“Yo, Is This Sexist?” Transcript
Kelly: From Comparative Studies 1100 Columbus, Ohio, this is Kelly Vonnahme
Amber: and Amber Henderhan. Welcome to the first episode of “Yo, is this sexist?” a new segment brought to you by Vu’s Visuals.
Kelly: For our first segment, I want to speak to all the ladies out there. Ladies, I wanna know, have you ever felt out of place or uncomfortable in a seemingly male dominant place? For example, the other week, I was at the gym. Now, as a person that grew up lifting weights with my dad, I’ve never really felt intimidated or out of place in a gym setting. However, being at Ohio State now, there are some pretty hefty men throwing weights around like it’s nothing. Every time I go, I see very experienced lifters who are obviously proud of their accomplishments, and like to show it. The other day in particular, there was a man at the gym that evidently was very strong. I was using a bench press, which was what he wanted to use as well. After I finished my first set of a 75 pound bench press, which I thought made me look swole, the man came up to me and asked if I was done on the bench. I told him I had just started, but he could work in with me if he wanted. He declined, which I expected because he most likely would lift 5x the amount I was lifting. Upon his obviously frustrated departure, I overheard him say to his friend “She’s barely lifting anything I don’t know why she needs the bench for so long”… Although it doesn’t seem like a big deal, it made me feel inferior and self conscious at the time. Systemic injustices relating to women still exist today, and just because I may not have been able to lift as much as him, I still deserve to be able to use the bench to work on my own well being. Comments like his discourage people from perceived “other” standpoints from truly being able to showcase individuality and confidence. This is just an example of a micro-injustice that helped me realize the much more major injustices happening around the world for women. So ladies, I want us to take a stand and fight for our equality, much like Ruth Baden Ginsburg did with the Supreme Court. Throughout her time as a jurist, Ginsburg catalyzed numerous legal victories for women in the United States. Way back in 1996, Ginsburg used the 14th amendment and its Equal Protection Clause originally put in order to protect black citizens from discrimination and applied it to the concept of gender inequalities in our country today. When the Supreme Court rejected Ginsburg’s request to integrate the last remaining strictly male military institute due to the fact that women were quote unquote not capable of the University’s physically demanding training program, she rebutted by explaining that generalizations about the capabilities of women are unjust and unsatisfactory for the classification of every individual woman. By the end of the year, this university was officially open to both males and females. To finish off this segment, I want to encourage all you women out there to unite and spark empowerment in women across the country. It’s important for us to encourage each other and demand equality so that we can dig our way of these systemic injustices one individual at a time. We do NOT need to stand here and listen to meatball gym junkies insult our capabilities any longer.
Amber: Kelly, I have a topic that is quite similar to your topic about females and how they are viewed. Women have always been seen far different compared to men in the forms of equality and viewpoints, which is honestly quite unfair. It can range from working, to dressing and from size and race. Body positivity is just one main topic that is happening currently and there is a huge impact in how this is affecting females, I know I can relate with this topic. The term body positivity has changed over the years, and not always being used in the correct form. I read this article from Cosmopolitan written by Jennifer Savin and it stated that “‘the people that this term was created for are not benefitting from it’” (Savin). This article also includes Lizzo and how she has been influenced and an influencer in this topic of body positivity which she is now using the term “‘body normative’” (Sivan). The article included her interview from Vogue, in which she said that “ ‘inclusivity is what my message is always [been] about,’” which she refers to the term body positive.(Sivan). It’s important to make sure everyone is treated with kindness and that’s what Lizzo is working towards, making sure that change happens and that any appearance is acceptable. Anyone, let alone females, shouldn’t have to worry about what others think of them, she should be happy in the way they dress and the way they look. But, there’s always going to be that thought, “I’m too fat to wear this” or “I don’t look like that person, I shouldn’t wear this,” and I know I do this, these thoughts shouldn’t have to cross out mind. I won’t forget this time when I was in Florida with a group of friends and we were doing laundry. There were five of us, my best friend and her boyfriend, two other guy friends and myself, we were folding laundry and one of the guys, which is a mutual friend, put them on, holding them out, and saying, “look at how much weight I lost from Weight Watchers.” I know my friend and her boyfriend saw the reaction on my face and just told me to follow them. I broke down, I was always bigger and struggled with how I looked, and this didn’t help. I didn’t talk to him for the rest of the trip, I moved past it and we are friends still, it’s just something that will stick with me. Anyway, I am starting to feel better about myself and I think having movements like this and people like Lizzo who want everyone to know it’s okay to be who you are no matter what you look like. Change like this is just a step to help everyone become comfortable in their body and I believe Lizzo is the right person to help this change happen.
Kelly: Amber you brought up some amazing points and I’m so glad you have recently started feeling more confident because you are BEAUTIFUL. One final thing I would like to add before we wrap things up is that we are on a step in the right direction. As of Saturday November 7th, 2020, Kamala Harris is the FIRST woman to ever become vice president of the United States of America. This is a HUGE deal for black women, south Asian women, and women in general as we finally have some representation in the house! This is a beautiful example of how women are just as capable as men in professionalism and when it comes to making decisions for our country’s well-being. I wanted to touch on this subject really quick because it is so important for all people, not just women, to be able to look up to people of power with whom they are able to relate to on a personal level. Having more representation of all races and genders in powerful positions will better encourage more diversity in these professional fields, which may in turn reduce the amount of institutional racism and sexism that is embedded in normal occurrences throughout society every day!
Amber: Yes! Congratulations to Kamala Harris and to women across the country! To wrap things up, I would like to leave everyone listening with this: as Marie Shear, an American writer and feminist activist defines it, feminism is “the radical notion that women are people”. This simple definition unpacks so much meaning. First of all, this statement is ironic in the way that women being people is not in any way radical. Her sarcasm accentuates the idea that women being treated equally should not be a concept that is hard to accept. The fact that women are not being treated equally yet in our society today is mind-blowing, and should not be a hard belief to adopt. With that, I would like to thank everyone for listening in today on this episode of “Yo, is this sexist?”. This is your host, Amber Henderhan,
Kelly: and Kelly Vonnahme, signing off. Don’t forget to come back next week to hear about systemic injustices relating to Covid-19! We hope you all have a great day!
Works Cited
Savin, Jennifer. “Lizzo on Why She’s Moved Away from the Body Positivity Movement.” Cosmopolitan, Cosmopolitan, 25 Sept. 2020, www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/body/a34157648/lizzos-body-positivity-movement-normative-vogue/.
Vogue, Ariane. “At VMI, Ruth Bader Ginsburg Reflects on a Monumental Ruling.” CNN Politics, 13 Aug. 2018, https://www.cnn.com/2017/02/02/politics/ruth-bader-ginsburg-vmi/index.html