Thank you both for an excellent year of podcasts. Your level of preparation is perfect for the podcast. I enjoy your range of topics, level of comfort with each other when you disagree and your generosity of sharing some of your friendship with us. I see the podcast as a little gift of thanks for supporting the lesbian project by subscribing, and support your decision to only video a few recordings, after all you give us so much. I hope you both enjoy a well deserved week off, and look forward to the project continuing with its purpose in 2026 xx
Oh what a lively jam-packed episode to close/start the year!
So much to think about ...
the demise of Prides in their (to me) ugly new form;
public monuments to women;
does More in Common claim its surveys are representative?
and cocktails. Lovely!
On statues and the names of buildings and streets - it can sometimes seem like a side issue, but when I see a statue of an actual woman in a public place it always feels exciting and significant.
As well as Visiible Women UK, I will of course shout out for Wales - see Monumental Welsh Women who have now got four of their five women statues up: https://monumentalwelshwomen.com/
Elaine Morgan is one of them, and I read her Descent of Woman in the early 80's and it was such a revelation but also provoked my sense that women were missing everywhere. We'd had the arrant sexism or invisibility of women in standard and popular texts - The Descent of Man (Darwin), The Naked Ape (Morris), The Ascent of Man (Bronowsky, and BBC tv series). But now we had women researching, writing, publishing e.g. Virago republishing classics by women such as Sylvia Townsend-Warner: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2016/august/carmen-callil-on-sylvia-townsend-warner and all that opened up everything to public feminist scrutiny, as well as filling in the huge woman-shaped gap in history, science, literature, etc.
Of course, there was a massive backlash but Elaine like others continued with her work, and it's that tenacity that I think you two Julie and Kathleen also demonstrate, so we thank you.
Happy New Year everyone! raises a glass... Negroni, since you ask
I'm still a fan of Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape theory. I know it has been debunked, but it makes so much sense. That's a beauty of belief, I guess. Her greatest contribution was to force us all to think of proto-humans as being female.
Wish you well on your dry journey, Kathleen! I learned something new about myself, those around me, and wider society every time I quit ;-) It can kind of suck, but it's a worthwhile endeavor. Enjoy the ride.
Why can't every paid episode be with visuals? It would be a much bigger incentive for people to subscribe than this vague "we'll do a few more visual episodes this year" thing.
Well, I’m late to this discussion but this whole thing about the over emphasis on feelings. My problem are the people who say everything is due to childhood trauma, and therefore you can never confront anybody about anything and nobody. Nobody really knows what they’re doing. We can change because of childhood drama as all that trauma can’t be dealt with. I’ve been through lots of therapy of every level. The best therapy I had was from the psychiatrist she said look you can’t change the past, but you don’t have to keep looking at it. See that suitcase in your brain over there put those memories in that suitcase, lock that suitcase, and throw the key away.
Your discussion of what "Pride" has become brought back memories of the early 90s when I was on the board of the Santa Cruz lesbian and gay community center. I remember adopting "LGBT" in the newsletter because I was exhausted from constant haranguing. I was exhausted from so many of my friends getting sick and dying. And those who weren't sick wanted lesbians' support for their activities. The annual gay and lesbian talent show became an all-male drag show. I remember a conversation with the long-time organiser of Santa Cruz's pride parade, telling me the gay and lesbian parade would now be called "pride." They had decided.
The movement had moved past me. I soon resigned and I noticed everyone of my generation at the community center was gone too. We focused on our families and professional careers. I bought a Tivo.
Thank you both for an excellent year of podcasts. Your level of preparation is perfect for the podcast. I enjoy your range of topics, level of comfort with each other when you disagree and your generosity of sharing some of your friendship with us. I see the podcast as a little gift of thanks for supporting the lesbian project by subscribing, and support your decision to only video a few recordings, after all you give us so much. I hope you both enjoy a well deserved week off, and look forward to the project continuing with its purpose in 2026 xx
The best thing she wrote was The Kingdoms of Elphin. It’s hilarious.
"I'll Stand by You; Selected Letters" - Is this what you are looking for Kathleen? - Check out Nangle Rare Books, Dorchester, UK - (See Abebooks.com)
Oh what a lively jam-packed episode to close/start the year!
So much to think about ...
the demise of Prides in their (to me) ugly new form;
public monuments to women;
does More in Common claim its surveys are representative?
and cocktails. Lovely!
On statues and the names of buildings and streets - it can sometimes seem like a side issue, but when I see a statue of an actual woman in a public place it always feels exciting and significant.
As well as Visiible Women UK, I will of course shout out for Wales - see Monumental Welsh Women who have now got four of their five women statues up: https://monumentalwelshwomen.com/
Elaine Morgan is one of them, and I read her Descent of Woman in the early 80's and it was such a revelation but also provoked my sense that women were missing everywhere. We'd had the arrant sexism or invisibility of women in standard and popular texts - The Descent of Man (Darwin), The Naked Ape (Morris), The Ascent of Man (Bronowsky, and BBC tv series). But now we had women researching, writing, publishing e.g. Virago republishing classics by women such as Sylvia Townsend-Warner: https://www.londonreviewbookshop.co.uk/blog/2016/august/carmen-callil-on-sylvia-townsend-warner and all that opened up everything to public feminist scrutiny, as well as filling in the huge woman-shaped gap in history, science, literature, etc.
Of course, there was a massive backlash but Elaine like others continued with her work, and it's that tenacity that I think you two Julie and Kathleen also demonstrate, so we thank you.
Happy New Year everyone! raises a glass... Negroni, since you ask
I'm still a fan of Elaine Morgan's Aquatic Ape theory. I know it has been debunked, but it makes so much sense. That's a beauty of belief, I guess. Her greatest contribution was to force us all to think of proto-humans as being female.
Wish you well on your dry journey, Kathleen! I learned something new about myself, those around me, and wider society every time I quit ;-) It can kind of suck, but it's a worthwhile endeavor. Enjoy the ride.
From wiki: "As a child, Sylvia Townsend Warner was home-schooled by her father after being expelled from kindergarten for mimicking the teachers"
Why can't every paid episode be with visuals? It would be a much bigger incentive for people to subscribe than this vague "we'll do a few more visual episodes this year" thing.
Julie, you’re a Boomer (1946-1964). Though some might say you transcend any generational classification.
0:42 happy New Years
7:00 cocktails
10:30 Sylvia Townsend Warner
29:00 the end of rainbow-washing?
37:27 Labour party members disappointed with gay children
46:34 next week break
Kathleen with the current birth rate, we will not go extinct for 500 years and we have time to fix the birth rate between then and now.
Well, I’m late to this discussion but this whole thing about the over emphasis on feelings. My problem are the people who say everything is due to childhood trauma, and therefore you can never confront anybody about anything and nobody. Nobody really knows what they’re doing. We can change because of childhood drama as all that trauma can’t be dealt with. I’ve been through lots of therapy of every level. The best therapy I had was from the psychiatrist she said look you can’t change the past, but you don’t have to keep looking at it. See that suitcase in your brain over there put those memories in that suitcase, lock that suitcase, and throw the key away.
Your discussion of what "Pride" has become brought back memories of the early 90s when I was on the board of the Santa Cruz lesbian and gay community center. I remember adopting "LGBT" in the newsletter because I was exhausted from constant haranguing. I was exhausted from so many of my friends getting sick and dying. And those who weren't sick wanted lesbians' support for their activities. The annual gay and lesbian talent show became an all-male drag show. I remember a conversation with the long-time organiser of Santa Cruz's pride parade, telling me the gay and lesbian parade would now be called "pride." They had decided.
The movement had moved past me. I soon resigned and I noticed everyone of my generation at the community center was gone too. We focused on our families and professional careers. I bought a Tivo.