“Coercive control” is something we’ve only just begun to hear about, yet it plays a key role in domestic abuse. Campaigner and journalist Julie Bindel reports that “Coercive control is now the most common form of abuse for which female victims seek help at domestic violence charities.” But when people think about abusive relationships, their imaginations often limit their understanding to the overt violence. But it’s more complicated than that. Psychological and emotional abuse is often what keeps women from leaving, and can torment them even more than the physical blows. There are clear red flags in terms of men’s behaviour towards their victims that could be noted and addressed in order to potentially save women from further violence or even death. Jennifer, 42 is a feature length animated documentary that tells the true story of Jennifer Magnano, a Connecticut mother of three, who spent 15 years in a brutally abusive marriage, and attempted to escape with her family. The film delves into the nature of coercive control as well as the broader cultural forces at play. Jennifer, 42 is scheduled for release in April 2020. In this episode, I speak with the director of the film, Elle Kamihira, and executive producer, Laura Richards, a criminal behavioural analyst and the producer of Dirty John, The Dirty Truth. Kamihira is a multi-genre director, producer, and writer working in installation media and documentaries. Her credits include the award-winning introductory film Who We Are at the Lelawi Theater at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, signature films for The Museum of the American Revolution, The Harley-Davidson Museum, The Heard Museum, The Chickasaw Cultural Center, and The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame NY Annex. Richards is an award winning and world renowned criminal behavioural analyst who worked for a decade at New Scotland Yard as head of the homicide prevention unit and head of the violent crime intelligence and analysis unit. She is also world-leading victim advocate who has trained and addressed thousands of police officers, frontline, and specialist professionals across the world in identifying, intervening in, and preventing this form of male violence against women. Richards spearheaded the Domestic Violence Law Reform Campaign to criminalize coercive control, and developed and delivered the first training on the new law in the UK. She is also the author of Policing Domestic Violence. Follow her on Twitter @LauraRichards99.  

Massive social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have come under criticism, of late, for censorship, as well as for failing to support women’s interests. Recently, Twitter has taken to suspending users for criticizing gender identity ideology and for discussing basic biological facts about men and women. We do not have a public social media platform where we are free to challenge and ask questions about the impact of gender identity legislation and ideology on women and girls. People are afraid to speak out, for fear of being targeted, bullied, threatened, fired, or worse, and companies like Twitter are reinforcing this. But Mary Kate Fain has come up with one hopeful solution: Spinster — a woman-centered social media platform that does not allow users to use the term TERF as an insult, but does allow users to say that men aren’t women… The platform launched on Monday, and has been overloaded by users signing up. Mary Kate is the founder of Spinster, a writer, and an engineer. She is currently writing a book on radical feminism for young women, and volunteers with the Women’s Human Rights Campaign. Find her online at marykatefain.com or @mk@spinster.xyz. (And find me @meghanmurphy@spinster.xyz!) In this episode, I speak with Mary Kate about losing her job for writing critically about gender identity ideology and about Spinster — why it matters, what its purpose is, and where she hopes it will go.

Many of us already know that the world is biased in favour of men — we’ve been aware that patriarchy exists for some now… But what does this mean in real life? In her new book, Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez finds that everything from transportation systems, to medical devices and treatments, to tax structures, to smartphones are made for men, not women. And this is more than just inconvenient. It can be deadly. Cars built for men are more dangerous for women to drive. Not recognizing women’s heart attack symptoms mean we are more likely to die. And not understanding how certain chemicals or drugs impact the female body vs the male body is similarly dangerous. The list goes on. Caroline is a british writer, campaigner, and consultant. She won the Liberty Human Rights Campaigner of the Year Award 2013 and in 2015 she was named an OBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. Her first book, Do It Like A Woman, was published by Portobello Books in May 2015. Her second book, Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men, was published in March 2019 by Chatto & Windus (UK) and Abrams (US). I spoke with her over the phone from her home in London.

We hear the word “feminism” a lot. But what does it really mean? And, in our modern times, why do we still need it? In her new book, Feminism: A Brief Introduction to the Ideas, Debates, and Politics of the Movement, Deborah Cameron considers feminism as an idea, a theoretical approach, and a political movement, addressing seven key issues in feminism: domination, rights, work, femininity, sex, culture, and the future. The book is now available in the US, published by the University of Chicago press. In this episode, I speak with her about the book, her perspective on today’s feminist movement, and more. Deborah is a feminist linguist who currently holds the Rupert Murdoch Professorship in Language and Communication at Worcester College, Oxford University. She is the author of The Myth of Mars And Venus: Do Men and Women Really Speak Different Languages. You can find more of Deborah’s work online at debuk.wordpress.com/

We often talk about women’s unpaid labour — the work women do in the home, in terms of child rearing, cleaning, cooking, grocery shopping, and so on and so forth, that not only is uncompensated, but is, too often, unappreciated. Not only do many women today go to work outside the home, for a paycheque, but then they have to come home and take on an extra shift that their male partners simply aren’t expected to do. But what about women’s emotional labour? “Emotional labour” might strike you as a strange term. We don’t necessarily want to think about emotions as “work,” or being thoughtful and considerate as “labour.” But what the concept speaks to is something real, that many women struggle with — particularly women in heterosexual relationships. In a 2017 article for Harper’s Bazaar, Gemma Hartley wrote about the way in which women are socialized to pick up so much extra labour in terms of holding relationships together, planning trips, remembering events and birthdays, scheduling social and extracurricular activities, planning meals, etc. — generally thinking ahead, and taking care of life. And when we try to bring this up with our partners, we are accused of being nags, or of complaining. “I want a partner with equal initiative,” Gemma wrote. Gemma is a journalist and the author of Fed Up: Emotional Labour, Women, and the Way Forward. I spoke with her over Skype about the mental and emotional load women take on, why we do it, and how we can address it. To learn more about Gemma’s work, visit gemmahartley.com. Follow her on Twitter @gemmahartley.

The conflict between trans activists and lesbians is reaching new heights, as lesbians are being shut out of their own events, movements, and spaces. Moreover, lesbianism in and of itself is being disappeared by gender identity ideology, as the word “woman” is said to be undefinable, and a category that can include males. What is a lesbian, if not a female homosexual? But lesbians are pushing back against this activism and ideology, and fighting for lesbian visibility. On today’s episode, I speak with Angela C. Wild, a member of #GetTheLOut, who recently published, “Lesbians At Ground Zero: How Trans Ideology is Conquering the Female Body,” a study looking at how gender identity ideology and trans activism impact lesbians. Angela C. Wild is one of the organizers behind the #GetTheLOut protest, which took place during Pride in London last year. She is a lesbian feminist activist, a writer, and a political artist based in the UK. Her work focuses particularly on challenging institutions such as compulsory heterosexuality and motherhood, on protecting and creating women-only spaces, and promoting lesbian rights and visibility.

  A key concern many share about the issue of “trans youth” is that minors are too young to make such a big and impactful decision to transition, and that they could, as adults, realize they made a mistake only after it’s too late. Detransitioners — that is, people who transition to live as the “opposite sex” only to later transition back to living as their biological sex — are controversial in the realm of trans activism, and often not heard from in terms of discussions around the trans trend. Dagny, 22, is one of four founders of The Pique Resilience Project, an initiative created to spread awareness about detransition. From the age of 15 to 19 Dagny identified as non-binary and as a transman, before transitioning back to living as a woman. I spoke with her recently about her experience transitioning, then detransitioning, and about her perspectives on how the transgender trend is impacting youth. Dagny will be appearing on a panel alongside myself and Dr. Ken Zucker on May 9th at the Croatian Cultural Centre in Vancouver, BC. Tickets to #GIDYVR Still Talking: Gender Identity and Kids are available at Eventbrite.

I have nothing against anyone who wishes 2be transgender. However I believe there is a fundamental difference between the binary sex u r born with & the gender u may identify as. To protect women’s sport those with a male sex advantage should not be able 2compete in women’s sport — Sharron Davies MBE (@sharrond62) March 1, 2019 As sports bodies and organizations around the world have begun to adopt policies allowing males who identify as transgender to compete against and among female athletes, people have begun to speak out. Female athletes are particularly concerned. Notably Martina Navratilova, one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, called this practice “unfair” and a form of “cheating.” Sharron Davies — a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist and Olympic silver medalist in swimming — has also called to “protect women’s sport,” arguing that those with a “male sex advantage” should not be allowed to compete in women’s sport. In order to learn more about the reasons behind sex-segregated sport, why women’s sport matters, and how male and female bodies differ, in terms of physical strength, build, and athletic ability, I spoke with Linda Blade. Linda is a former Canadian Champion and NCAA All American in the heptathlon (a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events). She has a PhD in Kinesiology from Simon Fraser University and Chartered Professional Coach designation in track and field. Linda has spent the past 25 years working as Sport Performance Professional, designing and implementing training programs for athletes in over 15 sports. She is also the President of Athletics Alberta (the not-for-profit sport governing body for Athletics for the Province of Alberta) and is currently drafting a Transgender Athlete Policy for the organization. Follow her on Twitter @coachblade.

  March 8th is International Women’s Day — a day to honour women as well as to acknowledge the work we still have to do, in terms of fighting for our liberation. This year, Asian Women for Equality and Fertile Ground Institute for Social and Environmental Justice have partnered to specifically address the experience and oppression of women of colour and Indigenous women under patriarchy. These two organizations will be hosting Dominique Christina — the author of four books and the only person to ever become a two-time world champion in slam poetry — and Cherry Smiley, a feminist activist, scholar, and artist from the Nlaka’pamux (Thompson) and Dine (Navajo) nations. These two women will be speaking at an event called Indigenous and Women’s of Colour Rise, which will take place at the Seattle Central Library in downtown Seattle, Washington. To learn more about the event and the need for such an event to take place in today’s climate, I spoke with two of the organizers, Suzanne Jay and Saba Malik. Suzanne is a feminist activist and a member of Asian Women for Equality — a grassroots feminist group working to change societal attitudes towards women, especially women of Asian descent; to advance equality for Asian women; and to create opportunities for Asian women to have meaningful participation and to take leadership roles in civil society. Saba is a radical revolutionary, a therapist, herbalist, and mother. She is a board member of the Fertile Ground Institute, a non-profit working for ecological and social justice. You can get tickets for Indigenous and Women of Colour Rise, taking place on Friday, March 8th, at brownpapertickets.com.  

Julia Beck, Jennifer Chavez, Kara Dansky, and Hacsi Horvath speak on a panel hosted by The Heritage Foundation on January 28, 2019 The question of whether it is useful or destructive for feminists to engage with, work with, sit on panels with, or ally with right wing individuals or groups is a contentious one. Some believe we should try to reach as many people as possible, regardless of their political persuasions. Others believe the optics of sharing panels with, speaking with, or working with those who, on many issues, are political opponents, will hurt the feminist movement. This debate has heated up, in light of a recent panel hosted by right wing think tank, The Heritage Foundation, wherein left wing feminists shared their concerns about gender identity legislation. In an effort to bridge the gap, and try to facilitate understanding among those on different ends of this debate, I spoke with Kathleen Stock, a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Sussex who has been writing about gender identity ideology and trans activism on Medium, and Natasha Chart, board chair of Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF) and a member of the cross-partisan Hands Across The Aisle Coalition.