Ep. 17: White Ladies, White Lies

Our EQ: Are lies ever really victimless and why do lies from white women have a disproportionate impact?

Lying is a familiar activity to everyone. Whether it’s little - I swear I didn’t take the last Girl Scout cookie, must have been you - or big - I swear I’m not cheating on you, we’re just friends - lies have consequences. This is especially true for White women who are believed innocent more than anyone else. White lady lies or hwhite lies have more detrimental consequences because of systemic racism and white supremacy. Urban Dictionary defines a white lie as “lies that white people have told others to make their self look righteous”
Famous white ladies who lied:

• Tanya Harding---see documentary I, Tonya
• Rachel Dolezal--The Rachel Divide documentary April 27 on Netflix!!!
  • Ijeoma Oluo article from the Stranger April 2017 called  The Heart of Whiteness
• Hope Hicks
• Hilary Clinton Superpredators
• One of the worse offenders is Carolyn Bryant Donham who finally admits her claims against Emmett Till were false

Timeless or Terrible:

• Travel size anything
• Teen gossip shows - Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars
• Soft Pretzels & Cheese
  • The wrong kinds of White people

Do Your Fudging Homework:

• Hope: stop telling white lies; Being Black in a World Where White Lies Matter
• Annie: don’t let people in power get away with their lies. Hold them accountable!

Episode 4: Shame Bell Your Gender Norms & Pumpkin Spice Yogurt

Our essential question is: what is gender and why does it matter?

Hope & Annie continue their conversation about gender norms. What happens when we reject them? How do we work on making our relationships more equitable? The IWLs hit on double standards for girls in school dress codes, how LGBT folks disrupt gender norms by sharing household chores, and the disproportionate amount of emotional labor female-identified folks tend to do in the workplace.

Today’s pop critical theory is deviance.  Deviance is behavior that violates social norms.  Deviance actually serves a really important purpose - if you deviate from the norm, it's often because you're figuring out your identity and finding a sub-group to belong to, which can be really empowering.  It can also be alienating, since you're separated from the group that sets the norms.  How are we rewarded when we deviate? How are we punished? How many people need to be deviant before it becomes the norm? Deep thoughts!

References:

• Judy Brady “I Want a Wife”

• Fa’afafine

• Samoan Third Gender Beauty Pageant

• This School Just Adopted A Body-Positive Dress Code

• Why Women Are Tired: The Price of Unpaid Emotional Labor

• Audre Lorde’s essay The Master’s Tools will Never Dismantle the Master’s House

This episode we forgo our usual timeless or terrible conversation and opt for a Pumpkin Spiced themed segment where we actually taste PS themed foods from our favorite white lady store, Target. From poptarts to gum, listen to our lip-smacking reviews.

Spoiler: This is nasty

Do Your Fudging Homework:

• Hope: Samoan Third Gender--Read about it! Samoan Boys Raised As Girls The Feed/SBS Viceland
• Annie: “Environmental Racism is the New Jim Crow” published by the Atlantic on June 5, 2017.