4. Masculinity and Men’s Sexuality

8. We’re All In This Together – There is No “Plan(et) B”

This episode addresses the other systems of oppression named in this series, tying them in with capitalism to show how it benefits the most privileged people in our society at the expense of the least privileged among us. It shows once again that the differences in socioeconomic status and quality of life don't just accidentally benefit white people and people with money. Everything is set up to help rich white people get richer at the expense of the people of the global majority. These billionaire's efforts to suck as much money out of the earth as they can disregards the sanctity of life, for both non-white people and the planet. A certain country's unchecked bombing of its neighbors is speeding up climate change, with disastrous results occurring more regularly and with bigger impacts. We're literally all in this together and need to see past the culture wars we're distracted with to fight for our collective liberation and the planet - we're all we have.

7. Disability In The Age of COVID

Disability may be the final frontier for our consideration of human rights, following pushes for Black people and other people of color to get civil rights, for women's rights, and for gay/lesbian/bi people and now also trans people. Some people will start life with some kind(s) of disability/-ies, but everyone will become disabled in some way in their lifetime. COVID is considered a mass-disabling event, mirroring in some ways the ways HIV killed so many gay men and Black women, and, again, is downplayed because of who is most heavily impacted: people of color, the poor, the elderly, and immunocompromised or otherwise disabled people. What will it take for us to care about others' experiences? Can we make things more accessible for all without getting caught up in how we have to change to accommodate others?

6. Why It’s Not Really Fair to Call It the “LGBTQ Community”

While often referred to as "the LGBTQ+ community," this label is a bit more hopeful than it is realistic. There's so much diversity between each letter in the whole 2SLGBTQIA+ acronym and even a lot of diversity within each letter. We'll also explore the impact of various systems of oppression among LGBT people to highlight how our marginalization as gender/sexual minorities does not make us incapable of hating or harming others - even those within the "community." There are sexist gay men, transphobic and/or biphobic gays and lesbians, and racism, fatphobia, ableism, classism, and even pretty privilege can all affect all LGBT people's interactions. We're not as communal as we could be, but that's also influenced by the internalization of homophobia and transphobia that we all have to unlearn.

5. Sexual Violence and Femicide

This episode is a bit of a bummer but it's still very necessary to address sexual violence and femicide. There is no word in the English language for killing a man on account of his gender, but women are killed on account of their gender often enough that "femicide" was coined, and we'll cover some important stats on the issue. We'll also look at how generally unsympathetic our society is to survivors of sexual violence and why that is, then turn to how hard recovery is for men who have been sexually victimized because of the systems of oppression we live under.

4. Masculinity and Men’s Sexuality

Feminism isn't just about women; it's about critiquing the unrealistic expectations our society holds of people based on their gender. Men are very privileged within patriarchy, and white men especially, but they're also generally very unaware of the gendered expectations they struggle with. We think of men as strong, independent, and unemotional then act surprised when they snap as a result of this dehumanizing conditioning. There's no wiggle room for men's sexuality and homophobia is still very much alive, as is biphobia, and there's a lot to unpack here!