“Maybe this will make sense when we play it back?” – Amy

The answer was no. It still didn’t make sense.

Welcome to Episode 16!

Here’s Kid Cudi’s statement about depression:

“My anxiety and depression have ruled my life for as long as I can remember and I never leave the house because of it,” the rapper wrote on Facebook. “I can’t make new friends because of it. I [don’t] trust anyone because of it and [I’m] tired of being held back in my life. I deserve to have peace. I deserve to be happy and smiling.”

Here are our texts from the Brazilian Steakhouse:

SIXTY SEVEN PERCENT. Sixty. Seven. Percent. The Invisible Majority.

67% of American women are plus size, and yet they make up less than 2% of the images we see.

Please go here and read about this amazing step forward.

Refinery 29 says:

Beginning today, we are breaking the plus-size woman out of the niche and into the mainstream. During the launch week, 67% of the bodies you see on our site, in our newsletter, and on our Instagram and Snapchat channels will be plus-size. To do this, we’ve made significant changes within Refinery29 to fully represent the 67% this week, and beyond. For the last six months, we’ve been shooting stock photography and redesigning illustrations to more accurately reflect the women who make up the majority of our country. And we’re partnering with Getty Images to make this collection available to other outlets that wish to join us in closing the representation gap.

Making this change, even on one website, wasn’t easy. Not only have we faced practical challenges, but we’ve had to reckon with deeper issues of bias and prejudice along the way. Effecting real and lasting change on a grand scale will require collaboration with more websites, media outlets, and, of course, you. As an audience, your power is significant and undeniable, and we can’t go anywhere if you’re not along for the ride. So if this is the kind of change you’d like to see, start by looking at the images before you. The first step is simple: See the 67%. The next steps, we’ll take together. Who’s with us?

Brad and Angelina broke up! We’re sad. Divorce sucks and they have a lot of kids. We can only hope that this tragedy spurs him to start wearing deodorant.

Speaking of divorce, Paula read an article about Bethenny Frankel’s “Divorce from Hell”. We’re not down with her brand of Skinny Girl stuff, especially her new line of Skinny Girl LUNCHMEATS. Thanks for the laugh.

H&M, SMDH. We love them because they are embracing larger bodies and selling clothing in larger sizes! Also, our best friend (in our minds) Ashely Graham is the face of the entire seasonal spread and we love her so very much.

HOWEVER, they aren’t actually selling any of those clothes in the stores! It’s probably because fat people should stay home and order giant clothes off the Internet seeing as how it’s disgusting to watch fat people walk about normally in society.

We’re pissed because it seems like a lot of stores are jumping on the body positivity bandwagon for press without really offering larger women more options.

But not Lane Bryant! Look at this badass video!

The American Academy of Pediatrics have radically changed their recommendations on how pediatricians should treat children that are labeled as over weight or obese according to some ridiculous chart that is based on BMI which is complete bullshit. In 2007, the AAP actually recommended prescribing weight loss drugs, calorie-restrictive diets and weight loss surgery for children and teens. Horrific.

What they’ve realized, thank goddess, is that all this does is increase the odds that this child or teen will suffer from an eating disorder, be it overeating, under eating, or myriad of ways a person can suffer with food and weight obsession. Dieting is the #1 risk factor for both obesity and eating disorders! Duh!

So, thanks, AAP for recognizing that the less we obsess over a child’s weight, the less likely they are to be an adult obsessed with his/her weight.

Mental and physical health are the same thing! Dieting causes eating disorders!

Never in the history of mankind has positive change come from shame.

This week two African American men were murdered by police.

The first was Keith Scott. He was waiting for his son at the bus stop, and sat in his car reading a book.

We compare the murders of black men by police to the murder of Emmitt Till who was lynched for being black. His original casket is on display at the National Museum of African Amercian History and Culture. Check out a really interesting feature WaPo did.

The second was a “bad guy” Terrence Crutcher. His murderer is Betty Shelby, who was a police officer and has been arrested for first-degree manslaughter. These police officers are supposed to protect us.

Amy was particularly upset about the lack of attention to him after he was shot. Turns out police officers are not supposed to let people die in the street, even if you shot him.

The coverage of these events has been super dumb. The Washington Post refer to the police officer and the victim as “African-Amercian” and “black” respectively and we think that’s pretty fucked up.

#HashtagSadpants.

Gabrielle Union talked about women who are successful because of white privilege and she took down Lena Dunham, Kate Upton and Amy Schumer.

GIGI HADID! You’re so badass. She was literally attacked by a crazy person and hit him in self-defense, yet the press said she “lashed out”.

ELBOWING SOMEONE WHO PHYSICALLY ASSAULTS YOU IS NOT LASHING OUT IT IS SELF-DEFENSE.

Amy lost her shit over this dude in the commercial for something with a buttery flaky crust.

Paula recommends Frank Ocean’s album Blonde.

Paula’s religion is All The Teachings of RuPaul Mixed with Trader Joe’s. Therefore she recommends the lavender salt scrub, which pleases Amy to no end because Paula is adorable.

WE LOVE YOU! STAY HUNGRY!

A note about Episode 13: It had a weird echo that we can’t get rid of. We’d love for you to listen to it, but if the echo bugs you, we get it. We’re not here to tell you how to live your life.

But we talk about being tough broads: how our friend J has had surgery on her foot 4 times and Amy has helped take care of her lately.

Amy doesn’t love birthdays. It’s not easy to be a single woman, “why are you still single??” everyone asks.

Paula MOVED! She’s in a fantastic gorgeous apartment near Adams Morgan, which is where the cool kids live. Her place has a sun porch, which is where she has been connecting with Mother God.

Y’all. As much as it pains us to admit because we LOVE Lady Gaga but we don’t love her new song “Perfect Illusion”.

Ugh. Corey Feldman performed on the goddamn TODAY SHOW. It made us both really really uncomfortable.  Corey had a difficult life. Both Coreys did, actually. Corey Haim is dead.

In Episode 13, Amy talked about her depression, and it’s worth talking about again in case you didn’t listen because of the goddamn echo. Amy has dysthymia punctuated with major depressive episodes. How’s THAT for a diagnosis?! Depression is a lying bastard and you should never suffer alone. We’re sure this topic will come up again, and Amy wants to make sure that everyone gets the help they need. If you’re hurting and can’t make sense of it, reach out to us.

Brene Brown would say that Amy had a vulnerability hangover. Paula reminds us that Brene says, “The only cure for anxiety is vulnerability.” -Brene Brown.

Turns out that being shamed for being fat is bad for your health. Sorry, your MENTAL health. Experiencing  weight stigma leads to more depression, anxiety and all around self-hate.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, suggest that any efforts aimed at easing these emotional burdens should not only focus on weight-loss in adolescents, but also address the disturbingly cruel and exclusionary behaviors of their peer group. These programs should also emphasize weight acceptance and body-shape diversity.

Read this article.

Feeling like shit because your body is large and you walk around being discriminated against is MORE HARMFUL than whatever perceived correlative ailment is caused by “fat”.

Sigh. Donald Trump put an end to the birther controversy. He blamed Hillary for it, and is now extremely self-congratulatory about it.

Read this New York Times article of the history of the horrible lie that Trump perpetuated.

If Amy ever meets the Obamas, she will do this:

Trump also went to an African American church and Reverend Faith Green Timmons was not having Trump’s grandstanding and she shut it down. It was a super-pastory way of saying SHUT UP.

Hillary got sick over the 9/11 weekend and people raked her over the coals and we are NOT having it. At. All.

The argument is that because Hillary is a political figure running for the office of the President, who will be in charge of our military forces, her physical health is our business.

The lack of transparency has lead people to question her. Why is this a feminist issue? WE’LL TELL YOU WHY:

1. We are taught that women are liars. No one believes that Hillary didn’t feel well and got sick. It’s not deeper than that.
2. This is what women do — we power through. Women are not allowed to take a sick day.

Y’ALL CAN’T HANDLE HER.

Watch this video of Jolene featuring Dolly Parton and Pentatonix singing Jolene!

Watch this video of Jesse Ventura defending Colin Kaepernick!

“Governments should not mandate patriotism. Governments earn patriotism.”

We hate this fake patriotism bullshit. Why is our patriotism so shallow?? America will not have hurt feelings over someone not standing up during the anthem.

Lastly, life is too fucking short to live miserably with depression or disordered eating. Please reach out to us. We will answer. You don’t have to live like that.

Take care of yourselves! We love you!

xoxo

“Your sole mission is to articulate your suffering in a way that emancipates you and empowers others.”

–Carole Radziwill, author and Real Housewife of New York City

If Britney Spears can survive 2007, then I can get up and go to work. Watch her Carpool Karaoke here. We saw her live and it was amazing, or at least what we can remember of it.

Amy had art night with a friend/coworker and it was a way to fill the well, as Julia Cameron recommends in The Artist’s Way.  Paula is teaching an Artist’s Way workshop! There is still space.

From Julia Cameron‘s The Artist’s Way:

Art is an image-using system. In order to create, we draw from our inner well. This inner well, an artistic reservoir, is ideally like a well-stocked trout pond. We’ve got big fish, little fish, fat fish, skinny fish– an abundance of artistic fish to fry. As artists, we must realize that we have to maintain this artistic ecosystem.

If we don’t give some attention to upkeep, our well is apt to become depleted, stagnant, or blocked. Any extended period of piece of work draws heavily on our artistic well.

As artists we must learn to be self-nourishing. We must become alert enough to consciously replenish our creative resources as we draw on them– to restock the trout pond, so to speak. I call this process filling the well.

Leslie Jones, we are with you.

There were naked statues of Donald Trump as part of an art “thing” called “The Emperor Has No Balls” put up by an anarchist collective called INDECLINE.

It’s body shaming! Even Donald Trump doesn’t deserve to be body shaming. By putting this statue up, you’re inviting comments on his body and opening it up to shaming him for his body. “Shame me for my behavior, not my body.”

Turnabout is fair play!

(Pretend like Amy updated that header, okay?)

Little 10 year old Legend Preston had guns drawn on him and was chased by police because he “fit the description” of a 20 year old, dread-lock having, facial hair having felon.

Here’s the video of Patisha Soloman talking to her son Legend Preston. What a great mom!

Please go watch S.W.A.T. Do yourself a favor. You’ll thank me.

We have to break down the burkini ban in France. We loooooooooooove when men decide what’s appropriate for women to wear. We can’t even with these dumb French police. This picture really upset us.

Photo @vantagenews.com

Recommendations!

You gotta read this article in which Sara Benincasa answers an internet troll who asks “why’d you get so fat?” It’s a hysterical, warm & delicious read.

Also, are you watching RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars? JUST GO DO IT.

That’s it for us! Please stay hungry!!! We love you!

Amy still can’t get over the fact that there are places that don’t have humidity, and that the sweat you produce just evaporates!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CARLO!! Carlo (Paula’s main squeeze turned FORTY! and we both love him so much.)

Go see The Matrix, y’all. It’s about what’s real and what’s not real. Paula is super-behind in movie recommendations but Amy hasn’t even seen it.

Look at Keanu running!

Amy has ASMR. Does anyone else have it? Come out of the closet, tingle-headed friends!

Here’s who triggers Amy:

• Maria from Gentle Whispering
• Yang Haiying

We’re gonna update the header to reflect that this segment is now called “The White Privilege Moment of the Week”.

The gigantic douchebag of the week is RYAN LOCHTE who exemplifies white privilege. Had these guys been black, it’d have been a whoooole different story.

New York Times ripped him apart and we loved it.

Gold’s Gym in Egypt! Come on. You compared my body to a pear. Not okay.

You can’t compare the shape of one’s body to an inanimate object because then you take the shape of the body and make it more important than what’s it in the body itself.

Paula almost died…this is important:  More people die of an eating disorder than any other mental illness. That is a fact.

Fat phobia doesn’t just hurt fat people. It hurts everyone. In our society, we are told, “you can hate fat people,” and allowing hate is awful and everyone is affected by it! Eating disorders exist because dieting exists because fat-phobia exists. Belieeeeeeeeeve that.

Paula revisits the Amber Heard/Johnny Depp issue. She pretty much feels the same way about it: poopy. But now we are also angry because people still don’t believe her because people don’t believe women. Do you want to watch the video of Johnny being terrible? It’s not glamorous.

Y’all gotta google his nasty ass chopped off finger. It’s gross. To ease your disgust, everyone see Magic Mike 2 because of the scene with Michael Strahan.

Gawker got bought by Univision. Que Bueno! Hulk Hogan sued their ass for publishing a tape of him boning some lady. Amy and her smart friend discussed the ins and outs. It involves a tort. A tort! Who knew? Aaaaaand it’s scary shit because now we are putting the whims of famous people above free press.

Recommendations?

Amy loves her book by Emma Cline, The Girls. Paula’s loving Swamplandia! by Karen Russell. Good books!!

Yay! for Livermorons! We love y’all like crazy.

Stay hungry, bitches!

Paula and Amy saw the RuPaul Season 8 Drag Queens LIVE and they were on fire! They slayed all day. SLAY. We loved all the ladies — Naomi Smalls and her spider-like legs, Kim Chi and her breathtaking makeup.

Do we use the word magical too much? Maybe. And also spirit animal.

Bob the Drag Queen is hysterical! Chi Chi Devayne is the person who is inside of Amy — a black southern gay man who likes to dress up as a woman.

Here’s a video of Paula losing her mind at drag queen brunch in DC. HOW CUTE IS PAULA!?!

A video posted by Amy Bridges (@amysbridges) on Feb 8, 2015 at 1:33pm PST

//platform.instagram.com/en_US/embeds.js

Wanna hear RuPaul’s praise of Hillary Clinton? Yeah,we thought you would. You can find it here.

What Amy looks like when Paula talks about what it’s like to live in a world with no humidity.

Milwaukee is on fire because of the shooting of Syville Smith. This particular case is a complicated one.

Whether or not the shootings are justifiable or not, the sense of distrust among these black communities is real, and they do not feel safe with the police.

We repeat these names because it’s important: Syville Smith, Philando Castille, Alton Sterling and Charles Kinsey.

White privilege = thinking that the police are here to help, not here to kill me, even if I get pulled over for something I’ve done wrong.

Alexa Moreno is an amazing gymnast and should never be on a diet ever because her body needs the FOOD that she eats to FUEL her amazing feats!! Let us all celebrate the wonder of Alexa Moreno!!  Twitter haters, you are the fatphobic disasters of the week and we rebuke you!!

Here are some other awesome athletes whose bodies do not look like an American supermodel’s body! Sarah Robles! Michelle Carter! Leisel Jones! Melanie Schlanger and the awesome male swimmer with a “dad bod,” Robel Kiros Habte.

Athletes come in all shapes and sizes and they are healthy because they DO THINGS that win medals with their bodies! Bodies that are different sizes are able to do different things.

Everyone gets that people come in different heights, but not different sizes. Why is this so hard to understand?

NBC Chief Marketing Officer John Miller designed the Olympics to be a cross between a Lifetime mini-series and a reality show. GROSS.

Here are our six most egregious examples of sexist Olympic coverage:

1. When Simone Biles was compared to men who were not gymnasts.  “She’s the Michael Jordan of gymnastics.”
2. Commentator Dan Hicks said, “And there’s the man responsible” when cameras turned to the coach and husband of Katinka Hosszú following her gold-medal win.
3. An unidentified commentator said Team USA members looked like they “might as well be standing in the middle of a mall” after they were caught on camera laughing and talking.
4. Trap shooter Corey Cogdell won bronze the Olympics and the Chicago Tribune reported that: “Wife of a Bears’ lineman wins a bronze medal today in Rio Olympics.”
5. Female athletes wearing makeup was discussed by a lot of people…NBC reported this: “We all know that old adage, sex sells. Well, now female Olympians are sexing it up more than ever by wearing makeup during their competitions. Some say this is about empowerment. Well, really? Do women who are elite athletes need to wear makeup to feel stronger or is it simply a fashion statement like when LeBron James wears funny hats?”
6. San Jose’s Mercury News ran a headline reading “Olympics: Michael Phelps shares historic night with African-American.” Congratulations, Mercury News, you’re racist and sexist in the same news headline.

And then this happened….

Men and women athletes are talked about very differently on television. This fills us with rage.

Amy recommends you fly Delta! Paula recommends Don’t Think Twice and Stranger Things!

Thanks for listening, y’all!!

Welcome to Episode 9! This is a weird one, y’all. (Weird in a great way, that is.) We spend a lot of time talking about our hair.  Look!

We saw the amazing improv troupe from Upright Citizen’s Brigade. If they tour near your town, you gotta go.  YOU GOTTA.

Amy recaps an insane episode of Too Close for Comfort that she stumbled upon after looking for a picture of Jim J. Bullock. “So much of this is so offensive,” says Paula. We can’t even. Read this article and watch the clips.

Happy to report that no shootings made the national news. That doesn’t mean that police didn’t unfairly target African Americans or that there was no police brutality unfairly distributed to people of color, but none made the national news.

Let us not forget those who were shot since the inception of this podcast: Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Charles Kinsey.

From the UK comes this week’s Fatphobic Disaster. Is the UK behind the USA in fatphobia? Who knows. But for sure this week, the dipshits from Pure Gym in Manchester, England (across the Atlantic Sea) were horrible.

They dressed up like giant stupid blueberries to promote the gym and everyone hated it. Why should this make me want to go to the gym? Gyms are for moving your body to feel good and relieve stress! If you promote gyms to promote the decrease of body size, you’re reinforcing the fucked up stereotype that size is all that matters and that small bodies are better than big bodies. And THAT is a disaster.

Paula does NOT feel bad about ranting last week about the Republican National Convention, mostly because the DNC put a lot of hope in her heart.

Paula and I are trying to figure out how to love someone who will likely vote for Trump.  It’s real hard.

We wonder, is the most loving thing to do to separate ourselves from the Trump hate and vitriol so we can stay sane, or is the strong choice to say “even if you vote for Trump, I still see you as a perfect divine little chunk of God.”

Michelle Obama is a ninja. She took all the gross energy of Trump and transforms it into glitter and rainbows.  She was looking right into our souls and it was healing.

One of the best things to come out of the DNC was the collection of photos of Bill Clinton losing his mind during the balloon drop.

Have Donald Trump and his scary band of Republicans abandoned all their most sacred American values? Or are their scared American values not as valuable because they belong to someone brown and Muslim?

However, HANDS DOWN, the best thing that came out of the DNC was this article written by R. Eric Thomas. “Let Us Now Praise the Immaculate Shade of Joyce Beatty.”  I see you, Otto. People in white were having a moment at the DNC.

Lastly, we ponder, is Megan Trainer dumb? She says she’s probably not going to vote, and that’s definitely dumb.

Stay hungry, bitches!!

TECHNOLOGY!

Go see Ghostbusters, y’all! Four women headline a movie and they are not sex objects or housewives or secretaries.

Leslie Jones quit Twitter! In general, our culture doesn’t like it when a woman isn’t seen as fuckable. The men don’t even get boners!!  Twitter banned a douche and made us all happy.

Here’s Melissa McCarthy’s adorable yellow dress from The Ghostbusters premier.

Amy introduces an unfortunate new segment entitled:

Black People Shot by Police This Week

Behavior therapist Charles Kinsey, an African-American man, was shot by police on July 18 as he was trying to counsel his autistic patient who was in the street with a toy truck. Police say this was an accident.

Repeating the names so we don’t forget: Alton Sterling, Philando Castile and Charles Kinsey.

The Republican National Convention was awful. We didn’t watch.

Our sincere apologies to Amy’s mom….we talk about the C-word. And it’s because of Scott Baio and his gross tweet.

Paula tackles Hillary Hate. Maybe it’s not all about latent or blatant misogyny. Or maybe it is…. Paula references this article written by Karoli.

Incidentally, Karoli used the pseudonym Anna Whitlock, and in preparing this, we learned that Anna Whitlock was “a Swedish reform pedagogue” whose Wikipedia article’s picture makes her the doppelganger for Kathy Bates.

Paula makes this passionate point:  “If you have any soul in your cold black heart, you need to just fucking vote for Hillary….If you care about people of color, if you care about women, if you care about gays, if you care about anybody who’s not a white upper-class person, you will just get off your ass on November 6 and you will go and vote for Hillary because it’s NOT FUCKING ABOUT YOU. It’s about the country and it’s about everybody.”

We teach that women lie…why else would 50 women come out against Bill Cosby and we still don’t believe that he’s a rapist. Allegedly.

2016 can suck a dick!!! Here are a bunch of tweets that perfectly sum up how 2016 has been so far. 

What You Do Matters!!

There is immense power in how we act. What you do to make yourself a better contributor to our shared humanity…and how you show yourself compassion–that matters.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes says, “Stand up and show your soul.“

SHINE YOUR LIGHT REALLY BRIGHT.

Our celebrity bullshit this week made us like Kim & Kanye. Tay Tay Kimye Dramz is all about it.

Here’s a link to Kim’s infamous snapchat where you can hear Taylor giving permission to Kanye.

We tease ASMR — the tingly head relaxation some people (like Amy!) get sometimes. We’ll talk about this more on Episode 10.

Here’s the dumb ol’ MILF by Fergie video.

Correction: Devon Aoki is not who we were thinking of…We were thinking of Jenny Shimizu. 

Please leave us iTunes reviews!!

The original post implied Bill Clinton had allegedly raped over 50 women. We meant Bill Cosby. The post has been updated.

Two things off the bat: technology is awful and Amy’s back hurts!

Paula had a busy weekend! She went to Crumbs & Whiskers to have a latte, then went to see Kinky Boots featuring Jim J Bullock, the original non-threatening, asexual neighbor. We’re going to talk about this more on Episode 9. 

Bad shit happening in the world. Pray for Nice.

Death and pain is everywhere.

There was a shooting in SE DC in Anacostia neighborhood where Amy volunteers for Higher Achievement which is the most awesome, amazing organization. Everyone go there and donate or sign up to volunteer. It’s important.

What You Do Matters. Shine your light as bright as you can.

Dani Mathers took a picture of a woman at the gym. Dani did a dumb thing.

(image via Dani Mathers snapchat)

We have an inside laugh over “The Rural Juror” which was the fictional movie that Jenna Maroney starred in on 30 Rock. Please to enjoy.

Paula discusses the BeachBody craze. Y’all, look at all the trademark insignia on the home fitness programs!! They’re all trademarked. SO! Many! Ways! To Get! Skinny!

screenshot from http://www.beachbody.com

It’s a scam, y’all! Move your body and eat real food and stop caring about the size of your body.

Here’s the awesome article Jennifer Anniston wrote for the Huffington Post: For The Record.

Amy has a hard time with dating in the digital age. Mela posted this awesome article written by Heather Havrilesky’s “Ask Polly” series, which rocked her world. It discusses the stereotype of the “sexy badass.”

Getting vulnerable sucks. In the dating age and all the other places. Amy is more than happy to use this podcast to troll for men, so all age appropriate men in the DC area who love lesbian folk, 90s hip hop who want to fall in love with her, call her up. Amy appreciates you for letting her get vulnerable in the safe space trust tree.

The Dumb Shit We’re Talking About This Week: celebrities endorsing Trump, Jen Anniston, Katy Perry, Calvin & Taylor Swift.

Paula recommends seeing The Lobster, which is “so weird and so bizarre”.

PLEASE GO WRITE SOME POSITIVE REVIEWS ON ITUNES!

Stay hungry, bitches!

Not a ton to link to for this week’s episode. We were too sad. Please take care of yourselves.

Apologies upfront for the shitty sound. We are loud and then soft then loud and it’s our fault, not Nnaemeka’s.

Nnaemeka is our friend and producer and you should check out his Instagram at Molokomeka!

Molokomeka Design

Our hearts hurt for Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

Amy’s blog post is here: amysbridges.com.

People who do awful things are suffering. Always.

Fat acceptance and body positivity are not the same!!

Amy recommends The Girls by Emma Kline.

Paula recommends Gaycation with Ellen Page then we laugh about how Ellen Paige “word assaults” Ted Cruz.