Transvox - Cautious Optimism and Reasons for Positivity

[00:00:00] Hi, hi, hi and welcome to Transvox. And with me today, looking resplendent, I was trying to say resplendent, Jenny, but it didn't go well. Anyway, so looking vast is you, Jenny. Hi, Jill. Welcome everybody. I don't think resplendent works in the Geordie accent.

[00:00:28] I think you're on a lose there. It doesn't sound like your lingo. You should definitely start off by saying why I and I should say hello ducks, we should embrace our cultures. I think so. I think we should do. I think that introduction probably wouldn't win any

[00:00:44] awards at the podcast. Indeed. Competitions. Otherwise we would be stealing it wouldn't we? Yes, we're the best podcast called Transvox in this category today. Anyway, lovely to talk to you. How's it been? It's been not too bad. Thanks, Jill. I

[00:01:01] hope yours has been good watching a bit of the football. So that sport and mooching around me and busy. So yeah, not too bad. And the weather's sort of got nice now. So that's good. Well, I've not watched that much football. I had the misfortune

[00:01:16] to turn on to what was purporting to be a football match last night and switched off again. So it just looked like a school match between people. So I give up on that because I've been watching the course Celebrity Bake Off, which is my number one reality

[00:01:31] program. I know you love the pottery you throw down but Celebrity Bake Off is my favourite. I like Bake Off. Who was on the Celebrity Bake Off then? I don't miss that. Sorry, I tell a lie. It's not Celebrity Bake Off. It's Bake Off the Professionals,

[00:01:43] which is a very different thing. Oh, even better. Oh, yeah. It's lovely. It's my fave. It's this idea of watching people who run businesses in catering who can't make a croissant. It's absolutely hilarious and they're all bursting into tears and the

[00:01:55] chef comes down with a ruler and tells chef, that is disgusting. I cannot eat that chef. That's my very bad impression of Cherish, who's one of the judges. Yes, I've seen it. There's something really refreshing about, I mean, watch Sewing Beast straight afterwards

[00:02:10] where every hyperbole under the sun is pulled out. This hem is ragged and it's rubbish and it's this. But it's fantastic otherwise. It's like, you know, they're not children. Just tell them it's rubbish and move on. So I've been thoroughly enjoying Bake Off the

[00:02:27] Professionals and it's not been good for my diet, as you can imagine, because I have to have cakes when I watch it. Indeed. I think you make a great judge on one of those programs,

[00:02:36] Jill. I think you'd be fabulous on it. I'll be doing that thing though where I'll be saying things like, well, you've made 24. I'll need to try 23 just to be sure.

[00:02:46] A bite out of them all. Anyway, I thought, do you know what? I thought we should talk a bit about culture this week because there's a week before the election next week and it's purder for a

[00:02:58] time for me. So I've done the postie vote thing. So basically, it doesn't matter for me. I don't care what happens between now and then. My vote is cast. My democratic duty has

[00:03:09] been done and I am now wearing a halo. Indeed, and I'm feeling more positive that post-general election our lives might be better. Not just ours. I think trans lives might be better.

[00:03:25] I'm feeling a bit more positive in choosing to be anyway. Who knows? Who knows? We might vote. The Vox and trans might be bigger. But I thought we could talk a bit about some sort of,

[00:03:37] I get into trouble usually just from you by having references back in the old ages. And you've been telling me off for this, but we bumped into some trans people last week together,

[00:03:48] didn't we? And they were going on about some sort of shock, which is all the rage apparently. And you were all over it like a rash and I was thinking what on earth is going on here?

[00:03:57] So tell me about the culture with down youth. Well, there is. There's a sort of, yeah, there's a culture with these. I'm definitely down with the kids because in many ways, I'm a

[00:04:09] 19 year old trapped in a 56 year old's body, which sounds a bit weird if you think about it. Well, I've not really matured so much. So I spend far too much time on watching game and streaming and communities. So we were chatting about this and Jill,

[00:04:25] lover as I do, had not heard of the Ikea shark. So anybody, I guess nearly every trans young trans person certainly, but trans people will be aware of that has been adopted as a sort of

[00:04:40] icon mascot of the trans community is a squishy shark you purchase from Ikea. And it's called the blow high, although it's spelt B, J, H is in it. Anyway, this has become one of the icons of trans culture for young people online and you don't need to Google

[00:05:04] the Ikea shark. I'm sure you'll see it. And it's become a mascot. So it's just one of those things that trans people have them in and buy them and give to them to each other.

[00:05:15] Who would have thought it or who would have thought it as you would say, Jill? And this is I would never completely passed you by. Is it not? It is. And apparently there's some sort

[00:05:24] of bear as well. It's all the rage. There's someone else. Someone else we know was talking to me about mushrooms being some sort of icon thing and cowboy hats and goodness knows what.

[00:05:35] Maybe I'm not as with it as I am, but I am aware of the shark, which is definitely a big thing. So I think if you Google it and I'm just thinking when our community finds its own

[00:05:49] part, so it's weird culture because we are a real culture where we can be quite nerdy as a culture. I think it's certainly online as a community and we embrace things like this.

[00:05:59] So yeah, I think it's a very strange thing. And you were quite taken and perplexed by it. If you don't mind me saying I think because it's such an odd thing. There doesn't really seem to be any connection. I guess somebody somewhere started doing TikToks with it or

[00:06:13] something and it just got embraced, you know, and all sorts of these things. And I think we do find like any in-group, we do find your own niches and your own cultures and your own

[00:06:24] language a little bit. Do you think it's a generational thing? Because I don't think it's necessarily a trans thing. Is that just more, maybe it's a young trans thing? It is a generational thing because if you're not in those communities online then you

[00:06:37] won't be seeing this. Although, you know, clearly not because I'm really, really, really old but I'm aware of, am I rare for instance, the connection between online trans streamers and monster ultra energy drink. I have no idea why there's

[00:06:55] that connection but it's a trope that lots of them will be, oh that person's holding a trans ultra, they may be trans and it's a really weird thing. And it's the same with the sharks and other elements of our culture that is probably in a sense

[00:07:13] through online community which is so very different. I don't know how much you found a culture on community online, Jill. I don't know if you did like me because I did in the 90s in chat rooms but everybody finds a different way into the community I think.

[00:07:28] And now young people are going on streamers and YouTube and... Yeah, interesting. And again I mentioned this to you earlier and then you sort of went, oh yeah that's famous and there's someone called MrBeast. I mean what's MrBeast?

[00:07:46] Now you're showing age. Anybody listening under 35 will definitely know MrBeast. The most famous, the biggest follower YouTuber in the world, I think 100 billion followers, who is extraordinarily famous for anybody under 30. It's really weird about culture now.

[00:08:06] In the days when we were growing up, if you were famous you were probably famous to everybody. If you're on the telly you're famous to everybody. MrBeast is possibly one of those famous people in the world for people under 35, 40, everybody who's on YouTube knows

[00:08:23] MrBeast. They're mobbed around the world, so famous. Yeah if I speak to, not saying you're the same age as my dad Jill, but people of my generation they might not know who MrBeast is. Now he's this YouTuber who is, it's really difficult to describe,

[00:08:40] gives away, shows that give away millions, you know hundreds of thousands and that's thanks. He became famous initially. He did gaming videos and then he did a video of himself counting up to a hundred thousand or something just as a stunt and it was sort of

[00:08:55] stunt so then it was growing. Just Google MrBeast, Jimmy Donaldson. But the important thing about MrBeast from our community, the most famous YouTuber is one of his team that he's grown up friends since school is trans. Ava I think her name is Tyson,

[00:09:12] who's one of the team and what is great is MrBeast because you can imagine in any online culture when somebody comes out as trans there are people who are mean and everything else.

[00:09:27] I see a comment saying, oh MrBeast is going to lose viewers now having a trans. Of course not and it is great. So yes MrBeast you need to Google that phenomena Jill.

[00:09:39] Maybe it's not your thing but it is amazing how somebody can be so big and famous and yet as I say my people I know at work would not have heard of them at all.

[00:09:51] Interesting isn't it? It is a generation thing as you said I think. Yes and it's interesting because how its pride season this year and it's I find it quite interesting how quiet pride is this year but I was actually interested in reading about the fact that we've said

[00:10:06] there's a little bit more hostility in the world around people but the first ever Muslim pride is taking place. I think that's quite interesting is this perception. We were talking about it to a group of people last week and they were saying things like the older

[00:10:24] generation are this, all Muslims are that, all young people are this and you get that situation in that sense don't you that we tend to be speaking these sort of big blocks massive

[00:10:36] labels on people and the fact is not all Muslims are transphobes. What we've got is a Muslim pride and it's really good isn't it? I mean and that's what killed us. I was just looking

[00:10:49] at the word and said it but it's what's really fascinating isn't it you know how popular culture gets in the way of real life. It was interesting watching Bridgerton the other day sorry I show up my age all of a sudden and there's this massive these massive swinging

[00:11:04] scenes sort of polyamorous not polyamorous because that's marriage but mixed sex swinging sort of sex scenes going on and gave this thing it's such like and it's fascinating how that can just permeate the culture if you let it and people don't get well I mean there'll

[00:11:21] be people who have got bent out of shape about it but it is interesting how much is going on in the culture and I have to say as someone from the arts it's nearly always the arts

[00:11:29] that's pushing ahead isn't it? Absolutely right and you've said this before Jill and I think that's that's fascinating in all those cases and we actually Bridgerton appeals to all ages massive viewership and people as well so it has modern sensibilities about it even though

[00:11:45] Edwardian in context but you're absolutely right about how you know those arts cultures are embracing our community and our culture in a way that we just didn't see did we 10 years ago. And it sort of and it raises the specter of at the moment in the States

[00:12:05] you've got this massive sort of ding dong going on between the Magamob and Taylor Swift which is interesting but in this country what we've got going on is a massive spat between Emmy Badenoch and your friend David Tennant which has really been fascinating

[00:12:21] isn't it because actually if you're going to take on a celebrity and you're a politician especially an unpopular politician why would you take on David Tennant? Because he's I wouldn't say universally loved but and he's massively well regarded.

[00:12:33] Pretty much yeah this was just I think literally yesterday the day before we were recording this that I think David Tennant at an award ceremony he was given an ally an LGBT awards he was

[00:12:43] given celebrity ally or whatever that means and took his time to talk about the so-called equality minister and basically he was shut up because you know he's harming she's harming people. And David Tennant has been an ally for a long time I think he may have one of

[00:13:02] his children maybe non-binary or gender diverse at least so I know he's very often wears a little sort of non-binary badge I've seen or trans-prime he's been an absolute advocate and ally and there are people who are prepared to do that and he knows like anybody else

[00:13:20] I guess that's in the public eye now is at the moment if you come out in support of trans people you're probably going to get some abuse and so on why doesn't he suffer that?

[00:13:29] You know and you know so good on him for being prepared to do that because many people won't speak out even though they might support us for fear of getting a bit of a pile on you know and

[00:13:41] but now I think that's brilliant that we've got people like that and I think that she's going to win a popularity contest with David Tennant the best doctor who there's ever been so or the best doctor if I'm being correct. What's fascinating is Kevley Badenau came back and

[00:14:00] in a completely non-stylish way sort of came back and said I'm not going to be lectured by a left wing labour supporting trendy woke lefty actor I'll always stand up for women's and

[00:14:10] girls rights and of course and I will not bring race into it and of course the you know the Tory party is sponsored by Frank Hester who is you know who's sponsored that campaign against Diane Abbott and the whole process about being racist and such like so

[00:14:26] and then finally the final comment on the bottom of Twitter something says well in nine days you'll be gone good riddance the bad rubbish so it's quite interesting what's been going on but

[00:14:35] it is interesting to see those as the cracks in the sort of ice of trans people being frozen of the culture oh that was very poetic it's interesting to see the sort of green shoots

[00:14:51] of transness on to peek their heads above and again we're seeing more trans events we're seeing more people being public about it and and and it's right that people start stood back in the way and protected themselves because it's been you've been in a place where standing up

[00:15:05] and being brave is just sometimes a bit foolhardy so sometimes it is sensible to be cautious not everybody some people have a platform and that's great and I totally admire them but

[00:15:16] someone like David Tennant and I saw Emma Bunton as well talking on yeah I'm a bunch of people because I watch tiktok you see mostly for Star Trek it has to be said but um but she

[00:15:27] was extolling and Lauren Kelly and people like that again it's the arts and I think the you know the the more we can and the thing is what the government been doing is cutting

[00:15:37] down the arts and sort of hacking down arts provision and I don't think that's a surprise you know it isn't a surprise that um something that fosters left wing or you know creativity into the freedom of thought and conscience as much like it's no surprise they've been

[00:15:55] hacking that down but if you look at the way funding for trans organizations has been so slaughtered just look at the way arts funding has been absolutely uh well what is it just

[00:16:06] appalling it's appalling no no they do there definitely is I mean that you know I mean the forever that the conservative government complains or that all the comedy is left wing and that's just because the arts people and comedians tend to be left wing that's because they're

[00:16:22] in power yeah but also you know they tend to come from that sensibility and I think their arts have always tended and what you've told me is growing up how that the more

[00:16:34] embraced lgbt culture and you can feel more at home than maybe other areas where for instance like in sport it still feels in some areas of sport it could be difficult you know we know that

[00:16:47] we know that and so it is interesting those cultures and um so yeah and it's good to see that we need that representation we need those allies we need those people speaking

[00:16:56] you know there isn't enough of us in power but if people with that soft power and that's important because you know just look at the damage that jk roland has done as somebody who

[00:17:07] is in a sense okay she's an author but a celebrity a famous person and has used that platform to really damage our community because there's so many followers right and I think it's uncalculable that are in my view the harm she's done overall to the discourse on

[00:17:24] trans in the uk because people have coalesced on the famous people so it's good to see other people with a platform like david tennant you know like you know ironically with jk roland like daniel rankliff and those people that have stood up for trans equality and not bad

[00:17:40] I think you know where they might get abused and they might get and they've taken that step and I think and as you said I think that's really important because it can feel pretty tough when you're constantly uh you know seeing you know people with platforms you're crying

[00:17:57] validity I'm sorry we're getting deep in yes yeah I mean it could well be I mean we're recording this on whatever day we is they think it's a week to the election or it will be by more 10 by 10 11 8 days the world might look

[00:18:16] very different for us all and and and we're going to be careful not to raise our expectations too high but then because you can be equally as disappointed by expecting everything to change today and then being realistic about when things will change and I think managing

[00:18:28] people's expectations is really critical in this and um then on july the 6th that there's a labor government things won't have changed for us but the the pressure to be against us will stop immediately well they've already yeah I mean we didn't want to get too

[00:18:44] political but this is probably going to be our last podcast drop before the election is it you know look at the lingo we're dropping a podcast I'm really with I'm really with this

[00:18:53] podcast in lark now but um you know you are hearing some language saying that they're going to look at implementing all of the guidance in schools that some of it they feel is wrong and

[00:19:03] so you are seeing and they want to do some improvements to you know even wed street didn't seem the other day seemed to say something who's the shadow health secretary and a lot of the

[00:19:13] trans community are not particularly happy with said some stuff about the current situation is degraded for trans people in terms of transition so um I am sort of more hopeful and you've helped

[00:19:26] in that joe because you're always trying to be positive but overall I'd be quite down about the politics and yeah I'm sort of looking forward to yeah you're right it won't change

[00:19:34] overnight but maybe we're gonna um see a bit of a better period for us it's going to be excellent well whatever happens sometimes sometimes the key is that change happens and change brings its own challenges of course but it will be changing and there's opportunities

[00:19:51] and risks in that so it's it's exciting times really I still think it's it's exciting times for um people to get access to jobs and work and I know we're going to talk about those things

[00:20:00] again in the future but indeed I think we need to to keep our you know just because just because a government might change that doesn't mean our work stops here so we'll still be

[00:20:10] around commenting and um and bringing our archaic cultural references to bear and of course now we know you are down with decades I know you'll be able to keep me right and um I'm going to have

[00:20:21] to look at look up Mr Mr Breast Mr Beast have a look good videos they're really good quality you know while away so you need to start going down YouTube rabbit holes jill but I just

[00:20:33] I enjoy Abigail Thorne I mean I think oh she's amazing that philosophy tube yeah amazing uh brilliant um just sort of a brilliant coming out story as well if you've seen her a coming out

[00:20:45] video so she's the trans but really interesting you know properly deep thinker stuff isn't it you know there's some there's some brilliant stuff out there some really talented people that aren't on telly you know that and as I say modern world I think she's got a part

[00:21:01] in the new star wars series you know she's an actress in the new star wars series she's got a she's an actress so she's appeared in a couple of uh good luck to her she's amazing and carrying

[00:21:14] the can and the flag for all of us of course is uh Russell T. Davis flying around in his little TARDIS around the world so I mean the latest the latest series of uh the Hooniverse

[00:21:24] as it's now called has I mean it can't get any more explicitly supportive of the culture and the whole queer community it's quite yeah quite explicit isn't it Rose the trans character

[00:21:37] came back in the finale I'm not going to go into movies and know whether the finale worked or not but it is so good to just see a trans character there just existing as a character

[00:21:47] it's not an issue you know that is you just wouldn't seen that years ago so yeah there's there's a lot to be I think there's a lot to be positive for and I guess maybe because it's

[00:21:57] sunny that I'm in this mood and not not despairing at the moment so but hopefully it lasts so you can see you laughing Jill well yeah but I mean we've had we've had a day and a half of sun

[00:22:08] and it's been it's been cold as wet yesterday and today it's been horrible and the sun has just come out now so uh but all of those down in the south coast of England who've been having

[00:22:17] 28 degrees and moaning about sunburn and high pollen and I've got a friend of mine actually who's on a sort of camping trip in the north at the moment and she contacted me and said

[00:22:29] can you send me a few things we might want to do send me this detailed schedule of everything they're doing and the first thing I said is did you bring a jumper you said that you just

[00:22:37] had to go and buy one because famously when I first moved up to this part of the world I was told there are two seasons in the northeast there is June and there's winter

[00:22:49] and to have a terrible June is like quite a worrying thing I love that that's brilliant well I must let you go and um indeed thank you and let's let's stay in this positive mood we're going to yes to enter the beginning of July looking forward thinking positively

[00:23:08] and maybe regaining some of the rights and such like that we've lost over the last few however long it is I guess next time we talk we definitely probably got to talk about the

[00:23:17] election results if we have to I think that's a very good chance that's going to be uh that's going to be a fun one and we should also talk about the um you must remind me we must talk

[00:23:28] about the uh the response to what's been happening to the cast report as well so we did an episode yes I think there's another deep dive to do on that I think there's a bit

[00:23:35] lot happened there's a lot become obvious and there's a lot become um understood about the quality of research and the people guiding its provenance and such like so we're going to

[00:23:46] have a good old chat about that and a couple weeks maybe I'd like to like that I think I'm quite annoyed as a sort of person who's got an academic background at the at the horror story

[00:23:57] which is the provenance of the research and it's sort of anti-science in a way I think from what I understand it's sort of anti-science if you actually look about yeah some of the methodology from my understanding but then let's save that as

[00:24:08] you often say to me let's save the good stuff for the pod um speak later but yes thanks everybody anyway speak soon take care bye bye thanks for listening to this episode of transvox it's been a joy to have you with us um if you

[00:24:28] want to um make contact with us you can contact us at gillian at transvox.co.uk and if you'd like to support the work we do please go to patreon and go to page transvox and all of our

[00:24:42] money goes to our nominated charity and jen you've chosen the charity for the next number of episodes which one have you chosen our charity is called beyond reflections which is a charity that provides support and counseling to trans people non-binary people and their friends

[00:24:58] and their families across the uk an amazing charity doing some amazing work really important so please if you can give great and if you want to go and have a look at beyond reflections

[00:25:09] it's beyond-reflections.org.uk and uh but as i say if you'd like to make a contribution to what we're doing because we love to help the people who help us again if you've got ideas

[00:25:19] for um the show things you'd like to ask us questions comments applause or brick baths feel free to send it all in to gillian at transvox.co.uk until the next time goodbye bye you