Men & porn, Women's Diaries, South Korea birth rate
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 15 March 2024
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As part of our ongoing series on pornography and how it’s shaping our relationships, we’ve heard from many of our female listeners whose attitudes and feelings towards porn vary greatly. Men are still the major consumers and producers of porn, so today we hear from some of them. Clare McDonnell is joined by the Times journalist Sean Russell, a man in his 30s, and two listeners: Jake, who is in his 40s, and also Gabriel, who is in his 60s. The three share how porn has shaped their sex and relationships.
Do you keep a diary? Why and who for? Is it for yourself or for potential readers in the future? And does it allow you to express emotions that have no other outlet? These are just some of the themes explored in Secret Voices: A Year of Women's Diaries, which has been billed as the first comprehensive anthology of solely female diarists. Compiled by the historical biographer Sarah Gristwood, it features entries from over the past four centuries, from the likes of Florence Nightingale, Beatrix Potter, Audre Lorde and Emma Thompson.
The government in South Korea has said the country’s birth rate has fallen to a record low, despite it having spent billions on initiatives to encourage women to have more children. It dropped to 0.72 in 2023 - and for a population to hold steady, that number should be 2.1. Why are women in the country deciding not to have children? BBC journalist Yuna Ku in Seoul explains.
Have you ever asked yourself: “Does my bum look big in this?" According to major UK clothes retailer, this question is no longer a bad thing. In fact, we should be aiming for it. They’ve taken big knickers to a whole other level, launching a new form of shapewear with bum padding, adding extra volume and curvature to your derriere. Anna Murphy is the Times’ Fashion Director. She’s tried out a similar model and explains her reaction.
Presenter: Clare McDonnell Producer: Kirsty Starkey Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're about to listen to a BBC podcast and trust me you'll get there in a moment but if you're a comedy fan |
| 0:05.2 | I'd really like to tell you a bit about what we do. I'm Julie Mackenzie and I commission comedy |
| 0:10.2 | podcast at the BBC. It's a bit of a dream job really. |
| 0:13.0 | Comedy is a fantastic joyous thing to do because really you're making people laugh, |
| 0:18.0 | making people's days a bit better, helping them process, all manner of things. |
| 0:22.0 | But you know I also know that comedy is really |
| 0:24.4 | subjective and everyone has different tastes so we've got a huge range of comedy on offer |
| 0:29.6 | from satire to silly shocking to soothing profound to just general pratting about. So if you |
| 0:36.2 | fancy a laugh, find your next comedy at BBC Sounds. |
| 0:41.6 | BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts. |
| 0:44.8 | Hello, this is Claire McDonnell and you're listening to the Woman's Hour podcast. |
| 0:49.4 | Hello and welcome to Woman's Hour. You are about to hear a conversation rarely, if ever, heard on the radio. |
| 0:57.6 | Men in their 30s, 40s and 60s discussing their porn use, how it started, how it affected their first |
| 1:05.3 | sexual encounters and how it informs their sex lives today, their concerns about |
| 1:10.6 | how, thanks to targeted algorithms, you are only ever a few short clicks away |
| 1:15.8 | from darker more violent content. |
| 1:18.7 | But also how watching porn has helped with their creativity in the bedroom. |
| 1:23.0 | We've heard from women in our deep dive into porn here on woman's hour today. |
| 1:28.0 | It's the turn of the men. |
| 1:30.0 | Also, do you keep a journal, a diary, a daily manifest maybe, or maybe you post on social media, |
| 1:35.9 | is that your daily diary? Well, Sarah Gristwood will join us in the woman's house studio. |
| 1:40.6 | She's just compiled a year of women's diaries billed as the first comprehensive |
... |
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