Munroe Bergdorf: “I’m scared for my safety!” Bodily autonomy & femininity as armour
Happy Place
Fearne Cotton
4.6 • 15.2K Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2025
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Identity has become tribal, and it’s stopping us understanding each other’s humanity. Activist, writer, and model Munroe Bergdorf explains how fear and anger for society’s issues have been misdirected towards trans people.
In this chat with Fearne, Munroe talks through what the recent UK Supreme Court ruling on biological sex and gender means for trans women, cis women, and society more widely. How, for example, are trans rights intimately connected to abortion rights?
Fearne and Munroe chat about how to practice self-acceptance, particularly around body image, and how to use your voice to create positive change. They also cover grief, and numbing out as a way of dealing with poor mental health.
Munroe’s new book, Talk To Me, is out on June 5th, and you can watch her documentary, Love and Rage, in cinemas from June 10th.
This episode also contains an exclusive first listen to a chapter of Kirsty Gallagher’s new book, Your Cosmic Purpose, which is published by Happy Place Books on June 5th.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Fern Cotton and this is Happy Place, the show that brings us all closer through storytelling. |
| 0:07.3 | Today I'm chatting to Munro Bergdorf. |
| 0:10.2 | I can't be having a conversation with a cisgender woman who refuses to understand that I'm a human being too, |
| 0:17.8 | who's also under threat of misogyny who's also scared about her physical and safety |
| 0:23.0 | who's also experiencing mental health challenges because of the rising misogyny rates |
| 0:28.4 | who can't walk down the road without being cat-cored and feeling like I need to cross the road |
| 0:33.1 | at night when the man's walking towards me all of these things are shared but we don't know that if we don't talk to each other. |
| 0:39.4 | I really enjoyed this episode. |
| 0:40.8 | And look, I've said it before, but doing this podcast helps me immensely, mentally. |
| 0:45.4 | I can't even tell you. |
| 0:46.5 | Some days I wake up feeling so shit for no reason, like I know many of you do. |
| 0:50.4 | And having these chats is game-changing. |
| 0:52.1 | It gives me a whole new perspective. It reminds me that other people are going through stuff too. |
| 0:56.3 | It stops me spiraling into my own little wormhole of negative thoughts. |
| 1:00.8 | I had a really wonky brain week last week where I was just being really mean to myself |
| 1:06.6 | and I could feel myself spiraling and I just felt quite shit. |
| 1:11.3 | And again, listening to other people talk and tell their stories never fails to lighten |
| 1:17.6 | the load for me and just gives me, I guess, the chance to get out of my own head and get into |
| 1:22.9 | someone else's. |
| 1:23.8 | That's why I bloody love doing this podcast. |
| 1:26.8 | And I'm pretty sure it's one of the reasons |
| 1:28.4 | why you listen to it too. Today is no exception. It is a really important one. Monroe is a seriously |
... |
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