Deconstructing Male Fragility

In this episode, we discussed our brief hiatus due to mental challenges that arise from the global pandemic that we all find ourselves in. We address our new initiatives for the upcoming season and expand on what the mission statement intends to communicate. We look forward to season two of the Deconstructing Male Fragility Podcast!

In this episode, Marrisa, a member of Revolutionary Reads book club, joins us to discuss two essays from the book Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde. Marrisa, a Junior at Lincoln University majoring in Political Science, explains these two essays as something she kept going back to this summer. The first of the two we discuss is titled "Uses of the Erotic: Erotic as Power," and Lorde insists that in order for women to live a fulfilling life, it is important that they tap into the erotic and use it scrutinize all aspects of their life. The second essay "Sexism: An American Disease in Blackface," is more centered around Black men raising our consciousness in order to understand the ways in which sexism stymies us from liberation and having healthy relationships with Black women. Throughout this conversation, we cover many topics such as the relationship sex workers have with their erotic powers and what is needed from Black men in order for us to have healthy relationships with Black women. Tune in for a great discussion!

In this episode our special guest, Nia Arrington, decided to stray away from texts and submit an assemblage art piece for the topic of discussion. Nia, in her Freshman year at Chatham University, is majoring in Policy, an academic field where students research and investigate the ways that countries around the world choose to govern their citizens. As Nia discusses her thoughts and opinions on the art piece, forgiveness and its connection to love, and her passion towards abolition, an academic field with such a cosmopolitan nature seems to be very fitting for her. Nia possesses an amazing ability to approach any and every situation with a global and intersectional mindset, allowing her to think in complex ways to bring forth social justice. The piece we discuss is titled “Black Girl’s Window” and it was produced by Betye Saar in 1969. This piece, as Nia shares during the conversation, is a piece that allows for Black women to simply exist as they are. Being that it is an assemblage piece, Saar decided to highlight aspects of both her personal life and political stance. Each of the nine tiles tells a story about Saar’s past while reigning over a silhouette of a Black girl that is looking out of a window with its hands plastered on it, almost signaling some form of distress. We also discuss other works that Saar has done to give a holistic introduction to who she is as an artist, but most importantly, who she is as a person.

Trigger Warning: in this episode we discuss the Duke Lacrosse case and sexual assault. In this episode, we have a very special guest on set with us: Denise Jones. With Denise being a supervisor for Youth Enrichment Services (YES), the program that provided us this platform, this conversation is filled with both intellectual engagement and personal stories. Before beginning her next chapter in life at a Grad program at Michigan University, this serves as an opportunity for her to look back at how far she has come; seeing what she has worked towards manifest right in front of her. The text that Denise suggested for us to read is Sister Citizen: Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America by Melissa Harris-Perry, focusing on chapter four, titled Disaster. Mirroring the set up of the chapter, our conversation begins with a discussion of the effects of Hurricane Katrina and how reactions change when disasters are framed around Black women. We also link the handling of Hurricane Katrina to the handling of the current global pandemic we are in, and what role social identity plays in that. Later in the episode, we talk about the shaming and silencing of Black women after the Duke Lacrosse case and the connections it has to the ways in which Black women are silenced today.

In this episode, we have a very special guest on set with us: Etana Laing. Etana is a rising junior at Lincoln University, double majoring in Pan Africana Studies and History. She has her own book club, Revolutionary Reads, which is a group of Black women who read and discuss theory texts as a means to achieve liberation and personal connections. The text she suggested us to read is “Ain't I A Woman” by bell hooks, focusing on chapters two and three, The Continued Devaluation of Black Womanhood and Imperialism of Patriarchy. Our conversation revolves around the ways in which masculinity has impacted our relationships and friendships, and how men are socialized to conquer women (objects) instead of viewing them as people of value and not an extension of our ego. We also dive into the effects that social media has on men as it pertains to their views on ‘simping’, while questioning the harmful ramifications of misogynistic jokes. In the end, we wrap up the conversation with a concluding question: how do we, as a society, approach the ideas of forgiveness and personal accountability in situations with people who has committed acts of sexual violence.

In this episode, Keith, Selena and Glen introduces themselves and the Podcast. We discuss how this podcast came about, who and what inspired it, and bodies of work that has helped all of us become aware of these issues and/or label our experiences. Initiated by Selena and her two thoughtful questions, we have a conversation about the effects of 'male bonding' and the impact it has in many environments.