This episode’s guest proves that the third time’s the charm. Last year she introduced me to Love Your Body Day. Let’s talk about our hot bods!
Or listen on iTunes if you prefer!
Intro
Warm welcome to Robin Hitchcock of hitchdied.com! She’s a brilliant writer and an inspiration to me personally in MANY ways, including blogging and podcasting!
03:11 Pod Pourri
– It’s Love Your Body Day!
– Some listeners sent in thoughts about their own bodies. Others had theirs shared involuntarily…
– Robin and I talk about what makes us such hotties.
27:35 If I Were You
– Segment jingle REMIX!
– The Great Cupcake Comment Debacle of 2012
– BREAKING: THERE ARE FATTIES IN THE WORLD
– Another awkward advice song!
48:14 Games People Play
– New segment! I heart games.
– Robin is the trivia QUEEN, but I manage to stump her.
54:47 Outro
– Visit Robin’s website (where her podcast lives!) and follow her on Twitter.
– You should vote, but only if you agree with my political views. Just kidding! (Sort of.)
BONUS
Some folks submitted their thoughts for discussion on the podcast, but our pal Vicki didn’t make it on the air so I wanted to include her thoughts here. When asked what she loves about her body, she says:
Those are some PRIT-TEE awesome things to love about your body, Vicki. Rock on. What about the rest of you? Leave ’em in the comments!
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I am doing what Robin did last time and just leaving this comment box open, so I can comment all the comments, as I listen:
–I adored that first time Robin speaks, it’s a humble bit of Factsy. (“I am not THE RobYn Hitchcock.”
–When the Podpourri starts, with the sniffing, I was like, WHAT…is happening? I thought someone farted and that was the ‘fart’ joke. There should be some music before the sniffing, says one fan.
–I like when Robin/Factsy says “no” at Addi having a big nose. It’s very like “I am exhausted at the idea of that because it’s wrong.”
–LOVED the studio laugh!!!
–when Jenny said she didn’t like her stomach, and Robin/Factsy was like “well did she have a C-section?” I LAUGHED. OUT. LOUD. Like, a lot. Factsy out!
–re: the stomach thing, up until maybe like, a year ago (6 months ago) when I’ve put on a little weight there, I actually was always WAY, WAY more self-conscious about my legs/thighs than my tummy. But I agree, that pretty much no one is like “yep, this fat collector in the middle of my body, LOVE IT.”
–I like when Robin refers to married or partnered people with, “there is a buyer!” Truth.
–I love when Robin says she doesn’t have a day job, so she can “keep it tight.”
–I laughed when Addi said on cold days she walks outside and her LEG HAIR GROWS THREE INCHES! I feel better about myself!
–I liked when you reference my bikini wax all SEXILY. I wanted a sound effect there. And for you to talk about my vag hair a lot longer.
–Addi, when you talk about the gap in your teeth and then are SUDDENLY like, “ok your turn!” to Robin, it’s awesome. Go back and listen. It’s like kthanxbyeeeee.
–I tried not to be too embarrassed when Robin talked about my SAD APARTMENT LIVING SITUATION with the empty top shelves. Like, there needed to be an outreach program. “Some short people go their whole lives without ever stocking anything on a top shelf.”
–I agree, obviously, with the skinny lady hate. Robin brought up the “real women have curves” adage, and yeah, that’s bogus. There are no imaginary women, due to how they are shaped.
–LOVE the games people play jingle!! I can’t wait to come on and play a game.
–This section was adorable, mainly Robin’s excitement and her out-loud talking about not cheating! Also the emergency-broadcast-test-signal when she is right! And of course, the “fart” when she is wrong.
I probably have more comments. Awesome as always!
Jessi Klein has a bit about “real women have curves”, and it’s pretty hilarious, well, to me. yotube that shit. if nothing else the way she says “real women have curves!!!” in a dumb-girl voice is funny.
I can’t find it on youtube! I’ll keep looking around. Any idea what performance it’s from?
i looked for it earlier and also couldn’t find it. not sure why. i skimmed some of the clips of her on youtube and didn’t see it. weird. oh well.
I’ll take your word for it. She does have a funny voice!
GIRL! I love these long comments you guys leave!
– That Pod Pourri jingle just needs to be louder, I think. It does start with the drums, I swear! I just think you couldn’t hear it.
– I. LOVE. SOUND EFFECTS. I’d like to do more of it, but I am not always ready. I guess I need a sound tech!
– I’ll try to fit your vag hair in more often.
– That whole top shelf thing really did seem sad for some reason. Like, not even STORAGE could go up there because YOU CAN’T REACH IT EVEN WITH A STEP STOOL?
– Imaginary Women! Isn’t that the all female troupe from Buffalo?
– So happy you like that jingle! I had fun making it. 🙂
– Thanks for listening in general. I keep trying to think of the best theme for when you’re my guest. Maybe the whole episode can be about games?? Part of me wants it to be about how different our sibling relationships are… 🙂
I somehow missed the Facebook post, so I will answer here. I’m a dude, in case anyone doesn’t know.
My loves and problem areas tend to revolve around the same things. Which I find is very true about me generally. So, for instance:
My frame. I struggle with it because I’m an overweight guy. My gut isn’t cool or funny, it’s just a sad mass. That I hide fairly well, which is why most people object when I point it out. I’m not beating myself up over it daily, but it’s not good. It hangs over my belt. Ick. ON THE OTHER HAND, there’s a good deal of muscle in my upper body. My chest is wide and beefy in a good way and my shoulders are pretty awesome. When I’m feeling positive, I consider myself “solid” or “burly”, which is kind of great.
I don’t love or hate my body hair, but I do acknowledge that there’s more than some people care to see. Like, popping up out of the collar of my shirt. 😉 I think it’s fine and kind of funny, but some people might not dig it.
I also love/hate my teeth. I have intensely pointed canine teeth that give me a wolfy aspect, and being a fan of werewolves of course I love this. And more than one lady has commented that it might be cool to be bitten by what amounts to a real life vampire. Of course, I was raised by two people who had dental horror stories in their lives caused by the dental health industry, so it bred in them and subsequently in me a distrust of dentists and dentistry. So my teeth could be whiter and straighter and less crowded, but probably never will be. Which doesn’t bother me per se, but I’m certainly aware of it. When I take pictures with others whose teeth are pearly, mine are decidedly “British”. YES! Colonial bigotry!!!
I got very curly hair from my dad, which is both a blessing and a curse. It looks sort of goofy when I let it grow too long, but at a certain short length is pretty awesome.
And my skin is very freckly, which I enjoy and think looks good on me BUT my skin is also very mole-y, which I don’t think looks as good and also makes me worry about cancer.
So. There you go. I love and have problems with largely the same things.
Incidentally, and I texted you about this briefly, but I think it’s interesting and indicative of social psychology that you got no answers from dudes. Could mean they did like me and just managed to miss that Facebook post, but you have quite a few male friends. There’s a weird social shame for men in admitting insecurity of any kind. Not that it doesn’t happen, but it’s much rarer and tends to be ONLY with the closest of friends and/or female significant others.
I specifically called out in the first FB post that I wanted not just women, but men, too! I think women are more open to talking about these things, and they are also more the target of them culturally, so that combination meant more women would respond. But I agree with you, there are expectations on both sides.
Also:
– I love your freckles.
– I love your canines!
– I love your curly hair.
– OWN THAT BELLY.
xo
I certainly have body issues, and I think most men do as well. Growing up reading comic books and watching wrestling had a very big influence on me, I know. The standard is to have the muscles of the Ultimate Warrior or the chisled chin of Superman. My issues with my chin/beard are well documented. And with my drama of 2010 I ended up losing 30 pounds in pretty unhealthy ways (ie. depression, over-exercising, not eating.) Even then, when I weighed less than I did in high school, I didn’t think I was thin enough. And now, as I’m eating again and putting weight back on, I’m not liking where it’s going. My problems are 1) that I don’t exercise regularly (life gets in the way sometime) 2) I don’t get paid to look good, (even though I should) or 3) my portion size is out of control, (why eat something good when you could eat alot of something good?).
Men are also very much judged by their looks, obviously, and being on the losing end sucks just as bad. The good-looking guys like Ryan Gosling, Ryan Renolds, or David Beckham get to be the studs that women swoon for. The nice guy gets to be the friend while the good-looking guy gets the girl like Pretty In Pink, Jon Cryer vs. Andrew McCarthy. The fat guys have to overcompensate with humor and/or outrageousness to be the center of attention (loved) but that always backfires and they die, John Belushi, Chris Farley, John Candy.
Excellent insights, Dave. And your #2 about getting paid to look good made me smile. Men and women are more alike than the media would have them think, perhaps.
Girls play with Barbie dolls, boys play with action figures. Boys are taught from an early age the same bad things. Weak is bad, strong is good.
Think about it, skinny wimpy scientist Bruce Banner gets blasted with radiation and now he’s the Hulk. Skinny wimpy high schooler Peter Parker gets bit by a radioactive spider and now he’s the ripped Spiderman. Skinny and wimpy Steve Rogers takes a super-soldier steroid and now he’s Captain America. Skinny and wimpy Prince Adam picks up a sword and becomes He-Man.
Those are the heroes and role models for boys too. Images of physical perfection… minus the green skin, spandex and weapons.
Mmmmm spandex…. seriously though, you’re 100% right.
you’re right about Capt. America, but that was created in the 1940s, when the ideal of manhood was certainly less than enlightened. some sissy-boy bookworm couldn’t kick hitler’s ass, could he??? (actually, for good or ill [i’m gonna say “ill”, but that’s me], the War was actually won by sissy-boy bookworms who invented the bomb, so there’s that).
Prince Adam was already ripped pre- He-Man status, and that was part of what baffled me as a kid. he basically got tanner and was wearing less. otherwise, looked exactly the same.
Spider-Man, however, is an interesting (to me) case study, because Stan Lee and Steve Ditko’s original idea was that he *was* supposed to be kind of a weinie, even in costume. if you look at spider-man comics up until probably the 1970s, he’s very skinny and hops around a lot. he does have super strength, but he generally fights using his whits. even later, Spidey is not nearly as ripped as say Batman, Superman, and even heroes whose powers have nothing to do with strength (Cyclops, Green Lantern, etc). the hollywood version of the character has him become ripped upon being bitten, as seen w/ Toby Macguire and such. personally, i feel that misses the mark. Stan Lee et al hated DC and their over the top heroes, and Spidey was initially meant to be an everyman type. kinda a bummer.
also, interesting sidenote, Toby Macguire the actual guy has run into this problem IRL. in between making the spider-man movies, he gained weight, and Jessica Alba was overheard at some red-carpet thing calling him “porky” or some bullshit like that. he’s an actual dude, not a comic character! so dumb.
I have a few thoughts on this. One: we need to declare a moratorium on the term “nice guy”. It’s such an unhelpful, overused, MISused term. For a host of reasons that we can get into another time or if requested. But as it applies to this discussion, it’s unhelpful because “nice guy” just equals “guy who treats me well but whose body I don’t want to fuck”. And if we’re talking about body image issues, I think we have to accept that it’s okay to NOT want to fuck someone because you aren’t attracted to their body. By no means shame them for their shape. But you aren’t obligated to look past your preferences. Two: ABSOLUTELY!!! regarding fat male leads. It’s unfortunate that overweight women aren’t written as protagonists in film/TV as often as overweight men. BUT the overweight men who *are* written as protagonists are 99% jokes. You will be hard pressed to find a mainstream drama or action film or sci-fi film whose hero is a fat guy. And while I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with this casting from a storytelling POV, I do think it makes taking a fat man seriously much more difficult as a result. This is why I really enjoyed Pineapple Express despite its failings: Rogen was allowed to be a badass fat guy. Unfortunately too much of it was played for laughs, but at least they opened up the possibility. (I am deliberately ignoring the 1970s/80s run of Joe Don Baker type “everyman” action heroes as being out of shape was deliberately part of the “appeal”, which is still a way of making a fat guy sort of a joke)
Yeah, I guess what I meant by the “nice guy” thing was that you can have an amazing connection/chemistry with someone, and if they’re not physically compatable then it’s not going to work; but with a bland, less interesting person who is super attractive to a person, it might. I don’t know, I’ve actually never seen “Pretty In Pink” so I might be off base here. The person doing the deciding isn’t at fault in this case, you like what you like, your preference is a choice, but it still sucks for the uggo with the good personality.
The main reason I dislike the “nice guy” phenomenon is because there’s no equivalent for women, yet the same thing happens to women all the time. As a fatty, I pretty much grew up being besties with boys who obviously liked my personality, but thought I was an “uggo” (to use Dave’s awesome terminology). I simply don’t like how men try to claim a monopoly on that scenario.
Twigg out.