33. Rethinking Gender With Raquel Willis

The Secret Lives of Black Women

The Secret Lives of Black Women and Stitcher

Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 May 2020

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Growing up in Agusta County Georgia, Raquel Willis didn’t find the language for what was so different about her gender experience until young adulthood. But in just a few years since her gender transition, she’s become a leading thinker on gender politics and feminism with her journalism and non-profit work. In this episode, Raquel fills us in on how she became a key player in the movement for LGBTQ rights, where she thinks it’s going, and why she thinks Black womanhood is inherently gender non-conforming. You can find more about The SLBW at https://www.instagram.com/theslbw/ Follow SLBW on Twitter and Instagram @theslbw Follow Raquel Willis on Twitter @RaquelWillis_

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm at a point where I really want us to think about a radical shift in our
0:07.3	understanding of gender. Really everyone is gender not conforming in some way and with the history that we have particularly here in the United States
0:16.8	being black is inherently gender non-conforming.
0:20.0	So when we try to divide ourselves around trans and cis, these aren't really binary experiences.
0:28.6	And I think within a generation's time, we will start to have a deeper understanding of that.
0:35.0	This is the secret lives of black women.
0:37.0	I'm Charlotte and I'm Lauren.
0:38.8	And today we're talking about LGBTQ politics. I'm really looking forward to talking about
0:45.0	the LGBT-Q politics.
0:50.0	I'm really looking forward to talking about this and I'm excited to talk about this because I feel like as we think about the presidential election and politics,
0:52.0	like so often when we think of black issues we
0:57.2	compartmentalize and just think of like blackness as like oh it's just it's just this issue but black issues are LGBTQ issues and
1:05.9	like we have to bring those to the forefront to and our thoughts and our minds
1:10.8	is like if our sisters are dying like that should affect you yeah
1:15.0	and you should care and be like rallied up to be like who's talking about this and I
1:19.1	think a lot of us are talking about it I think like we've had such strides socially in making these
1:26.1	issues everyone's issues and making them black issues at least as far as I'm
1:30.0	concerned you know if everybody ain't, ain't none of us free.
1:33.4	Ain't none of us free.
1:35.6	So I'm very excited.
1:36.6	I think we have absolutely the best person to chat about these issues.
1:39.8	We're chatting with Raquel Willis.
	...

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