The Changing Image of Masculinity.
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 14 November 2019
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"Man Up". "He's Safe" "No Homo" How do men talk and write about masculinity? Laurence Scott talks to authors Ben Lerner, Derek Owusu and JJ Bola about crying, competitiveness, anger - and the pressure to perform.
Ben Lerner is the author of Leaving the Atocha Station, 10:04 and his latest novel is called The Topeka School. He holds a prize commonly called the "genius grant" as a MacArthur Fellow. Derek Owusu's latest novel is called That Reminds Me. He has also presented the podcast Mostly Lit and edited Safe: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space a collection of Essays which includes an Essay by JJ Bola. JJ Bola has also written a novel No Place to Call Home, a poetry collection Refuge, and non-fiction book on masculinity, Mask Off: Masculinity Redefined.
You can find more Identity Discussions in a playlist on the Free Thinking website including Caryl Philips and Johny Pitts on Afropean identities https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005sjw Emma Frankland, June Sarpong on a panel asking Can There Be Multiple Versions of Me? https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p061zr74
Producer: Robyn Read
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps |
| 0:21.2 | it. It's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream |
| 0:26.1 | van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.3 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, I'm Lauren Scott, and this is the Arts and Ideas podcast, and today we're thinking |
| 0:41.5 | about masculinity. |
| 0:42.9 | But in just a moment, after this message. |
| 0:45.3 | Hi, I'm Alistairsook, and I want to tell you about the way I see it, a brand new podcast |
| 0:50.6 | from BBC Radio 3. |
| 0:52.5 | It's a 30-part series in which we're throwing open the collection |
| 0:55.8 | at MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, to some of the sharpest creative minds of our time. |
| 1:02.5 | We'll be speaking to comedian, Steve Martin, writer Roxanne Gay, musician Steve Reich, and many, |
| 1:09.2 | many more. I'll be your guide throughout the series, so |
| 1:12.3 | join me as I explore one of the greatest collections of modern art in the world. If you'd like to hear |
| 1:18.5 | more, just search for The Way I See It on BBC Sounds. You'll likely have heard lots of discussion |
| 1:25.5 | around the subject of masculinity lately. |
| 1:27.9 | It's toxicity and its dangerous fragility. |
| 1:31.0 | There's a thousand cliches that swagger and spit around the ideal of the real man, |
| 1:35.8 | an Adonis with a six-pack who loves beer, loves sports, and who never sheds a tear. |
| 1:41.3 | Expressing emotions was at the heart of our free-thinking festival this year, but how hard |
| 1:45.9 | is it for men to articulate their feelings, both to themselves and others? And what other non-fragile |
| 1:52.0 | forms of masculinity might we imagine? I'll be speaking to three writers who have all been thinking |
| 1:57.5 | through the problems of masculinity, J.J. Bola, Ben Lerner, and this man here. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.