Geometric Octopus Podcast is created by Jackie Beaudoin, Cosmo Cavanaugh, Kyle Mitchell, and Tracy, where we tackle a range of topics sure to pique your interests. We’ll release discussion segments, sketch and improv comedy, short story readings, and tie it all together with some great music.
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
GO011.9 The Octopus Returns(!)
In this interlude, Cosmo reassures listeners that new content will be arriving soon with the ending of the gender and sexuality series and that there is exciting, new material being developed.
Credits
Intro/Outro : Cosmo Cavanaugh
Sound Editing : Cosmo Cavanaugh
Script: Cosmo Cavanaugh
Show Notes: Cosmo Cavanaugh
Hosted by Cosmo Cavanaugh, Jackie Beaudoin, Kyle Mitchell, and Tracy
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia Transphobia TERRIBLE THINGS ~Please be a responsible listener.~
We continue our conversation on fetishization and whether a boyfriend in a hypothetical scenario is transphobic. This was what we began in episode 11a and will continue on for one more episode after this. We also makes points about sexual attraction, sex education, neurobiological sexism, the non-binary nature of intersex people’s genitalia, and how a trans woman is a woman regardless of her genitalia. We make commentary about ancient Greek culture and how it is largely our culture in the present day that has shaped our thoughts about what is considered masculine and what is considered feminine. Here, have some quotes from this episode in case you want to jump directly into a particular sub-conversation (the numbers are the approximate times where they appear in the episode):
“I was talking about the ways of viewing sex, but I realize there’s multiples ways of viewing sex and valuing certain things in sex… I remember earlier, Tracy, you said people should value sexual relationships differently from romantic relationships, or that sex is something that’s extractable from a relationship as it’s own entity--same as the romantic quality to it.” — Cosmo, 4:00
“A trans woman’s body is a woman’s body because she is a woman, and that’s what makes it a woman’s body. There is a difference between genitalia and gender, particularly because genitalia are not quite so clear-cut as they’re made out to be by a lot of the general population… I can’t necessarily speak to that because I’m not intersex, but there’s actually a much larger percentage of the population that is intersex than one would think just by how they’re represented… By my memory, there are about as many people who are intersex as there are people who are ginger.” — Jackie, 12:00
“But if you leave someone because they have a penis, but they’re a woman and you’re a man… and you’re attracted to women… It’s really, I think, a convenience issue rather than a sexual attraction thing… ‘cause I’ve read some stories where these guys who are with trans women are like, ‘Oh, I get tired of sucking dick.’ … If you’re not okay with that, why don’t you work it out with your partner rather than getting pissed off and getting angry about it and building up this weird hostile situation because there’s a lot of violence within trans relationships… This goes for a lot of other things, too… such as how a lesbian couple may go under the radar for domestic abuse because people are like, ‘Oh, it’s two women. There couldn’t possibly be any physical violence between them.’ And while one partner is abusing the other physically and mentally, there’s still that thing like, ‘Oh, you can’t possibly get harmed by another woman--you’re in a lesbian relationship.’ It’s still just as bad." — Cosmo, 16:00
“... everybody deserves to be in a relationship that they want to be in… I feel like entitlement doesn’t even come into it. " — Tracy, 19:00
“The concept of something being hard-wired into your brain really leads into a lot of other issues--excuses for other things… When you’re talking on the level of say, sexuality--just what genders you’re attracted to--I can understand that argument, but when you’re talking about your brain being hard-wired [with] anything else, particularly in the sexual realm… that leads into a whole different can of worms. … The differences in the human brain are not that big… They’re not large enough to actually be able to determine things like that… That’s not how the human brain works. The human brain is not that different--the difference between a ‘man’s brain’ and a ‘woman’s brain’ is so miniscule. Again, gender and sexuality are not binaries--they are a spectrum, and therefore you don’t have that clear distinction between ‘this is a man’s brain and this is a woman’s brain’ because the concepts of man and woman are human concepts… and they’re not just human concepts… They’re, in particular, white European concepts." — Jackie, 31:00
“If that is true that women are more fluid in their sexuality, the reason why would be something more like the masculine culture that we have where being gay is seen as... non-masculine. Even though for certain cultures--like the ancient Greeks--no, it wasn’t that uncommon..." — Tracy, 34:00
[upon being asked where he received sex education]: “I mean, I was homeschooled during that time, so basically I ended up just reading books, and I got to go to the library and pick out the ones I wanted.” — Kyle, 39:00
“I think it’s really dependent on the situation, and there’s no way we can ever cover exactly every hypothetical… but I do agree [with] Tracy… that everyone deserves to be in a relationship that makes them happy. It just depends on what exactly the reasons are… and whether it makes you a jerk for leaving or not… it’s highly dependent on your own mind. It can be bad, and it can be okay.” — Kyle, 46:00
Credits Sound Editing : Cosmo Cavanaugh Show Notes: Cosmo Cavanaugh & Tracy Hosted by all the above along with Jackie Beaudoin & Kyle Mitchell
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia Transphobia TERRIBLE THINGS
We continue our conversation on fetishization and whether a boyfriend in a hypothetical scenario is transphobic. This was what we began in episode 11a and will continue on after this one. We also touch on the topic of sexual attraction and our culture of monogamy. Here, have some quotes from this episode (the numbers are the approximate times where they appear in the episode):
“Is it okay to not date someone because of a certain characteristic that you find out?” — Jackie, 7:00
"Your parents probably aren't okay with polyamory." — Kyle, 21:30
“If people cast their opinions, it would be righteous to have people who can experience a particular thing voice their opinions first and and go from there. Because there's always a problem with voice.” — Cosmo, 40:30
“If a person prefers blonde women, and that might be because they're a product of their culture—maybe they had some assumptions about that at some point—but I'm just saying that it's okay to prefer blonde women if they understand intellectually that blonde women don't fit a certain stereotype. Because I don't think that someone necessarily needs to assume someone is going to fit that stereotype to also have a sexual preference." — Tracy, 42:00
“There's nothing inherently wrong with finding a woman with blonde hair more attractive, but if you're placing that above everything else, then there's a problem." — Kyle, 43:00
“What we consider our jobs here is to inspire conversation." — Cosmo, 45:00
“There can also be this sort of reverse fetishization where you can say, 'Oh, all blonde women are terrible and I would never be attracted to a blonde woman. All people of a certain race are terrible and I would never be attracted to a person of a certain race. All trans people are terrible and I would never be attracted to a trans person of a certain race.' And that is all viewed entirely based on stereotypes."— Jackie, 47
Credits Intro/Outro : Cosmo Cavanaugh, Jackie Beaudoin, Kyle Mitchell, & Tracy Sound Editing : Cosmo Cavanaugh Script : Cosmo Cavanaugh & Kyle Mitchell Hosted by all the above
Trigger Warnings: Homophobia Transphobia TERRIBLE THINGS Violence towards members of the LGBT community ~Please be a responsible listener.~
In this first of a multi-part episode, we debate two issues. The first is a hypothetical where a cisgender man leaves his girlfriend when he finds out that she is transgender and has a penis.
The second is the fetishization of transgender people, and we also touch upon other issues such as the morality of certain kinds of sexual thoughts and pedophilia.
Download Trigger Warnings: Homophobia Transphobia Violence towards members of the LGBT community ~Please be a responsible listener.~
Tune in to find out how questionnaires should not ask about gender, the stereotypical LGBTQ+ job, and how white we are. We turn to personal experiences, such as with school dress codes, in our discussion of gender presentation and how it relates to gender identities. Sources mentioned in this episode can be found at the bottom of these notes.
On a different note, if anyone has any knowledge/experience with race issues and would like to be on our show, please reach out to us at geometricoctopus@gmail.com.
Credits
Special Guest (G&S Specialist) : Klaus McHendry
Intro/Outro : Kyle Mitchell
Sound Editing : Cosmo Cavanaugh
Script : Cosmo Cavanaugh
Hosted by, all the above, and : Jackie Beaudoin and Tracy
Trigger Warnings: Sexual Abuse & Rape Homophobia & Transphobia Violence towards people in the LGBT community ~Please be a responsible listener.~
In this episode we talk about aromantics and asexuals as relating to a heteronormative , allonormative society. (Allosexual basically means not asexual, so you can infer what allonormative means).
Then we go into trans people's problems with authority (not in a 'punk' way, but in a trans-people-are-consistently-and-unfairly-done-significant-harm-by-the-justice-system kind of way), and wrap up with the fetishization of LGBT+ people and the porn industry's propagation of that.
Credits Special Guest (G&S Specialist) : Klaus McHendry Intro/Outro : Cosmo Cavanaugh Sound Editing : Cosmo Cavanaugh Script : Cosmo Cavanaugh Hosted by, all the above, and : Jackie Beaudoin, Kyle Mitchell, and Tracy
(If you want a hint, it concerns our long hiatus and when we're going to break it.)
Credits Voice & script by Kyle Mitchell Sound editing by Cosmo Cavanaugh
Hosted by, all the above, and : Jacqueline Beaudoin and Tracy
Music “Achaidh Cheide” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
