Curious Ideas and Social Stories by Simon Brewis

This spoken word essay reflects on the feminist themes in Wise Children‘s brilliant theatre production of Blue Beard.

I explore their stories and the tensions between different feminist responses to men's violence against women. I talk about inclusivity in feminism, and why leaving anybody alone at feminism's door is fundamentally inhumane.

You can find the text with references on my website: https://curiousideasandsocialstories.wordpress.com

In this episode, I discuss an act of everyday sexism that took place in a small social close to my heart - and how we have responded to it. The 'social world' is the Algaia faction at Curious Pastimes Live Roleplay Game. I discuss what happened, the response we agreed, men sharing the labor of confronting sexism as a feminist issue, and reflect on how some banter can impact social space. It is based upon an interview with Dom Zeal - a member of the Algaia command team - about the intervention he helped make. 

For the article in text inc citations and references see: https://seeingtheinvisibleman.wordpress.com/

This is an audio recording of an article - full text and inline links can be found here. It is about the TV show 'The Boys' and reveals how modern storytelling makes normalising sexist culture - and other cultures of domination - more difficult for audiences to detect.  

Opening paragraph - 

"Recently I saw a social media post from a friend called Charli calling out sexist character writing in the TV show 'The Boys'. I like pop culture, yet I am also aware that mass-produced media like TV, film, radio, (graphic) novels, etc, have the potential to make oppressive ideas and behaviors seem normal. Charli's post made me think about a technique often used in modern storytelling to make sexist culture - and other cultures of domination - less visible."

‘What Is Left?’ is a podcast for progressive and Left-Wing people. This first episode unpicks the factional conflict between Identity and Economic or Class-based Politics. It will explain why this conflict is bad news for the Left.