things. But
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: she did what she had to do, literally teaching women
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: what they had to do. They couldn't leave because at
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: that point in time, especially in the community that she
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: lived in in Texas, they would not allow for divorce
• 12:37
  Speaker 3: unless women proved that if they were to remain they
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: would die, and obviously it was hard to do that
• 12:43
  Speaker 3: because they would die. And even with that case, they
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: would still make them go back to their husbands after
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: a while by after chastising the husband or they would say, yeah,
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: you can get divorced, but you can never marry again.
• 12:55
  Speaker 3: You are there to support your family community no matter what.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: You can't be married again. You have to sustain isolated,
• 13:03
  Speaker 3: which was a lot which was pretty difficult, saying that
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: women could not earn money. They really if they did
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: not have family to support them, they were in trouble.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: So she was trying to say, okay, do these things,
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: trying to discipline the man to teach them a lesson.
• 13:17
  Speaker 3: It did not work out too well, so eventually she
• 13:20
  Speaker 3: was like, you know what, come on over, So she
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: started the Sanctified Sisters also known as the Sactificationists in
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: their household and then had women move into the household
• 13:30
  Speaker 3: with them while she cared for them, which later trans
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: into having another building that they opened up and it
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: was the first shelter to help women seeking refuge in
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: eighteen seventy five. And by the way, there's a lot
• 13:41
  Speaker 3: of stories about the fact that her and her husband
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: were pretty happy, but towards the end he started getting
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: a lot of backlash and was not too happy and
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: kind of bemoaned the situation, but she still did her thing.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: He finally died and she took over the fortune and
• 13:55
  Speaker 3: was able to establish herself. So she said, whatever, I'm
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: going to keep doing this. Love it, love it, And
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: they were delivering services for battered women and later organized
• 14:06
  Speaker 3: the Women's Commonwealth of Belton in Texas. And by the way,
• 14:10
  Speaker 3: the town of Belton not huge fans. They blamed her
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: for the divorces and separations that happened. Really talked about
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: how she was enabling these women to turn away from
• 14:19
  Speaker 3: their husbands and sitting. But her legendary work remained and
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: even after her death it continued with the last member
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: of the Commonwealth died in nineteen eighty three, so over
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: one hundred years later. So go ahead. And as we
• 14:36
  Speaker 3: said earlier, the sixties and seventies were prime years for
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: a lot of these communities, and they were often referred
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: to as quote going back to the land, so kind
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: of your idea, as the communities were self sustaining communities
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: that would be placed back into the woods, away from
• 14:51
  Speaker 3: quote societies, so people couldn't see them or even noticed
• 14:54
  Speaker 3: it existed. They were able to have their own gardens
• 14:57
  Speaker 3: and have their own livelihoods without people inter fearing And
• 15:01
  Speaker 3: by the way, also the Commonwealth, the Women's Commonwealth, was
• 15:05
  Speaker 3: so beloved that it kept going. And as in fact,
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: some of our homes now some of them, some of
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: the communities reflect similar to what she had created. And
• 15:17
  Speaker 3: she became like a huge part of the community as
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: in she was I believe in office as some of
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: like big government local government things, so she was involved
• 15:30
  Speaker 3: and because she was actually a really smart businesswoman. Uh,
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: they really respected the fact that she could maintain hmmm
• 15:38
  Speaker 3: mm hmmm.
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: That's interesting.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: I think this idea of like going back to the
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: land for because it's almost like you're trying to get
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: away from the toxic things in society. You're kind of
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: like checking out from that aspect of it. So I
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: find that interesting. So the history collection dot com says
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: about these communities, quote, these are called Women's lands and
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: that's women spelled wom yn s well aproshapeus, you know
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: what I mean, And many of them still exist today.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: They accept women of all races and religions. Some of
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: these communes were specifically made to house lesbians. Other communities
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: were meant to help women travelers who were brave enough
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: to venture across country alone and needed places to stay
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: where they felt safe. Considering how many women are still
• 16:25
  Speaker 2: attacked and killed when traveling alone and staying in cheap motels,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: this kind of program would still be useful to this day.
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: Many of these places are filled with small cabins and shacks,
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: almost like a campsite, and all of the citizens have
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: to do their part to help keep the community going.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: I'm sure there's past episodes about the women spelling womyn specifically,
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: but during the times they really were adamant that they
• 16:48
  Speaker 3: did not want men as part of their word, so
• 16:50
  Speaker 3: m in and say they put the y instead to
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: show their own autonomy and not as part of the
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: misogynistic patriarchal idea of existing under man. So just that.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: So one of the biggest pluses for these communities is
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: for the women who did not have children or other
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: family members to help care for them as they grew older.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: And I think about this often any as someone who
• 17:12
  Speaker 3: was childless, I'm like, oh my god, I'm going to
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: be alone, which is what my mother's fear was for me.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: But communities like this allowed for women to grow together
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: with others and not having to be alone as In fact,
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: the original members of the Women's Comment Wealth were able
• 17:27
  Speaker 3: to retire together, moving from Texas to this DC because
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: they wanted to grow that community and wanted to do
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: in the Capitol. And in the nineties another group, older
• 17:36
  Speaker 3: Women's co Housing, had a similar idea where women living together,
• 17:40
  Speaker 3: learning together, helping each other financially and emotionally. Of course,
• 17:45
  Speaker 3: in the nineties they were like, we don't want to
• 17:46
  Speaker 3: be seen as feminists and hippies, so they try to
• 17:49
  Speaker 3: remove themselves from that conversation, even though their ideas were
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: very feminist. Yeah, just to go ahead put that there,
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: But yeah, this is something I think about too. It
• 17:59
  Speaker 3: was like getting older has been easier because I have
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: a collective of friends who don't have children themselves and
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: are able to be a little more accessible for me
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: as a single person when I'm saying, hey, let's go
• 18:12
  Speaker 3: get a drink or let's go hang out here, because
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: you know, children are work. We get that, and children
• 18:18
  Speaker 3: are beautiful and amazing, and I hope that never comes
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: across that we are anti children in any way. But
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: we know that it's a lot of work, and then
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: we know this has to be a build up, and
• 18:28
  Speaker 3: we know that oftentimes in a family heteronormative family, women
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: carried the brunt and burden of the load by choice
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: and sometimes not by choice. So that's something that we
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: do talk about. But there's also that hopefully, if you
• 18:43
  Speaker 3: have a good relationship with these children, they will take
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: care of you when you get to the point that
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: you need someone to care for you, which by the way,
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: is horrifying. As I'm aging, I'm like, oh my god,
• 18:55
  Speaker 3: that's scary. But for those who have not had children,
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: that's something we don't have, so if we don't have
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: family who takes care of you.
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 19:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely one of the appeals of the commune
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: idea for me is like I can be single, but
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: there are people around, yes to help that care about me, and.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: If I fall down, they can come and get me right.
• 19:20
  Speaker 3: At least someone's gonna come check up on me. Which
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: is episode.
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: Oh wow, it all comes back to six in the
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: city every time. Yes, sure, we'll get to it, and
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: I'll have more thoughts then.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 19:34
  Speaker 3: So they want to talk more about some of the
• 19:36
  Speaker 3: communities that exist today. But I don't know if you
• 19:40
  Speaker 3: actually knew this. I did not know this. Arkansas has
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: a chunk of women intentional communities, or sometimes I call
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: them women communes. I guess communes have a whole different connotation.
• 19:55
  Speaker 3: Sometimes that's a whole different conversation again, but Arkansas has
• 20:00
  Speaker 3: chunk of it, and it has a lot to do
• 20:01
  Speaker 3: with Apparently, in the nineteen sixties nineteen seventies, some lands
• 20:04
  Speaker 3: were really really, really really cheap and easy to purchase,
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: so a lot of these lands were purchased that way.
• 20:12
  Speaker 3: Now a lot of these other communities, and the ones
• 20:14
  Speaker 3: we talk about in Arkansas seem to have something to
• 20:17
  Speaker 3: do with Native and Indigenous communities and them taking back
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: some of the land. So that's kind of a beautiful
• 20:22
  Speaker 3: thought too, But we did want to take a moment
• 20:24
  Speaker 3: to talk about them.
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: Yes, so we have some quotes about these communities from
• 20:31
  Speaker 2: Arkansas starting with The specific values that bring women together
• 20:36
  Speaker 2: to form land communities vary from one community to the next.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: The overarching commonalities include the importance of distinguishing women's communities
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: from patriarchal institutions by valuing women's contributions, encouraging women's empowerment,
• 20:48
  Speaker 2: and relying on consensus based decision making processes and non
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: hierarchical organization. Another common thread has been to provide space
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: for women to take on non conforming gender and leadership roles.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: Environmental sustainability and preservation also are common goals, often grounded
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: in a synthesis of radical and eco feminist philosophies, emphasizing
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: that women should have an opportunity to quote live together
• 21:10
  Speaker 2: in harmony with the earth, with respect toward and growing
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: with her and one another right.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: And I found that what they were saying, So this
• 21:18
  Speaker 3: all comes from one site who talked about their history,
• 21:21
  Speaker 3: and I loved it. So we wanted to talk about
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: why they're doing it and what it looked like, and
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: then talking about like specific communities.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: Right right, And there were several in Arkansas, yes, including
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: one intentional community still there today, the Santuario Arco Iris Centuario,
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: the Santuario Arco Iris and from the Encyclopedia of Arkansas
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: dot com, here's a bit about this community. Santuario Arco Iris,
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: an intentional land community located in Ponka Newton County near
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: the Buffalo National River in northwestern Arkansas, was founded by
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: Maria Cristina de Colores Morales, also known by her ceremonial
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: names Sunhawk and Aguila, originally as a sanctuary or sacred
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: land space for all women and children, particularly women and
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: children of color. Morols, who identifies as a so called
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: two spirit woman of Mexico and Indigenous American descent, has
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: lived on the Wilderness Preserve since nineteen seventy six. She
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: moved there with her five year old daughter, Jennifer. Her
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: partner from nineteen eighty two to twenty eleven, Miguela Borges,
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: was also instrumental in the development of Sanario Arcoiris and
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: its associated nonprofit organization, the arco Iris Earth Care Project
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: or the AIECP. Moroles prefers the Pan Indian term two
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: spirit to the term lesbian to describe a third or
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: non binary gender identification and sexual orientation that derives from
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Native American ceremonial roles and culture.
• 22:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I would love to dig more into her because
• 22:46
  Speaker 3: she sounds amazing anyway, But yeah.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Keep going.
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: I will drawing eclectically from various spiritual and ideological traditions.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: Arco Iris we use eco feminist, Indigenous and American and
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: non Western concepts of sustainable environment and community, social justice,
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: and natural healing into its mission. As Marole stated Centuario,
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: arco Iris has served as a rural shelter for women
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: and children of color to regain our self respect and
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: self determination and heal from our personal and ancestral wounds.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: We learned from nature how to be healthy women and
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: good parents and community members, recovering our indigenous culture, spiritual ways,
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: and remembering our matriarchal ceremonies to protect ourselves, our children,
• 23:27
  Speaker 2: and above all, Mother Earth. We started from scratch on
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: rural wilderness land, with no elders or community, no money,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: no road, no homes, no infrastructure. We were poor, working
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: class women, survivors of every type of abuse and neglects,
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: and we made our way back home to our roots
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: and our mother and then it goes on. Never intended
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: as a strictly lesbian separatist settlement, arco Iris now welcomes
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: in its community both women and men with serious commitment
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: to its ideals of healing, social justice, and sustainability. Morols
• 24:00
  Speaker 2: and Borges reared both a daughter and a son on
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: the land, and a male cousin currently resides at arco
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: Iris with Maroles. Nevertheless, arco Iris remains rooted in philosophy
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: and programming and what has come to be known as
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: the Lesbian Land of movement also called the Land Dyke movement,
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: as well as in broader social and cultural movements for
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: indigenous people's rights, anti racism, alternative healing, and ecology.
• 24:24
  Speaker 3: Right, so this is apparently the entirety of this community
• 24:29
  Speaker 3: kind of came through splinters of older communities. It's fascinating
• 24:33
  Speaker 3: to me. I'm not really sure again, Like he talks
• 24:35
  Speaker 3: about who they bring in, what they're doing, but it's
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: obviously very specific and very focused, and I love that.
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: I love the idea of preservation for their community, indigenous
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: peoples and people of colors. So like, it's a beautiful
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: idea and I'm glad this still exists. I do wonder
• 24:50
  Speaker 3: how much it has dwindled, Like I said, it has
• 24:52
  Speaker 3: splintered throughout the years from the seventies, but a few
• 24:55
  Speaker 3: do exist. And speaking of which, I did not know
• 24:59
  Speaker 3: that there was one in Alabama? Did you?
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: No?
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: I did not. I have seen.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: This is not really related, but I will mention there's
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: this place in Alabama near my grandparents' old beach house
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: called Bama Hinge, the Stone Hinge, but it's like made
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: of stier okay guardboard, And the first time I stumbled
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: across it, I was like, what's going on here?
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: What's happening here?
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: Right?
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: So, according to the site, because it exists, quote, Alipine
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: is home to a diverse group of women WMYN who
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: celebrate many spiritual pasts, pursue a variety of outdoor activities,
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: and enjoy vegetarian and gluten free to omnivorous diets. Residents
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: are full time, part time, or seasonal, and there are
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: some non resident lot owners. Dogs and cats are welcome,
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: with sub restrictions. We currently range in ages from fifties
• 25:52
  Speaker 3: to eighties, but welcome women of all ages. And by
• 25:56
  Speaker 3: the way, because we talked about this earlier and I
• 25:58
  Speaker 3: thought it's important high speed internet allow some members who
• 26:00
  Speaker 3: work from home. Many are retired. We are within an
• 26:04
  Speaker 3: hour of several large cities, so the whole like it's
• 26:07
  Speaker 3: still updated. So they exist. You can look at their site.
• 26:09
  Speaker 3: Alipine dot org is a L A P I n
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: E dot org. And if I'm saying that wrong, I apologize.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: I don't know. Probably they have rooms for rents in
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: the village, so we may have to check this place out.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: By the way, this is right there now research yeah,
• 26:25
  Speaker 3: right there in Alabama. And they were featured in one
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: of the articles that talk about women led organizations or
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: women led villages around the world and what they say
• 26:35
  Speaker 3: of this community in one hundred acres of rural northeastern
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Alabama land. Since Alipine an all female community born out
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: of the nineteen seventies, a lesbian separatist movement, and that
• 26:47
  Speaker 3: continues to survive in Bible Belt America. Alipine only numbers
• 26:52
  Speaker 3: a dozen or so members these days. But what the
• 26:54
  Speaker 3: women have created here is not unique. And I am surprised.
• 26:58
  Speaker 3: Maybe it's because we don't know about it. We have
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: attend to it. There are apparently around one hundred lesbian
• 27:02
  Speaker 3: communities like Alipine around North America. Again, it's called Women's Land.
• 27:08
  Speaker 3: I think we've talked about that previously, and it has
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: co ops for women farm and women are the ones
• 27:14
  Speaker 3: who tend it as well as lead it. So it
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: is an interesting thing to see again, any I think
• 27:19
  Speaker 3: you and I may need to go check this spot out.
• 27:23
  Speaker 3: And yeah, there's several around the country that we talked about.
• 27:26
  Speaker 3: I know there's several I think in Australia that still exists.
• 27:31
  Speaker 3: There's a lot. I know we haven't dug into it,
• 27:33
  Speaker 3: but it is still kind of what we talked about.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: How it's died out and may have everything to do
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: with the intersectional feminism that ha's existed today. One of
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: the big conversations that happened in the fragmenting of several
• 27:44
  Speaker 3: of these places are the exclusions of trans women and
• 27:49
  Speaker 3: we've seen that in festivals. We've talked about this before.
• 27:51
  Speaker 3: I know there's one home named after Susan B. Anthony.
• 27:56
  Speaker 3: That's a whole different conversation in itself, which did not
• 27:59
  Speaker 3: allow for trans communities to be a part of this area,
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: and then that kind of grew into trans communities building
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: their own communities, which I love the idea, which is
• 28:11
  Speaker 3: a lot more welcoming and loving. There's a whole other
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: conversation about what about non binary, how do we include them?
• 28:18
  Speaker 3: What does that look like, and how do we make
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: sure that we are providing a safe space for everyone
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: and including the non binary, but at the same time
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: trying to word it correctly. I guess for each area,
• 28:31
  Speaker 3: and I know that was a big part of conversations.
• 28:34
  Speaker 3: Again after a second wave feminism, we know there was
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: a lot of backlash, and so this is part of
• 28:40
  Speaker 3: the reason why they say these communities may be dying
• 28:43
  Speaker 3: out again lesbian only where they did ban all men,
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: which I don't hate, I don't hate. It was controversial
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: for a little while. Again that turf talk walked into
• 28:55
  Speaker 3: this as well, when we looked at how inclusively of
• 29:00
  Speaker 3: some of these communities world were not. There was a
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: lot of politics, unfortunately in an area that didn't want
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: a lot of politics.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: Just to put in here, I think for a lot
• 29:25
  Speaker 2: of people, when you hear the word commune, which we've
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: been using, community a lot. But when when you think
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: of like the word commune, you associate, if you're like me,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: you associate with cult or that at least there is
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: the danger.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Of that happening.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: And I happen to know two men who have talked
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: to me about wanting to join a cult.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: Not see I did it. I did it.
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: I wanted to join a commune. And my immediate, clearly.
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: Reaction was, are you sure that's not a cult? Right,
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: which I as we've said, I love this idea, but
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: there is I think a part of it is like
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: propaganda or media We've seen. I've watched a million horror movies.
• 30:06
  Speaker 2: It is sort of like living outside of the patriarchal system, right,
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: So I think there's been a lot of that, like
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: paint brush over it, and I guess it's been and
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: it's been very successful. And that's not to say there
• 30:16
  Speaker 2: isn't a danger because if you have like a very
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: when they say cults, and personality, like somebody who can
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: be very persuasive and lead these things. And I don't know,
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: because we also talked about that when we did Women
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: in Cults, where there we have it's a very fine
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: line between what you're demonizing as a cult versus what
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: is just living outside of the societal norms you're used to,
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: especially like Western Christian patriarchal societal norms for us in specific.
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: But I think that's an interesting part of this too,
• 30:47
  Speaker 2: is that you know, these politics, as you say, have
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: come into them and to what we want to be
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: these like you know, beautiful kind of free you can
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: finally be yourself and be free, and we can live
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: in harmony space. But there's also that kind of like outside,
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: like what's going on here?
• 31:05
  Speaker 3: Right right? And you know, with all of that, there's
• 31:10
  Speaker 3: this level of conversation. Yes, they were not only seen
• 31:14
  Speaker 3: as communists, but because it was women ran, they were
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: also seen as hippies, which for the longest time had
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: a negative connotation to it, and it still does. It
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: still does, Like people use that as jokes, Oh, are
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: you a hippie? Now? Are you a hippie? Now? Right?
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: You like Patruli, all these things really ridiculous assumptions with
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: being a hippie, and some of these organizations have fallen
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: out of favor because of those labels and titles, as
• 31:42
  Speaker 3: well as the fact that for some reason, I think
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: maybe the last three years has changed this, but for
• 31:48
  Speaker 3: a while they're like, eh, we don't need feminism as much,
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: that whole level of like we're good now women have rice.
• 31:55
  Speaker 3: What are you talking about? We're just like yeah, no,
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: And maybe it's according to what part of social media
• 32:06
  Speaker 3: you're on, what part of the movies, or what part
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: of you know, gaming industry you're in, But you realize
• 32:15
  Speaker 3: very quickly, no, it's not gone. And this is why
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: people are asking for a safe space, a place to
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: be able to grow with each other. And on top
• 32:25
  Speaker 3: of that, I think a lot of again we've talked
• 32:29
  Speaker 3: about this before as an introductory to you and I
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: about mentorship. We don't have a lot of women that
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: we look up to today because we have grown up
• 32:39
  Speaker 3: in a different era where than our parents, than our aunts.
• 32:43
  Speaker 3: Who again, my mother wanted to be a mother at fourteen,
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: she was ready like that was her goal, Like not goal,
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: but that was her happiness. And she she loves being
• 32:52
  Speaker 3: a mother, she loves being the wife, She loves having
• 32:55
  Speaker 3: her family that defined her that was never me. And
• 33:00
  Speaker 3: trying to figure out who do I look up to,
• 33:02
  Speaker 3: who do I talk to, who do I seek? And
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: again also being a person of color, all different things.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I don't want to look up to white women.
• 33:10
  Speaker 3: I'm sorry white women, y'all are amazing, but you know
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: what I mean, Like there's this level of like they
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: don't understand the hardships and I need to know how
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: to navigate my life. And for the most part, like
• 33:20
  Speaker 3: my friends, books and people that I have trusted, whether
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: it's teachers or people that I've read through, they have
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: been those people. But that was kind of the attraction
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: of some of these communes slash communities was to have
• 33:35
  Speaker 3: mentorship level. As in fact, one such place was called
• 33:38
  Speaker 3: the Huntington Open Women's Land, which is in Vermont, and
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: as in fact, they were featured in two articles as
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: they were kind of I don't know, dying out but
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: had less and less people. I think these both of
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: these articles came in twenty nineteen. Maybe there was a
• 33:53
  Speaker 3: plug that happened for them trying to create an open environment.
• 33:58
  Speaker 3: But their intention was to bring younger women into this
• 34:03
  Speaker 3: land and to mentor to shape young women, and to
• 34:07
  Speaker 3: prepare them for the world that is so centered around
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: misogynistic ideals. I've kind of lost that, and I'm kind
• 34:14
  Speaker 3: of sad about that. I really wish because I will
• 34:17
  Speaker 3: say there's something to being able to be with a
• 34:19
  Speaker 3: group of women and to bond.
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, there's something kind of oh liberating, especially if it's
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: a group of women that is in your like same
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: kind of mindsets and you feel like you don't have
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: to put up these appearances or performances. And also just
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: the other day I saw an article, and every now
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: and then there's something I'm like, we're still talking about this,
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: but it was about why are we so afraid of
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: single women? And I think that's another reason why we're
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: kind of like, or at least mainstream media is like,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: why are all these women living and by them so right?
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: They're living in communities of just women.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: It's wrong.
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: So there's like that air of you know, like homophobia,
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: but also just fear around women kind of opting out
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: of society, which we've talked about a lot. But I
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: do think, yeah, that is when I think about my
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: ideal commune, it is like full of my friends and
• 35:24
  Speaker 2: full of like the support and just sort of being
• 35:29
  Speaker 2: able to be yourself totally right right and not feel
• 35:32
  Speaker 2: like you have to act in a certain way that
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: is not your self right.
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: As in fact, part of reading all of these older
• 35:42
  Speaker 3: generation of women who did these they talked about that
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: this was about self preservation. The reason the lesbian communes
• 35:49
  Speaker 3: slash lesbian communities were so big was because they found
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: a safe space to love who they can love. And
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: I hate that that's where we're going back to and
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: we may need them again because we see all these
• 36:00
  Speaker 3: anti LGBTQ plus policies. Thats going in place and no
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: one's stopping them. But a part of the reasons that
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: these communities happens for the safety of those in the
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: queer community, as well as the safety for those who
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: have been assaulted and have gone through some things. When
• 36:16
  Speaker 3: I said previously in a different episode, not all men,
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: but all men, that's what we're talking about, not necessarily
• 36:23
  Speaker 3: with the lesbian community, but the whole safety aspect is
• 36:27
  Speaker 3: we can't be mistaken that you're not going to be
• 36:29
  Speaker 3: one of those men. And I say you and the
• 36:32
  Speaker 3: general men in general, that just because you may not
• 36:38
  Speaker 3: be the one that does something to a woman or
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: to someone doesn't mean that it's not going to happen
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: and doesn't mean another man won't do it. So it's
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: just safer for women to assume all men are going
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: to do it until you are in our trust, and
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: even then people break our trust. And that's kind at
• 37:00
  Speaker 3: that whole level. Now, not that abuse doesn't happen within
• 37:03
  Speaker 3: the lesbian community, we know it does. We know abuse
• 37:05
  Speaker 3: happens in the queer community. We know that it's not
• 37:08
  Speaker 3: talked about enough, and we need to be able to
• 37:10
  Speaker 3: give safe spaces to that as well. But what we're
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: looking at is why these female centric communities were so
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: important and are still kind of important, and why we
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: need to learn from them, and why we need to
• 37:23
  Speaker 3: look at them still as a possible option. That's just
• 37:26
  Speaker 3: my opinion. I know, I know that's my opinion. But
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: I did want to also give some examples of other communities,
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: women led communities, so not necessarily like all women we
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: haven't just been talking about all women only communities, but
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: that that have been successful and why they exist. So
• 37:43
  Speaker 3: this actually came from Wonderingourworld dot com. And I really
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: don't know how old this article is, y'all. I kind
• 37:50
  Speaker 3: of try to look for it. I think it's fairly newer.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: So I'm hoping that they still exist because that would
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: make me happy. But I want to give some examples
• 38:01
  Speaker 3: of some women led or all women communities that are
• 38:06
  Speaker 3: thriving around the world, one of them being Umoja Village,
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: where not only are the women in charge, but they
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: are the only inhabitants. Literally, men are forbidden so from
• 38:18
  Speaker 3: the site it says. Umoja, situated in the grasslands of
• 38:22
  Speaker 3: northern Kenya, was set up by fifteen women in nineteen
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: ninety as a refuge after suffering horrendous sexual violence at
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: the hands of British soldiers. Finding themselves homeless after being
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: forced out of their homes by husbands who did not
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: want a wife who had been raped, these brave women
• 38:39
  Speaker 3: set up their own village where violence and men were banned,
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: and then later they started taking in children and children
• 38:45
  Speaker 3: with HIV so abandoned children were allowed in three decades
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: on and the community members are around two hundred and
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: fifty women and children. They've continued to take in women
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: fleeing female genital mutilation as well as those seeking safety
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: after suffering assault and rape. The women all members of
• 39:04
  Speaker 3: the Samburu So Sorry people now live in a completely
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: different life from those who live around them. They make
• 39:10
  Speaker 3: community decisions together, have jobs and earn income, and live
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: without fear of male violence or of FGM so love that,
• 39:21
  Speaker 3: I'm like, I want to go to there. And then
• 39:23
  Speaker 3: we have Nueva del Cordero and I'm so sorry if
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: I just butchered all that and almost all female Brazilian
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: town founded in the eighteen nineties, which continues to grow
• 39:33
  Speaker 3: from strength to strength and now has a population of
• 39:36
  Speaker 3: six hundred. So apparently it started off because a Brazilian
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: woman named Maria Sinorina de Lima set up this town
• 39:46
  Speaker 3: after she was accused of adultery after leaving a forced
• 39:50
  Speaker 3: marriage and was excommunicated. She wanted to do all this
• 39:54
  Speaker 3: in order to create a haven for women where men
• 39:57
  Speaker 3: could not control them. So the tach That town is
• 40:00
  Speaker 3: in the southeast of Brazil, which continues to exist today,
• 40:05
  Speaker 3: populated by hundreds of women who work the land and
• 40:08
  Speaker 3: work for each other. The community believes their town is
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: more organized and peaceful than if men were in charge.
• 40:14
  Speaker 3: I probably agree. Some of the residents are married, but
• 40:18
  Speaker 3: their husbands almost all work in the large cities far
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: from the village, so only managed to return on the weekends.
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: Oh my god, I might have to go to there.
• 40:26
  Speaker 3: And it is pretty much run by the women only
• 40:29
  Speaker 3: and men are allowed to live in the town as
• 40:31
  Speaker 3: long as they abide by the Female Lead World Book.
• 40:35
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna have to go to theirs. I'm gonna have
• 40:38
  Speaker 3: to go. And then just one more, because I love
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: all of these. We wanted to talk about the women
• 40:44
  Speaker 3: of Jinwar. As it says in the Sight Out of
• 40:46
  Speaker 3: the Ruins of the Syrian War, a group of women
• 40:49
  Speaker 3: who suffered at the hands of the ISIS brutality have
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: created an all female village and refuge calle Jinwar, based
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: in the north of Kurdish controlled Syria called Rajava. The
• 40:59
  Speaker 3: village was founded in twenty seventeen and the women saw
• 41:02
  Speaker 3: it as an opportunity to create their own self sustainable
• 41:06
  Speaker 3: community living off the land. The women of Jinwar believe
• 41:09
  Speaker 3: they must separate themselves from the male dominated violence in
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: the country and equality between men and women in Syria,
• 41:16
  Speaker 3: and they did this in hopes that they could live
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: the full to their lives, the potential of their life.
• 41:20
  Speaker 3: And they've have some few documentaries and seeming lead are
• 41:24
  Speaker 3: doing well and I love to see it. Of course,
• 41:26
  Speaker 3: this is obviously a very new five years old at most. Yeah,
• 41:30
  Speaker 3: I would love to hear more about how they have
• 41:33
  Speaker 3: been able to sustain and continue in a war ravished area.
• 41:37
  Speaker 3: I know we've talked about the Syrian refugees before and
• 41:41
  Speaker 3: I would like to see what is happening, but we're
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: very limited. But we want to celebrate the fact that
• 41:47
  Speaker 3: they were able to do so and take in control
• 41:50
  Speaker 3: of their lives because it's amazing and we need so
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: many more examples of that.
• 41:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean that's definitely been the theme throughout
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: and I think even when we heard from you listeners,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: because I know we mentioned it and I believe our
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: feminist movie Friday on Film and Luise, yeah, and we
• 42:12
  Speaker 2: talked about that kind of them living outside of society,
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: and you know, that's kind of a whole it's different
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: but related idea of there are these problems, there are
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: these injustices that are written into our laws and just
• 42:29
  Speaker 2: society in general, as marginalized people and as women as
• 42:33
  Speaker 2: we've been talking about in here, and why it appeals
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: to people to live outside of that. Why this is
• 42:40
  Speaker 2: an appealing idea for a lot of us, I think
• 42:43
  Speaker 2: is that and we've seen that kind of thread throughout
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: in all of these examples, and of course, as you said,
• 42:49
  Speaker 2: so we've said throughout there are problems too, Like there's
• 42:52
  Speaker 2: still none of us are completely immune from this, like
• 42:56
  Speaker 2: the biases we've been raised with.
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: But it is.
• 43:01
  Speaker 2: Very interesting to me to see these examples and to
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: hear these like commonalities and why they exist, which also
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: speaks to like a lot of issues we need to
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: fix in society at large.
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: But yeah, that's right, that is interesting.
• 43:17
  Speaker 3: And like we said, we don't know exactly what all
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: is happening in the world today, but it continues. Yeah,
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: s Minty, I think we need we need to do.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: I think we need to create our own community.
• 43:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, Oh my gosh, you know what we need listeners, right?
• 43:32
  Speaker 2: And what what do we need? What is integral in
• 43:37
  Speaker 2: this s Minty community? Uh, we need to know what's
• 43:41
  Speaker 2: your ideal ideal commune slash community and if there's something
• 43:46
  Speaker 2: we missed that we should talk about, please let us know.
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: You can email us a steppid mom Stuff at iheartmeia
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: dot com. You can find us on Instagram at stuff
• 43:55
  Speaker 2: I've Never Told You are on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast.
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina.
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: You were absolutely a part of this community, so you
• 44:03
  Speaker 3: need to tell us what you need.
• 44:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, Christina, get back to us on that and thanks
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: to you for listening stuff I never told the projection
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeart
• 44:13
  Speaker 2: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or regular listen to your favorite shows.