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

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

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Speaker 1: From house stuff Works dot com. Hey, welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: This is Molly and I'm Kristin. Kristin, Happy holidays to you,

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Speaker 1: Thank you, Tidings, Tidings. We have been doing this podcast

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Speaker 1: for almost a year and something I always remark to

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Speaker 1: Christen is how doing a podcast like this where you

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Speaker 1: learn all sorts of facts about women, just it can

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Speaker 1: change your whole world view. You know, all of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: you'll be out at dinner and someone will say something

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Speaker 1: kind of casually You'll be like, whoa, that is so patriarchal.

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Speaker 1: Whoa whoa whoa, Yeah, that's exactly what. Actually you can

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Speaker 1: pick up the chick and you know, if Frank gets

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Speaker 1: married and all the son, you're like, well you better

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Speaker 1: go by miss. I mean it just it clouds your

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Speaker 1: worldview and then something like Christmas, well maybe clouds or

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Speaker 1: worldview is the wrong way to put it, just opens

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Speaker 1: your eyes to the way the world runs and writh

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Speaker 1: guards is something. Yeah, you get a different, you know,

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Speaker 1: different perspective on things, which is what we hope to

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Speaker 1: present to our wonderful listeners. So today we're gonna give

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Speaker 1: maybe an exaggerated perspective, the exaggerated feminist perspective, perhaps on

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Speaker 1: Santa clause. Yeah, I mean, maybe it's time this time

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Speaker 1: we took Santa down a notch because who who is

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Speaker 1: this guy who comes and breaks into our houses while

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Speaker 1: we're asleep, you know? And and we were supposed to

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Speaker 1: make cookies for him, We're supposed to like crawl up

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Speaker 1: into his lap at a crowded mall to ask him

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Speaker 1: for something new and shiny, and you know, I mean,

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Speaker 1: what what is that? I mean, we just a few

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Speaker 1: podcasts ago, we're talking about Edward Colin and we totally

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Speaker 1: distant for all of those things. Yeah yeah, and you know,

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Speaker 1: and and let's also point out no one, no one

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Speaker 1: asked Santa to go on a diet. But if you

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Speaker 1: pick up any women's magazine between now and January, I

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Speaker 1: guarantee there will be at least one article about holiday weight.

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Speaker 1: I mean, can you can I mean doublet is this

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Speaker 1: a patriarchoholair? What? And so one time we were reading

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Speaker 1: this article about, you know, how women are sometimes in

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Speaker 1: the shadow of their male husbands, and I think that

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Speaker 1: one woman who's definitely been in the shadow for too

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Speaker 1: long is missus Santa Claus. We don't even know her name.

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Speaker 1: We know Chris, Chris Kringle, Santa Claus. This is Santa Claus.

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Speaker 1: She has no name, what's your name? And she's a MSUSA.

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Speaker 1: We talked about that, We've talked about whether ms should

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Speaker 1: be sort of a feminist standard. All of a sudden,

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Speaker 1: she's just going by her husband's name. Was he changed

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Speaker 1: her name when she got married? And this is this

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Speaker 1: holiday is leading up to a cumbination of all our

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Speaker 1: previous podcasts. Kristen, this is really what we've been working

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Speaker 1: up to. UM. But one thing I thought was kind

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Speaker 1: of kind of cool about Mrs Claus was that she

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Speaker 1: also her emergence in holiday lore I think kind of symbolizes, um,

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Speaker 1: how Christmas evolved, in the celebration of Christmas evolved. True

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Speaker 1: because for a long time, basically Chris Smith was set

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Speaker 1: up as this day that was facilitated by one guy

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Speaker 1: driving around in a sleigh and delivering all presents. He's

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Speaker 1: responsible for everything. And yeah, I admit Santa does a

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Speaker 1: lot on Christmas Eve. I mean it's kind of busy.

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Speaker 1: He's I mean, he does an awful lot. I don't

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Speaker 1: want to discount his achievements, even if I do find

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Speaker 1: him a little creepy. Yeah, but and also impressive that

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Speaker 1: he can eat that many cookies in one night. Do

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Speaker 1: you think maybe he's at risk for diabetes? And that

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Speaker 1: much milk, all that dairy milk does make a body strong?

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Speaker 1: What if Santa was like just indolerant? Ever thought about that?

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Speaker 1: But you know who we'd expect to take care of

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Speaker 1: him in that regard, Mrs Claus Claus. And that's the

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Speaker 1: thing that we're going to try and get out today

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Speaker 1: is behind every good man, in this case Santa Clause,

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Speaker 1: there are a ton of great women who without whom

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Speaker 1: he would not be possible. Yeah. We first see and

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Speaker 1: we found this out in a paper by Carol Anne

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Speaker 1: Marling called the Revenge of Mrs Claus. This is Santa

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Speaker 1: Claus Um. And she found in her research that the

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Speaker 1: first instance of Mrs Santa to Clause pops up in

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Speaker 1: a children's publication called Harper's Young People in eight one,

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Speaker 1: and it was you know, Marlon calls it sort of

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Speaker 1: an unremarkable Christmas story, and that all you know, all

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Speaker 1: of a sudden, Mrs Santa Claus pops up. She's described

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Speaker 1: as plump, much like her husband, good natured, and her

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Speaker 1: jobs include being the supervisor of the North Pole Bakery

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Speaker 1: and candy factory, and she also trimmed hats for Christmas

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Speaker 1: dolls for the little girls. But unlike the docile Elves,

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Speaker 1: Mrs Claus did not like it when she did not

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Speaker 1: receive credit for for all the work that she did,

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Speaker 1: I know, which is sort of an interesting thing because

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Speaker 1: you think about the North Pole being all cheery. Maybe

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Speaker 1: Mrs Claus was sort of like Um Lily Leadbetter of

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Speaker 1: her time, wanting to do credit and reward for the

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Speaker 1: work she did. Yeah, and you know, and rightly so.

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Speaker 1: But those were a lot of little hats she had

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Speaker 1: to trim. I mean, all Santa had to do was

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Speaker 1: make blocks for the boys, and there were other and

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Speaker 1: why are these toys so gendered? And there were also

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Speaker 1: a number of uh, you know, other notable women who

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Speaker 1: put their mark on this portrayal of Mrs Santa Claus um,

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Speaker 1: including Catherine Lee Bates, who wrote the words to America

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Speaker 1: the Beautiful Um and she wrote a biography of Santa.

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Speaker 1: Mrs Santa Claus and called Goody's Santa Claus on a

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Speaker 1: sleigh ride. I don't know if that means that her

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Speaker 1: name was Goody, do you know? Oh, I don't know

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Speaker 1: why she would take on the whole name though Goodey

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Speaker 1: Santa Claus. It might just be, it might just be

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Speaker 1: vernacular at the time. And then we also have Lucimate Alcott,

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Speaker 1: who wrote Little Women, Um, who also mentions Mrs Claus

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Speaker 1: in one of her many magazine stories, and she also

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Speaker 1: portrayed her as bespectacled and childless. And what she would

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Speaker 1: do is she would wait patiently for her husband's return

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Speaker 1: from a night in the world's chimneys on Christmas Eve.

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Speaker 1: So now all of this is happening in the eighteen eighties,

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Speaker 1: late um, eighteen hundreds, turn of the century, and it's

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Speaker 1: a it's a pretty market contrast to the stuff that

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Speaker 1: had come before. Like think of Clement Moore's famous poem

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Speaker 1: about the night before Christmas we got the jolly old elf. Um.

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Speaker 1: There were a lot of artists at the time who

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Speaker 1: were just showing Chris Chris Kringle working all year long

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Speaker 1: to bring all these toys. Um. He was living alone

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Speaker 1: though he was a bachelor in all these earlier versions

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Speaker 1: of him, and by the eighteen eighties women were sort

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Speaker 1: of maybe a little disgruntled about such a depiction. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: because by this time Christmas had really become the primary

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Speaker 1: like annual celebration um in American homes, and so a

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Speaker 1: lot of the tasks for decorating the house and fixing

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Speaker 1: the figgy pudding and trimming the tree and lighting the

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Speaker 1: candles fell to the women of the house. So it

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Speaker 1: became this sort of like domestic Olympics at Christmas time

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Speaker 1: because there was so much to do. Um. The women

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Speaker 1: were in charge of wrapping all this just domestic finery.

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Speaker 1: And women were kind of like, there's no way that

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Speaker 1: that bachelor living up there with all those elves can

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Speaker 1: do this by himself, and that that's why they think

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Speaker 1: maybe Mrs Claus came into being yeah. Um and then uh,

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Speaker 1: she mentions. Caroline Marlon mentions in her paper that in

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Speaker 1: nineteen there is a Good Housekeeping um forum and for

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Speaker 1: men about Christmas, and they basically, um kind of confirmed

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Speaker 1: this idea that women were the ones who kind of

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Speaker 1: made Christmas added the Christmas finery to the occasion. They

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Speaker 1: were like, oh, just if you want to give me

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Speaker 1: a box of cigars. There's no need to wrap it up.

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Speaker 1: Give me the cigar. So all your memories of wrapped

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Speaker 1: presents and the smell of baking and all these things

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Speaker 1: that people you know probably listed their main Christmas memories

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Speaker 1: were done by women that they're getting from women's magazines,

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Speaker 1: and thus women's magazines writers like UIs may Alcott took

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Speaker 1: the time to give Santa a domestic partner. And this

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Speaker 1: article We Keep Signing by Carol Ann Marling. She goes

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Speaker 1: on to sort of make a hypothesis that our modern

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Speaker 1: day Mrs Claus, aside from the one who does live

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Speaker 1: in the North Pole, is Martha Stewart, who you know,

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Speaker 1: just does does turn Christmas into a domestic Olympics and

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Speaker 1: shows you how to do it up right. I think

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Speaker 1: Martha deserves her own podcast at some point, But I

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Speaker 1: just thought that was sort of an interesting argument that

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Speaker 1: we see Mrs Claus as this person who just keeps

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Speaker 1: the North Pole running. Santa couldn't do without, or she's

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Speaker 1: got to oversee elf. She's got a feed reindeer, She's

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Speaker 1: gotta feed Santa's cookies the other three hundred sixty four

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Speaker 1: days of the year. She's got a lot to do,

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Speaker 1: and I think would be better if she was a

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Speaker 1: little more celebrated. Now, speaking of Santa's helpers, Molly, there

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Speaker 1: are some possible women. This is a very contentious Okay,

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Speaker 1: topics that we're about to bring up. Okay, see issue

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Speaker 1: of the reindeer. Because Santa could not fly around the

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Speaker 1: world without the reindeer. The reindeer. Yeah, without the reindeer,

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Speaker 1: Christmas would be could put. But the question is, are

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Speaker 1: these reindeer actually female reindeer? I mean, you wouldn't think

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Speaker 1: so just by the songs you know about these reindeer.

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Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know any other girl's named Rudolph, yeah,

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Speaker 1: or donder Blitzen yeah, I mean Vixen. Maybe you could

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Speaker 1: kind of see her being like a tomboy girl who

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Speaker 1: got in with the guys. But why would we think

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Speaker 1: the reindeer are women? Because in popular culture, if you

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Speaker 1: look at all the pictures, I've never seen a reindeer,

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Speaker 1: even though I used to stay up all night looking

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Speaker 1: for them. Um, in all the pictures of Santa that

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Speaker 1: have been taken with the reindeer, the reindeer have antlers.

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Speaker 1: And we learned that reindeer and caribou are the only

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Speaker 1: deer where the males, females, and calves produced antlers, and

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Speaker 1: they shed them annually every year, which is why I

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Speaker 1: just said annually. Um. But the female or cows, um.

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Speaker 1: The female reindeer will keep their antlers longer than the

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Speaker 1: males will, So, according to snopes dot Com, the fact

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Speaker 1: that Santa's reindeer still have antlers on December a k a.

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Speaker 1: Christmas Eve indicates they are likely female, right because the

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Speaker 1: males would have shed their antlers by that point right now.

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Speaker 1: Snopes goes on to say that there are a few

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Speaker 1: problems with this theory. One possible theory is that um

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Speaker 1: other sletters other people who use sleighs often use castrated

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Speaker 1: males known as steers, who might still have their antlers. Now.

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Speaker 1: The reason that you would want to use a steer,

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Speaker 1: um sletters say, is because that they're gonna be in

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Speaker 1: better bodily shape by winter because they've been mating and

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Speaker 1: all the months leading up to December. So you're gonna

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Speaker 1: have a male that's fresh as opposed to one that's

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Speaker 1: kind of worn out. Although I don't tend to think

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Speaker 1: of a lot of mating going on up at the

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Speaker 1: north Pole. But I don't really know that much about reindeer. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, and even if that is the case, it's

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Speaker 1: in as reindeers are just a pack of steers. I

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Speaker 1: think it also has a nice twist on Christmas that

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Speaker 1: he's just flying around with his band of eunuchs, his

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Speaker 1: castrated males. Yes, maybe that's why they wouldn' let Rudolf

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Speaker 1: play in their reindeer games. They were grumpy. Yeah. Um,

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Speaker 1: But there is another theory that um Snopes points out

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Speaker 1: is that already there there are a few other species

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Speaker 1: of reindeer that, believe it or not, can fly. Um,

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Speaker 1: so that was pretty much the only one. So they

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Speaker 1: do say the fact that this is a certain species

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Speaker 1: of ranger that can fly might indicate that they might

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Speaker 1: be able to keep their antlers longer than other types

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Speaker 1: of reindeer. However, christ and I'm gonna prefer to think

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Speaker 1: that it's all ladies up there pulling Santi around with

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Speaker 1: their ingenious sense of direction. Is now another lady of

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Speaker 1: Christmas of the winter Yule tide season that we found

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Speaker 1: that we thought was kind of cool. Um who also

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Speaker 1: helps st nick This a woman called la Ba Fauna

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Speaker 1: Laba Fauna She is an Italian lady who also brings

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Speaker 1: children gifts. She doesn't do it on Christmas Eve. She

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Speaker 1: tends to come more around Epiphany, which is January five

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Speaker 1: January six. And according to the Italian legend, when the

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Speaker 1: wise men went out looking for the baby Jesus, they

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Speaker 1: stopped by Laba Fauna's house, and she's this old lady

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Speaker 1: who had lost like her husband and her child, and

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Speaker 1: so she tended her house very diligently and kept herself busy.

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Speaker 1: And so the wise man stopped by to see if

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Speaker 1: she could point them in the direction of the Christ child,

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Speaker 1: and Laba Fauna said, uh, not really, no, I don't know.

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Speaker 1: I don't I don't know where he is. I'm just

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Speaker 1: sweeping my heart, keeping clean, making something, making some things. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And they asked if she would want to come along

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Speaker 1: got to thinking she you know, she's a widow, she

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Speaker 1: used to have a child of her own, and she

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Speaker 1: was like, I love children, I missed my child, and

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Speaker 1: I bet that new mom needs some help, which I

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Speaker 1: just think is a great sign of female solidarity. I

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Speaker 1: don't think she was going to go and judge that

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Speaker 1: lady for any parenting decisions she was making, such as

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Speaker 1: co sleeping, her breastfeeding. She just wanted to help out

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Speaker 1: or immaculate conception. True, she's not even gonna touched that one.

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Speaker 1: All she does is she packs up her broom, she

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Speaker 1: puts some gifts for the child in a sack, and

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Speaker 1: she sets off to find this christ child um like

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Speaker 1: the Wise Man had told her about um. But she

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Speaker 1: couldn't find them. So she stopped in at all the

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Speaker 1: houses to see if that's the house she was looking for,

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Speaker 1: and as long as she was there might as only

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Speaker 1: the gift for the child. And that's what she continues

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Speaker 1: to do. That's the legend of La Befauna. So if

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Speaker 1: you're in Italy, you know that you've got to be good.

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Speaker 1: You've got to write your note to La ba Fauna

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Speaker 1: and ask her to visit you. And if you're bad,

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Speaker 1: she's going to bring you a cold not sweets her toys.

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Speaker 1: So UM, I think that that's a pretty cool legend

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Speaker 1: of a lady who helps out St. Nick. And these

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Speaker 1: are the these are the examples we have found. There

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Speaker 1: might be some more ladies out there behind St. Nick.

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Speaker 1: So if you know of any right now. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: speaking of writing in why don't we do solicitor mail? Okay? Well,

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Speaker 1: to start things off, I've got an email here from

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Speaker 1: Joyce and she was responding to you our episode on

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Speaker 1: co sleeping. She said, I was kind of disappointed in

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Speaker 1: your podcast on co Sleeping with Baby, since you hinted

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Speaker 1: about your youthful age and acknowledge that you're not parents yourselves.

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Speaker 1: I felt you're rather unqualified to be speaking on such

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Speaker 1: a topic. It sounded like you're just some naive girls

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Speaker 1: who read and rehab some articles from Wikipedia or baby

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Speaker 1: center dot com. Side note, we actually didn't use either

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Speaker 1: of those sites. I'm not saying this to bring you down.

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Speaker 1: I'm just saying that it's kind of cute. You reminded

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Speaker 1: me of myself ten years ago. And while this it

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Speaker 1: is possible to be both cute and intelligent, this podcast

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Speaker 1: really was almost embarrassingly to cute. I suggest that next

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Speaker 1: time you do a show on a parenting topic, please

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Speaker 1: included guests who is more experienced, say a pediatrician. Dula

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Speaker 1: are just a plain parent, and I will take your

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Speaker 1: word with more than just a brain of salt. Cheers, Joyce,

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Speaker 1: It's a valid point. I think I think I wrote

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Speaker 1: back choice that we'd also done things um like on

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Speaker 1: roller Derby and vampires and whiches, and we were none

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Speaker 1: of those things either. But that's why we rely on

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Speaker 1: our listeners to write in and tell us what it's

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Speaker 1: actually like to co sleep with the maybe and you

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Speaker 1: can rest tossure that are sources are far more credible

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Speaker 1: in places like Wikipedia and baby center dot com. We

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Speaker 1: do take a lot of time to try to find

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Speaker 1: very valid, credible sources of inflammation. Next up an email

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Speaker 1: from Christopher, who writes in about the panty Hose podcast.

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Speaker 1: He claims to be one of the males that does

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Speaker 1: wear panty hose. He writes, I am a construction worker

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Speaker 1: and I only wear them during cold weather and under

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Speaker 1: only under clothes. I find that they help keep my

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Speaker 1: feet and legs form in cold weather and much more

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Speaker 1: comfortable to wear than insulated underwear. No one that I

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Speaker 1: work with knows that I wear them, only my wife does.

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Speaker 1: So yes, my wife knows that I do this and

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Speaker 1: does not have a problem with it. I first started

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Speaker 1: wearing them when I played football in high school, and

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Speaker 1: believe it or not, many of the guys did Molly,

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Speaker 1: he writes to me. And now you say you do

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Speaker 1: not like wearing panty hose, but have you ever tried

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Speaker 1: wearing some better brands? It really does make a difference

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Speaker 1: in how they feel. My wife says she only likes

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Speaker 1: to wear the silky type. They generally cost a little more,

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Speaker 1: but according to my wife, makes it big difference. Last,

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Speaker 1: but not least, me being a guy, I know that

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Speaker 1: seeing a woman in panting hose always gives my attention.

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Speaker 1: I would tell any single girl, if they want to

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Speaker 1: draw attention to themselves, where sheer panty hose and see

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Speaker 1: for yourself how many guys will look your way. Most guys,

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Speaker 1: whether they admit it or not, find women in hosiery

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Speaker 1: very attractive. So, Molly and Kristen, now you're in this

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Speaker 1: to Kristen. So Molly and Kristen, you need to take

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Speaker 1: my challenge and go out on the town wearing pantyhos

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Speaker 1: and see how many more men will look your way. Well, Molly,

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Speaker 1: today I up the annie. Not only am I wearing pantios,

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Speaker 1: I'm wearing red pantios. Yeah, so we'll go out to

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Speaker 1: lunch and we'll see how may men you look your

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Speaker 1: way or a port back um. And to cap things off,

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Speaker 1: we've got an email in from Kitlin. She was responding

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Speaker 1: to you our episode on breastfeeding, and she said, as

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Speaker 1: a breastfeeding mother, I appreciate your insights and thought you

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Speaker 1: handled the controversial subject in an unbiased way. Before I

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Speaker 1: had my son, I knew I was going to breastfeed

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Speaker 1: whenever he was hungry, and I didn't want to retreat

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Speaker 1: to a bathroom stall since nowhere um in my college

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Speaker 1: campus are their lactation rooms. I also knew that I

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Speaker 1: didn't want to you and could not afford to leave

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Speaker 1: him with someone else while I finished my bachelor's degree,

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Speaker 1: so he goes to class and work with me. Hence

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Speaker 1: I find breastfeeding in the halls and lobbies and the

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Speaker 1: student center and even doing class. I've actually been surprised

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Speaker 1: that no one has ever had a problem with this,

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Speaker 1: or at least voiced it to me. Some of my

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Speaker 1: fellow students have even commented that they didn't realize what

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Speaker 1: I was doing. In my class only has twenty people

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Speaker 1: in it. My professors have been completely supportive of me,

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Speaker 1: and one even offered to hold my son while I

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Speaker 1: gave a presentation. My class yesterday. I think our society

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Speaker 1: should be more supportive of breastfeeding mothers and keeping their

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Speaker 1: babies with them during the day. I'm still just as

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Speaker 1: productive as before, and I do not feel like I'm

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Speaker 1: distracting anyone by having my son around. I think that's

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Speaker 1: so cool. You can take him everywhere are Yeah. So,

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Speaker 1: if you guys have got something to share about any

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Speaker 1: of our topics or things you'd like to see become topics,

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Speaker 1: you can email us It's mom stuff at how stuffworks

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Speaker 1: dot com and also check out our blog how to stuff.

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Speaker 1: And if you want to learn a ton about Christmas,

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Speaker 1: you can do that at how stuffworks dot com and

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Speaker 1: other Holidays. Also at how stuffworks dot com for more

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Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics. Because at how

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Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check

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Speaker 1: out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com

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Speaker 1: home page. Yeah. Brought to you by the reinvented two

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Speaker 1: thousand and twelve Camry. It's ready, are you