When you're trans and pregnant, some of the vocabulary of pregnancy, birth and parenting might not fit you. In face, some of it might not even work for people of ANY gender. Trans parents Freddy McConnell and CJ talk about gender-additive language, inclusive for women and other genders, and about how in English law, the word 'mother' becomes semantically very complicated indeed.
Read moreAllusionist 88. Name Changers
Why did you change your name? And why did you choose the name you chose?
Listeners answer these two questions. Hear their stories of gender identity, family fallouts, marriages, divorces, doxxing, cults, and…just not liking your given name very much.
Read moreAllusionist 83. Yes, As In
"Really? As in the animal/foodstuff/music genre?"
"Is that a stripper name?"
"What were your parents thinking?"
Allusionist 20: Baby Talk
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Why do we all sound like idiots when we talk to babies? Don't be embarrassed, we're helping them acquire language. Child psychologist Ben Jeffes explains.
Caution: may cause flashbacks to the time you were trapped in the Why? Loop for six years.
WHO WANTS A WICKLE READ? YES YOU DO! YES YOU DO!
Here's a comprehensive piece about how politeness sent 'thou' packing in favour of 'you'.
What we refer to as 'baby talk' in the episode is also known as 'parentese', apparently.
Here's a whopper of a New Yorker article about talking to children, and the differences arising from economics/class.
Read a quick overview of bilingual babies, and then more of the science.
There's a transcript of this episode here.
Allusionist T-shirts exist! Treat your torso at teepublic.com/stores/the-allusionist.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
decrepitate
CREDITS:
Ben Jeffes is a child psychologist. He must hear a lot of 'Why?' in his working day. Find him at childprofiles.co.uk.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. The music is by Martin Austwick. Hear and/or download more - WITH LYRICS! - at thesoundoftheladies.bandcamp.com.
Talk to me like we're both adults at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
For the next month, The Allusionist will be WEEKLY. So you'd better remember to join me again next week.
- HZ
Allusionist 15: Step Away
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'Step-', as in stepparents or stepchildren, originated in grief. Family structures have evolved, but are stepmothers now so tainted by fairytale associations with the word 'wicked' that we need new terminology? Lore's Aaron Mahnke stops by to describe the lovelessness, literary tropes and life expectancy around 'step-'.
ADDITIONAL READING:
Diagnose yourself with novercaphobia, if you must.
But according to Neil Gaiman, in early versions of many of the Brothers Grimm's fairy tales, the evil stepmothers were actually evil bilogical mothers...
Here's information about the study Aaron mentioned about 'The Cinderella Effect' upon stepchild mortality; there are some curious findings.
Read about the ancient prototypes for Cinderella, and then some analysis of some of the newer spins on the tale.
Or perhaps you'd prefer an annotated version of Hansel and Gretel, plus a load of different illustrators' takes on it.
Have you seen the film Wicked Stepmother? No, nor have I. It is distinguished by being Bette Davis's final film, and seems to average around two stars out of five from what I've read about it.
The transcript of this episode is here.
On Tuesday 4th August 2015 at 8pm UK time, 3pm ET, 12pm PT, I'll be doing a live discussion about this episode at spoken.am. Please come along to tell me what you think, divulge about your own steprelatives, and to ask me anything about the show.
Go to spoken.am to request your invite* and I'll see you there, yes? (Or you can catch up afterwards, if you must.)
UPDATE: Now that we are living in the post-live chat era, you can catch up at spoken.am/allusionist/step-away
*My school English teacher used to HATE people using 'invite' as a noun. I feel both guilty and slyly delighted to have done so just now.
RANDOMLY SELECTED WORD FROM THE DICTIONARY:
emolument
CREDITS:
Aaron Mahnke hosts Lore podcast, about scary stories and folklore. Visit lorepodcast.com, and find more of Aaron's work including his books at aaronmahnke.com.
Big sloppy thanks are served to all the listeners who answered my plea and kindly contributed their thoughts about step-terms.
This episode was produced by me, Helen Zaltzman. All the music is by Martin Austwick. Hear and/or download more - WITH LYRICS! - at thesoundoftheladies.bandcamp.com.
Say hello to me at facebook.com/allusionistshow, twitter.com/allusionistshow and twitter.com/helenzaltzman.
