Speaker 1: Good morning, peeps, and welcome to will Gate Up Daily
Speaker 1: with Meet your Girl Danielle Moody back recording live from
Speaker 1: our pod stream studios here in Times Square. Imagine having
Speaker 1: the ability to put together historic legislation that would be
Speaker 1: revered for decades to come, as was the New Deal.
Speaker 1: Imagine being able to shape the future of this country,
Speaker 1: protecting us from climate change, for protecting us, for protecting
Speaker 1: families from a shifting economy so that they're able to
Speaker 1: care for their children. That you know, people in Texas
Speaker 1: want to force you to have. Imagine having the power
Speaker 1: to do that and then just deciding, you know what, Nah,
Speaker 1: I'm good. That's what it must be like to be
Speaker 1: O Mansion and Kirsten Cinema, the two most disgustingly selfish
Speaker 1: pieces of shit on the planet right now. The other day,
Speaker 1: Eleventh Films and I talked about this, put out a
Speaker 1: video to tell us exactly how much money the Mansion
Speaker 1: family was making. Cinema is over in Europe, you know,
Speaker 1: collecting her checks not from her constituents, right, but collecting
Speaker 1: them from overseas, filling up their packs, filling up their coffers.
Speaker 1: They don't give a fuck. How is it that we
Speaker 1: have a government that is supposed to be foreign by
Speaker 1: the people of these United States, that can be obstructed
Speaker 1: by two senators that represent not even a quarter of
Speaker 1: the population fucking combined. How is it that these two
Speaker 1: people that maybe represent a handful of millions of people
Speaker 1: between their two goddamn states get to hold the rest
Speaker 1: of US hostage? You know, there was a video recently
Speaker 1: on CNN that one of the WOKAF listeners sent me,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you set me in the video, and it
Speaker 1: was a CNN segment on how West Virginia is being
Speaker 1: hit by thousand year floods often right, how part of
Speaker 1: the state is either underwater and the other half is
Speaker 1: in drought so bad that over the past year, the
Speaker 1: governor of the state has had to declare a state
Speaker 1: of emergency. You declare a state of emergency so that
Speaker 1: you can get federal funds into your state in order
Speaker 1: to help with the cleanup. How often do you think
Speaker 1: that we're going to be able to tap on fucking
Speaker 1: FEMA's door before all of that money dries up, Because
Speaker 1: instead of safeguarding these communities like Joe Mansion, has the
Speaker 1: opportunity to do against these you know, thousand year floods.
Speaker 1: He's decided that he's going to block the climate change
Speaker 1: part of the infrastructure bill that would help his own
Speaker 1: goddamn state. And what was worse is that when these
Speaker 1: motherfuckers were interviewed on CNN and they were asked by
Speaker 1: the reporter, so, you know, what do you think about
Speaker 1: climate change and the climate change legislation that is right
Speaker 1: now being stalled because of your senator. I think that
Speaker 1: climate change is a bunch of hoop law, and I
Speaker 1: don't want to play into it, says this stupid, stupid
Speaker 1: man who has been living in a trailer with himself,
Speaker 1: his wife, his two kids, and three dogs because he's
Speaker 1: still rebuilding his fucking home from the thousand year old
Speaker 1: flood that took it out. Yeah, but here's the thing.
Speaker 1: Let's not play into reality. Let's not play into the
Speaker 1: fact that insurance companies are not going to cover right
Speaker 1: your rebuild. Let's not play into the fact that, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: big coal that you think is supporting your livelihood is
Speaker 1: actually going to cost you your life. How can you
Speaker 1: have a livelihood if your house is under fucking water
Speaker 1: and you can't get to work because the bridges have
Speaker 1: been washed away. That's what they were talking about in
Speaker 1: the segment. Since that thousand year flood in this one
Speaker 1: particular town, they still don't have a grocery store, they
Speaker 1: still don't have an elementary school, and I believe that
Speaker 1: they don't have a courthouse either, because they've been wiped
Speaker 1: away and they have yet to be rebuilt. Joe Mansion
Speaker 1: has been in control of that state for the last
Speaker 1: forty goddamn years, and they are fucking ringing in dead
Speaker 1: last and most societal metrics. And then you have these
Speaker 1: people so fucking brainwashed right by the right wing as
Speaker 1: they're staying standing in water up to their fucking waists
Speaker 1: talking about, Oh, I'm not going to play into climate change?
Speaker 1: Are you dumb? And this is what I realize is
Speaker 1: that it doesn't matter whether it's Democrats or Republicans, right
Speaker 1: that they don't care about their constituents. They really don't.
Speaker 1: They care about money, They care about themselves, They care
Speaker 1: about you know what is Joe? What is what is
Speaker 1: Joe Mansion give a fuck about a thousand year old
Speaker 1: a thousand year flood that's coming. When that motherfucker is
Speaker 1: sitting real nice and high on his seven hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars yacht. Right, how do you justify having close to
Speaker 1: a million dollar yacht when the combined average income of
Speaker 1: the people that live in your fucking state does it?
Speaker 1: It hovers around thirty thousand. But you guys keep voting
Speaker 1: for him and then talking about like how your life
Speaker 1: is better. I'm just so confused, I really am. And
Speaker 1: you know, I spent a god awful amount of time
Speaker 1: watching the news the other day and I got to
Speaker 1: tell you that, you know, I turn it off after
Speaker 1: like a couple of hours, and I'm wondering why my
Speaker 1: mood is such shit. I'm wondering why, like I feel
Speaker 1: so anxious, And it's because nothing is being done. The
Speaker 1: news highlights every single problem that we're facing right now,
Speaker 1: and nothing is being taken care of, not one goddamn thing.
Speaker 1: So if people were to ask me, you know, what,
Speaker 1: do you think, what kind of grade would you give
Speaker 1: Joe Biden right now? Which, by the way, he has
Speaker 1: a fifty percent disapproval rating. He has his worst rating
Speaker 1: since he entered into office in January this month. And
Speaker 1: do you know why, because we actually thought that we
Speaker 1: were voting historically for change, not for mediocrity, not for
Speaker 1: a bunch of bullshit executive orders that can be turned
Speaker 1: over with the next president that comes in, as we
Speaker 1: saw with Barack Obama. We've seen what exactly what has
Speaker 1: the Biden Harris administration done over the last ten months.
Speaker 1: Have they locked up the members of Congress that were
Speaker 1: behind the insurrection? Have they locked up anybody that was
Speaker 1: behind the insurrection, the attempted coup to overthrow our government?
Speaker 1: Have they put together a voting rights bill that would
Speaker 1: pass and push back against all of the three hundred
Speaker 1: plus voter suppression laws that have gone out. Have they
Speaker 1: offered up anything to help women's women's rights right to
Speaker 1: ensure that Rovi Wade remains. No, they haven't. Right, you
Speaker 1: have the Justice Department right now that is saying that
Speaker 1: what is happening in Texas to Texas bill is unconstitutional.
Speaker 1: They're asking for a stay by the Supreme Court. But
Speaker 1: guess what, we got a six to three court, so
Speaker 1: that's null and void. You tell me how many justices,
Speaker 1: how many federal justices has fucking Biden put out in
Speaker 1: the last ten months? Right? Anything anything come into mind
Speaker 1: that any justices? Have there been a hundred that have
Speaker 1: been appointed. Have there been fifty? Have there been twenty five? No?
Speaker 1: I think that maybe we have five to ten. I
Speaker 1: am just sick to death of being told there is
Speaker 1: nothing that we can do, knowing that we are about
Speaker 1: to lose the House and the Senate in a year,
Speaker 1: and then what then We will lose the White House
Speaker 1: and we will be right back to where we were
Speaker 1: in the Trump era, and it'll be worse because they
Speaker 1: are emboldened and empowered, and we will have nothing, no recourse,
Speaker 1: no nothing. And I continue to tell people, you better
Speaker 1: fucking enjoy your life right now. You better enjoy each
Speaker 1: and every moment, because what is on the horizon is
Speaker 1: going to be worse than your worst nightmare. It is
Speaker 1: going to be worse than what we experience during the
Speaker 1: Trump era. Because you know what Republicans know, they are
Speaker 1: fucking winning. They are winning across aboard their white evangelical
Speaker 1: Christian white supremacy fucking scheme over the last thirty forty
Speaker 1: years is now coming to fruition. And let me tell
Speaker 1: you something what doctor Jonathan Metzel said earlier this week
Speaker 1: that when a hundred year old law is going to
Speaker 1: be overturned by the Supreme Court, trust and believe that
Speaker 1: every single fucking right that you think that you've had
Speaker 1: and you think is just in stone, including you know,
Speaker 1: the end of slavery, Brown versus the Board of Education, Right,
Speaker 1: all of these things that you think are like sewed
Speaker 1: up and oh, they'll never come for that. Fucking Wake up.
Speaker 1: They are marching right towards it. First they come for
Speaker 1: women's rights, right, and you think that it's going to
Speaker 1: stop an abortion. No, no, no, they are going to
Speaker 1: come for birth control. They are going to come for IVF,
Speaker 1: They're gonna come for surrogacy, They're gonna come for every
Speaker 1: way that they can manipulate and own a woman's body,
Speaker 1: which then will own a woman's future. In this country,
Speaker 1: we love to parade ourselves around the world to talk
Speaker 1: about women's rights and what women need, and we don't
Speaker 1: do dick to project women at home. So again I ask,
Speaker 1: what is a Biden administration doing about that? What is
Speaker 1: a Biden administration doing about the fact that we need
Speaker 1: a voting rights, build a pass, and we need the
Speaker 1: fucking filibuster to be deaded. And you have two fucking
Speaker 1: Democrats right now who the media continues to call moderates
Speaker 1: when that's not what the fuck they are. They are obstructionists.
Speaker 1: They might as well be arsonists to our democracy because
Speaker 1: it is going up in smoke because of them. We
Speaker 1: had a three point five trillion dollar robust bill that
Speaker 1: was going to be life changing, generation changing for this country.
Speaker 1: It is being whittled down, as I fucking speak, because
Speaker 1: you know, Joe Mansion doesn't like certain things. I didn't
Speaker 1: get to vote for Joe Mansion, So why the fuck
Speaker 1: does he get to be the one that is making
Speaker 1: decisions for the rest of us. That's the question that
Speaker 1: we should all be asking. You didn't get to vote
Speaker 1: for Joe Mansion. You voted for Joe Biden. But Joe
Speaker 1: Biden isn't the one that's acting like the president of
Speaker 1: the fucking United States right now? Is he looks like
Speaker 1: to me that it's Joe Mansion and fucking Kursen Cinema
Speaker 1: as president and vice president and the people did not
Speaker 1: vote for them. I am sick to death of the inaction.
Speaker 1: I'm sick to death of the iNTS. I'm sick to
Speaker 1: death of being told, well, everyone's hands are tied, because
Speaker 1: when Republicans have power, their hands are never tied. And
Speaker 1: what Glenn Kushner told us last week is like they
Speaker 1: will work inside and outside of the law. They don't
Speaker 1: give a fuck. And you know why they don't give
Speaker 1: a fuck because Democrats never hold their feet to the fire,
Speaker 1: because they're not afraid of Democrats. There is no fear
Speaker 1: there because they know they won't do shit. Steve Bannon
Speaker 1: was just voted nine to zero to be held in
Speaker 1: criminal content. This is gonna be a long drawn out,
Speaker 1: bullshit thing. You tell me why we can't have federal
Speaker 1: agents knocking down that motherfucker's door and dragging him out,
Speaker 1: knowing that he was part of a conspiracy to overthrow
Speaker 1: the fucking government. If he were a brown man, if
Speaker 1: he were a Muslim man, you think that Steve Bannon
Speaker 1: would be fucking walking around these United States open and free,
Speaker 1: or you think that he would be in somebody's fucking
Speaker 1: federal prison awaiting a fucking trial. I would love for
Speaker 1: us to have the same goddamn standards that have been
Speaker 1: put in place to put black and brown and poor
Speaker 1: people in their place, to put the wealthy, white and
Speaker 1: privilege in their fucking place. But alas we do not.
Speaker 1: I'm telling you this country, this administration is an entire
Speaker 1: fucking disappointment. So if you find yourself most days just
Speaker 1: being like, you know what, I want to stop caring.
Speaker 1: I feel you, I am you and you are me.
Speaker 1: Because the rage is just it doesn't go anywhere. I
Speaker 1: can't figure out a vessel to put it in. I
Speaker 1: feel like most days i am screaming out into the
Speaker 1: void because I'm looking around at the people who are
Speaker 1: in power, who have open ears and open eyes, and
Speaker 1: yet are pretending like we're not under attack, like that
Speaker 1: we are not at war with authoritarian fascist right now,
Speaker 1: Wake the fuck up, Woosa wo Sa Friends. Coming up
Speaker 1: next is my conversation with Nadia Okamoto. She is the
Speaker 1: host of a new show called Tigress, and we will
Speaker 1: get into a really great conversation on reproductive rights, on periods,
Speaker 1: on menstrual cycles. That is coming up next, folks. I
Speaker 1: am so excited to not only welcome onto Okay, but
Speaker 1: into the DCP entertainment family, Nadia Okamoto, host of the
Speaker 1: new show Ti Griff. I am really excited to talk
Speaker 1: to you because your background, the work that you have
Speaker 1: already done is so interesting. You're the co founder of August,
Speaker 1: which is a lifestyle period brand working to reimagine periods.
Speaker 1: Talk to me about that being as how right now
Speaker 1: we're kind of devolving into the Handmaid's Tale, where we are,
Speaker 1: you know, setting up the situation, a scenario in which
Speaker 1: it is becoming completely normalized in Okay to go back
Speaker 1: to policing women's bodies and policing women's reproduction. We barely
Speaker 1: have normal commercials about periods on television when we're selling tampons, right,
Speaker 1: So talk to me about what it means to reimagine
Speaker 1: the period. Yeah, I mean, I think it's really interesting
Speaker 1: that you bring up the Handmaid's Tale, which, by the
Speaker 1: way of the show I could not watch because it
Speaker 1: made me so angry because it is terrifyingly realistic in
Speaker 1: some ways. Right, but you know, I think, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of building off of that. A huge part of
Speaker 1: my mission with August Branding and reimagining period care is
Speaker 1: to say this is a part of our biological process
Speaker 1: that makes human life possible and needs to be treated
Speaker 1: as the magical, powerful thing that it is. Right. That
Speaker 1: means being very upfront about period blood. I post multiple
Speaker 1: videos of period blood on TikTok a day of my
Speaker 1: own period blood and showing how the products actually work,
Speaker 1: and being open about period pain so people aren't having
Speaker 1: to suffer in silence, talking about the inequalities around access
Speaker 1: to period care, which I believe should be completely subsidized
Speaker 1: and supported for free. And I think also when we
Speaker 1: talk about reimagining periods similar to the Handmaid's Tale, which
Speaker 1: equates women to having a sole purpose and utility of
Speaker 1: bearing children, I think that's been a lot of the
Speaker 1: conversation around periods. Right. When you're taught as a young
Speaker 1: person what a period is, You're taught that is when
Speaker 1: you can now bear children, right, when menopauses when you
Speaker 1: cannot bear children anymore? Right? And how we know what
Speaker 1: it means when you do or do not get your
Speaker 1: period is whether you're pregnant or not. Right. And I
Speaker 1: think that a lot of what we wanted to do
Speaker 1: was throughout history, when you look at period ads, it's
Speaker 1: you know, buy our products so that you can hide
Speaker 1: your period, you can forget about it, and you can
Speaker 1: attract the date. Right. How many period ads have we
Speaker 1: seen throughout history where it's like, oh, when she puts
Speaker 1: the tamp on in her date picks her up and
Speaker 1: they have like a great date and she's wearing a
Speaker 1: white dress, right, Yeah, And I think that a lot
Speaker 1: of what we're trying to say is like, yes, your
Speaker 1: period is linked to fertility, by de fact, that does
Speaker 1: not mean having a period as preparing us for motherhood.
Speaker 1: And it's not means that having a period is defining
Speaker 1: our utility as someone who can produce, right, and really
Speaker 1: just saying my period is my period and just something
Speaker 1: I'm going to take care of for my body. You know,
Speaker 1: It's so funny because I can think, you know, I
Speaker 1: have such vivid memories of when I first got my
Speaker 1: period because I was very young. I was ten years old, right,
Speaker 1: and so I remember being ten and I was foolishly
Speaker 1: excited about it because I thought it meant that I
Speaker 1: was like becoming a woman, right, because this is what
Speaker 1: you were told. And you know, but I remember during
Speaker 1: that time, you know, my mother is a nurse by trade,
Speaker 1: so we had like real conversations about your period, about
Speaker 1: your body, about why you were going to feel uncomfortable
Speaker 1: if you were bloating what you know, what was actually happening,
Speaker 1: That it wasn't something to just ignore, right, that it
Speaker 1: was like a part of your body. I think what's
Speaker 1: really interesting is that since you know, many many, many
Speaker 1: thousands of moons ago that I got my first period,
Speaker 1: that we haven't evolved in the conversations that we have
Speaker 1: about it, right, Like, I still go into an obgyn
Speaker 1: and I'm still learning new things, and I'm saying, where
Speaker 1: is the research. We are more than half of the
Speaker 1: population in the United States, and I'm so confused about
Speaker 1: why we don't have like real conversations about what's going
Speaker 1: on with the body, about how it equates, you know,
Speaker 1: with the moons, with the ocean, with water, with all
Speaker 1: of these facets of you know, our lives, and we
Speaker 1: just don't talk about it. And I can remember even
Speaker 1: an episode and this will you know not age well
Speaker 1: because of who Bill Cosby is now, but on The
Speaker 1: Cosby Show, when the young character Rudy got her period,
Speaker 1: it was a big deal. It was a purposeful episode
Speaker 1: about womanhood and about you know, power and and you know,
Speaker 1: in fertility and all of these different things. And I remember,
Speaker 1: because I was around her age it being something that
Speaker 1: was celebrated. What do you think needs to happen? Right?
Speaker 1: Because even I just I can't imagine what young girls
Speaker 1: and boys should be learning now in school when they're
Speaker 1: taking health classes and sex said and whatever it is
Speaker 1: that they're doing. I don't ever remember learning about how
Speaker 1: my body changes, like what is to be expected. It
Speaker 1: was just like here's a banana. This is how you
Speaker 1: put on a condom, you know, go on your way. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean. And one thing I really want to point
Speaker 1: out too is I think part of our mission of
Speaker 1: reimagining periods is to actually not equate it with womanhood, right.
Speaker 1: I think you know. I also when I got my
Speaker 1: first period, my mom celebrated and said, you're a woman, right,
Speaker 1: And that's kind of what I understood, like having boobs
Speaker 1: and getting a period was like, now I'm a woman, right.
Speaker 1: And I think that a lot of our mission with
Speaker 1: August is to create like a truly gender inclusive brand,
Speaker 1: because not everyone who gets a period is identifies as
Speaker 1: a woman. Yeah, some might be transgender or non binary.
Speaker 1: And I think really making that distinction between gender as
Speaker 1: a social construct and sex is very necessary. I also
Speaker 1: think that when you look at the discrimination around periods, right,
Speaker 1: whether it be you know, in other countries, girls not
Speaker 1: being able to go to school when they're other period right,
Speaker 1: And it's like because when you get your period, you
Speaker 1: get married off and have kids. Right, when you get
Speaker 1: your period is when female gender and mutilation happens, because
Speaker 1: now you're a woman that needs to be censored. Right.
Speaker 1: So I think that even when we have these you know,
Speaker 1: quote unquote positive examples of periods in mainstream media, in
Speaker 1: the very small instances where it happens, it's done so
Speaker 1: in a way where it's getting your period equals being
Speaker 1: a woman, right Biologically, that's saying being a woman being
Speaker 1: grown means that I can have children, right. And so
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of what we're trying to do,
Speaker 1: even with the language that we use, right, we don't
Speaker 1: say feminine care because feminine is an incorrect term. It's
Speaker 1: not only X exclusive. Feminine is about gender expression, not
Speaker 1: gender identity, nor does it have to do with biological
Speaker 1: sex in your organs. Right. So I think that there's
Speaker 1: so just so much there, you know, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it. What was your question again, everything that
Speaker 1: you were saying it was good, and I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't even remember, oh, gon sex said? Okay, yes, So
Speaker 1: I think, you know, I think the fact that we
Speaker 1: even have sex said in some schools is still like
Speaker 1: like unfortunately, like that is still a big deal. Right
Speaker 1: in most schools, sex said does not happen full stop
Speaker 1: period Right. When we used to do educational initiatives around
Speaker 1: trying to go on the nonprofit I worked on, when
Speaker 1: we would trying to go to schools to talk about periods,
Speaker 1: we could not do it in public schools because it
Speaker 1: was considered such an inappropriate topic. We needed to get
Speaker 1: permission slips from parents about right, Like, this is a
Speaker 1: topic that is not considered appropriate. Right, I mean so
Speaker 1: menstruation as a whole. You would have needed to get
Speaker 1: a permission slip to have a conversation about something, Okay
Speaker 1: in most schools that we went to, Yeah, like that
Speaker 1: was the case, and it was such a barrier that
Speaker 1: we could not have those conversations right in the chance,
Speaker 1: Like for me, I learned sex that it was one afternoon, right,
Speaker 1: and the girls went into one classroom, the boys went
Speaker 1: to other. Right, So also setting up gender binary. But
Speaker 1: then you talk about the basics, right, this is what
Speaker 1: a tampon is, This is what a pad is. Blood
Speaker 1: will come out like once a month, and it just
Speaker 1: means you're not pregnant. Right, And here's a tampon, here's
Speaker 1: a pad you might have cramps. Right, we don't learn
Speaker 1: about what color period blood is the fact that like
Speaker 1: it's coming out of the vagina, which is not the
Speaker 1: external part, it's actually the canal, right, and like knowing
Speaker 1: the language. But also I think that where it's so
Speaker 1: important that we get comfortable talking about periods is well
Speaker 1: we talk about periods in mainstream media. It's referred to
Speaker 1: as like just when blood comes out, right, And I
Speaker 1: think the reason why I don't say August is a
Speaker 1: period product company, say we're a lifestyle period brand, because
Speaker 1: there's a difference between period and a mensonal cycle. Right.
Speaker 1: A period is when blood is coming out. The mental
Speaker 1: cycle is the twenty four to seven happening all the
Speaker 1: time cycle, right, And getting your period is not just
Speaker 1: the blood, it's the period pain, right. And cramps aren't
Speaker 1: all the time just cramps. It's also uterine fibroids, endometriosis,
Speaker 1: so many other conditions that are completely underdiagnosed that are
Speaker 1: such intersectional issues that we don't talked about because we
Speaker 1: don't talk about periods. Right, So even when we talk
Speaker 1: about period cramps, if we do not educate young men
Speaker 1: streaters about period pain, they will they are conditioned to
Speaker 1: even gaslight themselves for the very real pain that they're experiencing. Right,
Speaker 1: If we don't teach non men streaters like young sis
Speaker 1: boys to talk about periods, we will continue with the
Speaker 1: stigma where people are afraid of being ridiculed for advocating
Speaker 1: for their own health. Right, and that not only has
Speaker 1: repercussions on someone's individual period experience, that expands to period
Speaker 1: poverty when you're looking at whole communities, right, and when
Speaker 1: you look at period pain, I think, which is a
Speaker 1: very very concrete example, like black women are three times
Speaker 1: as likely to have uterine fibroids, where hasn't been you know,
Speaker 1: understanding around it, and because of the racism in our
Speaker 1: healthcare system, they are three to four times as likely
Speaker 1: to be recommended and to have hysterectomies, which in a
Speaker 1: way is kind of like by perpetuating it. It's like
Speaker 1: for sterilization, which we've seen throughout history. Yeah, we've made
Speaker 1: progress in terms of what this situation used to be,
Speaker 1: but still that's happening today, Like those numbers are still
Speaker 1: there today, and I think that a lot of it
Speaker 1: is we can't talk about that issue if we don't
Speaker 1: talk about periods in the first place. And if we
Speaker 1: don't teach people and create a culture where when you
Speaker 1: have period pain, you go to the doctor and you're
Speaker 1: not just saying, oh, that's just cramps, but it's like
Speaker 1: you're really taught to be in touch with your body
Speaker 1: and talking about it and advocating for it. You know.
Speaker 1: The funny thing too, is that we're actually taught the
Speaker 1: opposite right not to talk about it, don't mention it.
Speaker 1: You know, you brought up hysterectomies. My late grandmother, after
Speaker 1: birthing five children, had a hysterectomy. In later when I
Speaker 1: was older, I believe that I asked my mother why
Speaker 1: the doctor had recommended she have a hysterectomy. This was
Speaker 1: at a time when they were given out hysterirectomies, the
Speaker 1: way that they were taking tonsils out and thinking that
Speaker 1: there weren't any repercussions to that. It's like, oh, it's
Speaker 1: just removed and then you'll be fine. No, you've created
Speaker 1: an entire imbalance now in the body that can push
Speaker 1: people into early menopause, push women into really manic depression
Speaker 1: because you're altering hormones when that happens. But again, that
Speaker 1: none of that was part of the education process. And
Speaker 1: I realized too that it was because we don't teach
Speaker 1: medical school students still about like the details around around
Speaker 1: around a woman's body, just like in general. And I
Speaker 1: say woman because in there are very few doctors right now,
Speaker 1: like very few places where you can go and have
Speaker 1: this conversation and people not what do you mean when
Speaker 1: you say that there are people who are not women
Speaker 1: who are who have periods? That makes no sense. How
Speaker 1: do you teach people or how can people learn to
Speaker 1: unpack and distill those very distinct things down when we
Speaker 1: have all been programmed into into thinking that way. Because
Speaker 1: I just I just recent and I'm queer, and I
Speaker 1: just recently started when I was talking about the reproductive
Speaker 1: justice issues and problems and the hell that Abbot has
Speaker 1: released on Texas and the country. Have been talking about
Speaker 1: people who can give birth right people with you to
Speaker 1: like I have been, and that is a new thing
Speaker 1: to be changing the language to be more inclusive and expansive.
Speaker 1: But how do you teach people how to unpack those
Speaker 1: things that they've been pre programmed to understand? I mean,
Speaker 1: so this is actually like something that I've worked on
Speaker 1: originally from the you know, several years ago, I was
Speaker 1: chief brand officer to gen Z Marketing Agency and we
Speaker 1: worked with a lot of large corporations on how to
Speaker 1: create like workforces for the next generation, and pronouns was
Speaker 1: a huge part of it. And I think that pronouns
Speaker 1: were and solar like one of the hardest things to
Speaker 1: teach people of a different generation where they've spent decades
Speaker 1: thinking boy or girl, right, boy or girl? Boy or
Speaker 1: girl like when you meet someone, And I think that
Speaker 1: it actually has to do with going all the way
Speaker 1: back and thinking like asking them like, what does it
Speaker 1: actually mean to be a man? Like what is masculinity?
Speaker 1: And separating gender expression to gender identity to biological sex, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that really understanding that is how you're
Speaker 1: able to be like, Okay, but don't you don't we
Speaker 1: understand that even if I have a penis, that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean I'm a masculine macho identify as a guy, right,
Speaker 1: That can mean I express myself in different ways. That
Speaker 1: can mean I identify in different ways. And what does
Speaker 1: it mean to be like? These are the questions we ask,
Speaker 1: right when you draw a man on a piece of paper,
Speaker 1: why is it that people in when we run these workshops.
Speaker 1: Why do most people draw tie? Right when you draw
Speaker 1: a woman? Why is it that you often draw a
Speaker 1: necklace or boobs or you know, long hair, right? But
Speaker 1: we know women you have short hair? Does that make
Speaker 1: them less of a right? So, like, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of unpacking this is actually kind of going to
Speaker 1: that going to the very basics, which is like, okay,
Speaker 1: well where does that education needs to start, like elementary school,
Speaker 1: right in the household? Right? So I think a lot
Speaker 1: of it does have to happen in the schools. But
Speaker 1: I think what's really interesting is like the language pieces.
Speaker 1: Something I think about a lot, because when we work internationally,
Speaker 1: if we talk about menstruators and we don't use gendered terms,
Speaker 1: we get nothing done right, like, And it's something that
Speaker 1: I really struggle with, especially I used to travel internationally
Speaker 1: pre pandemic and doing a lot of this advocacy. I'd
Speaker 1: walk into rooms. Actually once I was in South Africa
Speaker 1: and I was like talking about people with periods and menstruators,
Speaker 1: and they were so upset, Like the people I was
Speaker 1: meeting with, so upset and so angry that I could
Speaker 1: even think that that they completely like discredited the fact
Speaker 1: that we should even have that conversation, right, And so
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of wait, wait before you move,
Speaker 1: because I want to understand what was it that was
Speaker 1: upsetting them, the feeling that identity anything and anything. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: And so I think that a lot of it is,
Speaker 1: you know, the US. Also, the US is still fucked
Speaker 1: up and we have so much work to do. But
Speaker 1: in comparison to a lot of other communities around the world,
Speaker 1: the fact that we can sit here on a podcast
Speaker 1: that is like a mainstream podcast talking about trans identity,
Speaker 1: and like, that's why I think I have a responsibility
Speaker 1: as a SIS yes, queer person of color to like
Speaker 1: come up and like talk about this. But I also
Speaker 1: think that what I've not what I've what I've seen
Speaker 1: is when working internationally or in communities where even bringing
Speaker 1: that up is so angering that it actually discounts for
Speaker 1: even having it. And it's just like and then the
Speaker 1: question that I went I'm not a therapist, but the
Speaker 1: question that I would ask is, like, where is your
Speaker 1: anger coming from? Yeah? As always, dear friends, power to
Speaker 1: the people and to all the people. Power get woke
Speaker 1: and stay woke as fuck.