Latest / Stuff Mom Never Told You / (Un)Happy Hour #77: Adoption and Abortion
Transcript
- 0:05Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha. Welcome to Stephanie. Never
- 0:07Speaker 1: told your protection, but I heeart Radio. Welcome to what
- 0:20Speaker 1: is gonna be my segment of unhappy hour of our
- 0:24Speaker 1: sub sub segments that we do sometimes of all the
- 0:27Speaker 1: many of sub sub segments of things. UM. But yeah,
- 0:31Speaker 1: you know, Anie, Typically I come in with just the
- 0:35Speaker 1: drinks and talking about what's happening in the industry or
- 0:38Speaker 1: or about the new drinks or the new companies or
- 0:40Speaker 1: the new CEOs or creators or crafters. Um. And we've
- 0:44Speaker 1: been talking a lot about sex in the city. And
- 0:46Speaker 1: then of course you come in, you do your beautiful
- 0:48Speaker 1: conversations about your life and what's going on with you
- 0:52Speaker 1: as you're discovering yourself and just kind of unraveling some
- 0:55Speaker 1: of the trauma as well as unraveling some of the
- 0:57Speaker 1: stigma that you've seen when it comes to things you
- 0:59Speaker 1: want like fan fiction and Marvel and Star Wars and
- 1:04Speaker 1: all the beautiful things which I love being a part
- 1:06Speaker 1: of this journey, thank you very much. UM. And so
- 1:10Speaker 1: I was like, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna twist
- 1:11Speaker 1: it off and do a little of my own concerns,
- 1:14Speaker 1: which maybe a little much for a lot of people.
- 1:17Speaker 1: So yes, this is I guess this is just me
- 1:20Speaker 1: complaining in the best way possible that I can describe um.
- 1:26Speaker 1: But it is going to be about abortion. It is
- 1:29Speaker 1: about adoption, and I know I've been talking on it
- 1:31Speaker 1: a lot, but yeah, it's very personal for me, and
- 1:34Speaker 1: so I feel like it's something that I need to
- 1:36Speaker 1: talk about, something that I need to keep reiterating because
- 1:39Speaker 1: I don't know how many of the FAMI no adoptees
- 1:43Speaker 1: who are hearing this narrative as well as trying to
- 1:46Speaker 1: really uh shine a light of what this feels like
- 1:50Speaker 1: for someone who is personally being called out as a solution.
- 1:57Speaker 1: So I did want to take this time. But again,
- 2:00Speaker 1: this is kind of that caveat of like, yes, we're
- 2:02Speaker 1: gonna talk about abortions. If you're so tired, if you're overwhelmed,
- 2:05Speaker 1: if you just need a break, this might not be
- 2:06Speaker 1: the moment to have this conversation. And I get it.
- 2:09Speaker 1: For those of us who are in the adopted world,
- 2:12Speaker 1: for those of us who's been in the social work world,
- 2:14Speaker 1: for those of us has been in the system, if
- 2:16Speaker 1: this is a little much, I get it too. So bypass,
- 2:20Speaker 1: that's the warning at the top. Also, it is an
- 2:22Speaker 1: unhappy hour, so it's it's where I like to drink
- 2:26Speaker 1: with my friend Danny and have this conversation. So a
- 2:30Speaker 1: drink responsibly if you are drinking, whatever you're doing in
- 2:33Speaker 1: your self care, make sure for care and not self abuse.
- 2:38Speaker 1: Um A B. We are not being sponsored specifically by
- 2:42Speaker 1: any of the drinks that we talk about. Um so
- 2:45Speaker 1: you know it's the one wants to exactly give us
- 2:50Speaker 1: a ring because we're throw it back. So speaking of that, Anny,
- 2:56Speaker 1: what are you sipping on? I need a bit of
- 2:58Speaker 1: a like beer jitted tonic thing. Um Again, I'm having
- 3:04Speaker 1: to get creative because I don't have much stuff here. Uh,
- 3:08Speaker 1: and I keep putting off going to the store. So
- 3:10Speaker 1: it's been a real interesting I've created a lot of things,
- 3:14Speaker 1: some of the really refreshing. It's kind of like saltier
- 3:19Speaker 1: than it's beer, engine and tonic. Yeah, and some lime
- 3:24Speaker 1: a little bit. Okay, you just wanted to add the
- 3:26Speaker 1: beer in there to give yourself a surprise. I just
- 3:31Speaker 1: feel like I always say gin and tonic and I
- 3:33Speaker 1: got to mix it up sometimes that's all I get it.
- 3:36Speaker 1: I feel that same way. I feel got need to
- 3:37Speaker 1: mix it up a lot because I'm like, I don't
- 3:38Speaker 1: want them to think I only drink this one drink,
- 3:40Speaker 1: even though I do love this one drink. Yeah, I'm
- 3:44Speaker 1: actually drinking a ginger beer with gin and lime. This
- 3:48Speaker 1: is my little twist today. Is that a call the
- 3:50Speaker 1: thing a twist? No? No, no, like and gin and
- 3:55Speaker 1: ginger beer thing. I'm sure, I just don't know the
- 3:58Speaker 1: name of it. I mean the doctor because it's ginger beer.
- 4:06Speaker 1: You're gonna do a Star Wars plant. I know, decited
- 4:10Speaker 1: for it. Please do it, Please do it. I'm trying
- 4:15Speaker 1: to remember, so as they begin, um. Yeah. At the top,
- 4:18Speaker 1: we talked about the fact that I do want to
- 4:20Speaker 1: talk about this adoption thing, and there's been a tweet
- 4:24Speaker 1: meme going around and it's kind of fading, thank god,
- 4:28Speaker 1: because I had a lot of feelings about it, which
- 4:30Speaker 1: was essentially a joke that was taken from a conservative
- 4:34Speaker 1: picture that were like white couples, couples coming around saying
- 4:37Speaker 1: will adopt your baby, as if that's the influence for
- 4:40Speaker 1: someone to not get an abortion. In this whole abortion argument,
- 4:44Speaker 1: we've already talked about Justice Combart say they need to adopt,
- 4:48Speaker 1: we need no more babies. Out there, which is an
- 4:50Speaker 1: absurd conversation essentially trying to human traffic baby saying that
- 4:56Speaker 1: we need more supply. We know there is a conspirat
- 5:00Speaker 1: c theory ideal that uh, they're saying that that they're
- 5:04Speaker 1: trying to wipe out white children. So making sure that
- 5:09Speaker 1: this is that narrative and having that hysterical uh conversation
- 5:13Speaker 1: of be careful abortionists who just really want to wipe
- 5:16Speaker 1: out white children. This is a way of getting rid
- 5:19Speaker 1: of the supremacy. Um, we know that's happening. As in fact,
- 5:23Speaker 1: they're talking about the fact that there's not enough children
- 5:25Speaker 1: in the market, literally say that it's not enough children
- 5:28Speaker 1: in the adoption market, which we've talked about previously when
- 5:32Speaker 1: we talked about surrogacy as well in our episode. But
- 5:35Speaker 1: you know, one of the things is that meme that
- 5:38Speaker 1: came out, and so of course people making fun of
- 5:41Speaker 1: that meme have been saying doing like odd couples going
- 5:44Speaker 1: that as we want to adopt a baby, and it's
- 5:46Speaker 1: like a character from this or something that is supposed
- 5:50Speaker 1: to be you know, funny, say we'll adopt your baby.
- 5:53Speaker 1: And I have a lot of feeling because I've seen
- 5:55Speaker 1: people that I know through this post thinking that they
- 5:58Speaker 1: are just being funny. I know there's no ill intent,
- 6:02Speaker 1: but that's kind of the conversation and that's kind of
- 6:03Speaker 1: the problem that I'm having. And see this narrative that
- 6:07Speaker 1: that's what we've become is a marketable joke and a punchline.
- 6:12Speaker 1: You know, so many times that practical joke you're adopted.
- 6:16Speaker 1: It has been spread around to the constant thing um
- 6:20Speaker 1: to the point that I feel like I have to
- 6:21Speaker 1: make jokes about myself. I have to make jokes about
- 6:24Speaker 1: oh yeah, I'll look just like my dad, who was
- 6:26Speaker 1: very white and very tall. And it's it's it's done
- 6:31Speaker 1: out of love, I know, to try to make me
- 6:34Speaker 1: feel like I fit in, but obviously it's uthering me.
- 6:38Speaker 1: I've already talked about my identity crisis as an Asian
- 6:42Speaker 1: woman of being with a white family and Asian. Uh,
- 6:46Speaker 1: I guess liberal woman is for and that's become a
- 6:48Speaker 1: dirty word in my world all of a sudden, um
- 6:52Speaker 1: versus you know, my very conservative white family, and that
- 6:56Speaker 1: we are very different spectrums when it comes to what
- 6:59Speaker 1: we see that having a conversation with being a transracial
- 7:03Speaker 1: adoptee being told to fit into the status quo, which
- 7:07Speaker 1: is cis white. Um. So there's a lot of confusion
- 7:12Speaker 1: slash turmoil for me when it comes to this conversation. Um.
- 7:17Speaker 1: And actually there was a tweet or a conversation I
- 7:20Speaker 1: guess on the NBC News social media platform which my
- 7:24Speaker 1: friend Michelle, who is in London. Hey Michelle, she doesn't
- 7:27Speaker 1: listen to our shows, but might as well. A shadow
- 7:30Speaker 1: sent uh this uh to me, this little tweet and
- 7:34Speaker 1: it's uh comment, it's a quote. It says, how do
- 7:37Speaker 1: I grapple with that? My existence was a winning argument
- 7:41Speaker 1: in a debate that eradicated my own rights, the rights
- 7:44Speaker 1: of so many other people and has set into motion
- 7:46Speaker 1: what it's probably going to be the unfurling of, you know,
- 7:49Speaker 1: more civil rights across the board. And it was a
- 7:53Speaker 1: Korean adoptee named Stephanie Drinka who had posted this, and
- 7:58Speaker 1: I feeled this. I feel this to a core. There's
- 8:00Speaker 1: so many things and if I argue for rights, then
- 8:04Speaker 1: I'm being told, well, you should be grateful of all
- 8:07Speaker 1: people because you are safe from that. And by the way,
- 8:10Speaker 1: that's a narrative I've whole, I've heard and I've even
- 8:13Speaker 1: used for myself growing up because this is what I
- 8:16Speaker 1: was indoctrinated with that this was about children and the
- 8:21Speaker 1: wiping out of children and murdering children. UM. And I
- 8:25Speaker 1: didn't want to take a time because I'm sure for
- 8:28Speaker 1: those again, for our many listeners, and for our fam again,
- 8:32Speaker 1: like I said, they know the arguments that we hear.
- 8:36Speaker 1: But coming from my perspective as an adoptee, I have
- 8:39Speaker 1: told you that I have a fear of being ungrateful
- 8:42Speaker 1: or being seen as being ungrateful, and in this narrative,
- 8:46Speaker 1: in these arguments, it's even more so that we are
- 8:49Speaker 1: just used and weaponized. Um. At this point, and I
- 8:53Speaker 1: kind of wanted to talk about this. I kind of
- 8:55Speaker 1: wanted to share some of the comments that I'm reading
- 8:57Speaker 1: and what it feels like for me to hear these comments.
- 9:00Speaker 1: Uh So, of course, in between all of this, there's
- 9:04Speaker 1: I guess the new Hunter Biden stuff, which I don't
- 9:07Speaker 1: really know. I did see a joke which they're like, hey, dude,
- 9:10Speaker 1: you need to learn secure lock. Someone tell this boy
- 9:13Speaker 1: about blocking a system. I don't know. Um, But of
- 9:17Speaker 1: course it starts with people saying I can't stop thinking
- 9:20Speaker 1: about the babies. Another comment M B sure s here
- 9:23Speaker 1: likes babies being slaughtered ridiculous liberal article. Everyone in the
- 9:27Speaker 1: world can find something to complain about and have their
- 9:29Speaker 1: quote feelings hurt about When does everyone going to just
- 9:33Speaker 1: grow up and learn how to deal with life without
- 9:35Speaker 1: whining such contortions just to find a way to be
- 9:38Speaker 1: offended or victimized. Nobody is telling an adopted person that
- 9:41Speaker 1: they have no right to voice an opinion. There's another side,
- 9:45Speaker 1: of course, when adoptees feel strongly that unborn life should
- 9:48Speaker 1: be advocated for. And what about the adopted people who
- 9:51Speaker 1: are incredibly insulted and hurt when pro abortion advocates say
- 9:54Speaker 1: they should have just been killed instead. Eliminate them was
- 9:58Speaker 1: one of the things, and I don't know what that means.
- 10:00Speaker 1: Just because you had a rough life doesn't mean you
- 10:01Speaker 1: should decide for those in the womb. There are many
- 10:03Speaker 1: suicidal individuals with dead ideations which I didn't completely understand.
- 10:08Speaker 1: UM work with the states to establish regulation for abortion.
- 10:11Speaker 1: I would rather be adopted than aborted. I don't know
- 10:13Speaker 1: what the hell these people are talking about. I've noticed
- 10:16Speaker 1: the only people fighting for the right to kill babies
- 10:18Speaker 1: are the ones who weren't aborted. I feel like there's yeah,
- 10:22Speaker 1: the logic behind us. Okay, okay, um, let's just love
- 10:30Speaker 1: the cause to be angry about whether it's gun control,
- 10:32Speaker 1: you create, abortion, gay rights. What a miserable existence. Perhaps
- 10:35Speaker 1: they should consider more, moving far far away, Um, how
- 10:39Speaker 1: about the rights that they are born? We Why don't
- 10:41Speaker 1: you news outlets try to be fair and objective and
- 10:44Speaker 1: maybe write something about the other side of the issue,
- 10:46Speaker 1: no thoughts. So the leftist media is conditioning you people
- 10:50Speaker 1: to hate America, to hate the flag, to hate the police,
- 10:53Speaker 1: to hate the Supreme Court Justice, to hate oil, to
- 10:55Speaker 1: hate guns, to hate Elon Musk, to hate Donald Trump,
- 10:58Speaker 1: to hate white people, to hate straight men, to hate Christians,
- 11:01Speaker 1: to hate capitalism, and to believe that unborn isn't a
- 11:04Speaker 1: life to benefits from this? Where is the influence coming
- 11:07Speaker 1: from communists China? But like comments like that is what
- 11:11Speaker 1: I have run into more than not, like everything is
- 11:14Speaker 1: based on feeling about killing babies. Of course, repeatedly saying
- 11:18Speaker 1: killing babies or being a victim, which I have heard
- 11:21Speaker 1: repeatedly when it comes to adopt the children, saying I'm
- 11:26Speaker 1: not happy. These are the things that I wish could change,
- 11:28Speaker 1: These are the things I wish could have changed, and
- 11:30Speaker 1: being told I am ungrateful and that I should stop
- 11:33Speaker 1: whining and complaining and be grateful for what I was
- 11:35Speaker 1: given and understand my parents saved me, which again, is
- 11:39Speaker 1: this whole narrative of a will adopt babies, We're gonna
- 11:42Speaker 1: save you. And I've had this just rolling in my
- 11:45Speaker 1: head and constantly just nagging at me, and I can't
- 11:50Speaker 1: I can't escape it. It is a constant conversation, and
- 11:52Speaker 1: it's getting bigger and bigger and bigger, especially since literally
- 11:56Speaker 1: they put it in one of the arguments and part
- 11:59Speaker 1: of the argument, like, uh, just Coinbarant literally says it
- 12:03Speaker 1: a couple of times in those arguments, And I'm having
- 12:06Speaker 1: a hard time reconciling with that because I know what
- 12:10Speaker 1: is happening that these points has already been utilized by
- 12:15Speaker 1: one side to say this is a solution, which we
- 12:18Speaker 1: know we have already talked about the thousandreds of thousands
- 12:22Speaker 1: of children and foster care and who have not adopted,
- 12:24Speaker 1: as well as we've already talked about the fact that
- 12:27Speaker 1: many children are returned to the system because they don't
- 12:31Speaker 1: want damaged babies or damaged children as they would see it.
- 12:35Speaker 1: And then now being a weaponized talking point to the
- 12:39Speaker 1: other side, UM, in which we're just being dismissed altogether.
- 12:44Speaker 1: And I say this in this manner of it's just
- 12:47Speaker 1: become a topic and become less humanized. And that's what
- 12:51Speaker 1: I'm seeing, and I don't know what to do about that.
- 12:53Speaker 1: This whole name really kind of pointed out because people
- 12:56Speaker 1: really thought it was funny to do this UM without
- 13:00Speaker 1: understanding you're isolating a group of people who has been
- 13:05Speaker 1: truly affected by this narrative, who is being affected by
- 13:09Speaker 1: this narrative, And as we have slowly backtracked in understanding
- 13:14Speaker 1: adoption is a not a solution. I mean, Korea has
- 13:17Speaker 1: finally stopped realizing, hey, oh, we've been making a lot
- 13:22Speaker 1: of money and people are noticing that we're making a
- 13:26Speaker 1: we're capitalizing onto this and people don't like it. Let's
- 13:30Speaker 1: stop to the fact that other countries have stopped it
- 13:34Speaker 1: because there's been so much abuse within the system. And
- 13:37Speaker 1: I'm not saying that adopted parents are abusive. I'm not
- 13:39Speaker 1: saying that foster parents are abusive. We're just saying that
- 13:41Speaker 1: there's a lack of real accountability in this the idea
- 13:48Speaker 1: that honestly, when young children are do not work out
- 13:52Speaker 1: in a home. They're being called re homed. That's what
- 13:54Speaker 1: they're saying. They're re homing children. And I don't like
- 13:59Speaker 1: how meaning of a term is that and how often
- 14:03Speaker 1: does it happen. It happens a lot. And I've said
- 14:05Speaker 1: this before. I don't want to get back on my
- 14:07Speaker 1: soapbox of if a child is adopted, if they have
- 14:09Speaker 1: come from a hard background, they're going to have things
- 14:12Speaker 1: to work through and to pretend like they're coming in
- 14:15Speaker 1: as perfect children who are going to be so grateful
- 14:18Speaker 1: to you and just idolize you, which is what people think.
- 14:21Speaker 1: That is absurd. That is absurd, unrealistic, and honestly really
- 14:25Speaker 1: traumatic and uh possibly traumatizing to everyone involved. I think
- 14:44Speaker 1: I'm having to try to reconcile all of my ideals,
- 14:49Speaker 1: all of my past trauma, all of my current trauma,
- 14:53Speaker 1: and all of my um newness and what I believe.
- 14:56Speaker 1: And I say newness because again, I grew up in
- 14:58Speaker 1: a very conservative home, trying to please what I thought
- 15:03Speaker 1: were my saviors until I got into college. That that
- 15:08Speaker 1: it took me so long to break out of that.
- 15:11Speaker 1: It is. It's hard because there's also a part of
- 15:13Speaker 1: that narrative in me that keeps saying, it's so true.
- 15:16Speaker 1: I could have I could have not been here, they
- 15:18Speaker 1: could have just not you know, had me, what would
- 15:20Speaker 1: have what would have happened? You know, like because I'm
- 15:22Speaker 1: being told repeatedly they would have killed you, and then
- 15:27Speaker 1: because you were unwanted, literally on a constant narrative, And
- 15:31Speaker 1: that's kind of that big conversation too. They really love
- 15:34Speaker 1: weaponizing that against adoptees. Remember one time you weren't wanted.
- 15:38Speaker 1: Just remember that. I don't know that. There's so much
- 15:42Speaker 1: that I'm processing and I'm in therapy. All I'm in therapy.
- 15:46Speaker 1: We've had the process this a few times, trying to
- 15:49Speaker 1: go through this conversation on what does this look like
- 15:52Speaker 1: to me? How do I how do I come to
- 15:55Speaker 1: terms as an activist, as a person who is pro choice,
- 15:59Speaker 1: as a person who did grow up in a really
- 16:01Speaker 1: hustle environment that truly believed this was killing babies. This
- 16:05Speaker 1: is murder like I've been taught abortion is murder like that.
- 16:11Speaker 1: There's no other way for me to phrase that. Do
- 16:13Speaker 1: I think that's true? As absolutely not? Do I absolutely
- 16:16Speaker 1: believe in the autonomy of women? Yes? Do I absolutely
- 16:20Speaker 1: believe that these laws, by the political standpoint, is a
- 16:24Speaker 1: way of control. Absolutely, yes. But do I believe my family,
- 16:29Speaker 1: my mother who cried at like a table because we
- 16:32Speaker 1: were arguing about this, truly believes that this is murdering babies. Yes,
- 16:36Speaker 1: I believe that because that's what she has been indoctrine
- 16:39Speaker 1: to believe and cannot let that go. There's a lot
- 16:42Speaker 1: to try to unfold from me. Yeah. Yeah, and I'm
- 16:49Speaker 1: just so glad. I mean, it's it makes it breaks
- 16:53Speaker 1: my heart that you're going through this and I see it,
- 16:55Speaker 1: like when I hear these things, I think of you,
- 16:57Speaker 1: and I think for a lot of people if you
- 16:59Speaker 1: don't have somebody who's had this experience in your life.
- 17:02Speaker 1: And I hope that you're listening to this and you're
- 17:04Speaker 1: going to be more mindful because it is painful, um,
- 17:08Speaker 1: and a lot of it's callous and gross. Um. But
- 17:12Speaker 1: I'm very thankful that you're willing to share your story
- 17:18Speaker 1: and your feelings and your thoughts around all of this,
- 17:21Speaker 1: because I know it's not not easy and there is
- 17:23Speaker 1: a lot to unpack. Well, thank you for letting me
- 17:26Speaker 1: have this time. Um, y'all, thank you for listening. If
- 17:29Speaker 1: you stuck around and please know it'll get it gets better.
- 17:33Speaker 1: This is this is a process for a lot of us,
- 17:35Speaker 1: and I know each of us have been triggered and
- 17:38Speaker 1: traumatized by something in this in this whole ordeal, because
- 17:42Speaker 1: it is all traumatizing and for us who have been
- 17:47Speaker 1: taught that we need to fight to this point is
- 17:50Speaker 1: exhausting and so that means sometimes our guards are up
- 17:53Speaker 1: and sometimes our guards are down. And just being able
- 17:56Speaker 1: to process it with y'all, with you, Annie has been
- 17:59Speaker 1: an amazing outlets. So thank you for giving me that time.
- 18:03Speaker 1: Thank you. I love you, I love you, I love you.
- 18:09Speaker 1: This is how unhappy hours naturally and it's kind of
- 18:12Speaker 1: with like almost tears and like, but I love you
- 18:15Speaker 1: though I'm here from you, I guess. Cheers to the
- 18:18Speaker 1: future with hope, tears tears to the future with hope,
- 18:25Speaker 1: and cheers to you listeners. We really do value you
- 18:29Speaker 1: listening and um your responses. When you you feel you
- 18:34Speaker 1: have something you can commiserate with us. We love that.
- 18:37Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being open with us too.
- 18:39Speaker 1: So if you would like to email us, you can
- 18:42Speaker 1: our emails stuff need your mom stuff at ihart mea
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- 18:49Speaker 1: Thanks as always to our super producer Christina I Mean,
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