ILL-BEHAVED WOMEN JULY 2024 PODCAST TRANSCRIPT
Kamala Harris, Charli XCX, Kesha, Katy Perry, a new documentary and those mammographies again...
What follows is the transcript of my monthly podcast on Radio St. Pete, Ill-Behaved Women.
Welcome back to Ill-Behaved Women, the podcast that celebrates the trailblazers, troublemakers, and childless cat ladies who refuse to play by the rules.
Why?
Because history is already littered with the untold stories of women.
Who am i? I am L.L.Kirchner, I am your host, a voracious reader, a big and small screen fanatic, author of two memoirs and the just-released Book 1 of The Queenpin Chronicles, Florida Girls, and I’m here to dish on unforgettable women making history now.
No one is a more obvious candidate for this episode than vice president and presumptive Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris.
According to recent reports, she's leading the white male GOP candidate in the 2024 presidential race.
This is, actually, huge.
For the first time in U.S. history, we will see a woman of color at the top of a major party ticket.
The first 48 hours of her campaign were better than any other candidate's first two days to date, according to The Daily Beast, which stated:
“Kamala Harris has had the single best first day of any presidential candidate in history. And that was yesterday. She also just had the best second day in history of any presidential candidate.”
The fundraising kicked off over a zoom call on sunday night, where 44,000 black women raised a staggering $1.5 million in just three hours.
As of last night, she’d raised 180 million dollars.
It's a powerful reminder of the political clout of Black women in America. Remember, 93% of black women supported the democratic ticket in 2020. Now, they're proving once again that they're a force to be reckoned with.
They’re not alone. Tonight, Thursday, July 25, there’s a virtual fundraiser scheduled for Kamala Harris that is explicitly asking white women to show up for the call.
It can be done. It must be.
I’m still baffled by the large numbers of white women who voted for the GOP in 2016, a staggering 47%. Compared to 45% who chose to support Hillary Clinton.
But Harris’ support extends beyond race and gender. On July 22, the “Black men for Harris” zoom hosted over 53,000 black men and raised over $1.3 million. On July 23, Latina women advertised their own call to action for July 23.
And why wouldn’t we?
Some are calling her platform progressive. Really? She wants to:
· Broaden health insurance coverage.
· Defend women’s healthcare rights.
· Provide middle class tax relief.
· Lower drug prices.
· And increase the availability of affordable housing.
Compare this to the actually radical Project 2025, the GOP platform:
Now that the Supreme Court has overturned roe v. Wade, Project 2025 states that the Justice Department "in the next conservative administration should therefore announce its intent to enforce federal law against providers and distributors of [mifepristone] pills." – the emergency birth control pill.
Project 2025 also wants to get rid of the reproductive healthcare access task force established by the biden administration before the roe reversal, and instead create a "pro-life task force to ensure that all of the department's divisions seek to use their authority to promote the life and health of women and their unborn children."
It goes on, calling on the health and human services department to "maintain a biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage and family."
Whose bible?
In a section titled "the family agenda," project 2025 calls on the health and human services chief to "proudly state that men and women are biological realities," and that "married men and women are the ideal, natural family structure because all children have a right to be raised by the men and women who conceived them."
Just, no.
Even here in Florida, Audrey Mcniff—a former Goldman Sachs partner and noted Republican—is using her influence to rally support for Amendment 4, a ballot initiative that supports the constitutional right to abortion. It should be another stark reminder that the fight for reproductive rights has broad support.
There’s more to Project 2025, the thing is 900 pages, but do you really need to know more?
OF COURSE YOU DO!
The GOP wants to centralize more power in the oval office, namely, erasing justice department’s independence from white house political control, and increasing the president’s authority over every part of the federal government that now operates, by either law or tradition, with any measure of independence from political interference by the white house.
The candidate himself wants to bring independent agencies like the federal communications commission, which makes and enforces rules for television and internet companies, and the federal trade commission, which enforces various antitrust and other consumer protection rules against businesses — under direct presidential control.
And finally, the GOP wants to privatize weather forecasting, breaking up the national oceanic and atmospheric administration—which we know and love as the national weather service— describing it as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.”
I didn’t know ‘climate change alarm’ was an industry. What’s the alternative? Climate change head in the sand?
Because ignorance is bliss?
Tell that to Katy Perry.
Yup, I’m switching gears like brat because we try to keep up on our pop culture here, too.
Wait.
Did I mean a brat? No, I did not.
I’m sure you’ve heard about the Harris campaign’s adoption of Charli XCX’s album aesthetic, after Charli tweeted out her support for Harris, writing, kamala is brat.
Brat is a vibe. The thing about it though, it’s not un-ironic. Brat is that weird aunt you love to hang with because she’s unpredictable, veering between cringe and cool, but ultimately beloved.
A day later, Perry got in on it, sort of, by re-posting a fan edit featuring Harris.
Ouch.
Listen, as a monthly podcaster, I’m not exactly a newsmaker, but Perry’s comeback album, a dated attempt to put out a feminist anthem about women having, which has been likened in The Cut to being “stuck in 2016… in a la-di-dah dimension in which…‘male tears’ mugs make bank on etsy.”
Whether the album sucks or not, I’m calling Perry out because she collaborated with Dr. Luke, aka, Lukasz Gottwold, the producer who was sued by singer Kesha for sexual assault.
I read those allegations back when they came out.
The only reason I can imagine she went back to him is because the 2 albums she did without him since 2013 haven’t done *quite* as well as her previous records.
If the first release off her forthcoming 143 album, “Women’s World,” is any indication, Dr. Luke will be looking for a job again soon.
BTW, Kesha endorsed Harris within an hour of the Biden’s endorsement.
Speaking of music, thank all the gods we don’t have to listen to another tired rock anthem all fall -- Beyoncé gave the Harris campaign permission to use her song freedom.
Before we wrap up, I have a couple more serious topics.
The first is a movie recommendation, a new documentary called Daughters of the Sun, it sheds light on the experiences of Yazidi girls abducted by Islamic State militants in Kurdistan. As young women, many in their teens, these girls were forcibly converted to Islam and sold as sex slaves.
The film follows their journey as they return home, severely traumatized, and attempt to rebuild their lives. It will restore your faith in humanity at the same time it reminds you — this is what happens when the patriarchy is in charge.
Now, f you follow my blog—you can sign up at ill-behaved women.com—you might remember back in February when I wrote about my experience with a false positive on a mammography.
Writing that I discovered more about the harms of screening, as well the updated recommendation that women without a family history of breast cancer only need to be screened every other year.
A couple of weeks ago a new study was released suggesting that women can handle the nuanced discussion about the pros and cons of mammograms.
I mean, I take issue with the idea that needed to be studied, a sentiment largely lacking from the coverage. But hey, if it means more women are apprised of screening guidelines and improvements in radiography techniques – I’m going to a different center next time, one that supposedly more comfortable curved trays – then okay.
I guess it should come as no surprise since, also recently, it’s been widely reported that another sex bias exists in the lab. Male rats. Apparently, most of the mice used in studies on aging are male, which could lead to skewed results that don't accurately represent how aging affects women. I don’t know why the study is limited to aging, but i’d bet that particular bias extends beyond aging studies.
That's all for this episode of ill-behaved women. Remember, breaking the rules isn't just about being rebellious – it's about challenging the status quo and pushing for progress.
If you want to catch me live, i'll be in chicago next month in august and key west this november. Check out my instagram feed for details on all upcoming events.
Until then, keep misbehaving!
