A Twitter user, Flossyjay tweeted: “Why do men start podcasts instead of going to therapy?” I was confused about what the one has to do with the other. Until I went into the thread and really understood what prompted the question.
Various women were talking about men who have started podcasts or are co-hosts and who have been called out for misogynistic takes, and for sexualising and objectifying women – multiple times. American radio host Charlamagne Tha God, co-host of The Breakfast Club, has been called out multiple times for asking female guests about behinds and breasts.
Our very own MacG of Podcast and Chill is no stranger to calls to be cancelled because of his misogynistic takes. One of his most recent being his interview with American singer Ari Lennox. MacG asked the singer an inappropriate question, “Is someone f—ing you good?” the singer was visibly shocked by the question and vocalised it by saying, “Oh my God! Whooa! That’s a wild question. Why ask it that way?” she asked. He defended himself by saying that he was making a reference to something in one of her songs.
MacG was in my opinion rightfully dragged on Twitter – he should have known better. Even if Ari did sing about sex in her song, even if she sang a million songs about that, this didn’t call for her to be disrespectfully asked inappropriate questions on a live broadcast like that.
The urge to cancel someone and demand that they do not make mistakes is self-righteous and toxic behaviour. But when a behaviour is persistent, that is not a mistake, but rather ignorance and/ or arrogance.
Majita, we need a platform to be able to express ourselves and be ourselves, but that platform is not a vacuum. Our opinions affect people and we can’t be allowing bigoted and misogynistic behaviour to flourish in our society. This is not to say that MacG and Podcast and Chill haven’t done anything good. They’ve had a positive impact on the entertainment industry of South Africa – but they need to do better.
Flossyjay was asking that question because many male podcasts just seemed to be a space for men to bash women – a space to sexualise women, playing smash or pass, and downright objectifying them. Very little about the development of men; about men raising each other up to winning statuses. We need to do better by ourselves, most of us don’t grow up with amatyma and it’s hard to find a positive male figure you can look up to – so we need more of that kind of content.
Therapy is needed, but we can’t afford it and the free clinics take a while to get back to us. We need more content that helps us and focuses on us and our wellbeing, education and social issues, and less that focuses on bigotry and misogyny.
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If you liked reading this, you may also enjoy “Men You Are On Your Own” here
Tell us: How can we spread the love, gents?