Liberating Motherhood

Content warning: This podcast extensively discusses all forms of intimate partner violence, some child abuse, and briefly discusses the death of a child, but not in graphic detail.  Intimate partner violence is much more than physical violence. Every physically violent perpetrator was, for a time, not physically violent. The emotionally abusive , degrading, and controlling environment these perpet...

Zawn and Jeff discuss why being a “nice guy” is a red flag, not a green one, why men who abuse women commonly claim to have been victims of abuse, and whether men ever deserve the benefit of the doubt. See some of my previous work on nice guys here:  Signs your 'nice guy' isn't actually a nice guy The myth of the bumbling nice guy

Desiree Stephens is an incredible racial justice and decolonization activist. I originally wanted to discuss with her the role of rest and pleasure in activism, but as is so often the case in conversations with Desiree, we ended up covering so much more ground.  Desiree frames so many things in ways I’ve never heard them framed before. She can be quite confronting—leaving you with the choice of wa...

Sexual coercion in marriage is widespread and normalized. In roughly half of marriages, this coercion escalates to abuse.  Men dismiss women as less sexual, and insist that women should therefore cater to men’s needs. The data suggest otherwise . Women avoid sex with men because men do not offer them sex that is worth having—and because they create abusive environments that destroy sexual desire. ...

Bringing life into the world should be a source of immense power--and often, it is. But in a patriarchy, we endeavor to destroy women's power. This is why patriarchy has turned childbirth into a dangerous, traumatic nightmare. Learn about the state of childbirth, and what you can do to push back--and why it's a partner's obligation to protect and support the person giving birth. Zawn and Jeff have...

Why is it that we respond to proposals and weddings with joy rather than terror? We know that men are the biggest public health threat to women, and that most marriages are inequitable and unhappy. Yet patriarchy promotes this disconnect. Learn why in this episode. 

View some of Zawn's surveys on household labor inequity here: https://zawn.substack.com/t/surveys

Men are angry at their partners. But why, in a world where women are already doing a disproportionate share of relational, household, and parenting labor, do men feel so disenfranchised?  Follow Zawn at zawn.substack.com or https://www.facebook.com/zawnv/