The Bechdel Cast - Updates, Improvements, and a Discussion with Kenice Mobley!

Episode Date: June 11, 2020

This week on The Bechdel Cast, we catch up with fave guest Kenice Mobley and discuss black cinema and the failure of film programs’ (ever heard of them?) failure to center black artists in front of ...and behind the camera. Also, Caitlin and Jamie talk about where the show has fallen short, and an update to our nipple scale. We’ll be back to the regular format next week! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jermaine Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties
Starting point is 00:00:12 you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app,
Starting point is 00:00:26 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Nerves the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption. They were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everybody, this is Matt Rogers. And Bowen Yang. We've got some exciting news for you. You know we're always bringing you the best guests, right?
Starting point is 00:01:11 Well, this week we're taking it to the next level. The one, the only, Katherine Hahn is joining us on Lost Culture East. That's right, the queen of comedy herself. Get ready for a conversation that's as hilarious as it is insightful. Tune in for all the laughs, the stories, and of course, the culture. Don't miss Katherine Hahn on Las Culturistas.
Starting point is 00:01:28 Listen to Las Culturistas on Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Bechdelcast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effing vast. Start changing it with the Bechdel cast. Hi everybody. Hello and welcome to the Bechdel cast. My name is Caitlin Durante. My name is Jamie Loftus. We hope that this podcast finds you well. It has been a very difficult couple of weeks um and if you're listening thank you for listening yes indeed so we are we're going to be getting back to uh
Starting point is 00:02:13 your regularly scheduled um programming movie episode next week but we wanted to just have a bit of a conversation uh this week a bit of a conversation it was a conversation a full conversation a whole ass conversation um because um i think like many people we've been taking stock of not just our own shit but of our show's shit and so we just want to speak to that briefly before before sharing a whole conversation we had with friend of the cast and friend of us, Kenise Mobley. Yes. Yes, we'll get to that in a moment. But Jamie, like you said, I've been doing a lot of reflecting. You've been doing a lot of reflecting on our episodes that we've done so far and the movies that we've chosen to cover and the dearth of black movies in our episode history.
Starting point is 00:03:12 Our catalog. Yes. Yeah, which it's like we were talking about it because originally we were considering re-releasing an older episode this week and as we were going through our own catalog and at this point we have hundreds of episodes the pickings for a black directed and written movie were it was like i was mad at us like it yeah it's embarrassing we should be embarrassed yeah we and we are and we want to let all of our listeners know that it is i I mean, there's no excuse for it. We were just not, we just weren't giving that the attention that it deserves. And going through our own catalog was, oh boy, it was a humbling experience. because um i think you know very often um the excuse that we have found to not cover black
Starting point is 00:04:07 movies is that we are a mainstream movie podcast and what i don't think that i you know i i knew it but i didn't think or articulate it well enough to the point where it you know became the reality of the show is well what qualifies the term mainstream? And mainstream, I think in a lot of ways, indicates whiteness because of money and because of in our specific world where Hollywood allocates its money and where it allocates its money, and where it allocates its opportunities. So I think that we've really often found an excuse to cover more white movies than not, because those were the directors and the writers that have been given those opportunities. But that's not an excuse. It's we're people that are more than capable of seeking out movies that are not written and directed by white people. I just, I was just like, Jamie, Caitlin, what are you thinking? But yeah, that's, that's some of the
Starting point is 00:05:12 conversations that we've been having about, about the show. We also, of course, always want to be bringing you all sorts of voices, especially black voices. And we will continue to do so and we want to do it more than we currently do um i think we said this last week but if if there are specific guests that you're like i'd love to hear them on the show um let us know hopefully we can make it happen but yeah i think particularly with black movies we have failed our audience in in just covering them which will be rectified in the future and the immediate future too right so yes yes if there are movies that you would like to hear covered also let us know but we've got we've got shit in the works indeed and like i mean the whole thesis statement of our show is the media that we consume and how it influences individuals as well as culture. the under-representation or misrepresentation of any particular group contributes to a
Starting point is 00:06:28 misunderstanding of that group. For example, the mis- and under-representation of Black people, Black characters in cinema contributes to systematic racism. Yeah, absolutely. And, and in many, many, many cases, it is white writers and directors perpetuating those stereotypes across all media across, you know, we cover movies, but it's also very prevalent in television. It's, it's everywhere. And, and we do not want to be contributing to erasing or misrepresenting or undercovering in particular black stories or, or, or any non white story.
Starting point is 00:07:12 Really? There are so many white stories, you know, possible to say the world is good. Yes. So we just kind of wanted to lead with that. And, you know, know we're gonna continue reflecting on it but the main the main message is we recognize that we have not covered enough
Starting point is 00:07:33 black cinema we have not as individuals seen enough black cinema because we have the privilege of a lot of popular media being marketed to us and being in many ways about us right and that is something that we need to push past like and and so we talk about it more with kinese um particularly uh i loved like just talking about movies that are about black joy and like comedy and like there's just you know so we just we just wanted to lead with that and also say that we're committed to not just covering movies but also um directing you to uh voices to follow we'll continue to elevate the voices of all of our guests but our black guests in particular we will be um directing you to. If there's a guest, we said this last week as well,
Starting point is 00:08:25 but if there's a guest on the Bechtel cast that you enjoyed and you don't follow their stuff, what are you doing? Like, get it together. Fix it. Click that follow button. It's not hard. Make it right now. And we apologize for our role in perpetuating the extreme whiteness of Hollywood.
Starting point is 00:08:47 And at times, I think the extreme whiteness of feminism, where we discussed this briefly as well. But there is a very traceable history of feminism having a lot of asterisks being specifically for white women definitely that is not what we're about and um we're we're you know it's something that we're also reflecting on so uh for sure yeah thanks thanks for for being here you know if you're a listener of the show you already know and she was kind enough to talk to us about i I mean, she's a movie buff and we love her and we hope you enjoy the conversation. Yeah, so without much further ado, let's cut to the conversation that we had
Starting point is 00:09:33 with our dear friend, Kanice Mobley. And we are joined now with one of our favorite, guest favorite friends, just general, wonderful hero. It's our friend, Kenise Mobley. Hello. I've never been called a hero. A hero. I'm going to, you know what? Me, people who save other people's lives.
Starting point is 00:10:02 I was going to list professions, but some of those, like, now I feel like I can't endorse an entire profession of any kind. Because there's, so just the people who have saved people's lives, those are the heroes. You're also a hero. Yeah, it's true.
Starting point is 00:10:20 And listeners out there, you remember Kaniece from our Back to the Future episode, which is on our Patreon, as well as our Casino Royale episode on our main feed. So friend of the cast, returning third time. You're among the three-time elite tier. I want you guys to do what SNL does. And if I get on five times, I want a jacket. Oh, we should do that they do you get like a like a smoking jacket like a maroon velvet smoking jacket and it has
Starting point is 00:10:52 like five timers club i just watch way too much snl so i know that like really well but yes that is both heartwarming and so weird to me it It's like Alec Baldwin has a jacket. I don't want him to have a jacket, but he does. He does. He 100% has that five-timers jacket. As we're recording this, Cops just got canceled forever. Yes. Wait, Cops, the TV program?
Starting point is 00:11:20 Yes. Oh, my God. The profession. The profession is over. We did it. Success we did it success the police no for for now it's just the television program is over but that but as far as media goes that is uh a really good step but there's i mean i didn't even know it was still on i've seen so many tweets say that they're like they're still make cops yes they're still having the boys in blue run after people who are confused it's when how long has that show been on
Starting point is 00:11:51 it's been on since what the 80s 90s the 80s i think it's 32 seasons is what i saw earlier today my word oh boy Oh boy. Well, defund cops the show. And they did. They did. It's a start. It's a start. It's a start. Well, yeah, I guess we want to just take an opportunity to reflect on our show's history,
Starting point is 00:12:19 what we can do moving forward as the hosts of this show to make sure we are being as inclusive and as intersectional as possible. Yeah. So. Yeah. There are some podcasts that talk about film and the only time they talk about black film is when it's like this is a big important black film and it is being nominated for academy awards and because they do that it is often black films that center on pain yeah so hey i'm a big fan but also my push is to please include movies that incorporate black joy silly black movies movies that aren't necessarily like critical darlings but fan darlings uh because it's not just i swear to god if i have to listen
Starting point is 00:13:05 to another podcast where it's like okay let's dissect 12 years a slave and let's talk about whipping scenes for a long time and i'm like who is this one for like so yeah that's my stance what are some of your favorites favorite movies that celebrate black joy? So every Thanksgiving I watch a double feature of Coming to America and Trading Places. Oh, that's so much fun. I love those movies. I don't know what it is about Thanksgiving and Eddie Murphy, but mentally those two
Starting point is 00:13:36 things are paired forever. So every Thanksgiving I watch those really fun comedies. Also Dope. Have you guys seen this? Yeah, I love Dope. It's one of the best teen movies of the last decade and i think it doesn't get a lot of props uh i think it's i just think it's so funny why haven't we covered dope oh please please do and it has oh there's a lady in it who's like in a bunch of other things that i really like and she's like a teen and sometimes
Starting point is 00:14:00 she is very much so dressed like a teenage boy and sometimes she's like super glamorous but she's fantastic sorry to bother you uh how stella got her groove back i just saw this like i know i should have seen it years ago but i just saw it earlier this year the way they shoot tay diggs is a thing of beauty and i just i think it's important that we recognize that sure um bad boys is hilarious bad Bad Boys 2. I haven't seen Bad Boys 3 because it came out when theaters were completely shutting down.
Starting point is 00:14:29 Right. I don't think a lot of people think of this as a black film, but it's directed by Spike Lee. Inside Man. Oh. With Denzel Washington and Clive Owen.
Starting point is 00:14:38 It's a really fun bank heist movie. It has Chiwetel Ejiofor. Oh, it has a ton of people. Willem Dafoe's in it. It's Jodie Foster. Check it out. Wow, all-star cast.
Starting point is 00:14:50 Yeah, it's great. It's high energy. Yeah, I just am a big fan. Good Hair, Chris Rock's documentary about the hair care industry in the black community. Girls Trip is hilarious. This is available on Amazon Prime. And I know Amazon is bad bad but this movie is good uh the last black man in san francisco uh the music and the way that that was shot
Starting point is 00:15:11 great creed was so good it made me join a gym like i left the somerville theater in davis square somerville massachusetts and i walked to a boston sports club directly and i joined it because i was like kanice you need to change your life this is media being influential yes i mean i would say it changed my life but i did not continue to go i went for a few months and then i stopped uh widows uh it's not light and upbeat but it is again i love a heist film oh no widows is awesome yeah i love getting a crew together planning a crime committing a crime it's great and steve mcqueen is one of my favorite directors i think the way that he shoots things is so interesting uh and he got colin farrell to be at once likable and hateable which is i think a fantastic lane for colin farrell
Starting point is 00:16:01 us get out of course i am not your negro also on amazon prime sorry no ethical consumption city of god oh the um brazilian yes uh yeah i think it's important to show like black people across the planet because we are everywhere um but that was one of like my i made my mom watch that when I was in high school. I just found it so moving. It's so good. And Love and Basketball. That's going to be my list. Yes.
Starting point is 00:16:29 My current list of very, very good, not homework feeling black movies. Nice. Yeah. Those that's a great list. Yeah. We need to cover a lot of those. Yeah, that's on. I mean, and and for listeners, too, if there are movies from black directors or black writers that you would love to see covered in the show, we're looking out for ones we haven't seen or heard of as well. So listed just then, Kanice, have black either writers or directors.
Starting point is 00:17:08 Not all of them, but I think most of those did. I think most of them do. I think some of the ones, especially the ones that are older, like Bad Boys, Coming to America, I don't think those have black directors. I mean, Michael Bay. But they star black people. Right. right um but there are a fair number of black narratives in film that don't have black filmmakers behind the camera and i think we talked about this on like the hidden figures episode and things like that um spider-man into the spider-verse on the matreon episode we did
Starting point is 00:17:43 about that movie there's a whole there's i can't think of any others off the top of my head right now, but I know they're out there because historically movies about all types of people have still mostly been made by white men specifically. Speaks to the fact that black creatives have not been given opportunities. Their work has not been prioritized. All those issues that lead to the help. Just there being exactly the help, Green Book, nightmares such as those. And I mean, the help, I think as of this recording is still in the top 10 on Netflix.
Starting point is 00:18:24 It makes me so mad. which is just so mad. It makes me so mad. Who is, I don't know these people and I don't want to meet them, but who are these people that are like, you're right. I will help with racial justice by watching a story about a black domestic worker who is deprived of her rights.
Starting point is 00:18:41 Yes. That's what I will do. That's that's, that seems like a good idea this to me okay and i this may be too much and i recognize that but to me the help trending on netflix is akin to the fact that like ebony pornography ebony in air quotes pornography is like rising up the porn hub charts because people are like i am doing a good deed i am helping racial justice right now it's it's a complete missing the mark thing but we right it keeps happening and it's
Starting point is 00:19:12 making me mad oh yeah it's so cringy and and there's there's a tweet from former guest on the show the best iodebri she she's so cool she really is she i just i met her when she lived in new york and i was just like that's a cool lady a fellow massachusetts i was getting the massachusetts yeah those mass vibes yeah we're all so cool but she is she uh she had some because we we circulated a list of black movies and where you could watch them right now a list that was circulating that was like netflix hulu you know just to start but i also tweeted something i wanted to share where she said all the anti-racist watch lists that don't include daughters of the dust or losing ground or hollywood
Starting point is 00:20:04 shuffle or ganja and hess or the watermelon woman or love and basketball uh remember loving get out you like black movies surprise lol it doesn't have to be homework which i which which is i mean that hit for me as well as just like we should just be watching more black movies. And, you know, as a show, if the powers that be are not bringing it to us and not pushing it, then it's on us. We're a movie podcast. We need to seek it out. And it's not like we're watching movies. It's fun. It's fun.
Starting point is 00:20:42 Hollywood Shuffle is a really fun movie. I't seen it i'm excited i am gonna admit right now that i don't think i think i saw it in college but i haven't seen it since then so i remember none of the details because i don't remember my youth so same yeah i i i saw it in college and not since but i remember being really funny and like providing some you know compelling commentary yeah I think celebrating black movies that aren't just about black pain will also help with that because I think the perception is if you're watching a weighty black movie or like an important black movie it's gonna be a about race and civil rights or slavery and be depressing as hell and something that you have to sit through like homework and i i know that is not the case so just doing more
Starting point is 00:21:34 of a variety of black movies i think is important right for sure absolutely because it's yeah it's movies like yeah the yeah well jamie to touch on something you mentioned about like if the powers that be don't like basically the point that i'll arrive at so i'll just get there we all we all went to film school right we studied film like and we're not school kanice the two of us have master's degrees from boston university don't like to bring it up i know we would never bring it up you're attacked but continue just reflecting back on the movies that get mentioned in like film textbooks yeah movies that get screened in classes unless you specifically take
Starting point is 00:22:26 like a class on black cinema just general film classes and maybe this has changed in the years that i have gone to school or maybe this is different for certain schools but the two different brag the two different schools i went to for film school they like, yeah, so there were some important black films like Do the Right Thing and Boys in the Hood and probably some other ones. Also, there was a whole blaxploitation movement. Yeah. And The End. That's all you need to know. And they really just completely gloss over and did not make a priority of teaching film students about black cinema. And should the onus have been on me to
Starting point is 00:23:07 seek more out for myself? Yes. Did I do that? Not to the extent that I should have. So yes, that is yet another area that, you know, I will work on. We also, we went to the same place. I remember I had to fight with my professors a little bit to take a race and gender course because that wasn't part of the master's degree program. It was an undergraduate class. And I was like, I really think I should be getting some of this information. And it was there where I saw she's got to have it.
Starting point is 00:23:40 It was there where I saw Paris is burning. It was there that I saw like any representation of people who looked like me because in screenwriting class in film history class we did a lot of stuff I mean I saw every single Coen Brothers film and like dozens of films by like French auteur directors but I still don't think like I can confidently say that in school I didn't see a single African film, like no films that were made in Africa. And I still haven't really seen those. Like it just I think the only director that even came up was Spike Lee. But that was it.
Starting point is 00:24:20 It's frustrating because it's I feel the same way. Like it was on me to seek out more and I didn't do as much as I should have. But I think especially when we're talking about media and media education, which is Molina but like there there is all there's just in like film education and in media studies it's so white like it's and and it again it's like kind of embarrassing to like be aware of it at the time but not say enough about it where I think I brought this up on the show before i took a class called like wilder allen and kaufman like just three like it's and and again it was like yeah the black films that we studied were very like it was just the same three movies that you hear about in every course and it's like we can't just that means that first of all there should be
Starting point is 00:25:26 black film professors employed in universities and also just no matter who's teaching there you know i can use you shouldn't have had to watch every coen brothers movie that so i saw all of them except lady killers because they weren't going to do that they weren't going to make us watch the lady killers yeah that's not a very good Coen brothers would even co-sign that decision I think they would want to get rid of that as part of their canon and I'm wondering what Tom Hanks thinks about it I just yeah it is I mean that's like something that I don't know I feel naive for not interrogating that more fully while I was in school but I hope and I think now just based on I did a little research into like today's students uh smarter than me yes and there is
Starting point is 00:26:21 there has been more pushback um that's great schools to not just teach it feels like the same 50 movies no matter what school you're going to yes yes they had they all got the same syllabus from online and they were like yep check we are doing the canon and that's it and if you want to see anything that's outside of that canon if you want to see people of color that are directors if you want to see female directors you have to go and seek those out and it's frustrating that i mean as as valuable as those classes are and as happy as i am that they exist that the stories are still other to a separate class like that just indicates that the school doesn't feel that black film is film they're like no this is a separate class. Yes. That just indicates that the school doesn't feel that black film is film.
Starting point is 00:27:06 They're like, no, this is a separate class. It's a separate thing. This is a class that's race and gender where film is a component, but we're not really counting it. And what I think it does is it produces and has produced generations of film scholars and film critics who simply don't believe that works by black artists exist. Like they're like, oh, it's not,
Starting point is 00:27:26 kind of referring back to the Oscars So White campaign, it's not that we are doing something bad, it's just that the system hasn't turned out any filmmakers versus I haven't done the research to know to go out and seek these films out. And again, correct me if I'm wrong, I think that in terms of the diversity of how many black film critics are being put on and given the appropriate reach is is also like
Starting point is 00:27:55 an issue that comes up with us all the time where there's so many movies that we've covered that are like well keep in mind this movie got reviews, but probably because everyone who reviewed it was a white man and this movie was not for them. And that's why they were just like, I didn't get it. See, like that is infuriating. And I agree 100 percent. Yeah. And so we're going to aim to. But I mean, we've had a number of black film critics on the show before like joelle monique is like one of the
Starting point is 00:28:25 best in the game she's amazing um ashley ray is a writer i really enjoy reading and she's her twitter's the best it's just she is just on all the time i love her so much and um and danielle radford is another amazing black media critic there there are so many wonderful black film critics I and I think it is like changing slowly but in terms of like are they getting the appropriate microphone and and reach and are they being put on in the way that they deserve to be I think that there's still a ways to go and we'll commit to showcasing those voices because sometimes you see like a random white guy review a movie that they just clearly they didn't even attempt to put it like I it's just most film
Starting point is 00:29:14 critics assume that the movie they're watching is made for them specifically yes it's wild I've heard and I do listen to a few film podcasts and there is one that I like, but it is led by two white men. And just the nuances that they miss out on entirely because they're not familiar with the culture makes them say, oh, this isn't very deep or these scenes aren't well acted. But it's like they're operating on something that you just haven't taken the time to think critically about versus not saying anything at all. And we have those blind spots too. And it's like, yeah, it's like just stuff that we need to commit to working and figuring out. And I'll repeat this podcast recommendation again,
Starting point is 00:29:56 just because I've been listening to even more of it than I usually do. But Black Men Can't Jump in Hollywood. You gotta listen to it. It's so funny. And I hope that we'll have them on the show soon as well yeah that and like there's I think a discussion to be had around I guess like the must-see movies of the year and how it's very seldom that they are black movies. I think that like Get Out was a recent exception, but like it's very rare that there will be critical darlings
Starting point is 00:30:31 or movies that like critics by and large love and say like, you got to see this. This is the must-see movie of the year because it is like white critics mostly or historically leading the narrative of like what movies you have to see. And which results in us getting every Richard Linklater film being one that you absolutely have to see.
Starting point is 00:30:55 Isn't, isn't boyhood universal. Everyone feels this strongly about it. His men in their forties, everyone feels that way. That killed me. I was like, it was fine. i don't know
Starting point is 00:31:05 why everyone's okay right they really they really played us with that one yes i was so i didn't see it until last year and i was just like what that was what i was have to see they were really betting on that kid growing up to be a good actor. Yikes. Whoops. Yeah, no, but I mean, that was a tangent. But yeah, I totally agree. And I think, again, it's like where we have a platform where we talk about film, I include us in that as well and that's like that is something that we need to get better at is even if the marketing department is not going to tell us this is a must-see movie it's like you know let's seek out the movie let's watch it let's talk about it it's truly
Starting point is 00:31:56 the easiest thing in the world to do and we'll be doing it much more hell yeah yeah when i was growing up i lived kind of between one, which was in a whiter neighborhood and one theater, which was in a blacker neighborhood. And even then it was really clear to see which movies were advertised and pushed where. So like a black movie would be maybe on one screen playing twice a day at the big one in the white neighborhood. But then you go over to the black neighborhood and it would be on like four screens. It felt like they were like, come and and see this maybe but we don't anticipate that
Starting point is 00:32:28 this audience could have any interest in this type of story which is so limiting like for it it just and it just assumes whiteness is the dominance it assumes whiteness is the dominance and that it fulfills the prophecy that that movie won't make as much money because they're not putting it in as many places. And so it has to like it. Every theater has to sell out or it has to blow out sales records in order to be considered a success. Like why? Like Girls Trip made so much money, but it had to be very good in order to make that money if that makes sense and also framing i i remember girl's trip being framed as like a surprise success yes and like what is that
Starting point is 00:33:13 supposed to be indicating fucking like queen latifah is it how is it a surprise that that movie would be jada pinkett smith yeah like t like, yeah, it had such a good. Major movie stars. Yeah. It was very good. I liked it a lot. I loved it. It was very funny. There's a very specific SNL skit.
Starting point is 00:33:32 Tom Hanks. It's on Black Jeopardy. Did you guys see this? Maybe? It doesn't sound super familiar. I think it's one of the best sketches that SNL put out for a while. But it's Tom Hanks. He's on Black Jeopardyy which is a bit that they do
Starting point is 00:33:46 that's really recurring and they ask a question about a Madea movie and he answers it right away and everyone is shocked they're like you know all of Madea he's like it's a heartwarming film where they talk about God I feel like that hits
Starting point is 00:34:01 with a lot of people and it just everyone was shocked and like yeah I guess it does I think that if they approached it more like that that these are some movies that are geared for a more specific niche audience but like a lot of movies in general try to appeal to as large of an audience as possible by exploring very universally relatable themes and many black films do this and for film marketers to assume that a white audience couldn't connect with a story with a black protagonist or a story that explores a black experience like that is ludicrous and hollywood needs to get a clue and like invest in black creatives too because it's just it's such a like you know such a cyclical issue of like you know if black creators don't get the money to make their movie then there's
Starting point is 00:35:16 automatically less movies to market if a movie is made by a black creative it's automatically marketed less because there is this like prevalent assumption that no matter how many times it's automatically marketed less because there is this like prevalent assumption that no matter how many times it's proven wrong is always assumed over and over and over that uh black movies won't sell as well even though it's it's so frustrating like it's constantly multiple times a year absolutely yeah proven wrong um but you know it just becomes like this vicious circle. And since we cannot count upon the entertainment industry to improve, which it does so, so, so, so, so, so slowly. come down to like individuals being like i am going to look outside of what is literally put in front of me by because and also like so often what is put directly in front of us as we discuss on the show constantly sucks um so yeah and i mean part of that responsibility is ours to like go and research the films that aren't maybe in the mainstream because hollywood refuses to try to let them be in the mainstream and to watch those films and share them
Starting point is 00:36:36 with our audience and our friends and everyone, everyone around us. What I think we want to do now is just encourage our listeners to do the same work that we are committing to in terms of discovering more black cinema, consuming it. And we'll also be using more of our platform, more of our social media to direct you where we can. And we're always like, we want to hear what you're watching, what you'd like to see covered on the show, which our listeners have never been shy about letting us know. So we trust that that will continue. But we're going to prioritize more finding voices
Starting point is 00:37:26 to elevate and uh show to you with our with our humble baby platform definitely um yeah and i honestly like we're focusing on black cinema right now but we could stand to cover more movies about other underrepresented groups we could we there's movies about black, brown, Asian, indigenous people. We could cover more queer movies, more international movies, like not just English language American movies. Like there's just a whole scope of things that we can definitely. We can read. We can read.
Starting point is 00:38:01 The thing is we can read and we should do it more. Indeed. the thing is we can read and we should do it more indeed um another thing that we are going to do moving forward is an adjustment to our nipple scale yes we've always treated it as how does this movie represent women um but that is something that uh we of course realize isn't all-inclusive so what we're going to do instead and this is what we've done with the podcast with the discussions itself but uh we're just changing the official rules yeah extending it to the nipple scale is uh rather than how does the movie represent women it's more how does the movie hold up when we're looking at it from an intersectional feminist lens 100 and that
Starting point is 00:38:46 way it's more inclusive it's more intersectional that is what we're going to do moving forward yeah uh because we we also fully acknowledge i mean we always say that the bechdel test is a flawed metric um but one of the ways in which it is a flawed metric is that, you know, by and large, we don't have the numbers on this, but we've seen movies. I think that oftentimes the Bechdel test is most often passed between two white women. And so, you know, it's on us to be taking and coming at the entire show through an intersectional lens. And that means like we always do, we will be talking beyond the Bechdel test. But even with our own metric and with how we're approaching the Bechdel test, we're going to be kind of making that a little more focused and a little more clear moving forward.
Starting point is 00:39:38 And I think that I also want to give a hat tip to past guest danny fernandez um for making that point on a recent twitter thread that um she just mentioned the vexel test often caters to white women right which is absolutely true and uh we will be more mindful in you know pointing that out for sure when a movie does pass it's often between two cis het white women And while that's not nothing, it's definitely not everything. Not everything. What a great way to put it. And also that I mean, speaking of the Bechdel test, and, you know, listeners, you know, that we only use that as a really springboard to inspire a larger conversation. There's still a way that we could approach even how we treat the Bechdel test as being more inclusive.
Starting point is 00:40:30 Because we've always said, you know, female identifying characters who speak to each other. I've seen renditions of it where it's women, femmes, and non-binary people, if they speak to each other. So it's basically just broadening it up to more identities on the gender spectrum speaking to each other and still allowing that to pass so yeah um moving forward i think that would be a good idea to implement um and with that uh thank you so much Kaniece for being here of course thank you so much
Starting point is 00:41:06 for having me of course yeah where can people follow your stuff online what would you like to plug
Starting point is 00:41:14 you can find me online at Kaniece Mobley on all the platforms that's Twitter that's Instagram that's Venmo if you're nasty
Starting point is 00:41:21 I don't know why I said that but you get it Venmo Kaniece right now perfect but only if you're nasty. I don't know why I said that. But you get it. Venmo can eat right now. Perfect. But only if you're... No, that's weird.
Starting point is 00:41:30 I take it back. My bad. Okay. And also, you could listen to my podcast, which is called Love About Town, which, Caitlin, you have been a guest on. And Jamie was a guest on one of the first incarnations of the pod. Yeah. Hell yeah.
Starting point is 00:41:43 Actually, Caitlin, you were on both types of people about town right and then love about town yep uh-huh yeah thanks for having me um yes please follow kanice and venmo her at least ten dollars preferably more um and you know you can follow us at all the normal places um instagram and twitter as well you know the other stuff we don't need to hawk our merch right now um yeah well and and we'll be back next week spoiler alert we're doing Tangerine next week. Yes. So excited. Love that movie. Hell yeah. Yeah. Thanks, everyone, for listening. And we'll be back next week. Bye-bye. Bye.
Starting point is 00:42:32 Hey, I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist
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