Helen Razer’s new podcast Knackers And The Vadge is back, with episode two split into, appropriately, two parts, both them of them a tribute to International Women’s Day… if a tribute were to include phrases like this….
“International Women’s Day… which was once known as International Working Women’s Day, but is now a fucking thing that is largely fucking sponsored by a fucking bank.”
That pretty much sets the tone for what is to follow. It includes an opening spray about America and Russia, and the fact that so many people who should know better support Hillary Clinton in her apparent never-ending hunt for war and global conflict.
“We delude ourselves that we’re being rebellious to cheer US foreign policy. It’s not rebellious to regard Clinton as an alternative any more than Trump is to brutal US rule, when she is very candidly, very explicitly demonstrating she would love more military action,” says ‘The Vadge’.
“Do you genuinely believe that Team America is obliged to act in a way that US police routinely do, that is demeaning and murdering the powerless because they happen to have a particular ethnicity. I mean, that’s what it’s all about.
“You can’t see that this is racist and unjustified? If you can’t you wouldn’t know racism and justice if Frantz Fanon himself flew up your rectum and gave you a Powerpoint presentation on it.”
Frantz Fanon was a philosopher and Marxist. Don’t feel bad. I had to ask as well. Speaking of asked, I also inquired as to Razer’s motivation for Knackers and The Vadge. She had this to say:
“Fuck, Chris. We know I’m supposed to say, ‘Because I really care that media of the present is committed to nothing but profit and the re-assertion of the status quo.’
“We both know it’s because I enjoy attention. And ratings. Why haven’t you rated my podcast on iTunes yet? If you don’t, I’ll start a Twitter rumour that Chris Graham refuses to rate lady podcasts with five stars.”
Says Razer of Part 2 of the International Women’s Day ‘special’: “The first part is full of me making dumb jokes as I haven’t remembered how to process sound efficiently yet, and it takes forever. So I just rushed a bit out in time for International Women’s Day and took another two days to do something actually good.
“It includes an overview of intersectionality by Dr Shakira Hussein, and a look at the limited possibilities of #MeToo as it plays out in mainstream media.
“Hussein, whose 2016 book From Victims to Suspects: Muslim Women since 911 is a highly regarded work for general readers, challenges the idea that sexism is just something experienced in degrees by women of colour, or those women who don’t attend the ‘inspiring’ feminist lunches for the one per cent.
“She explains, per the tenets of intersectionality, how sexism behaves differently when it is experienced by different groups. The use of the term, particularly by high-profile women, is one she critiques.”
In other words, it’s quite a weighty, serious topic and worthwhile listening.
I’ll leave you with one more quotable quote from The Vadge, safe in the knowledge that Episode 3 is coming to an iTunes podcast, Soundcloud link or TuneIn Radio near you soon.
“I could be talking about interesting things like how much Jennifer Lawrence shits me. It’s your fault that I am now reading policy documents.
“If you’re one or two of the tens of listeners of Knackers and The Vadge you may remember I used to be a mildly amusing lady who just talked about how she wasn’t able to buy a sexy frock in her size. Or whatever. Shit like that. Or how much I liked grunge music.
“You want idiots like me to bang on passionately about the popular culture, well fucking have a revolution then and we can all be critics after dinner… a little bit of a Marx reference for some of you there (Kiss noise). Thank you Knackers.”
Thank you indeed.
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