MASKulinity Podcast

This week, we’re talking about marriage! Sociology Professor LaToya Council joins the pod this week to help us navigate Black couple’s marital waters.. and Samantha hangs in there as Remoy walks us through the complicated history of wedding traditions before her upcoming I Dos.

• Remoy takes us back to the first wedding ever, which took place in China. Find out what a man had to do to win the hand of the king’s daughter.
• At this wedding, the bride didn’t wear white. Remoy puts us on game about the painting that started it all. LaToya and Samantha react to the infamous painting of women being auctioned off at a marriage market. 😬
  • Edwin Long’s choice to paint the brides’ dresses white was his own and didn’t reflect the era he lived in. Remoy questions which women were considered pure and LaToya explains how the purity conversation excluding Black women impacts Black marriages…
  • Remoy puts the history of marriage in context socially. Marriage was thought of as a wealthy-white-man activity – they were the only ones who could afford it! Black marriage in the US did evolve from those traditions with the extra weight of racism flaring up in relationships.
    • LaToya gives us a rundown of what Black women experience in public as a result.
• The impact of racism on Black marriages is very real.
  • LaToya shares some of her findings interviewing Black couples in her research.
    • Black men also rely on their partner emotionally dealing with racism in their public life. Home is an important structure for maintaining themselves in a racist society.
    • Social networks and community are critical beacons of support for Black couples navigating racism.
    • LaToya also makes a nod to the economic benefits of marriage for Black not just practically, but socially.
• In our Five Questions segment, Samantha wants some answers on marriage and LaToya delivers.
  • LaToya’s paper reports back on her conversations with 20 Black men about egalitarianism and marriage and she and Samantha get into it all.
    • Black marriages are more egalitarian than ever before, and many Black men resist white supremacy and its gendered capitalism by seeking a partner with equal or higher income. But it seems egalitarian spirit stops at income. Why?
    • What is this notion of “moral backbone” LaToya writes about? It does include emotional support, but somehow is still patriarchal. Our guest asserts that Black men’s notion of masculinity is entrenched in protectorship and providership and spells out what it can look like. Solutionism, anyone?
  • What would it look like for Black men to embrace egalitarianism practically and emotionally?
    • Black men retaining that protectionist MASK is helpful in dealing with a racist society, but how to shed that at home? LaToya argues that Black men are uniquely positioned to embrace egalitarianism, but power, and specifically, gender power plays a huge part in why egalitarianism has only reached so far in Black marriages.
    • What could it look like for Black men to fully embrace egalitarianism while still feeling valued? LaToya gives her recommendations on how to get there.

Let us know what you thought of this episode! 

We’re taking a break in August! So you’ll have time to catch up on and relisten to all MASKulinity episodes. We’ll be back in mid-September to continue unmasking masculinity, but in the meantime, make sure to sign up for our biweekly newsletter to continue getting those MASKulinity updates and recaps. Have a great month!

Referenced in this episode:

• Black Marriage Through the Prism of Gender, Race, and Class by Kecia Johnson
• The Fresh Prince and 📺 Episode with Soraya Giaccardi

COMPANION PIECES:

• The Racial Hierarchy of MASKulinity, with Dr. Liu - Part 2 ENCORE
• The Racial Hierarchy of MASKulinity, with Dr. Liu - Part 1 ENCORE
• Let’s Talk MASKulinity, Bruh with Jeremy Herte
• Men as Victims of Violent Crime with Yuval Moses

This week, we’re joined by media scholar and psychologist Soraya Giaccardi. She shares her work analyzing gender depictions in TV and helps Remoy and Samantha psychoanalyze their relationship to a TV classic and one of their faves, “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”

• But first, Remoy walks us through some surprising facts about  boys’ TV shows. 
  • Who are the leading characters in boys’ TV shows? Remoy shares some stats from Soraya’s seminal report (check it out; it’s linked below) about how genders are represented in leading roles. 
    • Turns out that there is surprising parity among the binary genders in leading character representation.
    • Girls being in leading roles is not as big a deterrent in boys’ TV shows as we might collectively think… More on that later.
  • Women and girls are way more represented than they used to be, but how much are current gender depictions on boys’ TV shows challenging MASKulinity? The hosts discuss, with some valuable insights from our media scholar guest. 
  • LGBTQIA+ characters are still seldom the leading roles in boys’ TV. Soraya hypothesizes why that might be… 
  • One factor that remains consistent is that boys remain perpetrators of violence on screen… and the victims of it. There’s still so much work to do when it comes to men’s and boys’ representations on screen. 
    • While boys are disproportionately harmed on screen, we don’t always see them processing that violence emotionally…
  • Remoy draws key points from Soraya’s report on how these depictions, or lack thereof, impact us boys in their real life.
    • How exactly are boys’ relationships with their close ones depicted on the small screen compared to their fellow femme characters? This all informs how they interpret gender.
    • Soraya stresses the importance of deconstructing these stereotypes as boys intake them during formative years.
  • Despite making so much headway in balancing the binary genders, boys continue to primarily show just one emotion on screen… You guessed it: anger.
• We watch TV a lot more than we used to as a society. It’s available virtually at any time, on any nearby screen.
  • How has that impacted the way we process TV shows? Soraya breaks down the connections between our viewership and our socialization in romantic and platonic relationships.
• Remoy and Samantha take a walk down memory lane, reflecting on one of their favorite TV shows, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air. 
  • Samantha shares how the show shaped her views of femininity and romantic relationships. Sue the woo! Track.
  • Remoy looks back on a pivotal scene between Uncle Phil and Will. You’ll recognize it when you hear it.
    • Soraya’s analysis highlights a critical knowledge on what supportive parenting can look like for boys as modeled by this touching scene.
• What show shaped your views of gender and romantic relationships? Let us know in the comments!
• In our Five Questions segment, the hosts go expectedly deeper.
  • What does TV’s impact look like in our lives?
    • How does it manifest and what can we do about it? Soraya drops some key research findings about the way we relate to characters on screen. 
  • TV depictions aren’t just impacting us unwittingly; characters and storylines on the small screen also allow us to access liberation in some ways… 
    • Soraya shares her own experience with TV as a youngster and how it can bridge us to worlds unknown, which for many of us, can be a connection to communities we long for. 
  • The surprising stats about women being more present on TV bring up an interesting point: if girls are just as likely to draw a boys’ audience, why do we think that otherwise? 
    • Soraya cautions us about our own perceptions and how knowing the facts can shatter them. 
    • She stresses how controlling the narrative keeps us in the patriarchal loop of our own perceptions. Statistical facts humble us with the truth and can boys, men, masc folks, and all of us, really, closer to the truth.
• Soraya shares about this dream job marrying psychology and communications. We’re glad she chose this route!

Referenced in this episode:

• ENCORE: It *Was* Time to Loosen the Grip on Reproductive Freedom - Heidi Sieck schooled us on how controlling narratives led to the reversal of Roe vs. Wade.
• .MASKulinity is making some people a lot of money - we talked about how women-led movies are of much better quality and get much better ratings than they get credit for…
• “If He Can See It, Will He Be It? Representations of Masculinity in Boys’ Television”, the report Soraya wrote at the Geena Davis Institute in partnership with Equimundo and the Kering Foundation
• Cultivation theory - read about TV impacts us over time
• Media Use and Men’s Risk Behaviors: Examining the Role of Masculinity Ideology - cowritten by our illustrious scholar guest, Soraya Giaccardi

COMPANION PIECES:

• Trivia Night! Movie Time? Romance and Loneliness Edition - we talked about depictions of thoughtful fatherhood on screen
• Radicalization and TSwift - we talked with Jeff Perera about how men relate to women’s jokes
• Romance MASKulinity: Getting the Girl… - we talked with Imran Siddiquee about what romance in movies teaches men and boys about masculinity

It’s the Fourth of July in the US, and we’re thinking about the military. Today and on Veterans’ Day, we’ll say “Thank you for your service,” but do we really know all that goes into that service and how it impacts the people that serve? This week, we’re joined by military masculinity expert Dr. Ray Hinojosa from the University of Central Florida to uncover how gender informs how people are recruited into the military, why people choose to serve, and how it’s changed over time.

• Remoy starts out with a confession… Was it as unexpected for you as it was for Samantha? Who knew he had THIS facet…
• How would you describe someone in the military? Remoy poses this question and leads us into the seldom-talked-about ways that folks used to  recruit soldiers into service back in the day.
  • In the days of Napoleon, his rival, the Duke of Wellington, had choice words about his own soldiers, and Dr. Hinojosa shares context that gives us insight into the predatory recruiting strategies of that time and why those methods were used.
    • (Despite Samantha’s excitement about beurre blanc and butter in general, we do realize that Napoleon lost to the Duke of Wellington 😅)
• Dr. Ray Hinojosa puts us on game about the different reasons people suit up and serve.
  • While duty and altruism are very likely reasons for people to join the military, the economic draft stands out as an opportunity to draw folks into military service.
  • Recruiters play on traditional notions of masculinity like protection and duty to draw folks in, which may be predatory in its own way…
• Remoy walks us through some more military history, this time in Samantha’s birthland, with D-Day.
  • Recruiting practices had somewhat shifted then, and men that had barely made it into adulthood ended up making up the majority of the armed forces.
• Dr. Hinojosa gets candid about the other reasons people join the military. Perception is everything.
  • Marketing has played a huge part in military recruiting, with video-game-like ads and messaging  playing to manhood.
  • Our guest breaks down how the realities of military service are stripped from recruitment messaging
• Remoy shares his own proxy experiences with the military. An acquaintance returns after their first year and he reflects on the person they became, impacting his own perspective about what he thought about service.
• In our deep dive, Dr. Hinojosa shares how we can support servicemen after their time in the military.
  • “First and foremost, we have to remember that men are human beings, and they’re human beings with a full range of emotional expression. Even if they don’t always know how to express it well, those feelings are still there, right? Anger, fear, shame, concern, anxiety and all of the things that come with having big emotions.”
  • Remembering that everyone experiences deployment differently is key. It’s Important to hear folks for their own experience—sage advice for all walks of life.
  • Having a trauma-informed perspective helps to dispel barriers to understanding especially since many young men have a hard time sharing details of their time in the service with folks who have not experienced it themselves.
• Why do some men not know they need care? Our literati host ponders and our expert weighs in.
  • MASKulinity, essentially. And Dr. Hinojosa breaks down exactly what that looks like.
  • Social connection has been proven to help people live longer, but experiences in the military can lead to loneliness, so what do we do? Hear what Dr. Hinojosa advises.
• This theory of “self as object,” what does it mean exactly? Dr. Hinojosa breaks down this concept first presented in his dissertation about how we use our bodies as an object to project the type of person we want to be perceived as. The military is no exception.
• Despite its many questionable aspects and tactics, the military has given us many benefits that we don’t always think about. Listen to find out what everyday items we have the military to thank for, for example, washing machines!
  • But also, it provides a certain status in society that people respect and have more empathy for…
• We finish this episode with Dr. Hinojosa providing tips for supporting veterans through their trauma. It’s a good one.
• Are you a service member? Did we miss anything? Let us know!

Referenced in this episode:

• Dr. Ray Hinojosa’s dissertation “Recruiting' the Self The Military and the Making of Masculinities”
• MCU and the military have a relationship
• The ad Remoy shared with Dr. Hinojosa and Samantha

COMPANION PIECES:

• Ignoring it won’t make it go away! How doing the work leads to men’s freedom, with resident therapist Justin Lioi
• Men as Victims of Violent Crime, with Yuval Moses, a therapist from the Crime Victims Treatment Center
• The Army is having trouble recruiting men

We’re going back in time! Remoy shows his energetic facets as we dive into a past episode throwback on Transitioning into Immigrant MASKulinity with multihyphenate artist, D'Lo.

• Samantha and Remoy play back clips from this insightful 2018 episode. They remember their old selves trying to make sense of this conversation just a year into the show and compare it to now, as their older (hopefully wiser!) selves.
  • The hosts share what it meant to have D’Lo stop on the pod as immigrant folks themselves.
• D’Lo shared his experience growing up and questioning his gender identity in a Sri Lankan family, living in one of the most racist counties in California as the setting. 
  • While his family was accepting of his looking like a little boy and having nothing but boys as friends, he had to take on the MASK of girlhood in his larger community.
  • He describes the first transition he made to fit into society’s expectations, and it may not be what you think.
• Remoy and Samantha reflect on their own immigrant-kid experiences and how that impacted their understanding of gender.
  • Samantha shares her gratitude for folks like D’Lo who made sure their voices were heard and created a more nuanced picture of what gender could be in immigrant communities.
• D’Lo challenged the notion that traits must be associated with either femininity or masculinity exclusively. He never felt that way himself and most people don’t actually live that way either.
  • Samantha looks back on what she’s learned about the gender spectrum over the years
• What informed D’Lo’s notions of gender growing up? He opens up about
  • Remoy shares his own experiences with MASKulinity as a young South Asian man growing up in a mostly white community. 
  • He expresses his gratitude for the multitude of perspectives out there now that have expanded our understanding of gender, in particular for people of color, more specifically for that immigrant family fighting for the “American Dream”
• D’Lo reflects on his new understanding of strength. His perceptions of his parents drastically shifted once his understanding of gendered pressures grew and he started challenging them himself.
  • Remoy shares how empowering it is to hear this shift in perspective.
  • Samantha shares her discovery of anger and how that escaped her as a woman in 2018.
• D’Lo has embraced all his multitudes and shares how being an artist allowed him to express them all.
  • Remoy as a multihyphenate himself embraced his own wholeness rather than falling to the pressures of achievement.
  • Shout-out to the folks out there fighting to make POC trans voices heard!

Let us know how your own views about gender have changed over the years!!

Referenced in this episode:

• D’Lo on how he came out three times
• More about D’Lo
• Not Past It - Remoy’s history-focused podcast

COMPANION PIECES:

• Transitioning into Immigrant MASKulinity
• Relationships: Behind the MASK of Stoicism
• The Racial Hierarchy of MASKulinity, with Dr. Liu - Part 1 ENCORE
• My Body, My Transition, My Identity — How A Colombian Trans Activist

Calling all wrestling fans! This week, we are joined by playwright, Chicano history and theater professor, and self-professed smark Beto O’Byrne to talk MASKulinity in wrestling. Not your Olympics wrestling—it’s WWE, baby!

• Is wrestling fake? How dare you ask that?! Beto sets the record straight.
  • Wrestling is simultaneously sport and theater. This scripted performance produces an over-the-top MASKulinity for its audience of mostly men to thoroughly enjoy. What are the implications for MASKulinity? We discuss.
  • Beto walks us through what that has looked like in the ring over time.
• Beto and Remoy share their mutual love of wrestling as youngsters and nerd out on their favorite moves.
  • Moonsault anyone? What’s a hangman? Get your Google out—lots of terms in this one.
• Beto walks us through wrestling history and its connections to theater performances.
  • Many sports often have that flavor of homoerotism in many ways, and wrestling is no different.
  • How did wrestling evolve from its carnival roots to the WWE we know and love?
  • Wrestlers meld their in-ring persona with their real-world persona.
    • Colorful characters Stone Cold Steve Austins and The Rocks bled into American pop culture with their larger-than-life personas informing MASKulinity in their own ways.
• Listen for the best quote on professional wrestling you’ve ever heard in your life from Vince McMahon’s unauthorized biography.
• Beto highlights the different “characters” in wrestling storytelling:
  • You’ve got your heel, your monster heel, your babyface—all different facets of MASKulinity in the ring.
    • We’ve gotta know! Which archetype do you love?
    • Samantha gets to guess who The Man is, and if your wrestling knowledge is as limited as hers, you may be surprised to find out who it is…
• Women wrestle too, but it wasn’t always that way…
  • Models used to be recruited to get in the ring?! How did we go from hyperfemininity in this MASKuline world to Chyna and Jade Cargill?
  • Beto gives us a portrait of the evolution of women wrestlers in the McMahon machine.
• In our UnMASKed Interview segment, we get a snapshot of luchador culture and performance and its impact on American wrestling.
• We reflect on the ways that wrestling lets men watch other men be close…something they’re way less allowed to do in real life.
  • Is it cathartic?
  • Beto reflects on his Southern culture around MASKulinity and the vicarious experience that the WWE offers.
• We go further in the theatricality of the WWE and what that looks like when performing for tens of thousands of people.

Referenced in this episode:

• Beto O’Byrne guest references Ringmaster: Vince McMahon and the Unmaking of America by Abraham Josephine Reisman
• Masculinity, explained by WWE
• Samantha reacted to this video
• For deeper dives on wrestling and its history, check out wrestling observer Dave Metzler or former wrestling manager turned podcaster Jim Cornette
• Samantha developed a new crush in this episode

COMPANION PIECES:

• When we talked with with Kirstin Cronn-Mills about women’s sports in Don't Let Them Play ⚽️⚾ Lest the MASK Fall Away
• Women’s impact in wresting
• The impact of lucha culture

What’s a matriarchy? Documentarian Izzy Chan puts us up on game about what matriarchies actually are and what they’re like, and reveals surprising facts about women-led societies.

• Remoy takes the mic this week to explore this system that is often viewed as a patriarchy with women in charge. Matriarchy, however, is far from that. 
• Remoy makes the important note, which bears repeating, that most sources used to write this episode have the same patriarchal lens that we are trying to unMASK. We must always bear this in mind.
• Izzy talks us through the buzz words that describe women-led societies—what’s matrilineal versus matrilocal versus matriarchal? Listen to find out!
  • But there’s a reason why Izzy only uses one of these terms, though. She shares her experience creating her documentary Matriarch and the feedback she’s gotten.
• Izzy dispels the one-to-one comparison between patriarchy and matriarchy using facts from the societies she’s exploring in Matriarch.
  • What role do men play in a matriarchy?
  • Izzy fascinates Remoy and Samantha with the way men leaders (and husbands) are picked in the matriarchies she’s documenting.
  • Roles were respected in a different way in matriarchies, a way that didn’t require oppression or exploitation. So much to learn from this system…
• Why don’t we hear that much about matriarchies? Besides separate efforts to undermine their existence and legitimacy, many of them have been overtaken by patriarchal settlers.
• Remoy talks us through a couple matriarchies from different corners of the world.
  • First the Bijagos. Folks living in the Guinea Bissau archipelago were a matriarchy run by clan mothers. But this wasn’t just patriarchy with women at the top. Listen to find out how the Bijagos ran their community.
  • Then he comes to the Western hemisphere to present the Haudenosaunee, an indigenous group based in what is now Canada. Also a matriarchal and matrilineal community with mixed leadership, the Haudenosaunee is a longstanding group with community as one of its core values.
  • Is it true that in some societies, women propose to men? Get ready to hear more excitement from Remoy than you’ve heard all year. 
• Izzy paints a picture of the matriarchies and what it looks like to include all genders in leadership. She makes an important point about gender roles in matriarchies, which she credits to her advisor on Matriarch, a member of the Haudenosaunee tribe.
• Why are there so many matriarchies that no longer exist? Look no further than Western settler culture and colonialism. Guess how they proceeded?
• Quiz yourself on matriarchies with all the buzz words we give you this episode!
  • Hoyaneh
  • Orebok
  • Clan mother
  • Datuk
• Remoy gets just five questions to ask Izzy about matriarchy and gender. 
  • Izzy shines more light on one of patriarchy’s running theme: control.
    • Is it still a problem in matriarchy? We’ll let you take a wild guess.
  • She shares the most surprising things about matriarchy and checks all of us on the language that we use when talking about community.
  • Izzy implores us to ask “Right for whom?!” when it comes to gender roles in any system.
  • Izzy shares why it’s important to study and document matriarchies. What can we learn from them?
• Would you move to a matriarchy for a year? Why or not?? Let us know!

Referenced in this episode:

• The first look at Matriarch, Izzy Chan’s upcoming documentary on matriarchal societies:
  • Indonesia’s Minangkabau
  • Khasis: India's indigenous matrilineal society
  • In Sahara Desert's Tuareg Tribe, Islamic Women Rule The Roost
  • A look at the Mosuo
• Information about the Haudenosaunee from the Haudenosaunee
• Some history on the Bijagos

COMPANION PIECES:

• We talked about community with Jeremy Herte of Let’s Talk Bruh and started exploring patriarchy vs matriarchy in Let’s Talk MASKulinity, Bruh

Learn more

 about matriarchies!

It’s movie game night again! Samantha wants Remoy to watch a movie, and he guesses his way to the title of the movie. Play along to get a great movie recommendation that explores MASKulinity.

• Remoy guesses his way to this Oscar-winning movie with a modern Frankenstein story. Themes of liberation and control abound!
• First, they once again distill MASKulinity - what is it again? And why are we talking about it?
• This movie explores power and gender in an absurdist and comical way, which allows for a complete abandonment of social conventions. No apologies, no social conventions - it’s a delight!
  • No conventions means no prescriptions, which—you guessed it!—leaves the MASKuline characters in this movie in a dangle of confusion and frustration.
  • Remoy gives us the literati background of the movie, giving us insight into the story this movie is based on and its author
• What is it about women’s liberation that challenges men’s masculinity?
  • Samantha and Remoy discuss how the story pulls us in to pose this ever-relevant question.
• Literati and Marvel at the same time? We’ll let you figure out the context on that one.
• MASKulinity comes in all shapes and sizes in this flick.
  • What does this movie want to leave us with in terms of gender? And why?
  • Samantha tells us why she recommended this film and ponders who it’s intended for.
• What movies have you seen that explore the performance of masculinity? Send them to us! We’ll be discussing it on a future episode and you might get a chance to be on Beneath the MASK 🎭!

Referenced in this episode:

• Some loved this film
• Some did not love this film
• Some more insight into the book this film is based on

COMPANION PIECES:

• Our first movie night this season: Trivia Night! Movie Time? Romance and Loneliness Edition
• When we talked to MASKulinity-questioning filmmaker Imran Siddiquee about Romance MASKulinity: Getting the Girl...

Some thoughts

 on women’s sexual liberation in the flick

Join us, will you, and take a trip down memory lane with Samantha and Remoy... back to 2018... 

• Follow along as our two hosts listen back to a season two episode where former guests Halston Bruce and Julie Henderson bring their A-game — sharing their experiences navigating gender's very blurry lines in and out of the gym
  • Julie's court dominance sparks an eye-opening discussion on the importance of male allyship
    • Remoy tells story after story... first how he failed his and Julie's movie favorite—Love and Basketball
      • Next, an anecdote about how venturing into some "femme" craftiness cracked open a deeper discussion on what it looks like to break free from the performance of MASKulinity
  • Halston's vulnerability about the muscle stigma she endured has Samantha and Remoy parsing through all the strengths women have to continually flex
  • Julie and Remoy's banter on the lack of infrastructural support for girls' sports in 2018 now seems hilariously outdated in the face of the current women's basketball revolution

Referenced in this episode:

• The OG MASKulinity episode starring one Julie Henderson and Halston Bruce: Women Athletes: performing masculinity (and femininity) on and off the court
• Another episode referenced from the (recent) past: Don't Let Them Play ⚽️⚾ Lest the MASK Fall Away
• NCAA coach and champ Dawn Staley advocates for trans athletes, both on and off the court
• Boston Celtics' Jason Tatum reveals the female athletes who inspire him
• NBA star Trae Young champions women's sports with his vocal support
• The 2024 Women's NCAA tournament final breaks records and redefines the future of the game’s relationship with audiences
• Explore Iceland's fishing industry through Halston Bruce's stunning documentary, Blood Memory
• Step into the vibrant world of Reunion Los Angeles, Halston Bruce's curated creative space

COMPANION PIECES:

• Travel back to the first live MASKulinity Podcast episode at Halston Bruce’s co-curated art Salon: MASKulinity Live at First Person Plural!
• Julie Henderson and Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey talk about Black women’s fashion and sports
• Julie Henderson's godson talks through his appreciation for women athletes… NBA rising star Jaden Ivey
• Women athletes flex on muscle stigma, breaking free from stereotypes
• Girls are finding their strength through powerlifting
• The comeuppance of girls basketball is now
• An oral history 20 years after the premiere of Love and Basketball

Our podbro, the illustrious German Villegas, graces our podwaves this week as we drop his episode on internet royalty from his current season of Modern Manhood, Man Vs. Machine.

• Remember NFTs? So many of those are worth a lot less than they were in 2023, but German questions why so many men used the internet this way and how it led to the crypto-bro. 🧐:
• In our latest episode of the season titled “Man v/s Machine”, we unravel the fascinating world of online fandoms and how gender influences the way we talk, socialize, and action on the internet.
  • For years, fandom has been the heartbeat of the internet. But did you know that the way men and women engage with their fandoms varies significantly? 
  •  Women have harnessed the power of fandom to create nurturing communities, driving trends like the massive sale of Stanley Mugs. They have been the ones who have turned the “social” in social media, and their thriving support of artists like One Direction, Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, K-Pop, and others have shaped the way we think about online discourse. 
  • Men, on the other hand, have channeled their fandom into the digital economy, pushing the possible dangers of cryptocurrencies and NFTs. As well as pushing up people like Jordan Perterson, Joe Rogan, Andrew Tate, 4chan, and others. 
  • And who better to guide us through than YouTuber and Writer Alice Cappelle? Known for her youtube videos diving into sociology, and online interactions. Alice shares about her perspectives being a female YouTuber as well as her knowledge of fandom online. As well we look a bit at her book “Collapse Feminism”
  • How do these diverse fandom expressions shape the internet we navigate daily? Do they bring positive culture or do they bring harm?
• Be sure to follow German’s substack The Ferdinand to hear additional thoughts on the subject! This blog serves as a great companion for Modern Manhood, and you know we love a companion piece.

Referenced in this episode:

• Sam Bankman-Fried found guilty on all seven criminal fraud counts
• When Sneako Meets His Fans
• Alice Cappelle's Collapse Feminism

COMPANION PIECES:

• Kaitlyn Tiffany's Everything I Need I get from You
• One Direction fangirls created the internet as we know it
• How the alt-right uses internet trolling to confuse you into dismissing its ideology
• ‘Crypto bro’ isn’t just slang.
• Alice Cappelle questions whether positive masculinity is overrated

This week, Remoy picks up the newscaster mic and shares some history about women’s sports. We are joined by young adult author and educator Kirstin Cronn-Mills, an activist supporting gender equity in sports, specifically for trans women.

• Sports have always been framed and regarded as a men’s activity by the powers that be, but in reality, all genders have always participated. Did you know that women were running their own soccer league in England in the late 1800s? How did we go from women being entrepreneurs turning away thousands of eager spectators at their sold-out matches to women being underrepresented in sports? Remoy charts the timeline of women’s soccer in England before patriarchy intervened.
• Before baseball was segregated, girls just played with boys. Did they have to create separate leagues because girls couldn’t keep up? Or was it threatening to boys’ status to have girls play in their leagues? Listen as Remoy gives the gray answer of what actually happened and Kirstin Cronn-Mills shares historical sports insights of her own.
• Our illustrious guest questions what it is about women’s power that makes men so uncomfortable and reveals how her work in sports and novels has informed her own parenting.
• Using pseudoscience to proclaim certain people’s superiority is not a new game! Remoy outlines how teams kept girls out of baseball and how real science exposed that the truth is quite the opposite of the arguments used to maintain sports as strictly a boys’ thing.
  • Kirstin drops knowledge on trans athlete Lia Thomas and what it’s really like when trans women compete after their transition. Knowing the real science is really the key!
• Help us name our revamped interview segment! 🎙️ This week, it’s Remoy who deep-dives with our illustrious guest, Kirstin Cronn-Mills, and Samantha is back in the hot seat! Send us your suggestions at [email protected].
• Kirstin Cronn-Mills shares some key insights and knowledge about sports and gender through her author and educator lens and she and Remoy ponder what sports might have been like had patriarchal control not intervened.
• Things are on the up and up with women and queer athletes! Don’t miss the most exciting things Kirstin is excited about when it comes to the evolution of sports and gender.
• We give Serena Williams the props she deserves and find out who was nicknamed after her as a young adult!
• young adult!

Referenced on this episode:

• Gender Inequality in Sports and LGBTQ+ Athletes Claim the Field by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
• Playing With the Boys by Eileen McDonagh and Laura Pappano
• There's No Girls In Baseball is  the fight for inclusion in Little League baseball as reported and produced by Remoy Philip
• The history behind the U.K.'s women's soccer ban
• The truth about Lia Thomas swimming against other cis women

COMPANION PIECES:

• Women Athletes: performing masculinity (and femininity) on and off the court
• Supporting LGBTQ Athletes in the Binary World of Sports
• Weaving the Fabric of Exclusive American Masculinity with the Boy Scouts
• Maria Pepe: the New Jersey girl who sued to play baseball with the boys