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Woman's Hour

Writer Heidi Thomas, Angela Saini on the origins of patriarchy, Codeword Mascara

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.22.9K Ratings

🗓️ 7 March 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On last night’s Panorama, Twitter insiders told the BBC that the company is no longer able to protect users from trolls, following lay-offs and changes under the owner Elon Musk. Lisa Jennings Young is the former head of Content Design at Twitter, and worked on safety features aiming to protect users from online hate, including misogyny. In October 2022, Lisa's entire team was laid off, and she herself chose to leave in late November. To find out more about her time at Twitter, and how proactive design can protect women and girls on social media, Nuala speaks to Lisa from her home in San Francisco. Heidi Thomas is best known as the writer and creator of Call The Midwife. Her newest project is a film adaptation of the Alan Bennett play Allelujah. Set in a much-loved geriatric hospital in Yorkshire – The Beth - that’s been earmarked for closure, it stars Jennifer Saunders as the formidable sister in charge. Heidi joins Nuala in the Woman’s Hour studio to talk about what it’s been like to go from writing about the start of life to the end. Feminism isn’t as modern as we might think, and the patriarchy is more fragile than it appears. That’s the basis of a new book by science journalist Angela Saini. In The Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule, Angela uncovers stories of female-led societies, and tells Nuala the lessons they might teach us. Young women are using codewords to describe their experiences of sex, and in some cases assault, on social media platform TikTok. The hashtag ‘Mascara’ has racked up more than 100 million views over the past month or so, and is the latest code that’s developed to avoid TikTok’s censorship filters. Sophie Smith Galer joins Nuala to discuss this latest trend. Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lucinda Montefiore

Transcript

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0:00.0

BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.

0:05.2

Hello, this is Nulam Agarverin and you're listening to the Woman's Hour podcast.

0:10.4

Good morning, welcome to Woman's Hour, good to have your company.

0:13.8

You may have seen that Wayne Cousins has been sentenced to 19 months in prison for exposing

0:18.0

himself on three occasions.

0:20.1

One of those just days before he kidnapped, raped and murdered Sarah Everard.

0:25.0

Several victims of Cousins' indecent exposure berated the police for their inaction, despite

0:30.5

their coming forward with details that could have led to charging Cousins.

0:34.6

The Metropolitan Police has now apologized for not arresting Cousins for that indecent

0:39.3

exposure and some say it may have stopped him from murdering Sarah Everard.

0:44.3

The new sentence, I should say, doesn't change Cousins' existing whole life sentence

0:48.8

for that murder.

0:50.6

What I would like to know, whether this latest sentencing of Wayne Cousins for indecent

0:55.8

exposure, makes you feel more confident perhaps if you were to report an incident of indecent

1:02.3

exposure to the police.

1:04.5

You can get in touch on our text, it's 84844 on social media or at BBC Woman's Hour

1:10.1

or you can email us through our website.

1:12.0

If it's a WhatsApp message or a voice note you'd like to send, that number is 0370014444.

1:20.5

We are going to explore a question during the programme that maybe you've asked yourself,

1:25.5

how did men come to rule?

1:27.6

My guest Angela Saini at the author of The Patriarchs has taken a trip through history and also

1:33.2

around the globe to try and understand what happened to put the current structures in

...

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