Rigorous thought should not be saved for academic readings. Self-care might look like exercise for the mind.
This week on the Reframeables podcast we interviewed college prof and magazine editor Lisa Whittington-Hill about how pop culture is failing women. Lisa dropped some gems about pop-based gender biases both past and present, and my sister Rebecca (otherwise known on substack as
) called out the very real culture of internalized misogyny that I’m still pondering!Having conversations like this offers wisdom nuggets that I try to apply to my own day-to-day living. Like applying a retinol cream or getting in my 10,000 steps, I think of these conversations as self-care. So much so that I encourage my students to bring such applications to class discussions because I believe rigorous thought should not be saved for academic readings. Self-care might look like exercise for the mind.
Here are a few wisdom-filled soundbites I am still chewing on:
Just like Courtney Love and Britney Spears, who have attempted fresh start narratives on their own terms, so have I…and perhaps so have you? Meeting Natalie today at 45 means connecting with a writer, a doctor, a mother — a very different Natalie from 25 years ago. And yet the temptation for those who knew her then might be to dress her in old clothes (stories, memories, gossip) that no longer fit. What might it look like to reconnect with people from our past, attempting to meet them where they are now? Maybe we are all pop or grunge princesses looking to wear new crowns?
Right off the top of the interview Rebecca went for the jugular with a hard truth: she feels steeped in a misogynistic culture that pits women against women. We all are. And it’s not just in pop culture or the entertainment industry where this hatred is visible. I see it in education and healthcare with the constant social and cultural devaluing of female-dominated professions.
So what’s the wise takeaway here? How to move beyond being simply depressed by these realities to a more empowered state of doing something to affect change?
By the end of our conversation we landed here: The combination of knowing (self-reflexivity) and doing is ongoing. It takes seeing the larger culture for what it is to take steps towards making changes to it. And to be self-reflexive, to essentially see in the dark, tripping over ourselves, stubbing our toes on the socially entrenched habits of taking other women down, means talking honestly to each other. Reading a variety of work. Listening!
A final — hopeful — wisdom that I gleaned from our conversation is to celebrate what the younger generation is sharing with us via pop culture. There are similes to take on (“Like snow on the beach, weird but f’g beautiful…” Taylor Swift) and imagery to inspire (“Sometimes a mystery, sometimes I'm free…Walking contradiction, guess I'm factual and fiction…” Janelle Monae).
I’m going to put in my airpods and practice some self-care — because the applied science of pop culture is a practice to be taken seriously!
Yes to all of this! I will finish listening to this episode of Reframeables tonight on a drive to visit some gal pals. I really love what you are talking about Nat, speaking of which… I’d like to meet you where you are physically at ASAP for a meal and a chat, as those shared times always put the wind back into my sails!
Love you girls so much!!!