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Speaker 1: Welcome to stuff Mob Never told You from how stup

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Speaker 1: works dot com. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm

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Speaker 1: Kristen and I'm Caroline and listeners. Caroline is about to

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Speaker 1: jump out of her seat. She is so excited to

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Speaker 1: talk about today's podcast topic. Unicorns, Yes slash, my entire childhood,

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Speaker 1: my obsession with the movie Legend. Um. Although I was

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Speaker 1: talking about the movie Legend starring Tom Cruise and Mia

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Speaker 1: Sarah with Stuffy missed in history classes Holly earlier, and

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Speaker 1: she was like, yeah, I could take or leave the

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Speaker 1: unicorns and the dreamy twenty one year old Tom Cruise,

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Speaker 1: but Tim Curry is the devil. Now that was my

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Speaker 1: cup of tea. Wow. Yeah, so you haven't seen it

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Speaker 1: right right? Okay, So I really feel like, um, our

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Speaker 1: movie Our smith t like movie Binging is going to

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Speaker 1: have to be an epic length because we've got to

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Speaker 1: fit in so many movies, including Legend, the plot of

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Speaker 1: which centers around, uh, this this young Woodland boy, which

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Speaker 1: is Tom Cruise who's in love with this pure princess.

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Speaker 1: That's Mia Sarah. She's the girlfriend from Ferris Bueler in

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Speaker 1: case you're not sure who she is. Uh And because

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Speaker 1: he's this like Woodland kid. He's like super familiar with

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Speaker 1: all of the elves and the gnomes and all of

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Speaker 1: the magical critters in the forest like Zelda. I'm just

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Speaker 1: imagining him dressed up totally. Um yeah, except it's not green.

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Speaker 1: It's like he's wearing his little tunic is brown anyway.

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Speaker 1: So he like he's familiar with the unicorns. But you know,

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Speaker 1: unicorns don't just come to boys or really anyone. They

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Speaker 1: can only come to the pure hearted, virginal princess. So

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Speaker 1: he takes me as Sarah to see the unicorns, and

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Speaker 1: they approach her and she touches them, and then this

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Speaker 1: sets off like a radical series of events involving good

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Speaker 1: versus evil, And this is when we meet Tim Curry's

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Speaker 1: amazing devil character. And I watched that movie maybe thousands

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Speaker 1: of times over the course of my childhood and adulthood.

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Speaker 1: Let's be honest. I still love it. I'm surprised I

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Speaker 1: haven't seen it. It's high time I do. Yeah, um,

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Speaker 1: and I can't wait to watch it and possibly live

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Speaker 1: tweeted with you. That definitely has to happen. Listeners, hold

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Speaker 1: us to that, because we do get busy here and

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Speaker 1: the stuff I've never told you studio where we live. Yeah, basically,

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Speaker 1: I've got my unicorn prints sleeping bag under the table.

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Speaker 1: It's so cute. We had a little unicorn nightlight. It's

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Speaker 1: pretty fun. Yeah. Yeah, And I wear my unicorn pajamas

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Speaker 1: to go to bed. But I mean, obviously unicorns aren't

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Speaker 1: just in the movie legend. Uh. Lisa Frank was big

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Speaker 1: on drawing Unicorn still is still is she's hiring maybe

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Speaker 1: don't work for her? Um what else do we have?

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Speaker 1: There were I mean, unicorns were like across my entire childhood. Hello,

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Speaker 1: my little pony. Oh yeah, my little pony unicorns. But

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Speaker 1: they also had like the pega corn, the uni unius

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Speaker 1: what do you call it? Pegasus pegasus unicorn. All I

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Speaker 1: know are there the Peggas sisters in the Browny culture.

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Speaker 1: Someone right now who's I'm a huge fan of my

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Speaker 1: Little Pony friendship is magic is yelling at their I

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Speaker 1: can almost sense it at their smartphone or whatever they're

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Speaker 1: listening to this podcast on. There's also the Last Unicorn.

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Speaker 1: Oh my god, that was another obsession. Mia Farah was

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Speaker 1: the voice of the Unicorn. There was also Jeff Bridges

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Speaker 1: was the voice of the guy in the movie. I

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Speaker 1: hope that was his name. His character's name is just

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Speaker 1: that guy, like the dude that the Big Lebowski. Exactly.

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Speaker 1: There was a skeleton. Is anyone like I sow This

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Speaker 1: movie is seared onto my brain. There's a skeleton that's

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Speaker 1: an alcoholic that drinks wine. But it just he's a skeleton,

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Speaker 1: so it just pours through him. It didn't seem strange

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Speaker 1: to me as a child, an alcoholic skeleton. Maybe that

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Speaker 1: alcoholic skeleton was the inspiration for Futurama's Bender. That's just

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Speaker 1: the first thing that comes to mind. Maybe. But the

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Speaker 1: question that we really want to answer, if possible, today,

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Speaker 1: is why unicorns are so associated with girl culture, Because

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Speaker 1: of course there's a whole girl's love horses thing, which

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Speaker 1: there is a stuff Mom never told you video on

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Speaker 1: that that you can watch either on our website or

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Speaker 1: our YouTube channel, stuff I've Never told you, and I

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Speaker 1: will most likely post it on our Facebook page. Is

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Speaker 1: it because you can break their mains? It's definitely yeah.

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Speaker 1: You can brush their mains, you can braid remains. No,

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Speaker 1: there are all these theories about how horses are our

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Speaker 1: our gate keepers to escape and mobility, and we can

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Speaker 1: just ride off with these majestic sidesaddle with these majestic creatures.

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Speaker 1: But unicorns are obviously a whole other ball of wax.

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Speaker 1: Well yeah, because they're magic and they got a horn,

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Speaker 1: and they don't exist. Horses do, spoiler, But there are

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Speaker 1: many many animals on this planet that do exist. That

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Speaker 1: basically created our idea of the unicorn. And I thought

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Speaker 1: it was great that there was this whole upsurge in

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Speaker 1: unicorn articles around two thousand eight. Uh, because a one

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Speaker 1: horned what was it, like, a deer deer was spotted

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Speaker 1: in two thousand eight on a nature preserve and everybody

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Speaker 1: was like, oh my god, unicorn steer exist and hopefully

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Speaker 1: they didn't kill it. Hopefully it's like protected and frolicking

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Speaker 1: happily throughout the nature preserves. I mean, how a delic

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Speaker 1: is this though, that I R. L. Unicorn was at

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Speaker 1: a nature preserve outside of Florence. Just just imagine. I mean,

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Speaker 1: of course that's where it would be. Yeah, it's like

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Speaker 1: part of mythology come to life from some Greek goddess

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Speaker 1: or something. Um. But you know, so obviously, though, when

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Speaker 1: we think of a unicorn now, when they're featured in

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Speaker 1: eighties fantasy movies starring Tom Cruise. They don't look like

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Speaker 1: dear unicorns are huge white, sparkly beasts that just look

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Speaker 1: like horses with a narwhal horn basically on them. And

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Speaker 1: so it is interesting to go back throughout history and

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Speaker 1: uncover sort of the evolution of this creature. Yeah, there

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Speaker 1: is an extensive and cross cultural history of unicorns. It

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Speaker 1: seems like there is an innate, like human desire for

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Speaker 1: unicorns to be real, And I'm surprised there isn't some

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Speaker 1: kind of like evolutionary psychology theory out there about like

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Speaker 1: the horn is phallic and it's our fertility desire, etcetera, etcetera. Although,

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Speaker 1: of course the phallic corn does come up when you

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Speaker 1: start getting real deep into unicorn art history, which we did.

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Speaker 1: We're fun at parties, fun at parties. Actually, I had

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Speaker 1: a lot of fun putting these notes together, and trust me,

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Speaker 1: they could have been a lot longer. So you're welcome

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Speaker 1: that this episode is not four hours long. Well, why

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Speaker 1: don't you take us into the unicorn mythology stable, Although

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Speaker 1: you know what, Unicorns can't be kept in a stable, right,

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Speaker 1: they can't be contained. I'll take you into the magical meadow.

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Speaker 1: Yes of unicorn, understanding, I want to go to their Yes,

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Speaker 1: you're welcome, we'll come along. Uh. The earliest stories of unicorns,

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Speaker 1: no surprise, are pretty vague because it is a fictional beast.

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Speaker 1: So people are like, yeah, you know, I saw this thing,

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Speaker 1: and people are like the thing with the one horn,

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Speaker 1: and the guy's like yeah, totally, and they're like did

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Speaker 1: it have a white head? And he's like sure. So

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Speaker 1: everything's a little vague except for a story from Marco Polo,

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Speaker 1: namesake of the favorite summertime pool day game pastime. Thank

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Speaker 1: you for clarifying that you're welcome. He always gets mixed

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Speaker 1: up without the Marco Polos, we want to make sure

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Speaker 1: credit where credit is due, um. But his description is

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Speaker 1: the only one from those early days that can be

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Speaker 1: very clearly linked to like one animal, and that's the

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Speaker 1: Indian rhinoceros, which, unlike it's African canopot just as one horn. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so the African has uh one on its nose and

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Speaker 1: one on its forehead. The Indian rhino just has the

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Speaker 1: singular horn on its nose. Parts. So understandable then that

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Speaker 1: Marco Polo, who would have never seen an animal like this,

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Speaker 1: would have presumed it's magic. I'm sure, because yes, everything's

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Speaker 1: magic back there. Maybe well, did you think it was

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Speaker 1: magic or just like, whoa this is? This is something

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Speaker 1: that has never been seen before because they thought that

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Speaker 1: they were real. Well, yeah, everybody thought that they were real.

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Speaker 1: But you also have to keep in mind too, and

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Speaker 1: we're going to get into this as we discussed like

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Speaker 1: Greek historians and physicians who got in on this this

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Speaker 1: myth making um. But you know, if you live in

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Speaker 1: one part of the world, it's not like you can

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Speaker 1: jet off quickly to another part of the world. And

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Speaker 1: so if you have animals like a giraffe or a hippopotamus,

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Speaker 1: for instance, like what makes a giraffe more believable than

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Speaker 1: a unicorn or less believable? If if something is crazy

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Speaker 1: looking as a giraffe can exist, why wouldn't you believe

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Speaker 1: someone who's like and then there as a hoss with

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Speaker 1: a horn and they're like, okay, and only virgins, virgin

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Speaker 1: girls can catch it. I wonder though, too, because there's

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Speaker 1: a common theme of in the early days of this

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Speaker 1: unicorn lure that they exclusively resided in the East, And

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Speaker 1: I wonder if it is connected to the whole exoticism,

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Speaker 1: like European exoticism of the quote unquote Far East. Well, sure,

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Speaker 1: because it's just it's the other um. And you do

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Speaker 1: have the import of a lot of stories of of

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Speaker 1: crazy beasts that Westerners so to speak, or or people

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Speaker 1: in Greece or in Europe had just never had any

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Speaker 1: experience with. And so you have you know, you've got

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Speaker 1: the spice trade going on, but with the spice trade

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Speaker 1: or with the silk trade, you also have stories coming

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Speaker 1: with those merchants, and so it's natural that you would

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Speaker 1: think like, oh, well, I'm going to believe this because

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Speaker 1: this person clearly knows since they've been there. So you

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Speaker 1: do have the trade also in stories and mythology. But

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Speaker 1: of course we have to go back to ancient Egypt,

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Speaker 1: as we frequently do on this podcast. Uh, we get

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Speaker 1: one of the first drawn representations of a unicorn, and

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Speaker 1: I don't mean the Lisa Frankie unicorn, although that would

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Speaker 1: be amazing to see, like hieroglyphics of a Lisa Frankie mccorn.

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Speaker 1: I can't even imagine. I know that'd be pretty sweet. Um.

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Speaker 1: And I'm like, how do they even know what a

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Speaker 1: dolphin looks like? And it's rainbow, um. And they had

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Speaker 1: golden retrievers serving on pizza slices back then, if only

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Speaker 1: so back between around five to eleven seventy b b

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Speaker 1: c E. We get this ibex looking critter and that's

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Speaker 1: kind of like an antelope looking thing. It's like a delicate,

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Speaker 1: dainty antelope basically. Uh, And it's playing chess with a lion,

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Speaker 1: because everyone knows that ibexes and lions play board games together,

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Speaker 1: of course. But the thing is, it probably just looks

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Speaker 1: like a unicorn because it's in profile, and so any

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Speaker 1: animal with horns it's turned to the side might look

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Speaker 1: it just has one horn. And I don't mean to

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Speaker 1: disparage our ancient ancest stores um, because it's entirely possible.

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Speaker 1: They didn't even mean for it to look like it

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Speaker 1: only had one horn. But this is a theme that

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Speaker 1: we will see come up again and again across different cultures.

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Speaker 1: When they report on horned animals. They're like, it only

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Speaker 1: has one Oh wait, it turned Okay, that's too, it's

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Speaker 1: too It's a normal animal. Don't don't worry. This is

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Speaker 1: just a giant, millennious long game of unicorn telephone happening.

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Speaker 1: No for sure, for sure. And and you know we

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Speaker 1: mentioned the Far East and how Westerners were like it's

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Speaker 1: weird over there. Um. Well, in the fifth century BC

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Speaker 1: we get the earliest references to the Chinese chillen, which

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Speaker 1: reportedly appeared to Confucius as mother before he was born.

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Speaker 1: And now the chillen children was nice. It was a

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Speaker 1: peaceful creature, as opposed apparently to the Japanese kiran, which

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Speaker 1: was a criminal killing meni critter and kiaran also is

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Speaker 1: what the beer is named after. But can you describe

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Speaker 1: what a chilling looks like? So from my cursory Google search,

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Speaker 1: and please if you are more of an expert in

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Speaker 1: Chinese mythology, feel free to write us chilling experts mom

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Speaker 1: stuff at housework dot com. For sure. Um, but it

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Speaker 1: it was sort of like a mix of several creatures,

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Speaker 1: as as all of these unicorn myths are. But there

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Speaker 1: was a little bit of dragon and some scales. There

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Speaker 1: was a little bit of like dear horn going on,

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Speaker 1: a little bit of like lion. Uh So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of you know it it follows a lot of our

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Speaker 1: ancient mythology where you know, you've got in other cultures,

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Speaker 1: you've got something like the griffin or the sphinx um.

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Speaker 1: This is just another mixed grab bag, if you will,

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Speaker 1: of animals. And if we look at early European depictions,

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Speaker 1: we start to see that the familiar always white, cloven

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Speaker 1: hooved unicorn that really at this point looks more like

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Speaker 1: a goat than a horse, and the size is kind

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Speaker 1: of in between the two. And they're depicted with straight

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Speaker 1: horns that have markings moving up and across them, and

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Speaker 1: they look kind of like these goat slash antelope ish

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Speaker 1: creatures called turs that resided in the Caucasus mountains. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so tours are pretty cool looking. I hope you're all googling,

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Speaker 1: like I hope I hear the tippity tappitty of your

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Speaker 1: of your little keyboards at the moment. Because tours are

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Speaker 1: are pretty cool, they also can be kind of vicious.

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Speaker 1: They've got these huge horns that kind of curved back

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Speaker 1: and around, And I mean, if that's the critter that

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Speaker 1: you see all the time when you're out on the hunt,

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Speaker 1: it makes sense that you would form a lot of

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Speaker 1: mythology around it. Right. That sounds like a ram. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: it does look kind of like a ram with with

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Speaker 1: these huge horns that I wouldn't want to make it mad.

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Speaker 1: It seems like, I mean, maybe the thing is humans

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Speaker 1: just have a really hard time grasping like horned creatures.

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Speaker 1: The horns just weird us out. Maybe maybe maybe like

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Speaker 1: one guy a long time ago, like got headbutted by

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Speaker 1: a corned creature and he's like, I don't ever want

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Speaker 1: that to happen. Again. Let's let's pretend that these are

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Speaker 1: magical and we should avoid them, and we're just spread

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Speaker 1: around the world as it did back then. Um So,

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Speaker 1: there was this great paper in the journal Folklore from

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Speaker 1: April of two thousand three that really really took a

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Speaker 1: deep dive into Caucusus lore around horned creatures like the ter,

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Speaker 1: but also their relationship with women and the hunt. And

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Speaker 1: this is also where we see pre like idea of

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Speaker 1: the virginal mia Sarah figure like tempting the unicorn. This

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Speaker 1: is where we see an alliance between wild horned creatures

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Speaker 1: and women, and it was a much more active rather

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Speaker 1: than virginal and passive role that the woman fulfilled well,

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Speaker 1: and that sounds like it's harkening to, you know, Greek

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Speaker 1: mythology with Athena, the goddess of the hunt. Yes, because

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Speaker 1: Athena wasn't she also depicted either as a deer or

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Speaker 1: like a deer, was her like her familiar? Basically, damon,

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Speaker 1: I am going to not Yeah, No, I think that's right.

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Speaker 1: I think that's right. And people can write us and

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Speaker 1: tell us if we're correct or not. But I was.

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Speaker 1: I was big in a mythology grown up. I'm pretty

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Speaker 1: sure a deer was involved with Athena. She was a

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Speaker 1: goddess of the hunt um. And yeah, and she was active,

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Speaker 1: and she was in Greek mythology, she was allowed to

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Speaker 1: be aggressive and assertive and jealous and spiteful, all of

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Speaker 1: these wonderful things that are so key to really juicy mythology. Um.

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Speaker 1: But we see it in the Caucusus region as well.

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Speaker 1: And there's a lot of bronzes that archaeologists have found

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Speaker 1: from this region that feature this type of critter, particularly

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Speaker 1: this type of horn creature hanging out with ladies. For example,

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Speaker 1: there was a buckle that they found it was depicting

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Speaker 1: a woman sitting on top of a two headed deer creature.

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Speaker 1: It was from the Old Hellenic period, which is like

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Speaker 1: five oh seven to three twenty three BC thereabouts, and

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Speaker 1: it really illustrated the association of a woman with a

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Speaker 1: hunting prey animal and showing that it goes way back

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Speaker 1: before the whole virginal thing, the whole Christian thing. And

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Speaker 1: that's because in this region, in their hunting loar woodland

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Speaker 1: creatures were owned by a goddess, although as we would

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Speaker 1: move through history, she would be replaced by a god.

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Speaker 1: And then once Christianity moved in by St. George, Oh,

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Speaker 1: it's like snow white. Yeah, God is snow white. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: so she snow white goddess was. She was funny because she,

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Speaker 1: you know, owned all these animals, but she would let

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Speaker 1: you kill some of them, but not her pets. She

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Speaker 1: distinguished between like the regular animals and her pets. And

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Speaker 1: the way you would know if an animal was her

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Speaker 1: pet was that it would be marked in some way,

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Speaker 1: usually with a white color or like a white mark

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Speaker 1: on the forehead of an unusually large size. You might

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Speaker 1: have some golden horns or shining horn there's a horn

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Speaker 1: theme again, or those horns might be twisted and intertwined,

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Speaker 1: or it might have some dappled or multicolored skin. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: and so also according to Georgian mythology, and that's the

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Speaker 1: country of Georgia, not the state of Georgia where we live. Um,

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Speaker 1: the ter here comes the ter again. The ter was

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Speaker 1: this goddess's favorite animal, and you could kill some of them,

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Speaker 1: but not her particular pets that had the special marking. Um.

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Speaker 1: And the thing is, if you did kill one of

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Speaker 1: her pets, she you know, no big deal. She might

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Speaker 1: kill your children, or send an avalanche, or send a

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Speaker 1: snow leopard to kill you. That last one sending a

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Speaker 1: snow leopard. That is pretty cool. That's a cool goddess move. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I like it. I wish I could send a snow leopard, right,

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean there was what was it earlier?

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Speaker 1: This year? Time is so non existent for me now. Um,

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Speaker 1: it could have been like two years ago when there

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Speaker 1: was that company that went viral where you could send

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Speaker 1: glitter to your enemies. Imagine if you could send a

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Speaker 1: snow leopard to your enemies. But I would want I

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Speaker 1: would want a friendly snow leopard somebody like uh, like

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Speaker 1: the the leopard equivalent of the Rock. You know how

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Speaker 1: the rock like looks really tough and like he could

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Speaker 1: really beat you up. I love Dwayne the Rock Johnson,

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Speaker 1: but he's so sweet. I would want that, like just

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Speaker 1: so that the leopard could show up me like hey

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Speaker 1: stop and you're like, oh my god, okay, and then

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Speaker 1: he's like all right, you can pet me, and then

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Speaker 1: I gotta go. But while I'm here, I'm going to

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Speaker 1: empower some young girls. I'm really a about confidence. I

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Speaker 1: have a daughter myself. Also, I have a great Instagram

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Speaker 1: and you should follow me because it'll just make your day.

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Speaker 1: Can we get like the rock riding a snow leopard? Yeah? Yes, answer, yes,

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Speaker 1: photoshop exists. Done and done. Listeners, you know what you

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Speaker 1: have to do. Okay. So there are a lot of

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Speaker 1: things too about this goddess that I love. They're all

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Speaker 1: side notes that she was also very jealous and she

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Speaker 1: didn't like it if the hunters had sex with a

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Speaker 1: real life woman before the hunt. So these hunters who

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Speaker 1: believed in these magical creatures, maybe they thought of them

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Speaker 1: as unicorns, maybe not, but they definitely believed in this goddess.

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Speaker 1: So they would have to like say all these prayers

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Speaker 1: to her, they would light a fire, they'd be celibate

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Speaker 1: before the hunt, and if they were successful, it was

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Speaker 1: likely because they themselves had some hanky panky with the goddess,

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Speaker 1: which I was like, what were they doing up in

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Speaker 1: the mountains all day long? So they were celibate with

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Speaker 1: human women but not with the Goddess. Yeah, because she

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Speaker 1: was jealous and in order to have sex with the Goddess.

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Speaker 1: I don't know, man, I don't know. No, no, I'm saying, like,

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Speaker 1: in order to have sex with the goddess when they

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Speaker 1: woo her with bread, Yes, she's like Oprah, I love bread.

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Speaker 1: I'm never gonna get tired of Oprah's love of bread. Uh. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you had to you had to bring That's right. I

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Speaker 1: almost forgot the most important part you have. It wasn't

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Speaker 1: just lighting fires and saying prayers. You had to bring

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Speaker 1: tiny loaves of bread, which honestly just sounds like it

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Speaker 1: would appeal to me as well, unless it's a pumper nickel,

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Speaker 1: you know, I can do without that. Yeah, I like

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Speaker 1: a good rye, maybe like a country wheat or sour dough. Yeah, girl,

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Speaker 1: that's right. Uh. But yeah, again, like this is an

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Speaker 1: active controlling figure. She controlled both the predators like the

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Speaker 1: snow leopard, but also the prey things like those dear

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Speaker 1: antelope critters like the ter and so we were started

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Speaker 1: giving you the rundown here. You're probably like, what get

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Speaker 1: to the good stuff about the unicorns? Well, I mean

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Speaker 1: we're so seating this link though, between women and at

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Speaker 1: least unicorn ish like kind of esque creatures. Yes, exactly,

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00:22:07,880 --> 00:22:11,120
Speaker 1: because yeah, the esk is very important, because that's all

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Speaker 1: the esk is all we get for centuries until basically,

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Speaker 1: Lisa Frank, so, um, where else are these stories coming

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Speaker 1: from Greece? Actually they're kind of being funneled through Greece.

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Speaker 1: This Greek doctor historian guy named TCS who basically borrowed

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Speaker 1: from Himalayan, Persian and Indians stories and myths about these

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Speaker 1: magical creatures. And so around three i d b c E.

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Speaker 1: Which is also during that Hellenic period where people are

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Speaker 1: in the Caucusus region are making buckles. Um, he travels

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Speaker 1: through Persia now are on and he records just these

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Speaker 1: wild tales of far away creatures, and um. There was

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Speaker 1: one source that we read that was basically like this

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Speaker 1: guy was so gullible, and my thing is like, dude,

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Speaker 1: it's all he had Google. Like we've like we you know,

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Speaker 1: talked about earlier. You know, these guys were like, sure,

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Speaker 1: if a giraffe exists, why wouldn't a unicorn exist? Oh man?

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Speaker 1: And if only you were one of those people back

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Speaker 1: then who had like some precints that Google could happen,

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Speaker 1: that could be your ultimate get out of jail free card. Like, well,

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Speaker 1: I mean maybe the Earth is flood. I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't have Google. I don't have Google Earth. People

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Speaker 1: are like, what gooo? What go? But so TCS gives

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Speaker 1: this description of this creature and he says that they

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Speaker 1: are wild asses, as large as horses, with white bodies,

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Speaker 1: red heads, and dark blue eyes. They've got a tri

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Speaker 1: color horn on their forehead which is white, red, and black. Uh.

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Speaker 1: He said, it's about eighteen inches long, and when you

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Speaker 1: drink out of it, it'll cure epilepsy and serve as

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Speaker 1: an antidote to poison. Well, and in other cultures and

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Speaker 1: traditions you could imbibe ground up alleged unicorn horn. The

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Speaker 1: Royal Pharmaceutical Society of London actually has a sample of

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Speaker 1: medicinal unicorn horn. In quotes that's either an ibex or

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Speaker 1: a nar wall, but of course hopefully not one of

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Speaker 1: our no bending nar walls from our knitting episode. And

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Speaker 1: I should also note that Queen Elizabeth the first was

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Speaker 1: gifted uh unicorn horn, supposed unicorn horn, and she you know,

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Speaker 1: went to great length to have it kind of verified

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Speaker 1: as such because it was considered such a valuable gift.

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Speaker 1: And um uh there was another I think it was

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Speaker 1: King James after her, was really into unicorns because they

399
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Speaker 1: were considered so potent. There's also this idea that unicorn

400
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Speaker 1: horn uh like ground up what was kind of like

401
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:54,040
Speaker 1: a viagra uh type. Everybody was looking for that type supplement.

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Speaker 1: And I believe there were two of these alleged unicorn

403
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Speaker 1: horn that were kept among the prize possessions of the royals.

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Speaker 1: And after Queen Elizabeth, King James was so into unicorns

405
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Speaker 1: and all the symbolism about their power and virility that

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Speaker 1: he's the reason why you get the unicorn in the

407
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Speaker 1: British coat of arms. Yes, yes, yes, yes, that's right, um,

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Speaker 1: which I love. I love that symbolism because it's always

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Speaker 1: like a lion and a unicorn. Yes. And it's not

410
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Speaker 1: because of Lisa Frank, it's because of again, I'm just

411
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Speaker 1: because of sex and virility, sex and power. Yeah, it

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Speaker 1: does not drive everyone. Yeah, there's a there's our evo

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Speaker 1: psych theory. There we go all right, we were looking

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Speaker 1: for it. Um. Well, so TCS was basically saying also that, um,

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Speaker 1: these animals, these giant wild asses as large as horses,

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Speaker 1: were super swift and powerful. You couldn't catch them alive

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Speaker 1: because they were they would fight you viciously with their

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Speaker 1: teeth and their heels uh um. And when they are killed,

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Speaker 1: like Kristen was saying, it's for their horns and their

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Speaker 1: ankle bones, because apparently their meat was too bitter to eat.

421
00:26:07,920 --> 00:26:12,560
Speaker 1: So there there you go. Yeah, who could possibly eat

422
00:26:13,280 --> 00:26:15,760
Speaker 1: unicorn meat? I don't know, but I would think that

423
00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:17,760
Speaker 1: like that would be part of the thing, right, Like

424
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,239
Speaker 1: why at this time if you thought something was so

425
00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:23,200
Speaker 1: powerful and magical and vicious, like it seems like you

426
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,160
Speaker 1: would want to eat the meat to try to absorb

427
00:26:25,200 --> 00:26:29,800
Speaker 1: the power. But yeah, maybe maybe you know, wild yak

428
00:26:29,960 --> 00:26:33,800
Speaker 1: doesn't taste very good. I don't know, yak tartar not

429
00:26:33,920 --> 00:26:38,280
Speaker 1: so much. I mean I would dry it. Um. But

430
00:26:38,600 --> 00:26:44,439
Speaker 1: according to unicorn expert Chris Laver's, who is a geographer

431
00:26:44,480 --> 00:26:49,160
Speaker 1: from the University of Nottingham, uh not surprisingly, tcs description

432
00:26:49,240 --> 00:26:52,720
Speaker 1: was combining many many different animals from the Tibetan plateau

433
00:26:53,000 --> 00:26:57,720
Speaker 1: along with again descriptions of the Indian rhino, which, like

434
00:26:57,800 --> 00:27:00,080
Speaker 1: we said earlier, had just one horn and it was

435
00:27:00,119 --> 00:27:02,160
Speaker 1: on its nose parts. But there were also a couple

436
00:27:02,160 --> 00:27:06,440
Speaker 1: of different animals wrapped up in this. So one animal

437
00:27:06,720 --> 00:27:10,119
Speaker 1: that Laver's points out in his book A Natural History

438
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:15,199
Speaker 1: of Unicorns was the Tibetan antelope or cheru. So the

439
00:27:15,320 --> 00:27:19,360
Speaker 1: males have straight black horns that rise almost vertically from

440
00:27:19,400 --> 00:27:23,040
Speaker 1: their heads, as opposed to a horn coming out of

441
00:27:23,080 --> 00:27:26,920
Speaker 1: your nose parts like a rhinoceros. And these were super

442
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:31,240
Speaker 1: long horns, in line with the eighteen in description from

443
00:27:31,280 --> 00:27:34,200
Speaker 1: TCS and in profile again here we have that old

444
00:27:34,240 --> 00:27:37,920
Speaker 1: profile trick. They might look like they have one horn,

445
00:27:38,560 --> 00:27:41,879
Speaker 1: and their horns were and are popular. I mean, we

446
00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:44,879
Speaker 1: still have the whole horn trade on the black market,

447
00:27:45,320 --> 00:27:49,040
Speaker 1: and you'd wind up with one horn, not to as

448
00:27:49,080 --> 00:27:53,320
Speaker 1: a buyer, and their horns are still unfortunately used as medicine. Yeah,

449
00:27:53,400 --> 00:27:55,520
Speaker 1: so ending up with one horn, it might be easier

450
00:27:55,560 --> 00:27:58,640
Speaker 1: to believe that the creature it came from only has

451
00:27:58,680 --> 00:28:01,760
Speaker 1: one horn. So, and people gullible, you've got to you've

452
00:28:01,760 --> 00:28:06,440
Speaker 1: got to ask questions, be be media literate people in

453
00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:13,359
Speaker 1: the eleven century or no, this was before this was BC. Okay,

454
00:28:13,400 --> 00:28:17,520
Speaker 1: there's also this animal called the kiang, which looks like

455
00:28:17,840 --> 00:28:20,600
Speaker 1: just kind of a really pretty mule, like if Lisa

456
00:28:20,640 --> 00:28:23,719
Speaker 1: Frank designed a mule, it would kind of look like

457
00:28:23,760 --> 00:28:27,080
Speaker 1: the kiang because it's got it's kind of a redhead,

458
00:28:27,280 --> 00:28:31,000
Speaker 1: but it's got a white belly and white legs, but

459
00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:33,919
Speaker 1: looks can be deceiving and as pretty as this animal

460
00:28:34,040 --> 00:28:37,359
Speaker 1: is and would just love to pet it, it's actually

461
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:40,600
Speaker 1: pretty mean. And so Laver's points out that this is

462
00:28:40,640 --> 00:28:44,360
Speaker 1: probably where we get the idea that unicorns or or

463
00:28:44,440 --> 00:28:46,719
Speaker 1: TC has got the idea that unicorns were too vicious

464
00:28:46,760 --> 00:28:51,640
Speaker 1: to catch, because kyang's would kick and bite to try

465
00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:54,479
Speaker 1: to stay away from you, keep you away, and they

466
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:58,320
Speaker 1: are notoriously difficult to domesticate. It sounds a lot like

467
00:28:58,440 --> 00:29:02,400
Speaker 1: some unicorn traits I now exactly. And then of course

468
00:29:02,440 --> 00:29:05,320
Speaker 1: the wild yak is like part of that grab bag

469
00:29:05,360 --> 00:29:09,400
Speaker 1: because it's also a Tibetan or a Himalayan plateau animal

470
00:29:09,480 --> 00:29:13,800
Speaker 1: that tales of its viciousness and general furinus might have

471
00:29:13,840 --> 00:29:18,040
Speaker 1: gotten passed down. So all of that to say, there

472
00:29:18,080 --> 00:29:24,320
Speaker 1: are these animals that are real, but we just really

473
00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:27,920
Speaker 1: really really wanted them to be unicorns. Yeah, we really well,

474
00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,680
Speaker 1: I mean, just look at the amazing mythology that came

475
00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:38,600
Speaker 1: out of misunderstandings, seeking to understand, trying to explain the world,

476
00:29:38,640 --> 00:29:42,440
Speaker 1: trying to explain to your wife why your hunt was unsuccessful.

477
00:29:42,480 --> 00:29:47,320
Speaker 1: It's like, see, Karen, you know we got it on

478
00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,360
Speaker 1: last night, and so my hunt was unsuccessful because the

479
00:29:50,640 --> 00:29:55,840
Speaker 1: ter goddess was jealous Karen always ruining the hunt. And

480
00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:01,280
Speaker 1: the next chapter in our unicorn history is something I

481
00:30:01,360 --> 00:30:05,120
Speaker 1: was very unaware of, which is a strong connection between

482
00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:11,200
Speaker 1: unicorns and early Christianity. Yes, I said that unicorns and

483
00:30:11,280 --> 00:30:16,160
Speaker 1: early Christianity. Christians were all about unicorns, which all I'm

484
00:30:16,160 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 1: saying is people we might need to bring back the unicorns.

485
00:30:19,640 --> 00:30:22,680
Speaker 1: That could be a selling point. And we're gonna get

486
00:30:22,720 --> 00:30:24,800
Speaker 1: into all of that when we come right back from

487
00:30:24,800 --> 00:30:37,920
Speaker 1: a quick break and now back to the show. We'll

488
00:30:37,920 --> 00:30:43,400
Speaker 1: see the thing about Christianity and unicorns best transition every

489
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:46,440
Speaker 1: I mean, people do talk about like, well, they just

490
00:30:46,520 --> 00:30:50,760
Speaker 1: didn't make it onto the ark. Yeah, they were too slow,

491
00:30:51,280 --> 00:30:54,200
Speaker 1: which is surprising. Were too slow because they were dilly

492
00:30:54,280 --> 00:30:58,160
Speaker 1: dallying their magical They're probably frolicking and like creating rainbows

493
00:30:58,240 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 1: with their horns or whatever, and thereto of understanding. But

494
00:31:02,080 --> 00:31:05,560
Speaker 1: here's the thing though. You think Noah would be like, okay, yeah,

495
00:31:05,720 --> 00:31:09,880
Speaker 1: cow's chickens, pigs, whatever, where's the unicorn? Someone go get

496
00:31:09,880 --> 00:31:12,680
Speaker 1: the unicorns. I would try to make sure the unicorn

497
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:18,600
Speaker 1: was on board. So I'm blaming Noah. Thanks, no, thanks, Noah,

498
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:24,360
Speaker 1: Yeah for sure. So why I was also surprised at

499
00:31:24,400 --> 00:31:32,400
Speaker 1: this Christian unicorn connection, which is not like the rainbow connection. Okay, now,

500
00:31:32,560 --> 00:31:34,640
Speaker 1: sorry my brain I was I fell down a rabbit

501
00:31:34,640 --> 00:31:38,719
Speaker 1: hole quickly and back. Um. It all boils down again

502
00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,360
Speaker 1: to a misunderstanding, a translation error, which is like the

503
00:31:43,520 --> 00:31:48,160
Speaker 1: best translation error ever if you ask me. So basically,

504
00:31:48,360 --> 00:31:53,560
Speaker 1: you've got Hebrew scripture translated into Greek, then Latin, and

505
00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:59,560
Speaker 1: then English again. It's a giant game of unicorn creating telephone.

506
00:32:00,760 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 1: So you've got this thing called a ream where it

507
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:07,160
Speaker 1: was called a ream because it's a wild ox it's

508
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: now extinct, but that was translated into Greek as mono

509
00:32:10,960 --> 00:32:15,080
Speaker 1: kareros or one horned because the Greeks didn't know what

510
00:32:15,160 --> 00:32:17,720
Speaker 1: the heck aream was, so they're like, I don't know,

511
00:32:17,840 --> 00:32:20,160
Speaker 1: it seems like it's got horns let's just call it

512
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,040
Speaker 1: this other thing. And then in the Christians Latin Bible

513
00:32:24,120 --> 00:32:28,040
Speaker 1: that became unicornos because they're like mono one. Let's call

514
00:32:28,120 --> 00:32:31,600
Speaker 1: it uni I guess or whatever. And then by the

515
00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:36,680
Speaker 1: time we get King James's English translation Bible, they turned

516
00:32:36,680 --> 00:32:39,720
Speaker 1: that into unicorns. And no surprise, because King James was

517
00:32:39,760 --> 00:32:43,320
Speaker 1: all about the unicorns. And I would propose that we

518
00:32:43,400 --> 00:32:46,160
Speaker 1: go ahead and just accept this as the original auto

519
00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:54,000
Speaker 1: correct Okay, yes, absolutely, um. And and so because of

520
00:32:54,080 --> 00:33:02,040
Speaker 1: this crazy game of unicorn telephone, we get in Christian mythology,

521
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:05,920
Speaker 1: God's strength being compared to the strength of the unicorn.

522
00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: And it's like, okay, that makes sense having an idea

523
00:33:09,320 --> 00:33:12,520
Speaker 1: of this mythological unicorn, but it makes way more sense

524
00:33:12,760 --> 00:33:16,080
Speaker 1: when you're talking about the strength of a wild ox,

525
00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: because it's not like those things were shrinking violets. Um.

526
00:33:19,960 --> 00:33:22,800
Speaker 1: But so, yeah, you have at one point God talking

527
00:33:22,840 --> 00:33:25,880
Speaker 1: to Job and saying, will the unicorn be willing to

528
00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:28,800
Speaker 1: serve thee or abide by the crib? Canst thou bind

529
00:33:28,840 --> 00:33:31,600
Speaker 1: the unicorn with his band in the furrow? Or will

530
00:33:31,680 --> 00:33:34,600
Speaker 1: he harrow the valleys after thee? I don't really know

531
00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,840
Speaker 1: what that's saying. It sounds like a unicorn is chasing

532
00:33:37,880 --> 00:33:40,560
Speaker 1: you because it wants to love you. Well, I mean

533
00:33:40,600 --> 00:33:45,840
Speaker 1: he's he's essentially like elevated, you know, elevating Job too.

534
00:33:46,240 --> 00:33:48,160
Speaker 1: I mean because Job has to lose everything and then

535
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:52,080
Speaker 1: he's going to regain all of the power. And uh,

536
00:33:52,320 --> 00:33:55,160
Speaker 1: theologians listening, We've we've had a lot of shout outs,

537
00:33:55,160 --> 00:33:57,560
Speaker 1: by the way, to a lot of very specific professions

538
00:33:57,600 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 1: in this episode, and I hope we hear from all

539
00:33:59,800 --> 00:34:05,160
Speaker 1: of you. Um it. To me, it sounds like God

540
00:34:05,320 --> 00:34:08,239
Speaker 1: is saying, you know, you're it's gonna be cool. You're

541
00:34:08,239 --> 00:34:11,080
Speaker 1: gonna be so strong, Like a unicorn is going to

542
00:34:11,200 --> 00:34:15,120
Speaker 1: be down to hang out with you and flow your fields. Well,

543
00:34:15,239 --> 00:34:18,040
Speaker 1: what else is it gonna do with its horn? Yeah,

544
00:34:18,080 --> 00:34:20,839
Speaker 1: it's going to use it to create amazing plants. That's

545
00:34:20,840 --> 00:34:23,759
Speaker 1: where we get kale. Did you know that from unicorns? Yea,

546
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,680
Speaker 1: when they plow the fields? Oh that you know, because

547
00:34:27,760 --> 00:34:29,879
Speaker 1: unicorn meat was too better. That's why kale is so better.

548
00:34:30,480 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: I love that. You're welcome. Um. And so it's because

549
00:34:34,239 --> 00:34:39,560
Speaker 1: of this adorable mistranslation that the unicorn comes to represent Christ.

550
00:34:39,800 --> 00:34:43,520
Speaker 1: It's horn represents the Cross. It also is associated therefore

551
00:34:43,560 --> 00:34:47,239
Speaker 1: with purity and chastity. Eventually we start to see it

552
00:34:47,280 --> 00:34:51,080
Speaker 1: adopted by royals, like Kristen said, And it's also worth

553
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:54,240
Speaker 1: noting now like there is more of a religious connection

554
00:34:54,280 --> 00:34:58,680
Speaker 1: than just among the Christians. And so during the fourteenth century,

555
00:34:58,760 --> 00:35:03,800
Speaker 1: Hebrew manuscripts actually also featured the Hunt for the unicorn um,

556
00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,600
Speaker 1: both in drawings and in writing, and they used it

557
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:10,879
Speaker 1: as a metaphor for Jewish suffering, obviously not of Jesus,

558
00:35:10,920 --> 00:35:14,520
Speaker 1: because I wouldn't make sense. So from here we've got

559
00:35:14,520 --> 00:35:18,239
Speaker 1: to dig into this idea that unicorns can only be

560
00:35:18,360 --> 00:35:23,520
Speaker 1: tamed by virgins, because this is really the crux of

561
00:35:23,640 --> 00:35:28,480
Speaker 1: today our association with girls and unicorns, and let's be honest,

562
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:35,560
Speaker 1: grown ass women such as ourselves. So hunters were encouraged

563
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:39,239
Speaker 1: to take young maidens out into the woods to capture

564
00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:43,520
Speaker 1: a unicorn because the idea was that the unicorn would

565
00:35:43,520 --> 00:35:47,840
Speaker 1: be attracted to not only her purity, but also her scent.

566
00:35:48,920 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that has something to do with menstruation.

567
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,360
Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm serious, would they not be? I

568
00:35:55,040 --> 00:35:58,320
Speaker 1: feel like we're men not afraid of menstruation? Though maybe

569
00:35:58,680 --> 00:36:01,560
Speaker 1: the sent it well, maybe has to be with fertility.

570
00:36:01,719 --> 00:36:04,799
Speaker 1: I don't know. Maybe she smelled like bread. There we go,

571
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:09,400
Speaker 1: and unicorns were like, I love bread too, So so

572
00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:13,440
Speaker 1: the unicorn would sniff this pumper nickel pure girl in

573
00:36:13,520 --> 00:36:16,120
Speaker 1: the middle of the woods and he'd be like, cool,

574
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:19,640
Speaker 1: I'd like to hang out with you, and he would.

575
00:36:19,680 --> 00:36:21,799
Speaker 1: I don't know why am I gendering a male? Are

576
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,360
Speaker 1: unor because they are? They typically, like everything I was reading,

577
00:36:26,400 --> 00:36:30,840
Speaker 1: they're always gendered male. That horn is falla. So the

578
00:36:30,960 --> 00:36:35,520
Speaker 1: unicorn would kneel in front of the virgin and place

579
00:36:35,920 --> 00:36:39,839
Speaker 1: his four legs and head on her lap, which is

580
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:44,880
Speaker 1: such a lovely vision except for what happens next. Yeah,

581
00:36:44,920 --> 00:36:49,239
Speaker 1: the whole the whole capturing and killing of a unicorn. Yeah,

582
00:36:49,239 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of the twisted thing about all

583
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:55,160
Speaker 1: of this. And I wonder if this traces Christianity wise

584
00:36:55,280 --> 00:36:58,839
Speaker 1: to the whole thing about Eve and women being deceptive.

585
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:06,160
Speaker 1: The fact that this masculine, strong unicorn is attracted to

586
00:37:06,239 --> 00:37:10,640
Speaker 1: this virginal creature in the woods, well we haven't even

587
00:37:10,680 --> 00:37:14,560
Speaker 1: gotten to marry yet, and yeah, and like submits to

588
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:21,359
Speaker 1: her like purity, but she then turns on him and yes,

589
00:37:21,719 --> 00:37:25,200
Speaker 1: and leads him to slaughter. Essentially just like even that

590
00:37:25,280 --> 00:37:28,359
Speaker 1: apple man or more likely a pomegranate. To be fair,

591
00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:32,000
Speaker 1: these my trapper keepers are taken on a whole new

592
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:36,200
Speaker 1: significant well, that's right. And and so as we move

593
00:37:36,360 --> 00:37:40,960
Speaker 1: into the Middle Ages pre Renaissance, we're starting or moving

594
00:37:40,960 --> 00:37:43,120
Speaker 1: into the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, we're starting to

595
00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:47,480
Speaker 1: see more and more ancient texts being discovered and translated,

596
00:37:47,719 --> 00:37:51,080
Speaker 1: and so descriptions of all of these animals are coming

597
00:37:51,080 --> 00:37:54,880
Speaker 1: to light, and so we start to see these critters

598
00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,560
Speaker 1: being featured in artwork more often, and they are typically

599
00:37:58,680 --> 00:38:02,239
Speaker 1: again shown hanging out with women, putting their heads in

600
00:38:02,280 --> 00:38:04,719
Speaker 1: their laps. I guess for a nap. I mean there

601
00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:07,640
Speaker 1: could be some weird sexual subtext, or it could I

602
00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:09,880
Speaker 1: don't know. Maybe she literally is just like so sweet

603
00:38:09,920 --> 00:38:11,799
Speaker 1: and pure that the unicorns wants to come hang out

604
00:38:11,840 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: for the day. I don't know. And those dude unicorns,

605
00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:21,880
Speaker 1: duticorns are always white, snow they are they are And Okay,

606
00:38:21,920 --> 00:38:25,280
Speaker 1: so we get this twelfth century manuscript called the English

607
00:38:25,320 --> 00:38:29,719
Speaker 1: Beastiary showing Gabriel, the Angel Gabriel as a hunter with

608
00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:33,719
Speaker 1: a horn and two dogs, driving the unicorn onto the

609
00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:38,160
Speaker 1: lap of the Virgin Mary. She's wearing blue. It's Mary's color.

610
00:38:38,280 --> 00:38:40,799
Speaker 1: She looks great in it. Uh. And then about four,

611
00:38:42,560 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 1: so we're giving you a rundown of some art. Here

612
00:38:45,000 --> 00:38:47,319
Speaker 1: we get this portrait of a fancy woman. She's an

613
00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 1: Italian fancy lady, professional fancy lady, and it's her wedding portrait.

614
00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: And there's all of this imagery in the background of

615
00:38:55,160 --> 00:38:58,960
Speaker 1: the painting related to fertility and marital virtues and prosperity,

616
00:38:59,160 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 1: but it us include a unicorn, a woman feeding a unicorn,

617
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:07,400
Speaker 1: and it's playing into that idea that only a virgin

618
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:11,080
Speaker 1: could lure him. So it represents not only the bride's

619
00:39:11,200 --> 00:39:15,080
Speaker 1: supposed purity, which would have been incredibly valuable and important,

620
00:39:15,120 --> 00:39:20,640
Speaker 1: but also represents that taming of the beloved. In marriage portraits,

621
00:39:20,719 --> 00:39:24,440
Speaker 1: you also see like trays that were given to people

622
00:39:24,480 --> 00:39:26,880
Speaker 1: on their wedding day that would feature unicorns and stuff

623
00:39:26,920 --> 00:39:29,760
Speaker 1: like that. So it was big symbolism for weddings in virtue.

624
00:39:30,040 --> 00:39:34,600
Speaker 1: Let's bring that back. Um yeah, hello, yeah, I mean,

625
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:37,399
Speaker 1: I'm I'm not going to say that I'm uh mad

626
00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:39,680
Speaker 1: that I wasn't given a unicorn tray upon my wedding,

627
00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:43,920
Speaker 1: but I wouldn't have turned it away. Um, well, possibly

628
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:47,640
Speaker 1: the best, biggest, and most well known example, even if

629
00:39:47,640 --> 00:39:49,839
Speaker 1: you literally don't know what it is, you've probably seen

630
00:39:49,880 --> 00:39:54,440
Speaker 1: it is these tapestries, the series of seven panels from

631
00:39:54,480 --> 00:39:59,960
Speaker 1: around fifteen hundred that depict the hunting, killing, and resumes

632
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:05,520
Speaker 1: action of a unicorn. So the hunt symbolizes Christ's tribulations

633
00:40:05,520 --> 00:40:08,480
Speaker 1: on earth, and the pin that it's trapped in is

634
00:40:08,480 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 1: supposed to symbolize heaven. And according to this website that

635
00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:14,439
Speaker 1: we looked at called the culture Concept, which was really

636
00:40:14,480 --> 00:40:18,400
Speaker 1: digging into all the symbolism from these tapestries, the unicorn,

637
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:22,520
Speaker 1: they say, is a savage, loyal, and emblematic representation of Christ.

638
00:40:22,560 --> 00:40:26,319
Speaker 1: He's pure and he's invincible. His white color was a

639
00:40:26,360 --> 00:40:31,160
Speaker 1: symbol of worldly enticement, exciting hope or desirement to lure, attract,

640
00:40:31,520 --> 00:40:34,719
Speaker 1: and tempt. And they write that the unicorn is a

641
00:40:34,760 --> 00:40:37,920
Speaker 1: symbol of the incarnate Redeemer who has raised a horn

642
00:40:38,000 --> 00:40:41,280
Speaker 1: of salvation for the sins of man, and the virgin

643
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 1: who ensnares him is Mary, his mother, whose virtue he

644
00:40:45,719 --> 00:40:49,879
Speaker 1: could not resist. And the thing is because if you're like, wait,

645
00:40:49,960 --> 00:40:52,560
Speaker 1: that isn't Mary supposed to be pure? And there's not

646
00:40:52,600 --> 00:40:55,960
Speaker 1: supposed to be like temptation and fighting fate and all

647
00:40:55,960 --> 00:40:59,440
Speaker 1: this stuff. Well there were there was clearly enough weird

648
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:03,320
Speaker 1: subject xt for the Council of Trent in fifteen sixty

649
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: three to forbid the viewing of this tapestry. They were like, ah,

650
00:41:08,719 --> 00:41:13,239
Speaker 1: the symbolism is not quite pure enough for like innocent enough.

651
00:41:13,239 --> 00:41:15,799
Speaker 1: We're not really sure what's going on. But yeah, and

652
00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: so if you were wondering if the symbolism was a

653
00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:24,600
Speaker 1: little strange or or maybe even violent in these Virtuya tapestries,

654
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:27,840
Speaker 1: you're probably right. I mean, not that the Bible doesn't

655
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:30,960
Speaker 1: isn't chock full of violence. Yeah, Well there's one tapestry

656
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:34,040
Speaker 1: depicting the unicorn being killed, and it is I mean,

657
00:41:34,200 --> 00:41:36,040
Speaker 1: it's hard to look at just because you don't like

658
00:41:36,080 --> 00:41:38,400
Speaker 1: to see unicorn being killed, but of course that's the

659
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:40,520
Speaker 1: whole Yeah, and that's the whole, like symbolism of the

660
00:41:40,520 --> 00:41:45,000
Speaker 1: crucifixion of Christ. Well sure, but also because this is

661
00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:48,400
Speaker 1: another example there you know, countless examples of this in history,

662
00:41:48,560 --> 00:41:52,080
Speaker 1: but another example of um, the Christian powers that be

663
00:41:53,160 --> 00:41:58,360
Speaker 1: acting within the pagan stories and cultures that already existed.

664
00:41:58,360 --> 00:42:01,040
Speaker 1: They're like, well, you know, we don't, we can't completely

665
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:04,080
Speaker 1: uproot everything that these people already believe. Let's just layer

666
00:42:04,200 --> 00:42:07,360
Speaker 1: our beliefs on top of these pagan beliefs and practices

667
00:42:07,400 --> 00:42:10,920
Speaker 1: that already exist. And we've already discussed all of like

668
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:14,080
Speaker 1: the more pagan representations of women and the hunt. But

669
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:16,840
Speaker 1: they were powerful, they were active, they were jealous and

670
00:42:16,880 --> 00:42:21,040
Speaker 1: spiteful and sexual. But you can't have that with Christianity. Um.

671
00:42:21,080 --> 00:42:25,200
Speaker 1: And so you know that means that the horn would

672
00:42:25,200 --> 00:42:29,800
Speaker 1: represent Christ rather than potentially being a more phallic symbol

673
00:42:29,880 --> 00:42:33,120
Speaker 1: as it was in in pagan tradition. And there is

674
00:42:33,560 --> 00:42:37,759
Speaker 1: a panel among those tapestries that shows the unicorn with

675
00:42:37,800 --> 00:42:41,239
Speaker 1: its head in a woman's lap. So the symbolism of

676
00:42:41,280 --> 00:42:48,200
Speaker 1: course being Christ in like essentially like the virgin Mary's arms. Yeah.

677
00:42:48,360 --> 00:42:51,879
Speaker 1: So the same way that Christ comes to earth via Mary,

678
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:55,920
Speaker 1: she has a vessel through her uterusts, her uturists. Uh,

679
00:42:56,160 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 1: same thing, like the the magical unicorn is lured by

680
00:43:00,480 --> 00:43:04,360
Speaker 1: this virgin so that it can be killed and be

681
00:43:04,480 --> 00:43:09,400
Speaker 1: resurrected as a Lisa Frank trapper keeper. Um. But this,

682
00:43:09,560 --> 00:43:12,520
Speaker 1: this next point reminded me of our Libido episode because

683
00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:15,359
Speaker 1: Mary was a hugely powerful figure in all of this

684
00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:18,840
Speaker 1: medieval art because not only because she was virginal, but

685
00:43:18,880 --> 00:43:21,480
Speaker 1: because she could therefore resist the weaknesses of the flesh.

686
00:43:21,480 --> 00:43:25,040
Speaker 1: Because remember from our Libido episode we talked about how

687
00:43:25,440 --> 00:43:28,120
Speaker 1: it used to be viewed that women were the ones

688
00:43:28,160 --> 00:43:32,839
Speaker 1: with the insatiable sex drive and therefore that made them

689
00:43:33,120 --> 00:43:36,279
Speaker 1: unfit to hold power, where the bread Goddess like the

690
00:43:36,400 --> 00:43:40,840
Speaker 1: bread goddess, whereas men were able to control their lust

691
00:43:41,160 --> 00:43:43,560
Speaker 1: and their sex drives, and so they that meant that

692
00:43:43,600 --> 00:43:46,280
Speaker 1: they were in control of themselves and the world around

693
00:43:46,280 --> 00:43:48,759
Speaker 1: them enough that they could and should hold power because

694
00:43:48,800 --> 00:43:50,560
Speaker 1: men are ruled by logic and women are ruled by

695
00:43:50,560 --> 00:43:56,720
Speaker 1: emotions and unicorns. Yeah, and so uh. She was also

696
00:43:56,760 --> 00:43:59,719
Speaker 1: a great example if you consider tapestries to be pop

697
00:43:59,800 --> 00:44:03,280
Speaker 1: called culture. Uh. She was also a really great example

698
00:44:03,320 --> 00:44:06,800
Speaker 1: to the higher born women whose men folk were away

699
00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:12,040
Speaker 1: fighting the crusades to remain chased and pure enough to

700
00:44:12,239 --> 00:44:16,239
Speaker 1: like Laura Christ symbolizing unicorn. And all of this is

701
00:44:16,239 --> 00:44:20,439
Speaker 1: adding up to the Capital C Church encouraging something called

702
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:24,400
Speaker 1: Mario lottery, which is just a fancy word for worshiping

703
00:44:24,560 --> 00:44:29,720
Speaker 1: the virgin Mary, along with of course, the the god figure,

704
00:44:29,719 --> 00:44:35,000
Speaker 1: the father God figure. Right, and so I mean, I

705
00:44:35,040 --> 00:44:38,520
Speaker 1: guess that sort of brings us up to now almost.

706
00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:40,920
Speaker 1: I mean, we're sort of glossing over a lot of history,

707
00:44:40,960 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 1: but like the whole virginal little girl association with unicorns

708
00:44:45,760 --> 00:44:50,120
Speaker 1: still for sure, Lingers absolutely. And I was digging around

709
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:54,120
Speaker 1: to try to find a moment in American pop culture

710
00:44:54,360 --> 00:44:59,640
Speaker 1: when unicorns first enter the fray, because it seems like

711
00:44:59,680 --> 00:45:02,680
Speaker 1: quite a big leap to go from these tapestries to

712
00:45:03,239 --> 00:45:08,160
Speaker 1: trapper keepers. And the best that I could find was

713
00:45:08,880 --> 00:45:14,640
Speaker 1: citing Fantasia, which came out in nineteen Because Fantasia has

714
00:45:14,719 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 1: a scene where all of these adorable unicorns are dancing around,

715
00:45:19,280 --> 00:45:22,040
Speaker 1: but this is the first time that we see them

716
00:45:22,040 --> 00:45:24,239
Speaker 1: in like a mass media setting where they are not

717
00:45:24,360 --> 00:45:28,680
Speaker 1: these white, masculine, powerful creatures of your but rather they

718
00:45:28,719 --> 00:45:32,720
Speaker 1: are multi colored and kind of sparkling, very my little

719
00:45:32,760 --> 00:45:39,440
Speaker 1: pony ish, and so Fantasia Disney's Fantasia is probably what

720
00:45:40,280 --> 00:45:45,320
Speaker 1: started introducing unicorns to kid culture. Oh that makes so

721
00:45:45,400 --> 00:45:48,319
Speaker 1: much sense. And then we grew up playing with My

722
00:45:48,360 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: Little Pony, Hasbro thanks a lot, and then Lisa Frank

723
00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:58,440
Speaker 1: for sure, and of course you know the other movies,

724
00:45:58,880 --> 00:46:04,000
Speaker 1: um and then me so of Obama riding a unicorn Pegasus. Yeah,

725
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:11,360
Speaker 1: it all comes full circle from hieroglyphics to Obama memes. Yeah,

726
00:46:11,440 --> 00:46:15,480
Speaker 1: I mean it's perfect. Yeah. And I had completely forgotten

727
00:46:15,520 --> 00:46:19,359
Speaker 1: about that unicorn scene in Fantasia because it has been

728
00:46:19,480 --> 00:46:21,320
Speaker 1: quite a while since I've seen it. But I'm curious

729
00:46:21,400 --> 00:46:24,480
Speaker 1: to go back. I just remember I was kind of

730
00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:28,600
Speaker 1: scared in um, the part of Fantasia where like I

731
00:46:28,640 --> 00:46:30,680
Speaker 1: think Mickey's on the mountain and he's like making all

732
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:32,880
Speaker 1: sorts of crazy magic happen, and I just remember that

733
00:46:32,920 --> 00:46:34,520
Speaker 1: kind of scared me as a little kid. Yeah, the

734
00:46:34,560 --> 00:46:36,560
Speaker 1: Wizard gets a little intense there for a minute, but

735
00:46:36,640 --> 00:46:39,840
Speaker 1: I wasn't scared of Legend with Tim Curry as the Devil.

736
00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:42,880
Speaker 1: I don't know. And I could watch Temple of Doom

737
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:44,840
Speaker 1: with the guy's heart getting ripped out and I was

738
00:46:44,880 --> 00:46:48,480
Speaker 1: totally fine. Not me, but like Fantasia scared me. What

739
00:46:48,600 --> 00:46:52,360
Speaker 1: is that? Even? Maybe it was partly the music for

740
00:46:52,440 --> 00:46:56,319
Speaker 1: me at least, um, But like going back and just

741
00:46:56,400 --> 00:46:59,840
Speaker 1: looking online at images and like that. Of course you

742
00:46:59,880 --> 00:47:02,640
Speaker 1: can like watch that scene on YouTube. I mean it

743
00:47:03,000 --> 00:47:06,400
Speaker 1: looks straight out of you know, My Little Pony, like

744
00:47:06,440 --> 00:47:09,359
Speaker 1: old school sketch book. Yeah, I have to go back

745
00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,160
Speaker 1: and look at it now. Um. But so a couple

746
00:47:12,200 --> 00:47:14,560
Speaker 1: of years ago, there was this article on Slate where

747
00:47:14,600 --> 00:47:16,359
Speaker 1: they were examining this quite it was one of one

748
00:47:16,400 --> 00:47:19,640
Speaker 1: of many articles examining this question of like why do

749
00:47:19,800 --> 00:47:25,440
Speaker 1: we have the link between little girls and unicorns? Like

750
00:47:25,480 --> 00:47:28,360
Speaker 1: what's up with that? And Nina sha and Rastogi was

751
00:47:28,400 --> 00:47:31,399
Speaker 1: writing that it could be, you know, obviously, like none

752
00:47:31,400 --> 00:47:35,399
Speaker 1: of us can be experts on why a girl might

753
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:37,839
Speaker 1: feel the way she does, but it could just be

754
00:47:37,920 --> 00:47:43,560
Speaker 1: that connection between the mythology that it takes something special

755
00:47:43,600 --> 00:47:46,320
Speaker 1: in a woman or a girl to draw the magic

756
00:47:46,360 --> 00:47:48,879
Speaker 1: of the unicorn. Maybe there is some some of that

757
00:47:48,960 --> 00:47:52,839
Speaker 1: lingering around our depictions of unicorns today. That's like still

758
00:47:52,880 --> 00:47:56,960
Speaker 1: in our collective minds that you hope that you are

759
00:47:57,160 --> 00:48:01,960
Speaker 1: special enough, um to like draw a unicorn out of

760
00:48:02,000 --> 00:48:04,799
Speaker 1: the forest, like especially when you're a little kid and

761
00:48:04,800 --> 00:48:07,640
Speaker 1: you're playing in the woods. I don't know, maybe there's

762
00:48:07,680 --> 00:48:11,080
Speaker 1: some like just kid animal connection that you hope like

763
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:13,759
Speaker 1: you can be the one to draw the unicorn. Well,

764
00:48:13,800 --> 00:48:16,120
Speaker 1: I think like when I was a kid, at least

765
00:48:16,120 --> 00:48:20,759
Speaker 1: I had no idea about virgins attracting units. But I

766
00:48:20,760 --> 00:48:23,440
Speaker 1: I to me, it's just a lot more elemental of

767
00:48:23,800 --> 00:48:27,320
Speaker 1: a unicorn is such a perfect combination of the adventure

768
00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:31,879
Speaker 1: that you get from horses and magic, magic and imagination,

769
00:48:32,600 --> 00:48:38,560
Speaker 1: so and the whole like sparkle glitter factor certainly helps. Yeah,

770
00:48:38,600 --> 00:48:40,480
Speaker 1: I mean it's the same way. Like it goes back

771
00:48:40,520 --> 00:48:45,320
Speaker 1: to our Mermaid episode two that we we I mean, whoever,

772
00:48:45,400 --> 00:48:48,120
Speaker 1: we as girls, women, us as a culture like are

773
00:48:48,200 --> 00:48:52,239
Speaker 1: drawn to these sort of like half and half critters.

774
00:48:52,239 --> 00:48:54,960
Speaker 1: These things that are almost like us. Are almost like

775
00:48:55,040 --> 00:48:58,000
Speaker 1: the things that we see in daily life, but not quite.

776
00:48:58,040 --> 00:49:00,400
Speaker 1: They're a little bit more special, a little bit more magical,

777
00:49:00,440 --> 00:49:04,120
Speaker 1: they hold special powers. Well, and now if we look

778
00:49:04,160 --> 00:49:08,720
Speaker 1: at kind of unicorn vernacular, unicorns are very much associated

779
00:49:08,760 --> 00:49:14,719
Speaker 1: more with uh, non binary culture and gay culture, where um,

780
00:49:14,800 --> 00:49:19,200
Speaker 1: you know, unicorns are these very special things and they're

781
00:49:19,239 --> 00:49:24,920
Speaker 1: more representative of, you know, the the uniqueness of of people.

782
00:49:25,160 --> 00:49:30,799
Speaker 1: Although when you do google literally just women unicorns, Like

783
00:49:30,920 --> 00:49:33,320
Speaker 1: everything that comes up on that first page of Google

784
00:49:33,800 --> 00:49:38,760
Speaker 1: is like gamer bros and in the like talking about

785
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:42,440
Speaker 1: how a woman who likes nerd culture is a unicorn

786
00:49:43,520 --> 00:49:48,000
Speaker 1: and I'm just like anything that's rare to find. Yeah, yeah, um, yeah,

787
00:49:48,000 --> 00:49:50,520
Speaker 1: there are there are lots of different ways that's uh,

788
00:49:50,680 --> 00:49:54,240
Speaker 1: that's applied. Um. Also, one thing I learned about reading

789
00:49:54,320 --> 00:49:57,360
Speaker 1: up for this episode is that there is apparently a

790
00:49:57,360 --> 00:50:03,239
Speaker 1: lot of unicorn in fiction erotica. Not surprised if it exists.

791
00:50:03,800 --> 00:50:06,880
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, there's erotica for two? Is that what it is?

792
00:50:07,200 --> 00:50:12,680
Speaker 1: Rule sum number where everything has a dirty interpretation online? Um?

793
00:50:12,719 --> 00:50:15,840
Speaker 1: But if we also like hop back into the Lisa

794
00:50:15,840 --> 00:50:19,320
Speaker 1: Frankie universe for a second, you know she's got the unicorns,

795
00:50:19,320 --> 00:50:25,360
Speaker 1: but also the dolphins happening. This came up with Laura Brateman,

796
00:50:25,440 --> 00:50:28,080
Speaker 1: who was an m I T Graduate student in the

797
00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:30,719
Speaker 1: history of science who writes about animals and how we

798
00:50:30,800 --> 00:50:35,840
Speaker 1: think of them, and she told NPR in eleven that, quote,

799
00:50:35,880 --> 00:50:41,800
Speaker 1: horses and dolphins and unicorns are all borderland creatures, gateway

800
00:50:41,880 --> 00:50:45,640
Speaker 1: animals to other worlds, and they let us be cowgirls

801
00:50:45,640 --> 00:50:49,840
Speaker 1: and oceanographers and mermaids and princesses. Well, that whole gateway

802
00:50:49,880 --> 00:50:53,760
Speaker 1: to the borderland or whatever. Which now I'm just thinking

803
00:50:53,760 --> 00:50:57,520
Speaker 1: of that Madonna song h borderline. Um, is it the

804
00:50:57,520 --> 00:51:00,200
Speaker 1: gateway to the meadow of understanding? Yeah? I think out.

805
00:51:00,239 --> 00:51:03,239
Speaker 1: But that's like basically the plot to legend, right, Like

806
00:51:03,280 --> 00:51:07,000
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm saying right to you. No right, in

807
00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:13,120
Speaker 1: a very homeschool move exactly. Um, but basically a gateway

808
00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:15,680
Speaker 1: to evil opens up and Tom Cruise and Mia Sarah

809
00:51:15,719 --> 00:51:17,839
Speaker 1: have to go put a stop to it with all

810
00:51:17,880 --> 00:51:21,839
Speaker 1: of their little Woodland friends. Yeah. Yeah, but I think

811
00:51:21,880 --> 00:51:26,239
Speaker 1: these I think this this gate opens up into delightful magic. Yeah,

812
00:51:26,320 --> 00:51:32,520
Speaker 1: cupcakes and and Fantasia and glitter yeah, or just you know,

813
00:51:32,600 --> 00:51:37,359
Speaker 1: like having having adventures. Also, I don't want to leave

814
00:51:37,360 --> 00:51:40,360
Speaker 1: the guys out of the unicorn conversation. I know that

815
00:51:40,440 --> 00:51:42,960
Speaker 1: there are a lot of boys, you got the Brownies

816
00:51:43,000 --> 00:51:45,239
Speaker 1: who love my little pony. I know, not all the

817
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:50,680
Speaker 1: ponies or unicorns. There's only one unicorn among the pony crew. Um,

818
00:51:50,719 --> 00:51:54,520
Speaker 1: but still very closely related. Uh. And you know, guys

819
00:51:54,560 --> 00:51:57,839
Speaker 1: out there who who love a unicorn? Do you feel

820
00:51:57,960 --> 00:52:01,560
Speaker 1: left out? Because this whole conversation has basically centered on

821
00:52:01,640 --> 00:52:05,319
Speaker 1: how gendered unicorn mythology is. And it's because it's all

822
00:52:05,360 --> 00:52:08,160
Speaker 1: having to do with women, whether it's the active, jealous

823
00:52:08,160 --> 00:52:13,360
Speaker 1: goddess or the virginal maiden. But originally the unicorn was

824
00:52:13,440 --> 00:52:17,160
Speaker 1: gendered male. It was masculine. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Yeah,

825
00:52:17,200 --> 00:52:20,080
Speaker 1: the un itself has has pretty much always been gendered,

826
00:52:20,239 --> 00:52:23,600
Speaker 1: which is yeah, but not definitely not anymore. Now it's

827
00:52:23,640 --> 00:52:26,480
Speaker 1: become this like this, this girly thing. I have a

828
00:52:26,520 --> 00:52:31,400
Speaker 1: feeling if unicorns still had their like hyper masculine phallic association,

829
00:52:31,560 --> 00:52:34,640
Speaker 1: we would not see them in kid culture as much.

830
00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:38,239
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. Yeah, and and uh, they were

831
00:52:38,280 --> 00:52:41,080
Speaker 1: clearly masculine and powerful enough to be part of the

832
00:52:41,200 --> 00:52:45,680
Speaker 1: Royal Crest. So so, if there are any unicorn scholars

833
00:52:45,680 --> 00:52:47,919
Speaker 1: out there, because yes, you do exist, and I think

834
00:52:47,920 --> 00:52:50,640
Speaker 1: this is like the call for people with a very

835
00:52:50,680 --> 00:52:54,920
Speaker 1: specific profession. Um, we would love to hear from you,

836
00:52:55,080 --> 00:53:02,879
Speaker 1: because who knew there was so much to the unicorn. Yeah,

837
00:53:02,880 --> 00:53:05,759
Speaker 1: it's one giant, amazing game of telephone. Like you said,

838
00:53:05,800 --> 00:53:08,319
Speaker 1: I think it's perfect. And any unicorn fans out there,

839
00:53:08,520 --> 00:53:10,080
Speaker 1: we want to hear from you. Also, if you've got

840
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:15,359
Speaker 1: any good unicorn swag or tattoos or tattoos, send us photos.

841
00:53:15,520 --> 00:53:18,160
Speaker 1: You can also tag us on Instagram. Have you bought

842
00:53:18,160 --> 00:53:22,600
Speaker 1: the horn for your cat? They sell a horn for cats? Oh, man,

843
00:53:22,960 --> 00:53:25,200
Speaker 1: i'd be really cute. Did they sell them for dogs? Probably?

844
00:53:25,200 --> 00:53:26,879
Speaker 1: I'm sure you could use the same thing. My dog

845
00:53:26,920 --> 00:53:29,640
Speaker 1: would hate it, but I'd love it. You have to

846
00:53:29,640 --> 00:53:33,040
Speaker 1: get one, so send us all of your unicorn email

847
00:53:33,239 --> 00:53:36,480
Speaker 1: mom Stuff at how stuff works dot com is our

848
00:53:36,560 --> 00:53:39,399
Speaker 1: mailing address. You can also tweet us all of your

849
00:53:39,480 --> 00:53:45,080
Speaker 1: unicorn emojis at Mom's Stuff podcast or messages on Facebook.

850
00:53:45,239 --> 00:53:47,160
Speaker 1: And we've got a couple of messages to share with

851
00:53:47,200 --> 00:53:55,200
Speaker 1: you when we come right back from a quick break. Okay,

852
00:53:55,239 --> 00:53:57,400
Speaker 1: we'll have a letter here from Ariana. In response to

853
00:53:57,440 --> 00:54:02,120
Speaker 1: our tattoos episodes, she said is I've had many thoughts

854
00:54:02,160 --> 00:54:04,000
Speaker 1: on many of your subjects, but after listening to your

855
00:54:04,000 --> 00:54:07,080
Speaker 1: episode on Tattooed Women, I could not miss this opportunity

856
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,120
Speaker 1: to tell you about my badass mother in law. She's

857
00:54:10,160 --> 00:54:13,160
Speaker 1: your classic second wave feminist, born in nineteen fifty one,

858
00:54:13,239 --> 00:54:16,480
Speaker 1: working her butt off as a mother and successful career woman,

859
00:54:16,800 --> 00:54:19,560
Speaker 1: out earning her husband for many years now. In two

860
00:54:19,560 --> 00:54:22,680
Speaker 1: thousand nine, her two sons made her dream of getting

861
00:54:22,680 --> 00:54:25,680
Speaker 1: a tattoo a reality as their Mother's Day gift to her.

862
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:28,799
Speaker 1: I was there that day, and she was so adorably

863
00:54:28,840 --> 00:54:31,759
Speaker 1: happy to finally be getting inked. When I heard you

864
00:54:31,800 --> 00:54:34,560
Speaker 1: talk about Native Americans during the podcast, I knew I

865
00:54:34,600 --> 00:54:36,520
Speaker 1: had to write in because my mother in law is

866
00:54:36,560 --> 00:54:40,000
Speaker 1: also an active member of the Potawatamie tribe. Her tattoo

867
00:54:40,120 --> 00:54:42,919
Speaker 1: is a Native American pictograph of a humming bird, which

868
00:54:42,920 --> 00:54:46,239
Speaker 1: is her spirit animal. Because she is always busy, I've

869
00:54:46,280 --> 00:54:48,359
Speaker 1: attached a few pictures of the day she got inked,

870
00:54:48,400 --> 00:54:50,440
Speaker 1: and fair listeners, I can attest that they are adorable,

871
00:54:51,320 --> 00:54:54,080
Speaker 1: Arianna goes on. My faith is the one of her

872
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:56,360
Speaker 1: in the chair and her two sons looking on in

873
00:54:56,400 --> 00:54:58,960
Speaker 1: the mirror. Most people who meet or even get to

874
00:54:59,000 --> 00:55:01,680
Speaker 1: know her would never think someone like her would have

875
00:55:01,680 --> 00:55:04,440
Speaker 1: a tattoo, But I know how meaningful it is to her,

876
00:55:04,480 --> 00:55:07,319
Speaker 1: and I love that she finally got one. Thanks for

877
00:55:07,360 --> 00:55:10,719
Speaker 1: your fearless, funny feminist podcast. To keep it up well,

878
00:55:10,719 --> 00:55:15,440
Speaker 1: Thank you, Arianna. I have a terrific email here from Mark,

879
00:55:15,440 --> 00:55:17,839
Speaker 1: who writes thanks so much for the work you put

880
00:55:17,840 --> 00:55:21,360
Speaker 1: into the podcast over the years. I'm a new listener, male, married,

881
00:55:21,440 --> 00:55:23,319
Speaker 1: middle age, and I got a story I hope you'll

882
00:55:23,360 --> 00:55:26,440
Speaker 1: find funny. A couple of years ago, I began managing

883
00:55:26,440 --> 00:55:29,120
Speaker 1: a team of six young women in an advertising department.

884
00:55:29,320 --> 00:55:31,680
Speaker 1: It was a change for me as I've usually worked

885
00:55:31,680 --> 00:55:34,320
Speaker 1: on the analytical side of marketing, where I had managed

886
00:55:34,360 --> 00:55:38,080
Speaker 1: mostly men. Generally, things had gone very well, but recently

887
00:55:38,120 --> 00:55:40,319
Speaker 1: I came to realize that I had work to do

888
00:55:40,400 --> 00:55:43,000
Speaker 1: when it came to understanding the experiences of young women

889
00:55:43,000 --> 00:55:47,840
Speaker 1: in the workplace. Enter Smindy. I've since been devouring the

890
00:55:47,960 --> 00:55:51,720
Speaker 1: series from both ends, old and new. Recently, I visited

891
00:55:51,719 --> 00:55:55,920
Speaker 1: some old friends back home in Ontario, Toronto, a trip

892
00:55:55,960 --> 00:55:59,120
Speaker 1: that necessitated a four hour drive from the airport, during

893
00:55:59,160 --> 00:56:01,799
Speaker 1: which I listened to a bunch of old episodes. When

894
00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:03,640
Speaker 1: I got to the reunion, I sat down in a

895
00:56:03,680 --> 00:56:07,080
Speaker 1: camp chair and began to enjoy the party. Then I

896
00:56:07,160 --> 00:56:09,319
Speaker 1: strained up at one point and the arm of the

897
00:56:09,360 --> 00:56:13,080
Speaker 1: camp chair bumped into my pocketed iPhone, and immediately Stuff

898
00:56:13,080 --> 00:56:16,839
Speaker 1: Mom Never Told You began playing really loud. The episode

899
00:56:17,000 --> 00:56:21,320
Speaker 1: was can You Get Pregnant on your Period? Naturally, half

900
00:56:21,400 --> 00:56:24,000
Speaker 1: my friends just laughed at me, and the other half

901
00:56:24,040 --> 00:56:26,040
Speaker 1: thought I had done something so bad at work that

902
00:56:26,160 --> 00:56:30,040
Speaker 1: sensitivity training had been required. I explained that all was well,

903
00:56:30,080 --> 00:56:32,040
Speaker 1: it was just that I wanted to develop my understanding

904
00:56:32,040 --> 00:56:34,719
Speaker 1: of women's issues. Most of the men then stared at

905
00:56:34,760 --> 00:56:36,600
Speaker 1: me blankly. But I was a bit of a hit

906
00:56:36,680 --> 00:56:38,719
Speaker 1: that weekend with some of the wives and took the

907
00:56:38,760 --> 00:56:42,279
Speaker 1: opportunity to evangelize on your behalf. I wound up having

908
00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:45,200
Speaker 1: several great conversations about your podcast and what I've learned

909
00:56:45,239 --> 00:56:47,920
Speaker 1: since I started listening a few months back. Please keep

910
00:56:48,000 --> 00:56:49,880
Speaker 1: up with great work and if it helps, please know

911
00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:52,080
Speaker 1: that this middle aged man has learned a lot from

912
00:56:52,080 --> 00:56:56,040
Speaker 1: your efforts. And Mark, thank you so much. I love

913
00:56:56,120 --> 00:56:59,879
Speaker 1: that story. We did find it very funny and uh,

914
00:57:00,000 --> 00:57:02,520
Speaker 1: who knows to you for being a terrific boss who's

915
00:57:02,560 --> 00:57:08,280
Speaker 1: taking time to learn more about his employees in that way.

916
00:57:08,560 --> 00:57:11,680
Speaker 1: So listeners, if you have stories to share with us,

917
00:57:11,880 --> 00:57:14,960
Speaker 1: Mom stuff at how stuff works dot com is our

918
00:57:15,000 --> 00:57:17,000
Speaker 1: email address and for links to all of our social

919
00:57:17,040 --> 00:57:19,000
Speaker 1: media as well as all of our blogs, videos and

920
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:21,600
Speaker 1: podcasts with our sources. So you can learn even more

921
00:57:21,640 --> 00:57:25,479
Speaker 1: about unicorns, head on over to stuff Mom Never Told

922
00:57:25,520 --> 00:57:32,240
Speaker 1: You dot com. We're more on this and thousands of

923
00:57:32,240 --> 00:57:42,240
Speaker 1: other topics. Is it how stuff Works dot com