Podcast Script

Intro music begins

Jolyne
Hello everyone! I’m your host, Jolyne, welcome back to Jolyne’s Bizarre Podcast, where we
answer bizarre questions from our viewers about writing, science, or anything your heart desires!
Today I have some important guests with me to help answer one of our most recent questions:
how does being a woman affect the way you write? So if you’re a current college student who’s
majoring in some sort of writing or literature, you should stick around! Who knows, maybe this
podcast could inspire you! Let’s get started by having our guests introduce themselves! Just say
your name and profession! How about we start on my right and then go around the circle?
Everyone agrees
Anne Aronson
Hello everyone, my name is Anne Aronson, but you can call me Professor Aronson. I’ve been
teaching at a college level for over 30 years. Right now I’m at Metropolitan State University
teaching and developing curriculum in writing, gender studies, and many other things.
Jolyne
Quite the impressive reputation Professor Aronson!
Aronson laughs
Anne Aronson
I haven’t got to the best parts yet, but I’ll let someone else take the spotlight.
Everyone laughs
Lisa Hammond Rashley
Hi, my name is Lisa Hammond Rashley, I’m an Associate Professor of English at the University
of South Carolina Lancaster. Most of my work focuses on gender and technology. I hope I’m
able to give some insight on our topic today!
Katharine Jenkins
My name is Katharine Jenkins, I am a feminist philosopher. So I feel well prepared to talk about
writing as a woman.
Nora Berenstain
Hello! I’m Nora Berenstain, I’m currently a Professor at the University of Tennessee. My
research interests are feminist epistemology, social and political philosophy, and the list goes on.
Intro music stops
Jolyne
As you can see, we have many extremely intelligent women here to help us learn! So I’m just
going to cut to the chase: how does being a woman affect the way you write? Katharine, how
about you help get this conversation started?
Katharine Jenkins
Yeah of course, so I think it’s important that we first discuss the concept of being a woman. Now
this is extremely difficult to do. I mean there are so many different “subcategories” under the
term woman. So in my past article, “Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the
Concept of Woman,” I looked at Sally Haslanger’s attempt to do so. I believe that “Haslanger’s
proposal for target gender concepts does not in fact solve the inclusion problem because it does
not include trans people within their identified genders” (Jenkins, 2016, p. 396). So throughout
this conversation, it’s crucial that we think about all women. Otherwise, some women may feel
as though their writing and what they have to bring to the table isn’t as important.
Jolyne
Wait, sorry, I know the conversation is just starting, but what do you mean by “target gender
concepts.”
Katharine Jenkins
No worries at all! When I say the phrase “target gender concepts” I’m referring to the things that
Haslanger believes make up the idea of being a woman. So an example of one of these “things”
would be a person’s identity, despite their assigned gender at birth or how they present
themselves.
Jolyne
Ahh, okay! I see now, thank you!
Katharine Jenkins
Of course, glad I could help!
Jolyne
Okay, we can carry on now! Nora it looked like you had something to say.
Nora Berenstain
Yes, I just wanted to add on to what Katharine said! When I was doing my book review on Kate
Manne’s, Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, she also struggled to include trans women into her
book. Throughout the book, Manne tended to “avoid thinking structurally about forms of
oppression beyond those experienced by cisgender class-privileged white women” (Berenstain,
2019, p. 1365). We need to keep in mind that there are many different kinds of women besides
the majority, aka white women. I feel like when we leave out certain groups of women, they
won’t put as much effort into their writing because they don’t believe their voice will be heard.
Katharine Jenkins
Exactly, and I believe to successfully do this, we need to accept the possibility of having multiple
equally important concepts of “woman” that allow for everyone to be included (Jenkins, 2016, p.
396).
Nora Berenstain
I believe that most “women are expected to provide men with feminine-coded goods, such as
deference, attention, care and sympathy” (Berenstain, 2019, p. 1361). So when women aren’t
catering toward men, they aren’t “serving their purpose” so to say. So I believe that for a long
time if a woman is using her own time to write instead of providing, she would have most likely
been punished in some way.
Anne Aronson
Ooh, yes! I am so glad you brought that up Professor Berenstain! I completely agree that
“women cannot write unless they have both a place to go that is away from unwanted intrusion
and an income that makes them independent from men and thereby grants them time to write”
(Aronson, 1999, p. 282). Most women, unless incredibly lucky, do not have the luxury of time to
themselves. They are always busy whether they have to take care of their children, spouses, or
work to provide for either themselves or their family.
Jolyne
Wow, and I know that now, more than ever, women are still struggling to find the time to be able
to write in peace. Especially with the rise of single mothers.
Anne Aronson
You know what, I actually interviewed a single mom, which is not uncommon nowadays, who
was trying to go back to school. She tried finding a space in her small home that would be
sufficient as an office for her to do her school work. But after testing out multiple spaces, she
was unable to work efficiently in any room other than her bedroom, which automatically turns
her bedroom into a workplace. She’s unable to afford a larger home, so she just has to put up
with the lack of a proper workplace until she is able to afford another space (Aronson, 2019, p.
289).
Jolyne
I’m sure a woman’s writing identity would also be affected by all of these factors.
Lisa Hammond Rashley
Yes, yes. You are completely correct. Despite everything, women are resilient, we don’t allow
our voices and sense of self to be erased (Rashley, 2007, p. 25). If anything, everything that we
have been through has strengthened our sense of self and pride. We cannot allow ourselves to be
overshadowed by the stereotypes that surround being a woman.
Anne Aronson
To add on to that and my prior claims, without having a proper room to be able to work in peace,
women could fear that their writing would be read before it was finalized. Also, if it was a
private work not meant for other eyes, a woman could worry about her privacy being violated
(Aronson, 1999, p. 290).
Jolyne
Well, I feel like we’ve been talking for awhile, but I think that was a great way to end this
podcast! Thank you everyone for coming out today, it’s been very enlightening to say the least!
Nora Berenstain
No, thank you Jolyne!
Lisa Hammond Rashley
Yes, this was a lot of fun.
Anne Aronson
I cannot wait to be able to listen to this later.
Katharine Jenkins
Agreed!
All the authors leave the studio
Wes (the sound guy)
That was a pretty good session, don’t you think?
Jolyne
Yeah! I think that went well! I feel like a lot of conclusions can be drawn from the discussion we
just had!
Wes
Why don’t you let the listeners in on what you’re thinking.
Jolyne
Yeah, I think that would be a good way to close out!
Wes
Alright, well the recording is still going, so go ahead and start whenever you’re ready.
Jolyne
There were some good points that our guest brought up, so I thought it would be nice to do a
little conclusion to end up our discussion for this week! First of all, all women are still being
affected by gender roles. They feel as though they are unable to just sit down and write because
they need to fulfill their “role” as a caretaker for someone or something. Most women typically
don’t have a space of their own where they can write without being disturbed either. This means
they don’t have a safe place to write their thoughts freely, they’re almost always being watched.
Finally, women who are looked down upon or excluded from the concept of “women” by the
public feel as though their opinions are not as important. This feeling leads to them not putting
all of their effort into their writing.
Wes
I think you hit all the points!
Jolyne
I’m not done yet! I want to have our viewers think further about this topic. Well, we’ve gone
over the issues, but how could we fix them? How could we lessen the hold that gender roles still
have? How could we make sure all women are included or have a space of their own to write?
Wes
Oh man, really making them think this time!
They both laugh and the outro music begins
Jolyne
Well, thank you for listening! I appreciate you taking the time to listen to this whole recording. I
hope you’ve learned as much as I have, if not more! Don’t forget to follow and turn on our post
notifications. Next week we will be tackling the question: How can we communicate with our
pets? I hope to “see” you all next week!
Outro music stops
 References

Anne Aronson (1999). Composing in a material world: Women writing in space and time,

Rhetoric Review, 17:2, 282-299, https://doi.org/10.1080/07350199909359246

Lisa Hammond Rashley (2007). Revisioning Gender: Inventing women in Ursula K. Le Guin’s

Nonfiction, Biography, 30:1, 22-47, https://www.jstor.org/stable/23540596

Katharine Jenkins (2016). Amelioration and Inclusion: Gender Identity and the Concept of

Woman, Ethics, 126:2, 394-421,

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/683535

Nora Berenstain (2019). Review of Down Girl: The Logic of Misogyny, by Kate Manne, Mind,

128:512, 1360-1371, https://doi.org/10.1093/mind/fzy082