I’ve listened to this podcast for a few months. At first, the high I got off of the new ideas and the lesbian representation was great. The hosts shared some insights that were revelatory to me as a new radical feminist, but the level of contempt for people who don’t think exactly like them has become too exhausting to listen to. Jen berating the young adults who invested too much of their lives into the communist party she was a member of when she was young really stuck with me. Paraphrasing here: “Did you sacrifice a lot? Because I don’t think I sacrificed anything.” As though she could have never ended up in a similar situation had her circumstances been a bit different. And then talking about how she got sucked into dysfunctional political lesbian stuff in her 30s; all I can say is why then judge your peers from college for being idealistic and naive? There’s a difference between bluntly saying it doesn’t work out to act in a certain way and talking like you’re above making common mistakes. It took hearing Hannah and Jen describe the animal rights cause, something I care a lot about, though I would never characterize the movement as well-run and well-thought-out criticism is always needed, for me to realize that I’d rather spend my time listening to shows where the hosts refuse to engage in straw-man arguments. I often seek out serious arguments against the animal rights movement, and there’s certainly better ones out there than saying animal rights activists are all abhorrent because of a well-intentioned but disastrously implemented seal hunting ban in Canada, as though that’s all the movement has ever accomplished. There is an irony somewhere here with them being communists. Saying that vegans talk about how indigenous people use modern weapons to hunt animals because they’re racists who are shocked that indigenous cultures can change completely misrepresents the argument, the point is that we are all integrated into industrial society now, however devastating the process to get there was, and that we have to make decisions based on that context, which could include no longer eating animals in any region if we arranged it on a societal level. Agree with it or not, that’s what the argument actually is, which is closer to saying indigenous people are a group of people participating in our society, with traditions like any group of any race, who are indigenous because they are native to the land, than that indigenous people must be perfectly preserved noble savages to be really indigenous. It’s as though they’ve taken the radfem concept that women are not supposed to observe the world around them- Dworkin’s idea that we’re told it’s Adam’s job to do the naming- and committed to the opposite to the extent that they opine confidently to the point of being obnoxious about things they don’t really know about. Jen saying she didn’t think meditation was real was another good example of this. A million disclaimers before an opinion and a Fairness Doctrine approach on a small podcast isn’t necessary, but making an argument based on emotion and one unrepresentative example is intellectually lazy. Unfortunately, they do this often. There’s so many podcasts with higher quality discourse that I can’t justify sticking with this one any longer. There’s also a lot of stories about their friends they share as examples, some of which are intensely humiliating, and even if the names and some details are changed I’m pretty sure the people in their lives can figure out who’s being dissected on air. I wish they’d say the example has consented to having their story shared on the podcast if that’s the case. On stories- the one about Jen’s friend who manipulates women into sex with the promise of commitment really disturbed me. Why be friends with this guy? I don’t listen to podcasts for personalities, and I can handle the occasional weak take, but I can’t listen to podcasts that make me so annoyed with the hosts that it’s difficult to focus on the ideas being shared. So I’m done with Redfem. But I’ve written all this after I’ve been annoyed by the hosts one too many times, and I did enjoy this podcast at first. So, if you’re considering listening to it as part of your intro to radical feminism, and none of the above is a dealbreaker for you, you’ll probably get something out of this podcast. Hence the three stars despite all the cons.
