Subject To Power

Elle Kamihira

An open-ended investigation into the state of inequality between the two halves of humanity - men and women. Subjugation, domination, exploitation and all related forms of hierarchies and tyrannies - with an international lineup of guests, hosted by Elle Kamihira.

  1. OCT 17

    Some Poems For My Sex

    Poet Usha Akella talks about poems as bridges into worlds, bridges that help to soften borders - and there is nothing we need more at this moment - than a softening of the criss-crossing lines that cut us off from one another. Borders are hardening, honest and patient dialogue is becoming rare, and meeting each other halfway seems more and more difficult - but a poet’s words can offer a bypass, a more direct path from one human heart to another. Acclaimed poet and author of 11 books, Usha has contributed to over 150 literary anthologies and journals, and is the founder and director of Matwaala, a South Asian diaspora poets’ collective launched in 2015.   Usha's poetry is full of very real world matters and it does not shy away from confronting the ironies and contradictions of living life as a woman on this planet - no matter our cultural belonging. With her x-ray honesty and masterful craft, she writes from the raw emotions of her own life experiences as well as a soaring bird's eye view. In this episode Usha reads several poems from her book I Will Not Bear You Sons, and shares the stories behind the poems as well as the clash of cultural forces that shaped her as a woman and as a poet. We also talk about the firestorm that erupted around the book in India, the different forms of patriarchal control women endure, Usha's own refusal to be silenced, the cost of writing feminist poetry, and finding sisterhood with fellow women’s writers. EPISODE LINKS Matwaala South Asian Diaspora Poets’ Collective I Will Not Bear You Sons The POV CONTACT US Website: https://www.subjecttopower.com/ Instagram: @subject2power X: @SubjectToPower email us at  subjecttopower@gmail.com

    1h 3m
  2. SEP 17

    Banning Women

    Award-winning non-fiction writer and journalist Rachel Hewitt unearths and writes about various corners of women’s history - and the subsequent erasure of that same history - showing us how women are indeed equal participants in all aspects of public life - until we are banned, excluded and erased.  In her latest book, In Her Nature, Rachel looks at women’s accomplishments in sports and the great outdoors from the Victorian era to the present, and chronicles the various ways in which men organized to exclude and ban women from athletics and the outdoors - and more broadly from public spaces and public life. In her writings, which includes the brilliant Substack Small Revolutions, Every Day, Rachel makes crucial connections between women’s hidden history and how women navigate our current-day climate of rising misogyny. She also writes about feminism, grief, trauma and recovery - and her own experiences as an ultra-runner. In this episode Elle and Rachel cover a sprawling map of topics, from Rachel’s research and writing about women’s history in sports and outdoors adventure, to how women navigate public spaces - now and then, the constantly changing shape of misogyny and how women weigh being safe against being free. We also talk about Rachel’s own running career, and how immersion in nature can carry you through grief and trauma, and much, much more.  EPISODE LINKS Rachel’s website Small Revolutions, Every Day Family Fortunes by Leonore Davidoff, Catherine Hall CONTACT US Website: https://www.subjecttopower.com/ Instagram: @subject2power X: @SubjectToPower email us at  subjecttopower@gmail.com

    1h 25m
  3. JUL 16

    The Lives of Boys

    Parents, teachers and youth workers of all kinds are warily watching how the internet, smartphones and social media is impacting adolescence, and there is no question that we are in uncharted territory - especially as it pertains to boys and young men. Michael Conroy has spent his career working in personal development and well-being programs for boys and young men in secondary school in the UK, and has had a front row seat to the enormous changes the world-wide web has brought to bear on the developing minds and social lives of boys and young men - in particular, the pornification of the internet and culture more broadly and the rise of the manosphere and related misogyny. In 2021, feeling like existing programs were not up to the task of supporting and safeguarding the healthy development of boys, Michael founded Men At Work, an innovative training program using dialogue to develop and equip boys and young men with critical thinking skills, sharper curiosity and discernment, as well as greater capacity for empathy and other pro-social modes. In this wide-ranging conversation Michael talks to Elle about the art of fostering a positive vision for boys and young men, what should and shouldn’t be feared about the big bad internet, Andrew Tate and incels, what the Netflix series Adolescence told us and what it missed, what feminism has got to do with it, and why raising healthy young men matters to all of us. EPISODE LINKS Men At Work CONTACT US Website: https://www.subjecttopower.com/ Instagram: @subject2power X: @SubjectToPower email us at  subjecttopower@gmail.com CREDITS Host: Elle Kamihira Produced by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Bee Johnson Music by Beware of Darkness

    1h 14m
  4. JUN 12

    In The Name Of Gender

    Conversation and debate regarding transgenderism or gender ideology has been effectively forbidden and shut down for many years, and people who have dared to raise concerns have been hounded and punished in all sorts of ways. Like many outspoken feminists, Laura Lecuona was cancelled and attacked in her native country of Mexico for daring to ask questions about concepts such as ‘born in the wrong body’ and ‘gender affirming care’. In this episode Elle talks with Laura about her new book Gender Identity: Lies And Dangers; about what sparked the transgender movement, how gender ideology became such a pervasive social phenomenon, what exactly it entails for boys and men and girls and women who become trans identified, as well as the impact of this movement on women and women’s rights. We also discuss why radical feminists in particular have been sounding the alarm and mounting such an opposition to gender ideology, and why there is such an authoritarian prohibition against debate. EPISODE LINKS Gender Identify: Lies And Dangers by Laura Lecuona The Transexual Empire by Janice Raymond The Creation of Patriarchy by Gerda Lerner The Second Sex by Simone De Beauvoir CONTACT US Website: https://www.subjecttopower.com/ Instagram: @subject2power X: @SubjectToPower email us at  subjecttopower@gmail.com CREDITS Host: Elle Kamihira Produced by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Bee Johnson Music by Beware of Darkness

    1h 14m
  5. MAR 18

    Loneliness Guaranteed

    The world rushes to meet the ever-expanding sexual appetites of men - and then we collectively call it “men’s needs” and agree that “men’s needs” must be met.  All forms of prostitution and pornography, online and in real life, offer a bottomless menu of sexual experiences, fetishes, and boundary-crossing pursuits. Technology works overtime to invent novel ways to achieve male orgasm and indulge men in what they might fancy next.  And nowhere is this busy business of realizing men’s sexual fantasies more obvious than in the sex doll business.  Guest on this episode, Caitlin Roper, is an activist, writer and Campaigns Manager at Collective Shout, a global grassroots campaigning movement against the objectification of women and sexualization of girls in media, advertising and popular culture. Caitlin’s writing has been featured in The Guardian, Huffington Post, and many other publications and in 2022 she came out with her book Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating. In this hour we talk about all of what Caitlin discovered when researching the whole world of sex dolls - the manufacturing, the marketing, the men who buy and use the sex dolls, and the many real-life impacts on women, girls and boys. On the sympathy-inducing ways in which sex dolls are marketed, how they are offered as a cure for lonely men, suggesting that a silicone replica of a woman provides the human connection that these men lack, Caitlin says, “What sex dolls do, is they actually get in the way of any kind of intimacy and real connection, genuine human relationships because they keep the user alone. They're penetrating a doll, but there's no connection because again, they're alone. They're masturbating into an object.” Episode Links Collective Shout Sex Dolls, Robots and Woman Hating Contact Subject To Power  Website: https://www.subjecttopower.com/ Instagram: @subject2power X: @SubjectToPower Email us at  subjecttopower@gmail.com Credits Host: Elle Kamihira Produced by Elle Kamihira Audio Engineering by Jason Sheesley at Abridged Audio Cover Art by Bee Johnson Music by Beware of Darkness

    1h 6m
4.7
out of 5
40 Ratings

About

An open-ended investigation into the state of inequality between the two halves of humanity - men and women. Subjugation, domination, exploitation and all related forms of hierarchies and tyrannies - with an international lineup of guests, hosted by Elle Kamihira.

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