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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.

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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff Mom never told you?

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Speaker 1: From House top works dot Com. Hello, and welcome to

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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Kristen and I'm Caroline, and today we

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Speaker 1: are talking about a band called Pussy Riot. Yes. This

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Speaker 1: is a natural, organic extension of our last episode, which

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Speaker 1: was women in Punk music and the Riot Girl movement.

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Speaker 1: Now we have Pussy Riot, who has started a rather

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Speaker 1: dynamic discussion the world over. Yes. And if you are

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Speaker 1: uncomfortable with the word pussy, I don't know what to

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Speaker 1: tell you because we're about to say pussy a lot.

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Speaker 1: So you can either grin and bear it and start

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Speaker 1: a pussy drinking game of sorts, or uh, I don't know, Um,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, or you can just go read about it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and I'm okay with us saying normally in the podcast,

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Speaker 1: I would not say the word pussy, but when it

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Speaker 1: has been said so many times in the past few

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Speaker 1: weeks on the radio and on like a large news

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Speaker 1: broadcasts at the New York Times is printing the word pussy,

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Speaker 1: it's time for us to say it on the podcast. Yes,

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Speaker 1: So this is who is Pussy Riot Slash the episode

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Speaker 1: in which we say pussy a lot on the podcast,

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Speaker 1: but we're talking about pussy Riot because it is one

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Speaker 1: of the biggest news stories going on. I would say,

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Speaker 1: for women in music, would you agree with that? And

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Speaker 1: we don't talk about Russia a lot? And we just decided,

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Speaker 1: since everybody else is talking about pussy Riot, why don't

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Speaker 1: we talk about pussy Riot exactly? So, with no further ado,

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Speaker 1: what on earth is Pussy Riot? Well, let me tell you.

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Speaker 1: It is a Russian activist punk band Slash collective formed

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Speaker 1: in September two thousand eleven as a protest against Vladimir

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Speaker 1: Putin's announcement that he was going to go for the

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Speaker 1: presidency in March, which is referred to as the Russian Winter.

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Speaker 1: Not everybody was too pleased about Putin basically saying, Hey,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to become president, do you guys? Do you

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Speaker 1: guys mind? I was gonna step in and be president

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Speaker 1: again for a while. That's cool, right, I'm gonna take

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Speaker 1: my shirt off and run around shirtless again. I don't

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Speaker 1: like having much time off, so is the presidency open?

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Speaker 1: I hate golf, So I'm going to be president again? Um? Well, actually,

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Speaker 1: Pussy Right has a lot of members. It's it's not

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Speaker 1: a like, it's not a a four person band specifically,

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Speaker 1: it's sort of it is a movement. It is a

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Speaker 1: protest movement that involves a lot of women, and they

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Speaker 1: actually encourage more people to join because they wear those

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Speaker 1: bala lavas, so you know, the like burglar masks that

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Speaker 1: are all multi colored to hide their identity, and they

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Speaker 1: wear um tights like multi colored tights and bright dresses.

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Speaker 1: They kind of end up looking like the woman on

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Speaker 1: the bathroom sign. Oh yeah, very very true. I had

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Speaker 1: not thought about that before. Uh. Yeah. A lot of

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Speaker 1: the attention is being given to three members who have

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Speaker 1: been arrested and now convicted in Russia. But yeah, there

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Speaker 1: are It's a revolving door. Pussy Riot is uh now.

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Speaker 1: In an interview with Vice magazine, the girls were talking

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Speaker 1: to Henry Langston, uh and this was obviously pre arrest,

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Speaker 1: and they explained the need for Pussy Riot to exist

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Speaker 1: as this quote, we realize that this country, Russia, needs

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Speaker 1: a militant punk feminist street band that will rip through

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Speaker 1: Moscow streets and squares mobilized public energy against evil crooks

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Speaker 1: of the Putinist junta and enriched to Russian cultural and

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Speaker 1: political opposition with themes that are important to us, such

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Speaker 1: as gender and LGBT rights, problems of masculine conforming, the

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Speaker 1: absence of a daring political message on the musical and

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Speaker 1: art scenes, and the domination of males in all areas

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Speaker 1: of public discord. Let's going to Russia, man or or not?

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Speaker 1: Or I will not go to Russia because that is cold. Um. Yes,

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Speaker 1: they they are very These are not just women who

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Speaker 1: are like, you know what, we're feeling like, we don't

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Speaker 1: have a voice. We're we're gonna maybe you start a band.

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Speaker 1: These are women who are actively fighting the current political system,

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Speaker 1: current political system, the social structure. But why call yourselves

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Speaker 1: pussy riot? Henry Lanks and Advice Magazine asked them why why,

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Speaker 1: why use why use the word pussy, to which they

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Speaker 1: also responded, uh quote, a female sex organ which is

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Speaker 1: supposed to be receiving and shapeless, suddenly starts a radical

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Speaker 1: rebellion against the cultural order which tries to constantly define

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Speaker 1: it and show its appropriate place. So it's about what

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Speaker 1: they're fighting against. They're fighting fighting against the notion that

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Speaker 1: women are Uh. Subservient second class citizens. Now, I mean

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Speaker 1: I mentioned that they're not strictly just a band, but

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Speaker 1: they do have very familiar musical influences, one of which

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Speaker 1: is Bikini Kill, as we talked about in our previous

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Speaker 1: episode on punk Rock and the Riot Girl, and they

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Speaker 1: do cite the whole Riot Girl movement as an inspiration.

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Speaker 1: They say that they are kind of similar to that movement,

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Speaker 1: but with an exaggerated political stance. So whereas you know

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Speaker 1: Riot Girl we talked about being sort of the domain

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Speaker 1: of more middle class educated white women fighting against the

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Speaker 1: status quo, this is definitely more exaggerated due to the

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Speaker 1: social political cultural situation they're dealing with in Russia. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and if you have not heard, Pussy Riot members were arrested.

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Speaker 1: They had been previously arrested in January of two thousand twelve,

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Speaker 1: but they were released. But then on February two thousand twelve,

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Speaker 1: they performed the song Punk Prayer in Christ to Savior

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Speaker 1: Cathedral and Moscow, and the lyrics include lines such as

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Speaker 1: Virgin Mary, Mother of God, banished, putin join our protest,

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Speaker 1: Holy Virgin, and then some a little more. There's some

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Speaker 1: crass or language in it. There's a lot of religious

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Speaker 1: puns huntery going on. It was a blasphemous song. It

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Speaker 1: was an intentionally blasphemous anti Putin song that they essentially

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Speaker 1: stormed this cathedral. You can see the video on YouTube.

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Speaker 1: It's a very fast performance and they got their balaclavas

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Speaker 1: on their bright tights and they're thrashing around and it's

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Speaker 1: very very riot girl esque. And they got arrested. Three

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Speaker 1: of them got arrested. Yeah, they were actually arrested just

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Speaker 1: before the March third election in which Putin was re elected. Um,

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Speaker 1: we should talk about the whole arrest and what the

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Speaker 1: fallout and what happened. They were actually charged with hooliganism

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Speaker 1: motivated by religious hatred. As one writer points out, could

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Speaker 1: you get a more punk uh accusation flying around? Uh.

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Speaker 1: They have maintained they've been accused of maintaining a western

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Speaker 1: and unfeminine attitude throughout the whole trial, the whole like

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Speaker 1: being cool and unapologetic, you know, just sitting there in

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Speaker 1: their glass bulletproof cage in the courtroom. Um, because there's

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Speaker 1: this whole cultural expectation that you know, you're weak women,

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Speaker 1: you should just fall down and apologize and cry and

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Speaker 1: maybe we'll be leaning on you. But they're like, no,

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Speaker 1: we're just we're just gonna sit here and take it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there's this awesome picture that was published in the New Yorker,

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Speaker 1: or at least that's where I first saw it was

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Speaker 1: a New Yorker of the three girls or women. What

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Speaker 1: are their names? Because I have their I have their

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Speaker 1: full Russian names in front of me, and I am

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Speaker 1: not going to make our listeners listen to me attempt

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Speaker 1: to pronounce full Russian names. But you have the shortened

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Speaker 1: versions Caroline, Yeah, Masha, Katya, and Nadia. That's a lot

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Speaker 1: easier to pronounce than these letters I'm looking at right now.

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Speaker 1: But yeah, there's a picture of the three women sitting

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Speaker 1: in I guess in Russian courtrooms you have to if

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Speaker 1: you've been accused of a crime, you have to sit

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Speaker 1: in these these cages. And they're they're not smirking necessarily

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Speaker 1: at the guard, but they just look almost amused in

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Speaker 1: a way because they have to know the attention worldwide

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Speaker 1: that their actions have gotten them. Well, I mean, you

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Speaker 1: would smirk too if you read some of these charges.

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Speaker 1: On June twelfth, the indictment was published. Uh, they were

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Speaker 1: accused of blasphemous humiliation of the church. The prosecution called

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Speaker 1: their outfits defiantly bright and accused them of jumping, lifting

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Speaker 1: up legs, imitating dance, and punching, which contributed to severe

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Speaker 1: public disorder. And then on August See they were convicted

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Speaker 1: based on article to thirteen of the Russian Criminal Code

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Speaker 1: for gross violation the social order that expresses patent contempt

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Speaker 1: towards society on motives of political, ideological, racial, national, or

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Speaker 1: religious hatred or enmity. And it's that religious hatred part

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Speaker 1: that they really got them because they were doing it

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Speaker 1: in this church. They were singing this blasphemous song um

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Speaker 1: and all of that sums up to hooliganism and it

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Speaker 1: carried a possible sentence of up to seven years, but

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Speaker 1: they were actually sentenced to two years in prison for

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Speaker 1: rushing the church and singing the song. And of course,

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Speaker 1: in the West, our reaction to it is whoa Russia, Hello,

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Speaker 1: freedom of speech? This is insanity. These girls are you know,

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Speaker 1: their women? I keep calling them girls, but I want

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Speaker 1: to call them women specifically. Uh, these women are simply

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Speaker 1: singing a song. How how can you be arrested for

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Speaker 1: seeing something that? Yeah? Is it? Blasphemous. Is it anti Putin?

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Speaker 1: You know, it could be akin to someone seeing an

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Speaker 1: anti Obama song, which I'm sure a lot of There

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Speaker 1: are probably anti Obama songs out there, none of which

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Speaker 1: I want to hear. Uh. But yeah, so they've they've

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Speaker 1: gotten a ton of support from uh Western musicians. Madonna

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Speaker 1: was playing in Moscow in August and stopped her concert

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Speaker 1: to to give a speech about how pussy right needed

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Speaker 1: to be freed, and then she stripped down to a

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Speaker 1: black braw and had pussy Riot written on her back. Um, well,

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Speaker 1: it also makes sense when you when you hear their

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Speaker 1: closing statements. I mean, the things that they argue make

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Speaker 1: a lot of sense to the Western brain basically. So

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Speaker 1: in August eight, they delivered their closing statements and really

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Speaker 1: focused on on Putin's administration and corruption. They lamented the

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Speaker 1: marginalization of contemporary art, the lack of philosophical thought, and

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Speaker 1: of gender stereotyping, and they said that educational institutions in

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Speaker 1: the country in colca cruelty and intolerance of non conformity.

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Speaker 1: And they defended their performance as an act of civic engagement. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and um, there is a lot about the um that

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Speaker 1: artistic expression aspect of it. And one thing that is

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Speaker 1: not getting talked about in a lot of the Western

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Speaker 1: media coverage is the cultural backdrop of this um art

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Speaker 1: based group called Voina I hope I'm pronouncing that right. Um.

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Speaker 1: It's a St. Petersburg based art group that's often cited

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Speaker 1: as the inspiration for Pussy Riot. Um. They've staged provocative,

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Speaker 1: politically motivated performance art, including a public orgy. Yes I

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Speaker 1: said that a public orgy. Um. Some members were also arrested,

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Speaker 1: but they were released, interestingly enough for graffiti fans out there,

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Speaker 1: a UK graffiti artist Banksy actually bailed them out at

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Speaker 1: one point. Um. And but then the group also received

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Speaker 1: a National Innovation Award in two thousand and ten, which

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Speaker 1: is Russia's only contemporary visual arts honors. So we have

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Speaker 1: this counterculture arts group that's doing all these public demonstrations

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Speaker 1: and this public arts which art which included, for instance,

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Speaker 1: painting a penis on a drawbridge, so whenever went up,

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Speaker 1: hey you have an erect penis. Um, but they received

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Speaker 1: an award for it. So but then we have Pussy riot.

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Speaker 1: They're arrested and released, but then it's like what they're

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Speaker 1: doing singing a song in a church crossed even greater

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Speaker 1: lines somehow than having a public like public sex X yeah. Well.

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Speaker 1: Russian journalists Vadim nikitin I hope a pronouncing his name

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Speaker 1: right wrote an editorial on August twenty in The New

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Speaker 1: York Times. UM. He said, basically, if if you're just

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Speaker 1: now supporting Pussy Riot, when they're clearly in the right

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Speaker 1: and the government's clearly in the wrong, you're you're kind

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Speaker 1: of guilty of opportunism because they are so closely linked

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Speaker 1: with Voina. So if all of these other things that

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Speaker 1: they are using to fight the government, fight the patriarchy,

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Speaker 1: you know, fight the man. If all of these other

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Speaker 1: other things discussed, you scare you turn you off, you know,

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Speaker 1: and all of a sudden, this like happy little punk

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Speaker 1: dance they did in a church is like, oh yeah,

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Speaker 1: that's cool. It wasn't happy, did you see? It was punching,

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Speaker 1: was lifting up of legs. Um yeah. He says that

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Speaker 1: maybe that's opportunism and that the West just doesn't understand

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Speaker 1: really the whole thought process behind Russian radicalism. He says

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Speaker 1: that freedom of expression is alien to Russian radicals and

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Speaker 1: that Pussy Right is not looking for self expression. They're looking,

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Speaker 1: as I said earlier, to radically change society, and that

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Speaker 1: they're just as contemptuous of capitalism as they are of

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Speaker 1: the system over in Russia. Yeah, that's why I felt

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Speaker 1: like it was. You know, it is an important topic

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Speaker 1: to to talk about, if only as such a prime

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Speaker 1: example of how the Western media lens might not be

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Speaker 1: giving you the entire story of what really is happening

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Speaker 1: in Russia, because yeah, over here in the West, everybody's

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Speaker 1: tweeting about it. I know. The day of the conviction,

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Speaker 1: I went on Twitter and a lot of people had

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Speaker 1: changed their avatars to a free pussy right like solidarity

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Speaker 1: fist for a day. Some people got hooligan tattoos and solidary.

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Speaker 1: We were doing all of these symbolic things. We have

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Speaker 1: Bikini Kill front woman and Ride Girl pioneer Kathleen Hannah

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Speaker 1: speaking out on their behalf, playing a benefit for them

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Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, all of these things, which I'm not saying

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Speaker 1: it's uh, it's negative at all, but it's not looking

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Speaker 1: at what is really happening. For instance, Uh, the Russian

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Speaker 1: public is not in love with Pussy Riot. I mean

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Speaker 1: they are, They're incredibly controversial. Um, there was a post

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Speaker 1: written by anatoly Carlin and Al Jazeera UM and he

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Speaker 1: said that in an August pole only seven percent of

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Speaker 1: the Russian public felt respect, act or sympathy for Pussy Riott,

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Speaker 1: felt irritation. Forty four percent felt the judicial process was

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Speaker 1: fair and impartial. And let's back this up even more

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Speaker 1: and talk about the issues that Pussy Riot is uh

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Speaker 1: I guess protesting four such as gender equality and LGBT rights. UM. Again,

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Speaker 1: Anatolie Carlin says a support for LGBT rights in gay

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Speaker 1: marriage in Russia fourteen percent. UH. And Pussy Right is

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Speaker 1: seen as something in Russia called a posh lost or

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Speaker 1: petty self satisfied vulgarity. In In response to the punk

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Speaker 1: prayer performance and the Pussy Riot arrests, a series of

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Speaker 1: quote anti pussings or demonstrations for the preservation of moral

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Speaker 1: purity against Pussy Right sprang out all around Russia. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Michael Aidoff, who's the editor at g K Russia gave

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Speaker 1: gave some perspective in the New York Times. He says

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Speaker 1: the gender equality and the rights of ethnic minorities and

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Speaker 1: gays or remain outside the scope of Russian liberalism, which

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Speaker 1: actually he says looks more like the American Tea Party.

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Speaker 1: He says that the idea that liberalism is partly about

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Speaker 1: upholding someone else's liberty, including their right to do something

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Speaker 1: that you find offensive, is an exotic and untested notion

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Speaker 1: in Russia, and a lot of people have taken issue

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Speaker 1: with the way that, uh, this whole trial arrest, all

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Speaker 1: of this has been portrayed in Western media. Uh. Sarah

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Speaker 1: kinzie or Over at the Atlantic said that Western coverage

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Speaker 1: has reduced these dissidents to more familiar narratives of youthful

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Speaker 1: rebellion or damsels in distress, missing their entire entire point,

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Speaker 1: and adopting the language that Moscow uses to marginalize them

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Speaker 1: in order to celebrate them. So we're saying, like, why

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Speaker 1: are you scared of some little girls and dresses? Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: it's like Moscow is over there saying, you know, look

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Speaker 1: at these these little girls, you know, destroying society. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it's not the fact that it's not a problem that

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Speaker 1: it has received so much ridge, and that a lot

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Speaker 1: of pussy right is becoming a household name in a way.

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Speaker 1: The problem is that we are It's like we're not

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Speaker 1: learning the bigger lesson, um, and that puts pussy right

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Speaker 1: and the values that they stand for at risk of

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Speaker 1: just being washed away in another tide of you know, well, okay,

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Speaker 1: they'll be released and then when we hear from them again,

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Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like, I think it's uh,

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Speaker 1: I think it's worth really looking at why we care

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Speaker 1: and by we I mean you know us like sitting

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Speaker 1: here miles and miles away from Russia and what it

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Speaker 1: really means for the state of things like LGBT rights,

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Speaker 1: gender equality and politics and open government around the world.

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Speaker 1: Because it's really easy to tweet about it when you

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Speaker 1: have the freedom to to do so. And um. Also,

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Speaker 1: Anatoly Carlin and Al Jazeera points out that, um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, does this law, this Russian law, seemed crazy,

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Speaker 1: this hooliganism seem very extreme. Absolutely, But he also says,

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Speaker 1: you know what, laws like that putting similar restrictions on

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Speaker 1: speech are not uh, you know, specific just to Russia.

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Speaker 1: He says, the UK has a law against quote threatening,

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Speaker 1: abusive or insulting words or behavior. Um. Also in France,

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Speaker 1: for instance, UM, some Pussy riot protesters who are wearing

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Speaker 1: balaclavas were arrested because France has a law banning um

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Speaker 1: covering face coverings in public. So it's you know, it's

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Speaker 1: easy to point point things out um like that, but

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Speaker 1: we have to we have to take a more global

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Speaker 1: view exactly, and part of that is really getting a

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Speaker 1: feel for the context of this whole thing. Mark aims

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Speaker 1: at not Safe for Work Corporation dot com, formerly of

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Speaker 1: Exile newspaper Over in Russia, says that a huge number

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Speaker 1: of Russians want to get medieval on the pussy riot girls,

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Speaker 1: string them up in Red Square and make it hurt.

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Speaker 1: Even Russians who have protested Putin are against these women,

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Speaker 1: and he explains this by saying that part of the

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Speaker 1: hostility towards these women stems from the support they've received

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Speaker 1: from the West. Quote they see another dastardly plot by

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Speaker 1: the West to humiliate Mother Russia. And he even says

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Speaker 1: that we we cannot as Westerners, really understand why Russians

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Speaker 1: react the way that they do to some of these things.

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Speaker 1: Another really important contextual point is that we have to

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Speaker 1: look at the sight of the protests. Yes, it was

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Speaker 1: a church, but what's the deal with that particular church.

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Speaker 1: It's a rebuilt cathedral. The Soviet government tore down the

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Speaker 1: original in nineteen thirty one and replaced it with a

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Speaker 1: swimming pool. It actually wasn't rebuilt until the nineties and

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Speaker 1: consecrated in the year two thousand. So look back in

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Speaker 1: the nineteen twenties, the Bolsheviks wiped out church leaders, there

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Speaker 1: was a lot of persecution of Orthodox Church members. So

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Speaker 1: this whole idea of religious freedom is kind of a

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Speaker 1: touchy subject because I mean, I'm sure they picked the

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Speaker 1: church for a reason. You know, they really wanted to

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Speaker 1: get attention for their anti Putin movement. But a lot

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Speaker 1: of people over there saying, really, you couldn't have done

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Speaker 1: this somewhere else. And speaking of Putin, on August third,

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Speaker 1: he did publicly state that while he is not exactly

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Speaker 1: a pussy Riot fan if I made paraphrase, but that

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Speaker 1: the three women quote shouldn't be judged too harshly. And actually,

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Speaker 1: as we speak, there is a Russian presidential human rights

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Speaker 1: counsel that is re examining the case. And again I

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Speaker 1: say those things, not to not to say, hey, give

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Speaker 1: Putin a pass, although I did see on the internet

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Speaker 1: today that he is flying out trying to save wild birds, okay,

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Speaker 1: and random Putin fact that we can probably cut as

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Speaker 1: we're editing this podcast. Uh yeah, I'm not saying all

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Speaker 1: of I'm not dropping those those facts who try to

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Speaker 1: burnish the image of Vladimir Putin at all. But again,

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Speaker 1: I hope with this podcast we can broaden the scope

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Speaker 1: of our under standing about what Pussy Riot means, whether

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Speaker 1: or not it is relevant beyond just some crazy news

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Speaker 1: item that happened in two thousand twelve that we might

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Speaker 1: forget about, you know, in a couple of years. We

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Speaker 1: should also look at ourselves and what we're doing with it,

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Speaker 1: like Chloe Savini let up support rally or whatever for

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Speaker 1: these women. Um. Going back to Sarah Kinsey or at

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Speaker 1: The Atlantic, she asked the question, and this is related

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Speaker 1: to a podcast we did earlier. Our women. Are the

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Speaker 1: women of Pussy Riot being treated like manic pixie dream girls?

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Speaker 1: Are they just blank revolutionary slates on Twitch? Westerners are

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Speaker 1: projecting their hipster fantasies. She wants to know, because she

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Speaker 1: points out that and as Kristen said, you know, I

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Speaker 1: mentioned the whole Twitter thing, like people changing their pictures

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Speaker 1: or getting tattoos, like these aren't really revolutionary acts that

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Speaker 1: women in the West are are are doing and not

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Speaker 1: that it's bad. I'm not criticizing, like, you know, support

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Speaker 1: your fellow women the world over. But she says that

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Speaker 1: this whole thing is spawning protests free from arrest or anxiety,

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Speaker 1: isolated from historical or political context. And so what I

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Speaker 1: wonder reading that is maybe Western women should be protesting

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Speaker 1: within our own social and political context. Maybe we do

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Speaker 1: need to have something sparked in this country. So, you know,

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Speaker 1: she's criticizing the people who are just like changing their

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Speaker 1: Twitter pictures or whatever. Maybe it is time that we

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Speaker 1: took a look at our own situation. Caroline, what it

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Speaker 1: sounds like to me is that you're calling for a

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Speaker 1: pussy riot. I mean, I don't have a ball of

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Speaker 1: lava or anything. Hey, you can make your own. But no,

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Speaker 1: I think I think that is that's the That's a

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Speaker 1: great way to to sum it all up. You know,

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Speaker 1: it's um, I guess my. My number one concern with

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Speaker 1: the inundation of news coverage about pussy riot is that

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Speaker 1: it's actually devaluing what could be an important re examination

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Speaker 1: of where we are in the West and all of

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Speaker 1: those you know, looking back at all the riot girl

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Speaker 1: stuff that's now coming back up and thinking about the

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Speaker 1: national political conversations that we're having about freedom and freedom

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Speaker 1: and liberty and our personal bodily integrity. Yeah, I mean

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Speaker 1: instead of just letting this moment pass by as some

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Speaker 1: little pop culture blip, you know, like like these women

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Speaker 1: they danced around in a church and now it's over

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to go to Hamburger, you know, like

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Speaker 1: maybe we do need to talk about, well, what's the

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Speaker 1: situation with our laws in our country and and our

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Speaker 1: situation with women's rights, gay rights, et cetera. So there

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Speaker 1: you have it. Who is pussy right? We've told you

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Speaker 1: and a lot more things. Um. But yeah, I definitely,

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Speaker 1: I definitely encourage folks to look outside of just the

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Speaker 1: sound bites that we're getting. Um. And it is still

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Speaker 1: so fun for me to turn on NPR and here

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Speaker 1: people same pussy a lot or try to talk around it. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was there was a little while when when certain

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Speaker 1: news outlets were trying to go I think someone I

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Speaker 1: don't know if it was on CNN or where it was,

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Speaker 1: but they were talking about pussy Right and referred to

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Speaker 1: it as the name of a band that we cannot

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Speaker 1: say on television. But the second word is riot. So

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Speaker 1: you hope that you have enjoyed this pussy riot conversation.

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Speaker 1: Let us know what you think about the whole pussy

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Speaker 1: right thing. I mean, do you do you think it's

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Speaker 1: just a flash in the pan? Do do you care? Um?

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Speaker 1: Are you offended by what they've done? A lot of

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Speaker 1: people are offended by by desecrating I mean a religious

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Speaker 1: A lot of people are pointing out that that wouldn't

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Speaker 1: really fly in a lot of American towns either. So

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00:24:49,440 --> 00:24:52,480
Speaker 1: lots to talk about mom stuff at Discovery dot com

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00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:54,800
Speaker 1: is where you can send your letters or send us

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Speaker 1: a shout over on Facebook, and in the meantime, we've

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Speaker 1: gotta let or here a couple of letters. In fact,

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Speaker 1: on our episode on matchmaking, Ellie wrote in hoping to

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Speaker 1: clear up a couple of misconceptions. On our podcast, she said,

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Speaker 1: I'm a religious Jew and met my husband through a shodhun.

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Speaker 1: My parents helped me clarify what was on my list.

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Speaker 1: I wanted someone kind, professional, and of a similar religious background,

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Speaker 1: and then together we went to the shot han who

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Speaker 1: recommended various boys. After that the two of us were

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Speaker 1: free to date and choose to marry or not. I

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Speaker 1: actually went out with well over ten guys before I

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Speaker 1: found that special spark. My father was supportive certainly, and

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Speaker 1: I valued his advice throughout the dating process, but I

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Speaker 1: definitely made my own decision. There's actually a Jewish law

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Speaker 1: that the marriage is not valid if the woman was

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Speaker 1: coerced in any way. So thanks Ellie for that insight. Okay,

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Speaker 1: here we have an email that provides some context about

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Speaker 1: Asian matchmaking. This is from Hazel. She says, it was

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Speaker 1: really interesting to hear about matchmaking in the US. I

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Speaker 1: always thought it was more of an Asian thing. In Korea,

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00:26:05,760 --> 00:26:08,439
Speaker 1: matchmaking is huge and ranges from friends setting you up

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00:26:08,440 --> 00:26:11,040
Speaker 1: to match making companies that like to call themselves wedding

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00:26:11,160 --> 00:26:15,680
Speaker 1: information companies, whatever that means. In college, one popular pastime

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00:26:15,760 --> 00:26:18,280
Speaker 1: is the mass blind date, which are simply called meetings.

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00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:20,200
Speaker 1: Usually it's four to five girls from one school and

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00:26:20,240 --> 00:26:22,800
Speaker 1: four to five guys from another school. You get together

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00:26:22,880 --> 00:26:26,480
Speaker 1: and drinking exchange numbers if all goes well. One on

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00:26:26,480 --> 00:26:29,160
Speaker 1: one blind dates are more popular among slightly older people

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00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:31,320
Speaker 1: mid to late twenties, and are usually set up by

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00:26:31,320 --> 00:26:34,320
Speaker 1: the friends, but sometimes by relatives as well. For people

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00:26:34,359 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: who are even older, there are the wedding information companies

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00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:41,119
Speaker 1: you can join for a nominal fee, although it's usually

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00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:43,160
Speaker 1: free for women because there are far more single men

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00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 1: than women at the moment in Korea for various reasons.

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00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:48,040
Speaker 1: Often the companies will give you a score based on

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00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:51,080
Speaker 1: things like your looks, your educational background, your job, your income,

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00:26:51,160 --> 00:26:54,320
Speaker 1: your parents jobs and income, et cetera. I've heard that

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00:26:54,359 --> 00:26:56,679
Speaker 1: women are raided on a different scale than men. Women

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00:26:56,680 --> 00:26:59,440
Speaker 1: that have graduated from the best universities are sometimes given

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00:26:59,480 --> 00:27:02,199
Speaker 1: lower school words because apparently men don't want women who

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00:27:02,240 --> 00:27:06,040
Speaker 1: are more educated than they are. I occasionally get spam

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00:27:06,080 --> 00:27:08,440
Speaker 1: calls from these companies, and even though I tell them

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00:27:08,440 --> 00:27:11,200
Speaker 1: I have a boyfriend, they are persistent. One lady told

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00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: me I should visit them anyway, just to take a

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00:27:12,920 --> 00:27:15,520
Speaker 1: look at their portfolio of eligible bachelor's and then I

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00:27:15,520 --> 00:27:18,399
Speaker 1: didn't have to tell my boyfriend about it. As a

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00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:23,080
Speaker 1: tie into your Superstition podcast, here you go. Many Korean

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00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: couples still consult soothsayers as to when they should have

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00:27:26,160 --> 00:27:28,320
Speaker 1: their wedding. I've known people who weren't able to get

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00:27:28,359 --> 00:27:31,080
Speaker 1: married on the day they wanted because the soothsayer told

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00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:33,600
Speaker 1: them it would be unlucky, and their parents refused to

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00:27:33,600 --> 00:27:37,199
Speaker 1: budge on the issue very interesting. Hey little Thank you

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00:27:37,480 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: and thanks to everyone who's written into Mom's Stuff at

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00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:43,399
Speaker 1: Discovery dot com. And you can also head over to

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00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 1: Facebook and like us, follow us on Twitter at Mom's

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00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:49,840
Speaker 1: Stuff Podcast, and how about to start following our brand

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00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:53,280
Speaker 1: new blog over at Tumbler. We're stuff Mom never told

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00:27:53,320 --> 00:27:56,720
Speaker 1: you dot tumbler dot com. And if you would like

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00:27:56,760 --> 00:27:58,480
Speaker 1: to get a little smarter this week, why don't you

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00:27:58,480 --> 00:28:04,560
Speaker 1: head over to our website, it's how stuff works dot com.

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00:28:04,560 --> 00:28:07,080
Speaker 1: For more on thiss and thousands of other topics, visit

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00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:13,960
Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com. Brought to you by the

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