MASKulinity Podcast

MASKulinity's first live show!! Samantha and Remoy had the amazing opportunity to talk about masculinity and fatherhood at First Person Plural, alongside poets and historians! Friend of the show, Mark Pagán, joins them to deepen the question of fatherhood and father figures. Have a listen for a thoughtful conversation on what fatherhood means for them and in their lives. The group also opens up about what it looks like to apply this new consciousness in real life and challenging themselves to walk the talk!

Special episode! Acclaimed writer and activist Darnell Moore stops by in between seasons to talk about his new book, No Ashes in the Fire! We explore love, loneliness, freedom in his memoir, as Darnell challenges us to face our complicity and hold ourselves accountable by receiving others with love no matter what. Darnell outlines how collective accountability can break men free of the cage that is maskulinity and exposes the loneliness black queer men can experience due to our supremacist notions of manhood.

It's been a year since we started this conversation!! Some people are going back to school, some people are coming back from vacation, wherever you are, check out this compilation of notable moments from Season 2! These aren't all of the notable moments, but it's great food for thought. 

With the potential reversal of Roe vs Wade looming, Samantha and Remoy explore the implications of restricting reproductive rights with Heidi Sieck, founder and CEO of VOTEPROCHOICE, which is dedicated to putting votes behind pro-choice candidates. Heidi reveals that the US is actually 70% pro-choice and that patriarchal control maintains the facade. They stress the importance of creating a culture shift where sex is no longer shameful to talk about to come away from sexual suppression which impacts health.

In the second act of Racial Hierarchy, Dr. William Ming Liu breaks down men of color being tokenized, while white men, though still performing masculinity, have more freedom given our white supremacist society. Remoy reveals how exhausting the expectation of working much harder as a man of color is, which Dr. Liu breaks down as the economic and cultural legacy of the US, ie John Henryism. The three expose the unspoken understanding of living in brown bodies and the impact on our communities. Don't miss it.

Dr. William Liu – psychologist, professor and editor of the scholarly journal Psychology of Men and Masculinity – joins Samantha and Remoy to dissect the connection between White Supremacy and MASKulinity. First, Dr. Liu outlines the framework by exposing maskulinity's racial context. Dr. Liu then unpacks why hegemony can’t exist without a consenting middle class. Lastly, Dr. Liu breaks down how 'maskulinity' is fundamentally white maskulinity and how that of other cultures is therefore defined as deviant.

Samantha and Remoy take an opportunity to have a thoughtful phone call about Terry Crews, the importance of someone like him coming forward, someone whom no one expects to be a sexual assault survivor. They speculate on why he's being vilified and mocked and what that says about our culture, and how far we have to go.

This week, Samantha and Remoy talk to Julie Henderson, former NCAA basketball player turned model and Halston Bruce, powerlifter and personal trainer, about how women athletes interact with masculinity. They share about calling on masculinity and femininity differently, they each share the ways that they are supported by men within their athletic communities, as compared to the outside, where they deal with egos more. Samantha and Remoy confront their own attitudes about women in sports! Tune in!

This week, Samantha and Remoy are joined by Imran Siddiquee, who writes, makes film, and advocates for fair representation of race and gender in the media. He breaks down how film has instructed society how to be a man, looking back on what was once acceptable in TV and movies but now makes them cringe. Imran stresses how important it is for men to value perspectives other than their own to really challenge patriarchy, how having tough conversations is essential to that! Discount code: https://goo.gl/Y3ezYJ