Pynk Spots

Poppin Off

Today Nichole pops off about official autism diagnoses and how inaccessible they are, creating barriers for those on the spectrum to get access to services they need.

Joke

Why do anarchists only drink herbal tea? Plus another bonus joke!

Main Topic: Queerness and Anarchy For All!

Inspired by the book Queering Anarchism, we talk about the concept of queer anarchism and how we can queer our anarchy and anarchize our queerness, focusing specifically on how these two practices are available to EVERYONE no matter how you identify or what your political ideology is.

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:26] So hello internet. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:00:29] And I’m Callie.

Nichole [00:00:30] And today we’ll be talking about…

Callie [00:00:33] Queer anarchism!

Nichole [00:00:35] We’re so excited. Highly anticipated.

Callie [00:00:39] So excited.

Nichole [00:00:40] We’re not as ready as we want to be but like, fuck it right?

Callie [00:00:45] Mm hmm, Yep.

Nichole [00:00:47] First, however, we’re going to talk about, well, I’m going to talk about a little autism update, if you will. So in the last week, ever since we had our neurodivergent coming-out episode, we have, well I’ve looked into really what it takes to get diagnosed. I was able to get in touch with a professional and talk to her about what a formal diagnosis would require. And I now more fully understand why people encourage others to diagnose themselves if they can’t get diagnosed professionally because it is really difficult. There’s a pretty high barrier to diagnosis. So just for everyone else who’s interested in this, this might be some useful information for you.

Nichole [00:01:42] So for, first of all, for me to get an informal diagnosis, she was saying her discounted rate was one hundred an hour and it would take two to three sessions for us to go through the questions that she had and just to do the evaluation to get like, basically a, you know, you can feel good that you sort of have a diagnosis now, but it won’t get you access to anything, a diagnosis. So it’s gonna be probably like three hundred dollars for that because I don’t have insurance. And then to get a formal diagnosis, you actually have to go to a center. It’s far more expensive. She didn’t say exactly how much, but I’m guessing like six to twelve hundred dollars, somewhere in there. It can take months, there’s questions that you have to answer, like tons of questions that you have to answer and they do a really strong evaluation on your development as a child.

Nichole [00:02:43] So they highly recommend that you bring a parent or h...

We’ve had big revelations in the last few weeks and we’re ready to talk about discovering that we’re on the spectrum (Nichole) and have ADHD (Callie) We learned that these are both WAY under-diagnosed in people assigned female at birth because the science was based on the male brain. We have a lot to say about all this, and we hope it might help others realize things about themselves or their loved ones!

Resources

* Autism vs ADHD (The Difference between ADHD and Autism Spectrum Disorder) | Asperbergers from the Inside (YouTube)* Why Is It So Hard to Do Something That Should Be Easy? | How to ADHD (YouTube)* ADHD in Girls: How to Recognize the Symptoms | How to ADHD (YouTube)* 7 Signs of Autism in Men (DSM-5 Symptoms of Autism/Aspergers in High Functioning Autistic Adults) | Asperbergers from the Inside (YouTube)* Autism symptoms in GIRLS | Yo Samdy Sam (YouTube)* Autism: It’s Different in Girls. | Scientific American * Why is ADHD Missed in Girls? | BBC

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:27] Hey, everyone, I’m autistic.

Callie [00:00:33] And I’m ADHD.

Nichole [00:00:38] Callie and I are just perpetually coming out. So here we are yet again, new identities discovered here to represent neurodiversity.

Callie [00:00:49] Yeah. And coming to it later in life, that’s going to be a big part of our discussion today. And just the kind of fuckery that happens when you don’t get told by any experts.

Nichole [00:01:02] Yeah. And you get to just think that you’re a fucking loser your whole life and things are just hard for you for no reason. And you just need to try harder and then you’ll be better.

Callie [00:01:13] Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Nichole [00:01:17] Were you recording? Because I wasn’t.

Callie [00:01:22] No.

Nichole [00:01:25] OK. Let’s maybe do that.

We dig deep into the dazzling queer wonderland that is She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, raving about all the things we love about it and ranting about Catradora and what we see as the romanticization of a deeply abusive relationship. HOT TAKE, we know.

Joke

What do you call people who get turned on by eating all the things? (a Nicky original!)

Analyzing Catradora: Kylo Ren in a Cat Suit

While we LOVED She-Ra overall, we both had enormous concerns with Catra and Adora’s relationship. We spend the first half raving about everything we love in this magical show, including the strong restorative justice vibes, the queerness, the friendships, the costume designs and diversity of body shapes, Swift Wind and SHANTIES!

Then we get serious about the disturbing relationship between Catra and Adora, tracking the abusive behavior and the way that the story did not allow for a proper redemption arc to justify them becoming a couple.

Literally the entire rest of the internet disagrees with us, everyone else think Catradora is great and that Catra was completely redeemed by the end, so here are some folks that take the opposing view from us, if you want to explore that as well:

* “She-Ra’s” Nuanced Take on Abuse and Trauma Is Its Real Power | Bitch Media* She-Ra Season 5 Watered My Crops & (Almost) Cured My Depression | MelinaPendulum* The Brilliance Of She-Ra’s Final Season | Riley J Dennis* Why Catradora Works (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power) | The Roundtable

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:27] Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Bitchy Shitshow, home of the bitchiest bitches and the shittiest of shit shows.

Callie [00:00:39] Wow, big, big claim there.

Nichole [00:00:42] I know. I might be overselling it, but we’ll see.

Callie [00:00:47] You called us the bitchiest bitches and then I start giggling. Like I just… People are going to be like OK…

Nichole [00:00:52] Yeah, I know. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:01:01] And I’m Callie.

Nichole [00:01:02] And today we’re talking about…

Callie [00:01:04] She-Ra Princesses of Power.

Nichole [00:01:06] She-Raaaaa!

Listen. We are really burnt out this week, we both had difficult weekends that culminated in us getting inexplicably deactivated on YouTube and then just as mysteriously unsuspended, so we hit the whiskey today to talk freely about everything from She-Ra (spoiler-free!) to our views on the current fall of capitalism and our dreams to join a supportive community somewhere. An unfocused, fun, rowdy conversation.

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:26] Hi, everyone. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:00:29] And I’m Callie.

Nichole [00:00:30] And today we’ll be bitching about…

Callie [00:00:33] No idea yet. Everything?

Nichole [00:00:40] Yeah. So we kind of needed a break today, we’ll be real with everyone, and so we’re basically just going to bitch about a bunch of random shit. And we’re probably going to talk about She-Ra.

Callie [00:00:50] Mm hmm. Mm hmm.

Nichole [00:00:52] And maybe also talk about the current dismantling of the myth of the American Dream that we see happening and what we see, possibly little seedlings of hope, of how people seem to be creating something new in its place. But that sounds way out of character for how grumpy I am and for the fact that I have whiskey and an empty stomach so we’ll see how it goes. We’ll see how it goes.

Callie [00:01:22] Yeah.

Nichole [00:01:22] So this is gonna be an episode for BSS lovers who actually like when we just go off on tangents and are unstructured and messy.

Callie [00:01:34] Yeah, if this is your first episode please skip it and go listen to something else.

Nichole [00:01:43] Yeah, don’t judge us by this.

Callie [00:01:45] Yeah.

Nichole [00:01:45] Unless you love it in which case this is very on brand.

Callie [00:01:49] Oh my god, Mohera says, “The Random Shit Bitchy Shitshow,” y’all are the best at coming up with these!

Nichole [00:01:57] No, Mohera already had another amazing tagline for us today.

Callie [00:02:00] Today?! What was it?

Nichole [00:02:01] Yes girl, today! Up thread. She was like a podcast for when, you know how my memory is, it was like a podcast for when you need whiskey because it’s one of those days. And I was like, girl!

Callie [00:02:14] Oh, I feel that in my soul. Oh my god. Kate, “BSS STANS ARE HERE FOR THE MESSINESS IN ALL ITS GLORY,” in all caps.

Nichole [00:02:28] We appreciate you.

Callie [00:02:30] I love it. I didn’t get to comment on this earlier, but Megan called me glorious and thank you.

Nichole [00:02:38] I saw that, that was lovely.

Callie [00:02:40] I live by that.

For our gayest episode yet, we are so thrilled to be joined by Marine from The Vegan Vanguard podcast to talk about compulsory heterosexuality and how it impacted our individual queer (and in Nichole’s case, gender) journeys. We had a lot of laughs, a lot of deep moments, and some delightfully TMI conversations along the way!

Poppin Off

We take just a brief moment to acknowledge the current “win” for the queer community with the recent Supreme Court ruling that the Civil Rights Act covers the LGBTQ community in terms of employment. A poignant post from the Instagram account @Chikalogy pointed out that the online celebrations from the white LGBTQs was missing how painful it is for queer BIPOC folks that their murders at the hands of the state are still legal and happening nearly everyday. Job protection is great but it matters little when your life is perpetually in danger.

Resources

* Landmark civil rights law extends to LGBTQ employees, Supreme Court rules | June 15, 2020 (LA Times)* Chikalogy’s Instragram Post

Joke

What will the first gay Transformer be?

Main Topic: Examining Compulsory Heterosexuality and Our Queer Journeys

We had a BLAST celebrating Pride month with this topic. We start off with the lovely Marine from The Vegan Vanguard podcast defining compulsory heterosexuality and talking about how it appears in our daily lives, impacting our own awareness of our sexuality. Then we all talk about our own experiences with discovering and defining our queerness. Callie says the “p” word, Nichole shaved her head, and Marine confesses to past loves. It’s great.

Resources

* Shame | ContraPoints (YouTube)* gal pals and compulsory heterosexuality by Sophie Jerrome (YouTube)* What Is Compulsory Heterosexuality? // Comp Het Explained by Tallulah Guard (YouTube)* Compulsive Heteronoronmativity  by Hannah Witton (YouTube)* No More Secrets, No More Lies African American History and Compulsory Heterosexuality by Mattie Udora Richardson (Journal of Women’s History)* Queering Anarchism by Various Authors (AK Press)

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:27] Hey everyone. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:00:29] And I’m Callie.

As a sister episode to last week’s awesome interview with The Raven Corps youth activism group, this week we talk about how our oppressive systems are built to specifically target young people in order to prevent the youth from having political power or, most dangerous of all, hope.

Poppin Off

Callie pops her top over discovering the book White Fragility was authored by a white woman, inspired by an episode of the Low Society podcast. Then Nichole takes a moment, in a testament to the power of The Youth, to recognize the incredible internet activism of Kpop stans and TikTok users after they “catfish” the Tulsa Trump rally, leading the campaign to think there were far more people coming than actually showed up *chefs kiss*

* #032 – White Fragility | Low Society (SoundCloud)* Sick staff and empty seats: How Trump’s triumphant return to the campaign trail went from bad to worse | by Kevin Liptak and Kaitlan Collins (CNN)* ‘These kids are smart, they thought of everything’: TikTok users claim some responsibility for low turnout to Trump’s Tulsa rally | by Taylor Lorenze, Sheera Frenkel, Kellen Browning (Independent UK)

Joke

There are two factors of COVID-19:… (Thanks, Rose!)

Main Topic: How the Youth are Oppressed

In researching this topic, it became clear very quickly that in any way a person can be oppressed, they will be doubly so when young. There was a sharp change after the 1960s, when the government became fully aware from the Civil Rights protests and anti-war protests that the youth had a tremendous amount of political power just by the force of their convictions. After that era, a concerted effort was made to subtly, secretly attack youth through every conceivable system that touches our lives. We outline several, but this is by no means an exhaustive list.

We want young people to hear this episode and feel validated for any time they’ve felt like things are stacked against them. Older folks can understand what youth experience, and also see how they were potentially oppressed when younger as well, depending on what era they grew up in.

Resources

* The Student Vote Is Surging. So Are Efforts to Suppress It. | by Michael Wines on Oct 24, 2019 (NY Times)* Boomers vs. Millennials: A Look at the Financial Gap Between Generations | by Joel Anderson (Yahoo Finance)* 5 facts about student loans | by Anthony Cilluffo (Pew Research Center)* How Biden helped create the student debt problem he now promises to fix | by Ed Pilkington on Dec 2, 2019 (The Guardian)* Learn More: Child Marriage in the U.S. (Equality Now)* Abortion and Parental Involvement Laws (Ad...

Auntie Nicky and Callie are talking to The Youth today, interviewing Melissa and Cami, two absolute badass young people, from The Raven Corps, a youth-organized activism group. We talk about what Raven Corps does, how people can get involved, what a youth-led, decentralized organization looks like, and their tips for young people growing up in today’s extreme world.

Poppin Off

We acknowledge the recent lynchings in California, and discuss the murder of Rayshard Brooks by police when he was reported for sleeping in his car in a Wendy’s drive-thru, connecting it to the defund/abolish police movement. Then we talk about the autonomous zone that is thriving in Seattle, and report on others that are trying to get established.

* Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone website (capitolhillaz.org)* What the F*ck is Going on in Seattle? (medium.com)* The Demands of the Collective Black Voices at Free Capitol Hill to the Government of Seattle (medium.com)* Tweet about autonomous zones by @mbowman (Twitter)

Joke

Why do riot cops get up so early in the morning? (See the original TikTok of the joke here)

Main Topic: Raven Corps Interview

Today we are so honored to have Melissa and Cami with us from Raven Corps. The Raven Corps is a youth-powered, anti-oppression organization. Melissa is the co-founder and Portland lead; Cami the Youth Board member and San Diego co-lead.

We chat with Melissa and Cami about Raven Corps – not just what they do, but really focusing on how they are organized and how they manage to be a truly youth-powered organization with the young activists having true autonomy and power in what actions they take; and also how Raven Corps has changed its focus and strategy in recent years to be a holistic anti-oppression organization and to avoid perpetuating a colonizing approach to activism through chapters. We talk about the importance of community support as a young activist and the ways that young people can get involved with Raven Corps or QuaranTEEN, their Slack-based online community for youths aged 14-22 years old. At the end of the interview, Melissa and Cami both have some deeply moving words of advice for young people who are overwhelmed by current events and the general state of the world they’ve grown up in.

We loved this interview and hope y’all do too. Please share it widely with any young people you know or consider making a donation of either money or skills to the organization!

* Raven Corps website* Raven Corps Instagram account* Email to get involved in QuaranTEEN or find out more about Raven Corps: [email protected]* QuaranTEEN application

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Taking a breath to process what’s been going on over the past two weeks, we delve into the concepts of violence, curfews and looting from an AnCom (anarcho-communist) perspective to help make some sense of all the online chatter and hopefully give some organization of how to talk about these things to friends and family.

Pop Tops

We quickly cover a few news items this week, some good news and some proof of ACAB:

* Minneapolis public school board votes to terminate its contract with police (The Guardian)* University of Minnesota Ending Contracts With Minneapolis Police Department After George Floyd’s Death (Time) – CW this article autoplays a video of George Floyd’s murder at the top* Buffalo Cop Loses Job And Pension After She Intervenes With Fellow Officer Choking A Suspect (Vice)

Joke

How do conservatives get their B12? (Thanks, Dimitry!)

Main Topic: Violence, Curfews and Looting

Property

Before we get deep into the concepts of violence, curfews and looting, we first define property, which is core to really understanding an anti-capitalist perspective:

Property: anarchists put forward a specific definition of property: ownership claims on those things that one neither occupies nor uses. Anarchists usually juxtapose this with possessions, or those things that we use or the homes that we live in (i.e. no anarchist wants to take your home or guitar away). This is how bosses and landlords exploit workers, by claiming to own the things they do not use or the places in which they do not live, then extracting rents and value from the people who do actually use them. In place of private ownership, anarchists put forward visions of a social system in which we produce for the needs of the people instead of the profits of capitalists.

FROM: C.B. Daring; J. Rogue; Deric Shannon; Abbey Volcano. Queering Anarchism (Kindle Locations 160-164). AK Press. Kindle Edition.

NOTE: The distinction of property vs possession is a VERY critical one to understand. This can help make sense of a lot of liberal arguments where these two concepts are often conflated.

Violence

We then explore the idea of violence from an anarchist perspective, of which there is of course no agreement but we generally define this along lines of a willingness to do destruction in order to move towards a goal of community care and breaking systems of oppression, as well as talk about how we see violence in things that expand beyond the borders of physical brutality. To this end, we critique a recent article by Nathan J. Robinson (link below) in Current Affairs that talks about how we define violence. While we agree with his overall premise and respect him greatly as a journalist, we thought the article was missing this anarchist perspective to allow for a larger definition of violence and even a claiming and acceptance of violence in a rebellion (rather than trying to run away from that label being put on destructive actions to try to sugarcoat the rebellion).

Curfews

Nichole snagged an awesome quote from Irami Osei-Frimpong about curfews (link to full video below): “Curfews are an escalation of violence: when you criminalize behavior you are legitimizing the people wh...

This week we kicked off livestreaming our episodes on YouTube, so please join us over there if you want to watch us do this thing live and have the opportunity to interact with us on the topics we cover in real time! We livestream episodes every Sunday at 12pm PT. Podcast episodes post as usual on Tuesdays.

Today, we talk about everything happening with the George Floyd protests that have appeared all over the country, and then move into the main topic discussing why we love Marc Lamont Hill’s framing of these as rebellions instead of riots.

Poppin Off

We start the show by discussing *gestures vaguely at everything*

Joke

How do you make a water bed bouncier? (Thanks Rose!)

These are Rebellions, Not Riots

The main topic is inspired by an Instagram IGTV video by Marc Lamont Hill, link below, in which The Bitches talk about framing the George Floyd / Black Lives Matter protests as rebellions, not riots. This can help frame them properly so that we can stop having exhausting conversations about looting, violence, etc. If you can see these as the start of a rebellion, it puts a lot into perspective. Next week we’ll go into the concept of looting in more detail.

Resources

* Marc Lamont Hill Video about “Riots” that inspired this episode (Instagram)* we are exhausted. (YouTube) – amandabb video very much worth watching about current events + great resources in the video description

Street Action PSA

from

Channel Zero Network

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:26] Hi, everyone. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:00:28] And I’m Callie.

Nichole [00:00:30] And today we’re bitching about.

Callie [00:00:32] The fuckin rebellion happening, although I guess we’re not really gonna be bitching about the rebellion. We’re like celebrating it. Yeah, spoiler alert.

Nichole [00:00:44] Speaking of bitching, don’t think we didn’t see your comments coming in. All of you. We started late because other people log in late. It’s also because we’re temperamental artists.

Nichole [00:01:00] Both can be true, ok.

Callie [00:01:02] I know.

Callie [00:01:03] Oh, my God. Those comments. Killing me.

Nichole [00:01:07] Yes. So where the fuck do we even start?

Callie [00:01:15] I don’t know.

Nichole [00:01:16] Um, yeah, I mean, it’s been it’s been a lot.

Poppin Off

Before we get to our analysis of The Platform, we take a VERY LONG ranty ride through our reactions to Joe Biden’s latest “gaffe” (aka he did a racism) this week with his quip to Charlamange Tha God from The Breakfast Club that if black folks still question who they’re voting for then, they “ain’t black.” We also go on a tear about his treatment of Stacey Abrams, and then fall through a whole thing again about vote blue no matter who

Resources

* Joe Biden on Black Woman Running Mate, Democrats Taking Black Voters for Granted + Wiping Weed Crime | The Breakfast Club (YouTube) – the whole interview is BIZARRE and worth watching but this link will take you right to the “you ain’t black” part* Stacey Abrams DEVASTATED when Joe Biden wouldn’t Announce her as his Running Mate on MSNBC | Christo Aivalis (YouTube)* It’s Not that I’m Negative, America Really is Screwed: Why Economics Says America’s Collapse is Probably Irreversible Now | by umair haque (Medium)

Joke

Why don’t cannibals eat clowns?

The Platform Analysis: Is Spontaneous Solidarity Possible?

We both LOVED Netflix’s gruesome yet beautiful Spanish film, The Platform, and so today we’re doing a deep analysis on the messages in the film and what came through for us as two staunch anti-capitalists. We explore what the film says about capitalism, socialism, communism, anarchism, class warfare, limited resources, neoliberalism, and so much more. Plus, Nichole has a few “hot takes” that she hasn’t heard anywhere else on the internet!

Resources

* Desperately Trying Not to be Politicize The Platform | Scaredy Cats (YouTube)

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Transcript

Nichole [00:00:26] Hey, everyone. I’m Nichole.

Callie [00:00:28] And I’m Callie.

Nichole [00:00:30] And today we’ll be talking about.

Callie [00:00:32] The Platform!

Nichole [00:00:33] Woohoo!

Callie [00:00:34] Finally!

Nichole [00:00:37] But first, we are going to pop off about Joe Biden.

Nichole [00:00:44] I’m sure that’s shocking to all of you who have followed the news this week.

Nichole [00:00:51] So, Callie, what did would a good old, good old Joe get up to this week?

Callie [00:00:55] Well, you know, he just made another harmless gaffe, which is just code for he once again is showing his racist ass to the world.