Drop A Line

Parita&Edwina

Both with an origin story taking place in the Caribbean, two friends take on life respectively in the United States and in Europe. Drop A Line features Parita and Edwina staying in touch by dropping a line every now and then.

Episodes

  1. 10/11/2019

    Dating While Asian (in the Caribbean)

    From our experiences as individuals and as participants in our Asian communities in the Caribbean, we realize that there are some struggles that may not be completely unique, but are expressed uniquely because of our position as second-generation Asian people who grew up in the Caribbean, and who may even move out of the Caribbean to experience dating, romance, and prospects of marriage (if any of that is your thing).  In this episode, we draw from our own experiences and our interpretation of knowing other people's accounts in our own Asian Caribbean community to talk about how "dating consciousness" is formed from children's upbringing in Sint Maarten as second-generation Asian migrants, and how that has informed (some) contemporary experiences and challenges with dating.  Some of the topics we touch upon are feeling "restricted" particularly as girls and women related to thinking /talking about dating, feeling ill-prepared when actually dating, feeling grief as a result of fraught tightrope walking when talking to your family about who you're dating, and the lack of language around the possibility of dating outside heteronormative expectations.  We look forward to listeners dropping us lines for anything that we've missed because we know that there is a breadth of complex experiences and insights that you have experienced that we didn't think of covering. Thanks a lot again for your contributions to making this episode!

  2. 07/07/2019

    Dropping Lines on Toxic Masculinity

    Are we on the same page when we talk about "toxic masculinity"?   Do we not think "toxic masculinity" is prevalent because we don't know what it is, and how it is harmful to ourselves and others?  Parita and Edwina discuss their views on toxic masculinity, their experiences and witness accounts of it, and the struggles related to bringing the subject up altogether.   FYI, in the Netherlands you can get an abortion up until 24 weeks into the pregnancy, but abortions are rarely performed after 22 weeks. If you're interested in knowing more about abortion in the Netherlands, here is a Q&A report on abortion in the Netherlands by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign affairs: https://web.archive.org/web/20080405222048/http://www.hollandnagykovetseg.hu/files/4486929507.pdf   From our conversation on the podcast, we also looked up different movements in India and Hong Kong respectively that addressed toxic masculinity. We didn't know if there was a conversation around that, but now we know! If you're also interested in taking a look at how these conversations are addressed in some non-European and non-American contexts, here are a couple of links:   Hong Kong   https://www.dazeddigital.com/art-photography/article/39385/1/alexandra-leese-beautiful-sensual-photos-of-hong-kongs-young-men  https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270214113_Masculinity_health_behavior_and_age_An_examination_of_Hong_Kong_Chinese_men India https://www.youthkiawaaz.com/2018/12/there-is-toxic-masculinity-we-dont-talk-about-in-india/  https://qz.com/india/1157796/boys-cant-be-boys-heres-how-to-fix-indias-toxic-masculinity-problem/  Lastly, here's the Gillette commercial that Parita brought up during the episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koPmuEyP3a0   Be free to drop us a line with related material and/or let us know what you think about the contents of this episode!

About

Both with an origin story taking place in the Caribbean, two friends take on life respectively in the United States and in Europe. Drop A Line features Parita and Edwina staying in touch by dropping a line every now and then.