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SMNTY Bonus: The Pantsuit Revolution · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome to Stuff.
0:07
Speaker 2: I've never told you a protection of iHeartRadio, and today
0:19
Speaker 2: we have a very special treat I will say, a
0:23
Speaker 2: bonus episode because, as you've heard us discuss, we do
0:29
Speaker 2: have a book coming out on August twenty ninth. You
0:33
Speaker 2: can preorder it now Stuff you should read books dot com.
0:36
Speaker 2: But we also have an audiobook that you can pre
0:38
Speaker 2: order at the same place that is really really cool,
0:43
Speaker 2: and it was in some ways kind of challenging because
0:49
Speaker 2: we had never done something like this before. Samantha and I.
0:53
Speaker 2: We worked with a very talented, amazing team, but Samantha
0:57
Speaker 2: and I new new and they were very kind and
1:03
Speaker 2: just a lovely group of people to work with and
1:06
Speaker 2: had so many great ideas, and one of them revolved
1:10
Speaker 2: around the A lot of the chapters start with a
1:13
Speaker 2: graphic novel portion, and we as a team had to
1:18
Speaker 2: figure out how we were going to translate that into
1:23
Speaker 2: an audio format into this audiobook and the result was
1:29
Speaker 2: just a really beautifully soundscaped section that's narrated by Unicewang,
1:35
Speaker 2: who did an amazing job, and it was just so
1:38
Speaker 2: cool to hear. It was so like, oh, look at
1:41
Speaker 2: this they brought it to life.
1:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It was very nerve wrecking, yeah, but
1:48
Speaker 1: overwhelming and good moment to hear it come together. I
1:51
Speaker 1: think we've talked about how anxious we've been the entire
1:54
Speaker 1: time and then like freaking out about what are we doing?
1:57
Speaker 1: Why are we doing this? And then seeing the finish
2:00
Speaker 1: product or almost finished product. Yeah, it's made us really proud.
2:04
Speaker 1: And seeing the way that the people who we've worked
2:09
Speaker 1: with and who have helped us through this process really
2:12
Speaker 1: back us and supportives in this it's been amazing. But yeah,
2:15
Speaker 1: so it's been an interesting, long, but honestly rewarding process
2:23
Speaker 1: to see how it's turned out.
2:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it really really has, and it's it was such
2:29
Speaker 2: a beautiful collaboration between so many people to make this happen.
2:33
Speaker 1: Who are only women like that? I needed to shout
2:36
Speaker 1: that out. I was very I think we told them
2:38
Speaker 1: from the jump, like we want to work with as
2:40
Speaker 1: many women as possible or those who identify or non
2:43
Speaker 1: binary people because that's that's what our show's about and
2:46
Speaker 1: we want to hold to that. And then as we
2:48
Speaker 1: meet more and more of the staff, whether it's on
2:50
Speaker 1: the publisher side or the audio publishing side, they've all
2:53
Speaker 1: been women. We're like, wow, this is this is amazing,
2:56
Speaker 1: Thank you.
2:58
Speaker 2: It really was. Honestly so much support we've received too
3:02
Speaker 2: from them, so we're very happy to share this with you.
3:07
Speaker 2: So this is going to be a chapter that Samantha
3:11
Speaker 2: largely worked on, but in every chapter we kind of
3:13
Speaker 2: both have a little bit.
3:16
Speaker 1: It's our trademark way of like obviously one person, but
3:20
Speaker 1: the other adds their personality to it every time and
3:24
Speaker 1: adds so much support. I will say I feel like
3:27
Speaker 1: this was the beginning of us planning this book. This
3:30
Speaker 1: chapter was the first like, how about we do it
3:33
Speaker 1: this way? Because we wanted to be a little different
3:36
Speaker 1: and we want to change it up a little bit,
3:38
Speaker 1: not just be a history book necessarily. What does this
3:41
Speaker 1: look like? And also how does this fit our personality
3:44
Speaker 1: because we're not just always straightforward this and this. We
3:47
Speaker 1: have a lot of our opinions coming out, and though
3:50
Speaker 1: this is a book, we wanted to do it in
3:52
Speaker 1: a way that was a little more abstract, a little
3:54
Speaker 1: more creative. I think this chapter was kind of the
3:58
Speaker 1: beginning catalystm like, that's do it this way and us
4:01
Speaker 1: falling in love with the idea of our book.
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Speaker 2: It really was, and it's a fascinating history. So it's
4:09
Speaker 2: all about the pantsuit revolution.
4:12
Speaker 1: And I want to go ahead and put this disclaimer
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Speaker 1: right here again. We've talked about the fact that we
4:17
Speaker 1: wrote this in twenty twenty. Things were changing very quickly.
4:21
Speaker 1: We did it in less than six months, and we
4:23
Speaker 1: really did not have a lot of time to correct
4:27
Speaker 1: and change things as it went along, even though we
4:29
Speaker 1: were like, we want to add so much more, and
4:32
Speaker 1: as we do when it comes to current affairs when
4:35
Speaker 1: we talk about our own episodes, we couldn't add, like, oh, no,
4:40
Speaker 1: things are constantly changing and there's already an update. Because
4:44
Speaker 1: by the time we finally finalized this chapter and then
4:47
Speaker 1: we started talking about the audiobook, literally, Missouri lawmakers and
4:53
Speaker 1: Congress themselves made this ridiculous law for making it stricter
4:59
Speaker 1: for women and the dress code and the assembly in
5:02
Speaker 1: which this chapter talks a lot about for women in
5:06
Speaker 1: Congress and how it really held women back from being
5:09
Speaker 1: a part of Congress, and we were like, damn it,
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Speaker 1: I need to add this in there, and I couldn't.
5:16
Speaker 2: But yeah, yes, yes, so many times that happened. And
5:21
Speaker 2: that is just the process of writing a book that
5:24
Speaker 2: deals with a lot of current affairs that impacts a
5:27
Speaker 2: lot of people. So yes, we are aware, but still
5:32
Speaker 2: still very important and worth talking about. So we hope
5:38
Speaker 2: that you enjoy this sample chapter from the audiobook Stefan
5:43
Speaker 2: Never Told You The Feminist Past, Present and Feature.
5:56
Speaker 1: Chapter two, The Pantsuit Revolution.
6:00
Speaker 2: This is supposed to be the year of the women
6:02
Speaker 2: in the Senate. Let's see how they do. I hope
6:05
Speaker 2: a lot of them lose. George H. W. Bush, upon
6:09
Speaker 2: being asked when his party might nominate a woman for president.
6:13
Speaker 1: Spiny warning brief mention of rape and sexual assault, that
6:17
Speaker 1: shaming ableism.
6:27
Speaker 3: December seventeenth, nineteen sixty nine, Washington, d C. Here this
6:34
Speaker 3: is from all of us. This is from me. Oh my,
6:40
Speaker 3: I think I need to show these pants off at
6:42
Speaker 3: the next house meeting. You have got to a week later.
6:51
Speaker 3: You guys have to come see this representative Reed is
6:54
Speaker 3: wearing the pants that we got her. What. Yes, she
6:57
Speaker 3: looks so stunning. Also wearing my pants today. I was
7:02
Speaker 3: told there was a lady here in trousers, so I
7:05
Speaker 3: had to come over and see for myself. That is
7:08
Speaker 3: a very nice suit. You should definitely wear it more often.
7:11
Speaker 3: I hear it's very in now. Yes, Representative Reid, You've
7:16
Speaker 3: got beautiful taste, wonderful. It was a last minute idea
7:23
Speaker 3: that I just thought was fun. But I didn't wear
7:26
Speaker 3: pants again. I didn't want to take away the femininity
7:30
Speaker 3: of the women in the house, even though I do
7:33
Speaker 3: think pants are feminine. Looking on Danielle's first day, she
7:42
Speaker 3: is nervous when she walks in, but she is ready
7:45
Speaker 3: to go. It's hard to believe that she's made it
7:48
Speaker 3: this far. Congresswoman Carol Moseley Braun is the first black
7:53
Speaker 3: woman senator in the country, and Danielle has been along
7:57
Speaker 3: for the ride since the early days of her campaign.
8:00
Speaker 3: Over the weekend, Danielle and some other staffers have helped
8:03
Speaker 3: situate the Senator in her new office, so Danielle has
8:07
Speaker 3: already been able to introduce herself to many of her
8:10
Speaker 3: new colleagues. Apparently they work weekends. Soon enough, she'll discover
8:16
Speaker 3: that they seem to never leave work. But that was
8:20
Speaker 3: the weekend and it was all pretty low key. Today
8:23
Speaker 3: is the first day of sessions, so the energy in
8:26
Speaker 3: the office is high. Danielle quietly trails Senator Moseley Braun
8:31
Speaker 3: down the hall as she shakes hands and greets her colleagues,
8:35
Speaker 3: but at the door to the Senate chamber, they are
8:38
Speaker 3: stopped by the doorkeeper, an older gentleman who has been
8:41
Speaker 3: working there for years now. I'm sorry, ma'am, but you
8:45
Speaker 3: can't come in. Moseley Braun responds, confused but polite. Excuse me,
8:52
Speaker 3: I'm a senator and need to be here for the session.
8:55
Speaker 3: I understand, ma'am, but you and your staff aren't in
8:58
Speaker 3: the appropriate attire to be on the floor and will
9:02
Speaker 3: need to change. Senator Moseley Braun stopped in her tracks
9:07
Speaker 3: with a shocked look on her face. The staff murmured
9:10
Speaker 3: concerned questions at one another as the hallway filled with
9:13
Speaker 3: other senators and aides piling up behind them. Many of
9:17
Speaker 3: those trying to squeeze by were men in similar attire,
9:21
Speaker 3: none of whom seemed to be concerned with what was happening.
9:24
Speaker 3: When Moseley Braun asked again what the problem was, the
9:28
Speaker 3: doorkeeper informed her that women were not permitted to wear
9:32
Speaker 3: pants on the floor, that she and her staff were
9:35
Speaker 3: the problem. The senator, confused and annoyed and a bit embarrassed,
9:41
Speaker 3: moved to the side with her staff to discuss how
9:44
Speaker 3: to proceed. After a quick, hushed discussion, Senator Moseley Braun
9:49
Speaker 3: decided to stay. She told Danielle and the others that
9:52
Speaker 3: she hadn't brought any other outfit, and there was no
9:55
Speaker 3: precedent for this rule. It was mere tradition, and weren't
10:00
Speaker 3: traditions just dated suggestions. After an awkward pause, the doorkeeper
10:05
Speaker 3: begrudgingly allowed her in. The judging glances from her male
10:09
Speaker 3: counterparts made it clear that this discussion was far from over.
10:14
Speaker 3: She ignored them and went about her work, but she
10:17
Speaker 3: already knew the male senators would be whispering about her
10:20
Speaker 3: attire in the days and weeks to come. After the
10:25
Speaker 3: session closed, Moseley Braun returned to her office. All her
10:29
Speaker 3: staffers wanted to know what had happened? Did anyone say anything?
10:33
Speaker 3: What do we do? How do we move forward? What
10:35
Speaker 3: should we say? One of Danielle's colleagues jumped in, reminding
10:41
Speaker 3: them that this issue had been discussed in the past,
10:44
Speaker 3: didn't they all remember? Representative Charlotte read, this wasn't the
10:49
Speaker 3: first time a woman had worn pants on the floor
10:51
Speaker 3: of Congress, and if the House could modernize, why not
10:54
Speaker 3: the Senate? In fact, wasn't this a good thing? This
10:58
Speaker 3: was Moseley Braun's chair to move this conversation forward, or,
11:03
Speaker 3: better yet, finish it for good. The staffers all agreed
11:07
Speaker 3: that it was long past time to change some archaic
11:10
Speaker 3: ideas that had existed for far too long. Wardrobe requirements,
11:15
Speaker 3: the most onerous of which were aimed strictly at women,
11:18
Speaker 3: seemed designed to further control and undermine the women who
11:22
Speaker 3: had worked so hard to make it to a leadership
11:25
Speaker 3: position in government, and that didn't seem right. The conversation
11:30
Speaker 3: went on. The recent Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill hearing
11:35
Speaker 3: had inflamed tension between men and women in government positions,
11:39
Speaker 3: with many women asking aloud how long it might take
11:43
Speaker 3: and what other rules they might need to bend before
11:46
Speaker 3: they could feel comfortable in these bastions of male power.
11:50
Speaker 3: The senator allowed everyone their turn to speak, then asked
11:54
Speaker 3: Danielle to look deeper into the question. Were these antiquated
11:59
Speaker 3: rules truly written down somewhere. As the first black woman
12:03
Speaker 3: elected to the Senate in the United States, Moseley Braun
12:07
Speaker 3: was no stranger to controversy or being made to feel
12:10
Speaker 3: uncomfortable in rooms filled with white men. But all the
12:13
Speaker 3: Senator wanted to do was get down to business. Danielle
12:18
Speaker 3: stayed late that night and the next doing her work
12:21
Speaker 3: and drafting a memo to share with the senator. She
12:24
Speaker 3: thought it was long past time to cause a stir,
12:27
Speaker 3: to make some trouble. She had no idea whether the
12:30
Speaker 3: Senator would go along, but she took a deep breath
12:33
Speaker 3: and turned in her memo. The next morning, the senator
12:37
Speaker 3: called the staffers together. Senator Moseley Braun went over the
12:41
Speaker 3: implications of causing such a stir over an outfit. Was
12:45
Speaker 3: it even worth pushing forward with it or should she
12:49
Speaker 3: just let it go? Did it even matter? But in
12:52
Speaker 3: the end they all agreed it was time to shake
12:55
Speaker 3: things up. Let's cause some trouble for the next session.
13:01
Speaker 3: They all agreed to wear pantsuits, staff and senators alike
13:04
Speaker 3: to show a united front. The senator reached out to
13:07
Speaker 3: a couple of her colleagues, other female senators, who agreed
13:11
Speaker 3: to go along with the plan because they too had
13:13
Speaker 3: been thinking of pushing the issue. Danielle and the other
13:17
Speaker 3: staffers were thrilled. It felt like they had all stayed
13:20
Speaker 3: silent for far too long. It was time for real change.
13:25
Speaker 3: When the day arrived, all the women in pantsuits, young
13:28
Speaker 3: and old, masked outside Senator Moseley Braun's office, all smiles
13:33
Speaker 3: and laughter. They could sense that this was a big moment,
13:36
Speaker 3: that they were about to make a difference, not just
13:39
Speaker 3: for women in the Senate, but for women in realms
13:42
Speaker 3: of male power everywhere. They all began the walk together,
13:46
Speaker 3: some of them holding hands or linking elbows, headed to
13:49
Speaker 3: the chamber, talking excitedly. But once they arrived, they were
13:54
Speaker 3: met with a shocking sight. Not only was the doorkeeper
13:58
Speaker 3: standing in front of the chambers door, arms crossed in
14:01
Speaker 3: front of him, he was accompanied by about twelve male senators.
14:06
Speaker 3: They stood shoulder to shoulder, arms folded, faces serious. One
14:13
Speaker 3: was holding a petition signed by what looked like every
14:17
Speaker 3: man in the Senate, that put the hated rule down
14:20
Speaker 3: in black and white for the first time, women will
14:25
Speaker 3: not wear pants in the Senate Chamber. The men turned,
14:30
Speaker 3: walked into the chamber and closed the heavy doors firmly
14:34
Speaker 3: behind them. Rules are rules, said the doorkeeper, shrugging, and
14:40
Speaker 3: he took up his position in front of the closed doors.
14:43
Speaker 3: The women stood silently, waiting in disbelief for their moment
14:48
Speaker 3: to argue their case, but it never came.
14:53
Speaker 1: But that's not what happened that day in the Senate
14:57
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety three. Those women walked right through the
15:01
Speaker 1: door in what would soon be known as the pants
15:03
Speaker 1: suit Revolution. The long standing tradition no women in pants
15:08
Speaker 1: had never been a formal rule, and these brave women
15:11
Speaker 1: finally decided to change that tradition. Despite the lack of
15:16
Speaker 1: a written rule in the Congressional dress Code forbidding women
15:18
Speaker 1: from wearing pants, it had long been enforced as an
15:21
Speaker 1: unspoken rule, and it wasn't until Senator Moseley Braun, who
15:26
Speaker 1: at the time didn't know about this silly unspoken rule.
15:29
Speaker 1: Senator Barbara mcculsky and Senator Nancy Casbaum decided together to
15:33
Speaker 1: speak out that the issue was brought to everyone's attention.
15:37
Speaker 1: Women had long been denied access to Congressional sessions due
15:40
Speaker 1: to their outfits, and not just when someone dared to
15:43
Speaker 1: wear pants at one point in time. In fact, the
15:46
Speaker 1: rules of Congress were so stringent that there were provisions
15:50
Speaker 1: about how freely a woman's outfit could be if the
15:54
Speaker 1: doorkeepers felt that a woman's choice of clothing was not
15:57
Speaker 1: in line with their modesty standards bare arms, for example,
16:00
Speaker 1: or even if they just didn't like the dress, skirt, shoes,
16:03
Speaker 1: or jewelry a woman was wearing, they could bar that
16:06
Speaker 1: woman from entry. That happened so often, in fact, that
16:11
Speaker 1: a lot of the staffers carried multiple outfits just to
16:13
Speaker 1: appease these all powerful doorkeepers. Although the House had already
16:18
Speaker 1: started to allow women to wear a pantsuit instead of
16:21
Speaker 1: a dress or skirt back in the eighties, the Senate,
16:24
Speaker 1: which did not have many women within its rings, did
16:27
Speaker 1: not acquiesce to this new fangled idea of women being
16:30
Speaker 1: allowed to dress for comfort and convenience, while men were
16:35
Speaker 1: permitted to dress more casually on weekends khakis and a blazer.
16:38
Speaker 1: The women's staff were still expected to wear skirts and dresses,
16:43
Speaker 1: but things were changing in Congress little by little. The
16:47
Speaker 1: previous year, nineteen ninety two, had been deemed the Year
16:51
Speaker 1: of the Woman, after the November elections had brought several
16:54
Speaker 1: more women into the Senate, where previously there had only
16:57
Speaker 1: been two women. It was a year that many spent
17:01
Speaker 1: holding their breadth, hoping that more and more women would
17:04
Speaker 1: start showing up, become more vocal leaders, and blossom into
17:08
Speaker 1: powerhouses within the feminist movement. Although many, like former President
17:14
Speaker 1: Bush Senior, as he made clear in the quote at
17:16
Speaker 1: the beginning of the chapter, marked the idea of women
17:20
Speaker 1: being in leadership positions, the year of the woman did
17:23
Speaker 1: in fact make a difference. This wasn't the first time
17:27
Speaker 1: that pants had become such a controversial topic within politics.
17:31
Speaker 1: Several women within the suffragette movement tried using pants as
17:34
Speaker 1: the metaphor source as they fought for women's voting rights.
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Speaker 1: Elizabeth Katie Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, and Elizabeth Smith Miller, three
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Speaker 1: prominent women in the movement, are credited with being the
17:46
Speaker 1: first to wear a new style of trousers. In eighteen
17:50
Speaker 1: fifty one, Miller apparently arrived for a visit with her
17:53
Speaker 1: cousin Katie Stanton, wearing a daring new outfit. It was
17:57
Speaker 1: described as Turkish trousers to the ankle, with a skirt
18:00
Speaker 1: reaching some four inches below the knee. Miller explained that
18:04
Speaker 1: she had had enough of tripping over her long skirt,
18:07
Speaker 1: so she decided to do the unthinkable and lose the
18:10
Speaker 1: shackles of the heavy, stifling skirt women usually wore at
18:13
Speaker 1: that time. Bloomer and Stanton were thrilled with the idea,
18:16
Speaker 1: and then immediately started planning to make their own versions
18:19
Speaker 1: of what they had already nicknamed freedom dresses. Bloomer was
18:23
Speaker 1: so excited that she published an editorial to praise this
18:26
Speaker 1: new clothing item in April eighteen fifty one. Soon enough,
18:31
Speaker 1: requests from women around the nation started flooding in begging
18:34
Speaker 1: for the pattern of these new outfits. In the wake
18:37
Speaker 1: of our editorial, the new garment got a new name.
18:41
Speaker 1: Women all over the country were wearing Bloomers. Of course,
18:46
Speaker 1: it didn't take long before the critics, most of whom
18:49
Speaker 1: were horrified, began to attack and mock this new fashion.
18:53
Speaker 1: The term Bloomerism was used both to indicate with some disdain,
18:58
Speaker 1: that women were suddenly wearing trousers for the first time
19:01
Speaker 1: in public, and to imply that any woman who did
19:04
Speaker 1: so was corrupt and deviant. Bloomer wearers were, according to
19:09
Speaker 1: the disapproving men, women who smoked, gambled, drank, and eventually
19:14
Speaker 1: would abandon their families to live this wayward life. This
19:19
Speaker 1: traditionally male clothing item being usurped by women also seemed
19:23
Speaker 1: to imply all the ways in which women were trying
19:25
Speaker 1: to usurp the rights of men, for example, the right
19:29
Speaker 1: to vote. In the face of withering criticism, these brave
19:33
Speaker 1: women were booed at, yelled at, and accused of trying
19:36
Speaker 1: to destroy the traditional family, and harmed the reputations of
19:39
Speaker 1: their own husbands and families. Eventually, the abuse got so
19:44
Speaker 1: bad that even Miller and Stanton, in the hopes of
19:47
Speaker 1: salvaging their momentum towards suffrage, abandoned the Bloomers, sometimes referred
19:51
Speaker 1: to as the short Dress Stanton told a friend, had
19:55
Speaker 1: I counted the cost of the short dress, I would
19:58
Speaker 1: never have put it on. They had come to believe
20:01
Speaker 1: that the attempt to change fashion norms for women may
20:04
Speaker 1: have harmed their cause more than it helped. Once it
20:06
Speaker 1: had become too big a distraction from the real issues
20:09
Speaker 1: they were trying to address, most of the women in
20:12
Speaker 1: the movement reverted to a more feminine style of attire
20:15
Speaker 1: in the hopes of attracting less attention rather than more.
20:20
Speaker 1: They were rebranding themselves as respectable so that they would
20:23
Speaker 1: be taken more seriously and pushed through the bigger change
20:26
Speaker 1: they were seeking. It would take well over a century
20:30
Speaker 1: and many more brave women pushing for change to get
20:33
Speaker 1: us to that weekend in nineteen ninety three when those
20:36
Speaker 1: brazen female senators and their staffs walked into the Senate
20:40
Speaker 1: Chamber wearing pants refusing to be kept out of the
20:43
Speaker 1: seats of power. In the aftermath of that moment, we
20:47
Speaker 1: have seen the ever rising power of the pants suit.
20:51
Speaker 1: It is the de facto powerbroker uniform and is worn
20:54
Speaker 1: by powerful women everywhere, from leaders like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi,
20:59
Speaker 1: and Vice President Kamala Harris to fashion icons and celebrities
21:03
Speaker 1: like the Kardashian sisters Beyonce and Julia Roberts. There are
21:08
Speaker 1: so many expectations around women's fashion choices that still need
21:12
Speaker 1: to be changed, from uneven enforcement of dress codes and
21:15
Speaker 1: schools to rampant victim blaming for women's clothing choices. Though
21:19
Speaker 1: what does she think was going to happen wearing a
21:21
Speaker 1: skirt like that? But the pants suit rebellion brought widespread
21:26
Speaker 1: awareness to the uneven standards placed on women not only
21:29
Speaker 1: in Congress but beyond, and though being allowed to wear
21:33
Speaker 1: pantsuits in Congress may seem trivial to some, the bigger
21:37
Speaker 1: issue at hand is what remained unsaid during the controversy.
21:41
Speaker 1: The rules about pants were being used as a way
21:44
Speaker 1: of silencing women and diminishing the seriousness and legitimacy of
21:48
Speaker 1: women in power. By criticizing and policing the way a
21:53
Speaker 1: woman is permitted to dress, those in charge undermined the
21:56
Speaker 1: work these women were doing. Filled with the subtle and
22:01
Speaker 1: not so subtle ways, men have banned women from positions
22:04
Speaker 1: of authority or attempted to marginalize their presence in the
22:08
Speaker 1: room once they've finally been allowed in. The patriarchy has
22:12
Speaker 1: made clear that it will take whatever opportunity can to
22:15
Speaker 1: quash the ac crew of female power in whatever way
22:18
Speaker 1: it can. And yes, there is progress, but as always,
22:23
Speaker 1: it is slow and often halting. In twenty twenty, we
22:26
Speaker 1: had the largest number of women in history elected to Congress,
22:30
Speaker 1: but even so, there are seventeen states in the US
22:34
Speaker 1: that have never elected a woman as a representative in government.
22:39
Speaker 1: We have had many first though, including the first Native
22:42
Speaker 1: woman to be appointed as Cabinet Secretary Secretary Deb Holland
22:46
Speaker 1: of the Department of the Interior, the first openly gay
22:50
Speaker 1: person elected to the Senate, Senator Tammy Baldwin from Wisconsin,
22:54
Speaker 1: and of course, the first woman and woman of color
22:58
Speaker 1: to be vice president Vice President Kamala Harris, among many others.
23:04
Speaker 1: And I'm proud and grateful and all the things I
23:07
Speaker 1: swear it, But sometimes I pause and think, is twenty
23:11
Speaker 1: twenty three, y'all? Weren't we supposed to be jutting around
23:15
Speaker 1: and flying cars by now? And yet we still haven't
23:19
Speaker 1: had a female president in this country. There are so
23:23
Speaker 1: many important roles that have yet to be filled by women.
23:27
Speaker 1: We'll just have to wait a little bit longer. Nevertheless,
23:31
Speaker 1: damn it, we will persist journal injury. Did you know
23:39
Speaker 1: that in twenty seventeen, the women of the House decided
23:42
Speaker 1: to rebel against some of the other dress codes they
23:44
Speaker 1: felt were unfair, such as the rule against wearing open
23:48
Speaker 1: toad shoes or a sleeveless top. They put out word
23:52
Speaker 1: that it would be hashtags sleeveless Friday, and at least
23:55
Speaker 1: twenty five women showed up in sleeveless attire to protest
23:58
Speaker 1: the old school rules. The then Speaker of the House,
24:03
Speaker 1: Paul Ryan, agreed to take a look at the dress code,
24:06
Speaker 1: but made sure he avoided any blame for the situation.
24:11
Speaker 1: He said, this is nothing new and certainly not something
24:15
Speaker 1: that I devised. At the same time, that doesn't mean
24:18
Speaker 1: that the enforcement couldn't stand to be a bit modernized.
24:23
Speaker 1: Of course, he also added that people should be inappropriate attire.
24:27
Speaker 1: But as we know throughout history, it seems that only
24:31
Speaker 1: men get to dictate what is deemed appropriate, and that
24:34
Speaker 1: continues to be true today, whether in school, workplace, or
24:38
Speaker 1: even on the damn plane remember that bizarre leggings on
24:42
Speaker 1: a plane scandal of twenty seventeen. On social media and
24:46
Speaker 1: in real life, there is constant scrutiny of the idea
24:49
Speaker 1: of what is appropriate, and almost all the judgment is
24:53
Speaker 1: aimed at women. We just keep having to justify our bodies,
24:57
Speaker 1: our lifestyles, and our existence. The patriarchy keeps getting to
25:02
Speaker 1: decide social boundaries and social norms. Who can wear a dress,
25:06
Speaker 1: how short, what color? Requests for modesty abound. Women shouldn't
25:12
Speaker 1: dress in ways that might distract a man and lead
25:14
Speaker 1: him to behave badly right, we have been told that
25:18
Speaker 1: women flaunting their bodies can be blamed for the downfall
25:21
Speaker 1: of men. Women's clothing has been blamed for anything from
25:26
Speaker 1: bad grades and bad behavior in school to assault and rape.
25:31
Speaker 1: Why when a woman gets assaulted is one of the
25:33
Speaker 1: first questions, what was she wearing? For as many steps
25:39
Speaker 1: forward as we have made as a society, there have
25:42
Speaker 1: been just as many setbacks. When we talk about dress codes,
25:46
Speaker 1: we may not always recognize the misogyny that motivates these codes.
25:51
Speaker 1: Perhaps it seems like a small thing, but as we
25:53
Speaker 1: look at the people who are most affected by the
25:56
Speaker 1: dress codes, we start to see patterns. Whether it's a
25:59
Speaker 1: way of requiring a specific gender to follow more stringent
26:03
Speaker 1: rules which often makes it more difficult for them to
26:05
Speaker 1: advance in their career or filled see doorkeepers in congress,
26:09
Speaker 1: or a way of labeling certain students as troublemakers due
26:12
Speaker 1: to what they wear. Students can be labeled or targeted
26:16
Speaker 1: for their fashion choice. Goth or hip hop styles, for example,
26:19
Speaker 1: are considered less acceptable to some. Sometimes the powers that
26:24
Speaker 1: be just use someone's clothes or hairstyles typically black hair
26:28
Speaker 1: styles perhaps, or clothing styles popularized by hip hop as
26:32
Speaker 1: an excuse to hold someone back or prevent them from
26:35
Speaker 1: getting the protection or the justice they deserve. Both good
26:39
Speaker 1: news and bad news have come from this age of
26:42
Speaker 1: social media and twenty four hour online access. The good
26:46
Speaker 1: news is that we are exposed to more looks, styles,
26:50
Speaker 1: and diverse content than ever before. We see boys putting
26:54
Speaker 1: on makeup on YouTube, amassing huge followings. We see gender
26:58
Speaker 1: non conforming individuals loaded for their fashion sense, and all
27:02
Speaker 1: kinds of folks breaking new boundaries when it comes to clothing,
27:05
Speaker 1: hair and makeup. But there's bad news too. There are
27:09
Speaker 1: still gatekeepers, and nowadays there seem to be so many
27:12
Speaker 1: more of them trying to keep us women in line.
27:16
Speaker 1: Online trolls, cometers, and fans have no problem fat shaming celebrities, influencers,
27:22
Speaker 1: and regular people alike. The unrealistic expectations of looking perfect
27:27
Speaker 1: at all times has skyrocketed. Though many are fighting the
27:31
Speaker 1: good fight, attempting to promote more realistic and relatable content,
27:36
Speaker 1: including the body positive movement, there's no escaping the constant
27:40
Speaker 1: expectations for us to look a certain perfect way, an
27:43
Speaker 1: expectation that has been shaped by the mel gaze and
27:46
Speaker 1: mal rules and regulations for centuries. No matter how many
27:51
Speaker 1: influencers and experts tell us that it's more important to
27:54
Speaker 1: be healthy and happy, the vast majority of what we
27:57
Speaker 1: see and share tells us otherwise. Beyond that isn't even
28:01
Speaker 1: less understood, yet far more widespread. Blindness to the prevalence
28:05
Speaker 1: of ablest narratives which not only exclude so many, but
28:09
Speaker 1: oftentimes just outright dinnergrade or ignore those in the disabled community.
28:14
Speaker 1: Let's not even start talking about what is available in
28:17
Speaker 1: the world of fashion for those in that community. And
28:21
Speaker 1: this type of inaccessibility happens in the plus sized community
28:24
Speaker 1: as well. The clothing and fashion industry ignores, abuses, or
28:29
Speaker 1: takes advantage of those who are outside societal expectations. I mean,
28:33
Speaker 1: when Beyonce first started out, designers were refusing to dress
28:37
Speaker 1: her because she didn't conform to standard industry sizing. Now,
28:42
Speaker 1: of course they are clamoring to do so. But if
28:45
Speaker 1: you need to actually be Beyonce in order to live
28:47
Speaker 1: outside societies accepted body expectations, how can we the normies
28:53
Speaker 1: even hope to try. Recently, we have started to see
28:58
Speaker 1: celebrities and influencers speaking out about how fat phobia and
29:02
Speaker 1: body dysmorphia have become dangerous within our culture. People have
29:06
Speaker 1: become vocal in the fight to shut down the unfortunate
29:09
Speaker 1: kinds of practices that exclude those from the plus sis communities,
29:13
Speaker 1: such as labeling anyone who doesn't fit a specific standard
29:15
Speaker 1: of beauty in a derogatory manner. As a result of
29:19
Speaker 1: this increasing awareness, there seems to be more acceptance of
29:23
Speaker 1: the idea that past standards of female beauty are not
29:26
Speaker 1: realistic and oftentimes harmful for so many women. But still
29:32
Speaker 1: the gatekeepers of the fashion industry continue to perpetuate the
29:35
Speaker 1: overall sexist agenda by controlling what people wear and how
29:39
Speaker 1: they can wear it. How do we break this down?
29:43
Speaker 1: How do we try to delete years of misogynistic and
29:46
Speaker 1: ablest mindsets so we can start over. How can we
29:50
Speaker 1: stop gendering clothes and stop policing what we think someone
29:54
Speaker 1: is or is not allowed to wear. How do we
29:58
Speaker 1: build a world in which we all ignores centuries of
30:01
Speaker 1: control and the attendant judgment and encourage everyone to feel good, beautiful, comfortable,
30:07
Speaker 1: or maybe just a little bit human for a while.
30:12
Speaker 2: Fictional woman's side note. In nineteen ninety three, the hit
30:17
Speaker 2: sci fi show The X Files debuted, featuring Jillian Anderson
30:22
Speaker 2: as FBI officer Dana Scully. Scully not only played against
30:26
Speaker 2: type for women, the skeptic to Fox Mulder's believer, but
30:30
Speaker 2: became a queer icon. I for one, remember being in
30:35
Speaker 2: middle school very confused as to why I was attracted
30:38
Speaker 2: to both Molder and Scully. She also became a fashion
30:43
Speaker 2: icon with her pants, suits, shoulder pads, and patterned slacks
30:47
Speaker 2: so called competence core. Some argued that this displayed Scully's
30:52
Speaker 2: need to wear masculine style clothes to fit into a
30:55
Speaker 2: male dominated field. As the series went on, though her
30:59
Speaker 2: clothing choices leaned more traditionally feminine. She would go on
31:03
Speaker 2: to inspire the Scully Effect, the name for the perceived
31:07
Speaker 2: impact this character had in terms of girls and women
31:10
Speaker 2: pursuing careers in stem Also fan fiction alert, The X
31:16
Speaker 2: Files had one of the first large online fan fiction communities,
31:19
Speaker 2: to the extent that at one point, Scotland Yard decided
31:23
Speaker 2: to investigate it, worring it might lead to a Heaven's
31:26
Speaker 2: Gate type situation. Women and fashion. Throughout history, women's fashion
31:35
Speaker 2: has rarely had to do with comfort or practicality. Instead,
31:40
Speaker 2: it has often been about one hiding feminine bodies and
31:44
Speaker 2: teaching shame, two showcasing feminine features for the male gaze,
31:49
Speaker 2: three marketing to sell women more stuff. For instance, women
31:55
Speaker 2: started wearing bras and shaving because of popular fashion trends,
31:59
Speaker 2: prime when thin silks came into style in the nineteen twenties.
32:04
Speaker 2: Don't even get me started on the uproar the short
32:07
Speaker 2: bob hairstyle caused in the United States during this decade.
32:12
Speaker 2: Not only that, but history is riddled with examples of
32:15
Speaker 2: women's fashion that were outright dangerous. Makeup and fabrics made
32:20
Speaker 2: with arsenic, deadly night shade, eye drops, harmful skin ut,
32:25
Speaker 2: lightning treatments, hoop skirts that got caught in the wind
32:29
Speaker 2: or lit on fire. Oscar Wilde's two half sisters died
32:34
Speaker 2: when their skirts caught on fire. This is not a joke.
32:38
Speaker 2: There were hobble skirts, skirts so narrow women couldn't take
32:43
Speaker 2: a full stride, which were designed to literally slow women down.
32:49
Speaker 2: There were unwieldy weighted sports uniforms. At one point, women
32:53
Speaker 2: wore weighted bathing suits. Weighted bathing suits. Okay, they were
33:00
Speaker 2: lightly weighted so the heavy skirts went and float, but
33:03
Speaker 2: still it sounds like a murder weapon, doesn't it. These
33:07
Speaker 2: fashion woes still hound us to this day. Within the
33:11
Speaker 2: past few years, a discussion of why clothes marketed to
33:14
Speaker 2: girls and women tend not to have real pockets went viral.
33:18
Speaker 2: God knows, I always want more pockets, and as we
33:22
Speaker 2: saw in the previous chapter, women athletes are still fighting
33:26
Speaker 2: for less sexualized uniforms. Women are still judged more harshly
33:30
Speaker 2: for what they wear, what their tattoos look like, what
33:33
Speaker 2: hairstyles they choose. The list is endless. We've come a
33:37
Speaker 2: long way, but men still seem to think they're in
33:40
Speaker 2: charge of policing how we look. Fictional women presents the
33:48
Speaker 2: avatar name Ellie Williams from the Last of US video
33:53
Speaker 2: game series Bio. Grew up in the Boston quarantine Zone,
33:58
Speaker 2: lost her parents at a young age to the zombie Apocalypse,
34:01
Speaker 2: bitten by a zombie at fourteen while on an outing
34:04
Speaker 2: to the mall with her first crush, Riley, who was
34:07
Speaker 2: also bitten. Turns out Ellie is immune. Travels across to
34:12
Speaker 2: stopic United States with Joel, who becomes her surrogate father.
34:16
Speaker 2: She is smart, queer, competent, sarcastic, funny, loyal, and absolutely terrifying,
34:24
Speaker 2: has a chance at happiness, and chooses revenge open to forgiveness.
34:29
Speaker 2: Relevant quote I'm just a girl, not a threat. The
34:37
Speaker 2: bigger picture, more women play video games than men. Let
34:43
Speaker 2: me repeat myself, More women play video games than men,
34:48
Speaker 2: and yet the narrative around it would have you believe
34:51
Speaker 2: that only men play games, that women don't care about
34:54
Speaker 2: video games. Therefore games are geared mainly toward men, and
35:00
Speaker 2: if women don't really play them anyway, the argument goes,
35:03
Speaker 2: what does it matter if the world of gaming is toxic?
35:07
Speaker 2: Who cares if the few women characters exist mostly for
35:10
Speaker 2: the male gaze and for the male playable character's conquest
35:14
Speaker 2: and storyline. A playable character, also known as a player
35:17
Speaker 2: character or PC, is a fictional character in gaming whose
35:21
Speaker 2: actions the real life player controls. Why shouldn't the female
35:25
Speaker 2: character usually be skimply dressed or nude? Don't even get
35:29
Speaker 2: me started on the games that glorify rape. In over
35:34
Speaker 2: seventy five percent of games with only one protagonist, that
35:37
Speaker 2: protagonist is male. Some male video game developers have even
35:41
Speaker 2: stated out loud that female characters are too hard to
35:46
Speaker 2: animate neutral face emoji. This analysis will, of course, have
35:52
Speaker 2: its detractors. Often the statistics differ depending on what counts
35:56
Speaker 2: as a video game, which is a point of contention
35:59
Speaker 2: and frankly, often pretty sexist if you include phone games,
36:03
Speaker 2: which are seen as lesser slash, less serious, women play more. Also,
36:09
Speaker 2: men are more likely to call themselfs gamers, though women
36:12
Speaker 2: are playing just as much, according to findings from the
36:15
Speaker 2: Pew Research Center. In twenty eighteen, a report came out
36:18
Speaker 2: that made headlines that women had surpassed men and console
36:22
Speaker 2: gaming as well. Video games got caught up in the
36:26
Speaker 2: gendering of toys that occurred in the eighties and nineties,
36:28
Speaker 2: and they were at the time labeled for boys. Early
36:32
Speaker 2: video gamesellers targeted boys because they wanted boys rather than
36:36
Speaker 2: girls as their consumers. The same can be said for
36:39
Speaker 2: action figures and board games, which historically have been highly gendered.
36:44
Speaker 2: The amount of gatekeeping around video games is downright of setting.
36:49
Speaker 2: The Women's Media Center's Speech Project found that users with
36:53
Speaker 2: female user names were twenty five times more likely to
36:57
Speaker 2: be threatened or harassed compared to users with male are
37:00
Speaker 2: gender neutral usernames, and female video game journalists are two
37:04
Speaker 2: thirds more likely to be harassed. Perhaps the most famous
37:09
Speaker 2: example is that of Gamergate, when journalist Anita Sarkisian received
37:13
Speaker 2: sexual assault and death threats for daring to discuss sexist
37:16
Speaker 2: tropes in games. Several of her talks have had to
37:20
Speaker 2: be canceled due to bomb threats. She was sent violent
37:23
Speaker 2: images of herself being murdered or raped by video game
37:27
Speaker 2: characters death threats. Tell me again about freedom of speech?
37:32
Speaker 2: Who is being silenced here? Women make video games too,
37:36
Speaker 2: despite outrageous obstacles in their way. However, the number of
37:41
Speaker 2: women in the gaming industry is pretty abysmal and the
37:43
Speaker 2: attrition rate is high. Numerous women have spoken out about
37:47
Speaker 2: the truly misogynistic and toxic work environments that drove them away.
37:52
Speaker 2: As of this recording, one of the biggest gaming companies,
37:55
Speaker 2: Activision Blizzard, is under fire after the California Department of
37:59
Speaker 2: Fair Employment and Housing filed a lawsuit in twenty twenty one.
38:03
Speaker 2: The details have been truly horrific, painting a picture of
38:06
Speaker 2: a workplace that was disturbingly hostile to women and other
38:09
Speaker 2: marginalized employees. Stories of sexual assault, misogyny, racism, and homophobia abound.
38:18
Speaker 2: This behavior prevented women from attending work functions and from
38:22
Speaker 2: being promoted, and often led them to leave the company,
38:26
Speaker 2: if not the industry altogether. This has created a vicious
38:30
Speaker 2: cycle where our games are made under the status quo,
38:33
Speaker 2: with women characters as sex objects and women and girl
38:36
Speaker 2: players not prioritized. The potential for so many great games
38:41
Speaker 2: has been lost due to this lack of diversity in
38:44
Speaker 2: the field. It may not seem like it based on
38:48
Speaker 2: popular news coverage, but video games can have a positive
38:51
Speaker 2: impact on things like brain development, coordination, empathy, and conditions
38:55
Speaker 2: like PTSD. Of course, that is highly dependent on which
38:59
Speaker 2: game is being played. Gaming can be fun, rewarding, moving,
39:03
Speaker 2: and in some cases, almost life changing. Video games are
39:07
Speaker 2: a big business, and they are not going away, And
39:11
Speaker 2: we're telling women and girls they don't belong, that they
39:14
Speaker 2: shouldn't be making them. Hell, they shouldn't even be playing them.
39:18
Speaker 2: And if they do, it's only as long as they
39:20
Speaker 2: obey the rules, don't complain, stay in their sexualized lane,
39:25
Speaker 2: as though it's only by the grace of the male
39:27
Speaker 2: gatekeepers they are even allowed in the space. Then the
39:32
Speaker 2: second we raise our hand to point out a problem
39:35
Speaker 2: with the status quo, we are threatened until we leave.
39:39
Speaker 2: But we're missing out on so much if we don't
39:43
Speaker 2: work to change the space to make it less toxic
39:46
Speaker 2: than it's game over, gamer game over? Why she matters
39:52
Speaker 2: to me? I've always loved video games. I think they
39:57
Speaker 2: can be beautiful spaces for storytelling. When the play connects
40:00
Speaker 2: to the playable character in a way that is different
40:02
Speaker 2: from other media. I've played games that have absolutely devastated me,
40:07
Speaker 2: and I've played games that have moved me. To not
40:10
Speaker 2: have a female character in the space that I love,
40:13
Speaker 2: or one that is not sexualized, is equally devastating. Years ago,
40:17
Speaker 2: I actually stopped playing online games because of the harassment
40:21
Speaker 2: I received. I was twelve at the time. I had
40:24
Speaker 2: a gender neutral avatar and name, but I guess it
40:27
Speaker 2: wasn't enough. It's strange that as a twelve year old
40:31
Speaker 2: I was receiving countless sexual overtures and threats, yet somehow
40:35
Speaker 2: I just thought, yeah, that goes with the territory. Eventually, though,
40:41
Speaker 2: I decided I couldn't hack it, so I had to leave.
40:44
Speaker 2: In my mind, the problem was with me. I kept playing,
40:49
Speaker 2: just not online. A part of me still felt I
40:51
Speaker 2: was weird, that I was somehow trespassing into a world
40:54
Speaker 2: where I was not welcome, and that I was either
40:57
Speaker 2: going to be forced out or hit on because of it.
41:00
Speaker 2: So I mostly kept my gaming a secret. I was good,
41:04
Speaker 2: not as good as my brothers, I told myself. I
41:07
Speaker 2: couldn't possibly be, I thought, but I was good. Once
41:12
Speaker 2: in college, I won a super Smash Brothers melee tournament.
41:16
Speaker 2: I went to a technical school whose population was over
41:18
Speaker 2: seventy percent men, so, as you can imagine, this was
41:22
Speaker 2: a big deal. Almost immediately, all the other competitors, all men,
41:28
Speaker 2: ganged up on me, started shouting at me, complaining that
41:31
Speaker 2: I cheated, that I was a lying bitch. I never
41:36
Speaker 2: competed again. Most of my favorite games involved complex or
41:40
Speaker 2: interesting female characters, usually playable. May I list some of
41:45
Speaker 2: my favorites was that a resounding yes, Tara and Celis
41:50
Speaker 2: from Final Fantasy three, Slash six, Tifa and Aireth from
41:54
Speaker 2: Final Fantasy seven, Yuna, Riku and Lulu from Final Fantasy Tien,
42:00
Speaker 2: Clara Redfield from a Resident Evil, Elizabeth from BioShock Infinite,
42:04
Speaker 2: Maya from Parisite Eve, Alex from Oxen Free Fimship from
42:09
Speaker 2: Mass Effects, and of course that brings us to one
42:13
Speaker 2: of my favorite game series of all time, The Last
42:16
Speaker 2: of Us. Marlene, Dina, Yara, lev Riley, Abby and Ellie.
42:24
Speaker 2: I remember the first time I played the Last of Us.
42:27
Speaker 2: When I was introduced to the foul mouth, lethal, traumatized
42:31
Speaker 2: and funny fourteen year old Ellie. I felt the strangest
42:34
Speaker 2: sense of relief and bubbling happiness. This game is not
42:38
Speaker 2: happy by any stretch of the imagination, but I was
42:42
Speaker 2: happy to play it, and to play her. There were
42:45
Speaker 2: still plenty of tropes, including that of a young girl
42:48
Speaker 2: being the ultimate innocent to drive the violent actions of
42:51
Speaker 2: the main male character. Again, find me over drinks and
42:54
Speaker 2: I will discuss them at length. That I adored her.
42:59
Speaker 2: Then spoiler alert, You might want to skip these next
43:02
Speaker 2: few paragraphs if you don't want to get hints about
43:04
Speaker 2: what happens in the Last of Us, part two. The
43:07
Speaker 2: second one came out, and she wasn't the same girl
43:11
Speaker 2: she'd grown up. She was more cynical. I loved her still,
43:15
Speaker 2: even though it hurt to see to play the vengeance
43:20
Speaker 2: obsessed woman she'd become. But seeing her playing her you connect.
43:26
Speaker 2: You pour some of yourself into her. You beg her
43:30
Speaker 2: to make different choices. Even though you can't control the
43:34
Speaker 2: plot like you can to some extent in other games,
43:37
Speaker 2: you control the character and play your part in it,
43:40
Speaker 2: so it feels like a commentary on you. At least,
43:44
Speaker 2: that's what good games can do, and the commentary sought
43:48
Speaker 2: to make you question what you yourself have done and
43:51
Speaker 2: glorified as a gamer. The violence the nameless deaths. It
43:56
Speaker 2: made you question gaming, what it is and what it
43:59
Speaker 2: could be, and your part in the whole thing. A
44:03
Speaker 2: lot of people, a lot of them dudes, hated it.
44:08
Speaker 2: It's fine not to like something or to be sad
44:10
Speaker 2: about how it played out, to have criticisms, but a
44:13
Speaker 2: lot of this backlash wasn't that. After the new version
44:17
Speaker 2: came out, countless death threats were made to the creators,
44:21
Speaker 2: to the voice actors. The male gamers didn't like these questions.
44:25
Speaker 2: They didn't like being asked to be empathetic, to think
44:28
Speaker 2: about gaming and what's wrong with it. They didn't appreciate
44:32
Speaker 2: playing a woman's violent revenge story, though they had never
44:35
Speaker 2: had any qualms about playing a man's. They felt entitled
44:39
Speaker 2: to a certain type of game, one that didn't put
44:42
Speaker 2: stories about women, queer folks, people of color at the center.
44:46
Speaker 2: But I loved it. I connected to the tale of loss,
44:50
Speaker 2: of choosing vengeance over happiness and the fallout leading to
44:54
Speaker 2: the realization of Ellie's ultimate fear being alone. As so
45:00
Speaker 2: someone who recently lost someone close to me after our
45:02
Speaker 2: relationship became strained and damaged, who wanted to forgive but
45:06
Speaker 2: couldn't until they were gone. It hit hard, made me cry,
45:12
Speaker 2: like you wouldn't believe unless you're a friend of mine,
45:15
Speaker 2: then you would believe it. It's time we asked some
45:19
Speaker 2: more questions about gaming, about why we've allowed it to
45:22
Speaker 2: be so toxic for so long, and what we can
45:25
Speaker 2: do about it, because we have a lot of work
45:27
Speaker 2: to do. While we are seeing more games with diverse
45:30
Speaker 2: characters made by more diverse creators, the backlash is still horrifying,
45:36
Speaker 2: in part because of that these numbers have actually decreased
45:39
Speaker 2: in recent years. We are going the wrong direction. Maybe
45:44
Speaker 2: if more women join me online and demand a better
45:47
Speaker 2: world when they get there, we can get things moving
45:49
Speaker 2: in the right direction once and for all. And that
46:05
Speaker 2: brings us to the end of this bonus episode. We
46:07
Speaker 2: hope that you enjoyed it, and you enjoyed all of
46:11
Speaker 2: the narration, the sound effects, and also all of the
46:14
Speaker 2: hard work it came to making this come alive in
46:19
Speaker 2: audio form, because even though we're in podcasting, I've realized
46:24
Speaker 2: trying to explain our podcast is difficult because we talk
46:27
Speaker 2: about everything, and we also do it very as this
46:32
Speaker 2: book shows you, Like Hi, I have an interjection which
46:36
Speaker 2: is sort of hard to translate. In some ways in
46:39
Speaker 2: an audio book format. Yeah, but I think that they
46:43
Speaker 2: did an amazing job and I hope that you really
46:46
Speaker 2: enjoyed it, and I hope that you will check it
46:50
Speaker 2: out because the published date is coming August twenty ninth,
46:56
Speaker 2: twenty twenty three, and you can you can pre order
46:59
Speaker 2: now at stuffy should read books dot com either the
47:01
Speaker 2: physical book or the audiobook, or Boo will tell you
47:05
Speaker 2: what to do. We would really really appreciate it. Thanks
47:10
Speaker 2: so much for listening. You can find us on Twitter
47:13
Speaker 2: at mom stuff Podcasts, or on Instagram and TikTok at stuff.
47:17
Speaker 2: I never told you. We do have a tea public
47:19
Speaker 2: store if you want some merch and yes, you can
47:22
Speaker 2: pre order the book audiobook at stuff you should read
47:25
Speaker 2: books dot com. Thanks as always to our super producer Christina,
47:30
Speaker 2: our executive producer Maya, and our contributor Joey.
47:32
Speaker 1: They really were a huge part of this book that
47:35
Speaker 1: we don't talk enough about, especially the things that has
47:37
Speaker 1: been thrown at them at the very last minute. We're sorrying, thank.
47:41
Speaker 2: You, yes, we're sorry, and thank you, and thank you
47:44
Speaker 2: to the whole team, the audiobook team who you all
47:47
Speaker 2: were amazing. Thank you. I'm late yes, and thanks to
47:51
Speaker 2: you listeners for listening stuff I Never told you this
47:55
Speaker 2: podcast from iHeartRadio. For more podcast from my heart Radio,
47:57
Speaker 2: you can check out the heart radio app, Apple podcast,
47:59
Speaker 2: or you listen to your favorite shows