Untethered...with Clementine Ford
Untethered...with Clementine Ford
THE FRIDAY FIVE: Clementine's rundown of the week's news
Let’s face it, we don’t always pay attention to the news. But just in case it comes up at pub trivia or knock off drinks with our friends, we still want to know what’s going on. Clementine's Friday Five provide's a quick cheat sheet of five of the week’s biggest news items, political gaffes or pop culture tidbits so YOU can bluff your way through whatever comes up.
It's smart, irreverent, quickfire and to the point - just like that friend who everyone always says should have gone into politics, if only she didn’t hate authority figures and rules.
This week, I'm discussing the impact of the case against Dominique Pelicot; media manipulation and the importance of critical news consumption; Kamala Harris' courting of the Republican party; astrological signs of radical new thinking; and celebrating queer identities.
For the week ending October 13, 2024...this is the Friday Five with Clementine Ford.
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Free Palestine.
Good afternoon and welcome to this week's Friday Five with me, your host, clementine Ford. If you hear any meowing in the background, that's just one of my best friends, my cat Buddy. Isn't it amazing to be a cat lady? Yes, it is Indeed. No arguments from me. I love being a cat lady so much that I have two best friends who are both kitty cats, mishka and Buddy.
Speaker 1:And just on that note, I just wanted to let any listeners, particularly those in Adelaide, know that I will be performing my show Spinster at this year's Feast Festival on November 24th. It's going to be amazing. I first did it at the Sydney Opera House for the All About Women Festival last year. It's all about the history of witches and cats and the demonization of unmarried women. So a very relevant topic for now. But we're not here to talk about that. We're here to bring you the Friday Five, which is your top five news stories of the week, as chosen by me and summarized for you so that you can go into your weekend feeling a little bit more prepared and ready to bluff through any curly political conversations or anything that you haven't caught up on. I got your back, don't worry.
Speaker 1:It goes without saying that sometimes the topics in the Friday Five are distressing, but there's a particular content note for this episode because I am going to be discussing rape, sexual assault and, specifically, the trial of Dominique Pellicot. So just a little heads up on that. It is a distressing beyond belief story, but one that is radically changing the way that lay people understand sexual assault. I'm recording this on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. Remember, wherever you are, know whose land you're on. For the week ending October 13th, this is the Friday Five.
Speaker 1:Let's get into it. It was a huge moment this week in the trial of Dominique Pellicot, who has admitted has pleaded guilty to an incomprehensibly monstrous assault decade-long, protracted, diabolically evil assault on his wife of 50 years, giselle Pellico, who is almost single-handedly changing the way that society understands sexual assault, but also providing a new model for how the victim-survivors of rapists and their violence walk proudly through public spheres, holding their head high, refusing to be shamed or cowered by what has been done to them, but showing that the shame any shame involved belongs squarely on the shoulders of the perpetrators. If you're listening to this podcast, you've almost certainly heard of Giselle Pellico, but just to recap, giselle Pellico was married to Dominique Pellico for 50 years. They had three children together. By all accounts, she felt him to be, prior to finding out what he had done to her, felt him to be a loving husband. Now, I say that advisedly, because obviously what we've discovered is that he is a.
Speaker 1:The depth of depravity that exists in that man and the ability that he so easily had to horrifically abuse his wife, and to do so knowing that she would have no memory of it, and to invite other people to participate in that abuse, it's a level of depravity that I find it difficult to wrap my head around. It's almost, I mean, if you were to write a story about the mundanity of perpetrators, you know the men who have been identified in these videos are normal quote unquote normal people in society, just as we know. Those of us who are activists in this space know that that is the case. People love to kind of dismiss perpetrators of sexual violence as monsters, as outliers, as somehow existing on the fringe of society, when obviously that is not true. That's just a comfortable way that people are able to frame thinking it's not their problem, couldn't be any men I know. The reality is that they walk among us. We all know a rapist, we all know a pedophile, we just don't know who they are. And that is a frightening thought, but it's also a truthful one.
Speaker 1:But if you were to write this story and submit it as you know the outline of a fiction, I put it to you that you would be told it was too unbelievable, that it was too on the nose, too feminist, that the idea that a man would treat his wife for 50 years in this way is too unbelievable. And yet here we are. Truth is stranger than fiction and it reveals something terrifying about, as I said, that mundanity of perpetration. So, to catch people up, dominique Pellico, for a period of roughly a decade, invited by using the dark web, invited up to 83 men to visit his house after he drugged his wife, giselle Pellico, to the point of incapacity and rape her while he filmed it. It's monstrous, it's awful. Even saying it out loud is horrifying to think of. And he saved all of those videos in a folder on his computer labeled abuse. So again, a fact of the story that, if you were to write it in a fiction, would be considered too pointed, too signposting of it. And yet again, as I said, here we are. Giselle only found out that this abuse had been perpetrated against her and orchestrated by her husband, because he was arrested for after being caught filming up. You know it's sort of colloquially called upskirting. He was arrested after being caught doing that to other women and police searched his laptop and they found this folder. So had that not happened, giselle Pellico would never have discovered what her husband was orchestrating to do to her and the abuse would likely have continued.
Speaker 1:Now there obviously were signs. Giselle Pellico had presented at her doctors with brain fog. She believed that she was experiencing early signs of Alzheimer's because she couldn't remember anything. Experiencing early signs of Alzheimer's because she couldn't remember anything. In addition to the memory lapses and the brain fog, giselle had experienced hair loss, weight loss. If it weren't Alzheimer's, she was worried that it was another serious illness. But obviously what was happening was, during this period, she was being regularly and routinely sedated to the point of being essentially comatose and repeatedly raped.
Speaker 1:Now here's an especially grotesque part of this story in an already extremely grotesque story Dominique Pellico. I'm reading this from the Vox article on it Dominique Pellico found the men via a messaging board called, without their Knowledge, on the now-shuttered website Coco, which was known for postings that involved illegal activities. That's relevant not just because it's frightening and disgusting, but because a key part of the defense of many of these quote-unquote alleged rapists is that she did know and what I'm about to get into is extremely disgusting victim blaming. So forgive me again, content note on this that part of this defense is that Giselle Pellico knew that it was a sex game that she was playing with her husband. Now, that is almost as unbelievable as the story itself, particularly in light of knowing where he'd sourced these men from a website called Without Her Knowledge.
Speaker 1:I find it, as I'm sure all of you do listening to this, extremely frightening to be confronted with what I also logically know to be the reality of the world that we live in. It doesn't surprise me to hear that men participate in these hideous behaviors with each other. It doesn't surprise me to discover that quote unquote ordinary men who move through the world with quote unquote ordinary jobs, who are fathers, husbands, brothers, friends, et cetera, who, in this case, ranged in age from 24 to 73, ordinary men in your community, and they'd have to have been near enough for them to be able to come to their house that they are also simultaneously participating in activities on websites called things like Without Her Knowledge. I'm not surprised by that, and that is a depressing thing to say that I'm not surprised by that, but I am deeply disturbed by it to be confronted once again with the reality of sexual violence and its perpetrators, the I used this word earlier the mundanity of it, by which I don't mean that it's a mundane thing to experience or do to someone, of course not but there is a mundanity to the normalcy of who these people are. The fact that they are using as part of their defense this horribly and, more to the point, just further abuse, this horribly accusatory you know, allegation that Giselle Pellico knew what she was participating in is another sign of how deeply diabolical this kind of behavior is. There is no way that any of these men, in my opinion, particularly congregating on a site with that title, did not know what they were doing.
Speaker 1:And the monstrousness and you know, again, I use that word advisedly because I don't think that these men are monsters and what I mean by that is that what they have done is clearly monstrousness. And again, I use that word advisedly because I don't think that these men are monsters, and what I mean by that is that what they have done is clearly monstrous. But we do ourselves and victim survivors of sexual assault and rape an injustice and a disservice when we say, well, they're just monsters. No, they're not, they're men, they're ordinary men, which is not to say that all men would participate in this behavior. I don't believe that.
Speaker 1:But the men who participate in this behavior for all intents and purposes, in their communities, in the societies that they walk through maybe not in every single case, but for the vast majority, are ordinary men. They, as I said, have families, jobs, they participate in community. You wouldn't be able to look at them on the street and go. That is a man who is participating in a covert and manipulative and deeply evil rape ring, because people wouldn't have looked at Dominique Pellico and thought that Giselle Pellico certainly didn't think that of her husband of 50 years.
Speaker 1:So there's lots about this case that people will have heard already and the reason I bring it up in this week's Friday Five is that this week video footage the video footage that Dominique Pellico had recorded of those assaults and rapes was shown in the open courtroom. And obviously one of the reasons why Giselle Pellico is being heralded as a real warrior and a heroine is because she has refused to be private about this. She's waived her right to a closed courtroom, she's waived her right to anonymity and, in fact, her lawyers petitioned the judge to be able to show this footage in a public forum. It's a closed courtroom in the sense that the only people allowed in the actual courtroom are members of the media and members of the trial itself, but there is a public gallery in which it's being live streamed, and I think that that is, as we can all agree, an incredibly brave thing for someone to do to not only have to relive the trauma that they only discovered after it happened, but to know that other people will now be able to see you in your most vulnerable moments, in your most exploited moments, and to see in such stark detail the clear and brutal evidence of how absolutely deeply your husband must have hated you to have done that to you, the disregard that was shown for you, for your soul, for your body. The worse than dehumanizing you for your soul, for your body, the worse than dehumanizing mentality of this. To stand in court and in public and have people see you in the moments where you were being rendered like less than garbage by this person that you'd lived with for 50 years and had three children with. That is such an incredibly brave thing to do. And of course, we can also agree that it's really frightening that only 50 of the 83 men whose bodies, at least, were identified as being 83 separate figures in these videos that only 50 of them have been identified. That is extremely frightening because 33 men are walking around now thinking lucky me, I got away with that, and again you could pass them on the street and not know.
Speaker 1:I cannot even begin to imagine how, or even if, giselle Pellico can unpack the trauma and the betrayal of this protracted series of abuse and rape perpetrated against her by her husband and all of these faceless strangers. I don't know how you can wade into that pool inside you and I also don't know how her children will be able to cope with knowing that their father did this to their mother. I'm not saying it's the same kind of betrayal or grief at all, but how do you reckon with I mean, if it's hard enough for so many lay people completely unconnected to this case to look at it and wrap their head around how someone could do that to another person, how do you figure that out when that person is either your husband of such a long time or your father, and that you know that your mother, your own mother, has been so horrendously and horrifically and irreparably damaged by his actions. Giselle Pellico is a true hero, a great warrior, and the fact that she is doing this and sexual violence in France has been for so long a crime of passion. And also not listening to this, but in awe of Giselle Pellico and her bravery when I say that I wish nothing, nothing for this woman, more than I wish for her to spend the rest of her days in a level of peace and quiet, surrounded by nothing but love from her friends, her family, her children, and that the accompanying feelings that she inevitably has, that will inevitably be with her for the rest of that life, that they are somehow able to be, if not drowned out, at least muted by that love. My God, what a woman, what an incredible woman, and I don't believe in hell, but if I did fuck, may he burn in it for an eternity.
Speaker 1:Today, pro-palestine protesters took to the streets demanding a ceasefire Hi, I'm Paul Barry. And more protests on our city streets, with things erupting in Melbourne and tends the project, bringing us this dramatic footage. On Sunday night, thousands of protesters met at midday demanding an end to Israel's war in Gaza, with police in gas masks, helmets, riot gear and rifles at the ready. Shocking stuff. That was Paul Barry on Media Watch, calling out the project for shamelessly sharing not fake footage but the wrong footage in its coverage of the vigil and the protest for the protest to mark one year of genocide perpetrated by Israel against Gaza.
Speaker 1:In its coverage of the protest, the project put together a package which is a very common thing for news stations and programs like the project to do. Supposedly, that footage was of the protest on Sunday, which was a surprise to me because in it I saw police in gas masks, as Paul Barry outlined police in gas masks. You know scuffles and fights breaking out between protesters and the cops and, by the way, acab, so fuck them. You know fires. It looked scary and violent and I knew obviously that that footage was from the land forces protest when, you know, brave protesters four weeks ago put their bodies on the line to object to the fact that there is a weapons expo being held in the city of Melbourne Weapons expo, by the way, which featured military equipment that is being used to kill, maim, harm people in Palestine and clearly now in Lebanon also. I mean, let's just put it on the record that I think that things like weapons expos are depraved and a sign of how fucking disgusting and low humans can be, and any defence of them, particularly by governments and by corporations and by industry, is just empire protecting itself. And so kudos to those protesters. I stand with them in solidarity always.
Speaker 1:I don't care how violent those protests ended up, because sometimes we need to use physical force to get our point across. I know some people will disagree with that, but guess what? Nothing was ever given to people because we asked politely for it. We've had to fight bitterly for it, and anyone who would make that argument as well need only look at the suffragette movement to see how these genteel, middle-class white ladies who also, it should be recognised were really only fighting for their own rights, but how they also used violence to achieve their political aims. We shouldn't allow ourselves to get sucked into the narrative that violence, from protesters especially, equals disorder, and nor should we allow ourselves to be sucked into the propaganda around the very notion of disorder. We should be creating disorder against genocide. We should be disrupting weapons expos.
Speaker 1:But all that aside, the fact remains that the protest on Sunday, which I went to, which was incredible and peaceful and galvanizing, and surrounded by families and children and a sea of people really just calling for humanity, for an end to this monstrous violence that has been perpetrated now for the genocide in particular, for over a year, plus 76 years on top of that. So for the project to knowingly and it would be knowingly, there's absolutely no way that this was done by mistake for the project to knowingly use footage from a completely entirely separate protest that was protesting a fairly separate issue as well, although, of course, there's much overlay between them for them to do that in order to cultivate amongst their viewers. They don't care that it's not true. They don't even care that they'll be called out for it, because it doesn't matter if pro-Palestinian supporters and people who were actually at that protest, because it doesn't matter if pro-Palestinian supporters and people who were actually at that protest, it doesn't matter if we say online or Paul Barry says on Media Watch that this wasn't accurate. All that matters is that the people who watched the project, and that episode in particular when it's screened, were fed a narrative that these protesters are violent, that how they choose to protest is disruptive, that it seeds disorder in the community, that it's against police and of course that feeds into a narrative as well that police are there to protect us, that they're there to serve us, which I know and I hope you know is fucking bullshit. But the general viewer of the project is very much under the delusion. I would say that society empire good, capitalism good. Do the right thing good, and disruption and disorderliness and challenging the system bad. Fuck the project. For that they should be called out, they should be reported to the press council. They should be forced to apologize for that. Whether or not they will is a completely separate issue, but it does speak to this need and this obligation that we have as consumers of media. And one of the reasons why I want to do this Friday Five and why I'm enjoying doing it so much is because it is a way to peel back these stories like this.
Speaker 1:When I was at university and editing the student newspaper there, I used to do a media watch article each week where I would basically look at stories. That because at the time I was working as a media monitor, so I was all across the news, everything that was happening in the state and federally. I knew about because I just had to type summaries up of everything happening in the state and federally. I knew about because I just had to type summaries up of everything, and it was a really productive and instructive way for me to see how the media manipulates particular views, how it manipulates its audiences and how it decides what the story is and feeds it to them. We really need now, in this moment more than anything, to question everything that we are being fed, that supports the narrative of empire, that supports the narrative of orderliness, that supports the narrative that the police, as I said, are there to protect us, that the government has our best interests at heart. We need to be very critically aware of how necessary our manipulation, the manipulation of us as consumers and as citizens, how necessary that is to the project of having us collude with empire.
Speaker 1:And that's a nice segue into my third story for the Friday Five, which is that Kamala Harris appeared on the View this week and she confirmed to the host of the View that the difference between her and Joe Biden, who is obviously the current president of the United States, and both of them together have been actively funding and endorsing this genocide. So anyone who wants to say that Kamala Harris, once elected, will somehow magically produce a ceasefire, that Netanyahu was refusing to come to the table on and that actually, as I've seen other people say, we are so beyond the moment of ceasefire yes, obviously, stop the violence and the guns immediately, but the moment is beyond ceasefire. There is so much more that needs to be done Ending the occupation land back one state, you know. Bring down the barricades that turn Gaza into an effective concentration camp. Israel and the people responsible for the destruction of Gaza need to commit to the rebuilding of Gaza. We're so beyond ceasefire.
Speaker 1:But when people say, oh, when Kamala Harris is elected, she will obviously fight for a ceasefire Bullshit. It's fucking bullshit. She will continue to fund and arm Israel. She has said as much. She said as well this week that she made all of those decisions with Joe Biden, that she wouldn't have done anything differently over the past year. She is not an ally to the Palestinian people. She is not going to somehow wave a magic wand and fix the situation.
Speaker 1:This is a lie that people are telling themselves to overlook or to mitigate their complicity in this and whether or not they choose to vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz or not is beside the point. I just want them to be honest about it. I just want them to say I am doing this for pragmatic reasons, largely because it serves me and largely because it serves the communities that I may be connected to or involved in in America, that I am voting for this because the alternative Trump is very bad for me. Be honest about it. Don't pretend that somehow you're doing this because you believe that she will be the quickest way to bring about peace in Palestine. She, as I said, has committed to continuing to arm Israel.
Speaker 1:Tim Walz also said that the way forward for Israel is to continue its expansion. They are not interested in peace for Palestinian people. It's an inconvenient, quote-unquote war for them that they've inherited, sure and I say that with tongue firmly in cheek huge amount of sarcasm. I'm sure they would rather not be dealing with this, but the fact that she can't even say the word genocide indicates exactly how she feels about what Israel is doing to Palestine. So anyone who says well, she's against the genocide, she doesn't endorse the genocide, she'd be from fucking hell, man. She can't even say the fucking word.
Speaker 1:So she appeared on the View this week and she said that the one thing that will be different between her and Joe Biden is that she's going to have a Republican in her cabinet, because she and she said this to much applause she's not the kind of person who is willing to overlook a good idea just because the person it comes from sits on the other side of the political fence. That is all very strategic dog whistling to Republicans. Vote for me and I'll be on your side. Vote for me. You don't have to worry about me bringing in any of those scary, spooky, wookie Democrat policies. I'm going to work with you. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours Again.
Speaker 1:The people who are participating in this delusion that somehow Kamala Harris she's just. She can't say anything about Democrat policies. She can't appeal to people who are against the genocide. She can't say anything about that because she'll lose the election. We just need to get her elected first, and then she can work on all these secret things that she won't say now. But isn't it interesting that what she very much can say now, in the lead up to the election, what she can put on the table and promise to do, is to appeal to Republicans Now you tell me if and when she gets elected. Does she then turn around and say, haha, psych Republicans, I fooled you, I'm not on your side, I'm going to do all of this radical shit that you were really scared of? Of course not. Of course she's not going to do that. She is not going to deliver to the people what they want and what they think they will get from her. If they just close their eyes, grit their teeth and white knuckle their way through the next month, she is going to be playing for the Republican Party, because that is where her side of bread is buttered. She doesn't get anything from the people Right now. All she's getting from them is the vote she can't even give them a promise of, as I said, she can't even say the fucking word genocide. She can't even give them the promise of doing anything to end it. She is there to maintain and support capital and empire, and that is the job that she will be doing once elected.
Speaker 1:Now I know people will say, well, trump's going to be worse. Yes, yes, that is the point that the situation in America, the idea of democracy in America, has devolved so badly to the point that the two pragmatic options on offer in a two-party system are fucked, and fucked her. Donald Trump is a psychopath. There's no way that he should be back in the White House, but that doesn't mean that the person running against him is a good option. That doesn't mean that, because he is very, very, very bad, that the binary opposite must be that she is very, very, very good.
Speaker 1:They are both bad. He may be more bad, but they're both bad, and they both signal a terrifying portent, not just for the people of America, but for the people of Gaza, for the people in the Swana region in general. They signify a terrifying portent for climate change, like everything that they both represent is fucked, and the only reason people are overlooking it with the Democrats is because, a they're terrified of Donald Trump, which I understand, but B they also are not willing to believe that they are being sold out, because it's easier, I suppose, to just overlook that they're being sold out and imagine for themselves that if that, the, that the way for them to save America and to therefore save themselves, is just to cast a vote. Oh my God, it's just. It could be that easy. It could be that easy Just cast a vote. Phew, oh, my gosh, harris was elected. We saved America, thank God. Now we can relax and take our foot off the gas. It doesn't work like that.
Speaker 1:We are heading into a very fucking scary time. I don't want to be conspiracy theorist about things. I don't want to be, you know. I don't want to be that kind of crazy person raving into a even remotely thinking brain right now. And anyone who is looking at all at the news can agree and recognize that we are heading into a very scary time for humanity, not just politically but environmentally. You know there's been a second hurricane that's torn through florida this week. I saw a meteorologist crying on camera this week because it is so scary and devastating to him, an expert seeing what is happening. We are in for some fucked apocalyptic times.
Speaker 1:Now is the time to rally behind the people. Now is the time for the people to join together and decide what it is we are willing to fight for, because the empire is not going to save us. The empire does not care about us. The empire cares about protecting itself, maintaining its own systems. We will not find support in governments. We will not find protection in those who are still willing to burn and destroy the earth just to get a little bit of power. So if you are not quite there yet, at the radical stage of your activism. I suggest that you start getting there, you start figuring it out, you find a map somehow, because we're all here and we are ready to fucking tear some shit down. And the more we have, the more people power some shit down. And the more we have, the more people power, the more chance of success we have in doing it.
Speaker 1:And that's a very nice segue as well into item four for this week's Friday Five, which is a little bit of astrological news. If you know me, if you've been following me for a while, you'll know that in addition to being a bit radical and definitely a huge swearer and being extremely passionate about politics and about justice and about rightness and science and all of those things, I also fucking love astrology and spirituality and tarot. It feeds my soul. If you don't love those things, that is totally fine. Listen to this with a grain of salt. It doesn't bother me if you don't believe in it, but don't tune out just because I do.
Speaker 1:What I was going to say was that the little bit of news for this week is that Pluto is stationing direct in Capricorn today. Now, pluto has been in Capricorn for the last 16 years. For a few months at the beginning of this year it moved into Aquarius and then it retrograded back to Capricorn. This might sound like gobbledygook to some of you, but I will explain in a minute. And now it's stationing direct, after having gone retrograde. It's stationing direct in Capricorn, where it will be until November 19th. On November 19th, pluto then moves back into Aquarius, where it will be for the next 20 years. What does that mean? Now, I am just a very amateur astrologer and I get most of my information from Chani Nicholas, who's incredible and amazing and politically just brilliant, and I also follow a bunch of other astrologers as well. Taylor Bain here in Melbourne is great.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'm getting sidetracked now, but what that means is Capricorn is an Earth sign. It's very rooted in systems, in order, in material gain, and Pluto is the underworld, the subterranean kind of like the shadows. It's our depths, that kind of thing. So Pluto in Capricorn for the last 16 years has been about really solidifying our commitment to systems and to money and to material growth and power, which might sound familiar to a lot of people. It's been a hard trudge as well, because those things are actually not inherently very human. Aquarius, on the other hand, is an air sign and it's the sign of the rebel, it's the radical, it's change, it's dramatic transformation, it's technological advancements, all of those things. Pluto is moving into Aquarius, which signifies a transition, astrologically speaking and energetically speaking, a mass global transition from this commitment to very kind of structured sort of material growth and empire.
Speaker 1:Really, the sign of in the tarot, the sign that represents Capricorn as the devil which isn't to say that Capricorns are all devilish, although definitely some of them are Aquarius is represented by the star, which is about nakedness, rebirth, courage, a sort of greater vision. You know, when you think about the star, a star shines not knowing that anyone can even see its light. The light that we see from stars was sent millions of years ago. Those stars may be dead now, but they shine anyway. That's the meaning of the star in the tarot and it's about rebirth. The star appears after the fall of the tower.
Speaker 1:So Pluto in Aquarius is about these rebellious, radical ways of being, about a fearlessness in terms of change and innovation. And, you know, it signifies technological advancement, not all for the benefit of good. So there's some scary shit coming our way with AI, I'm sure, but something to consider the last time that Pluto was in Aquarius, because it's a 250-year transit, because it's so far away. The last time that Pluto was in Aquarius we had the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution and the French Revolution. So again, we are in for some pretty radical times ahead. There is revolt on its way.
Speaker 1:I think that when you think about climate change and the cost of living crisis and the weight of what it means to be human right now, what it is that we see our world leaders getting away with the injustice of it all, there is a moment coming for us in which we are all going to be called to radically change our ideas of who we are and what's important, and to radically come together and to fight for justice, to fight against systems and empire, and it's going to be intense and scary, but I also believe that it will be historically world-changing. So that's your astrological news for the week and to round us out with a moment of joy, a bit of joyful news, because I know that it's quite difficult sometimes. I mean this is only the third Friday Five I've ever done, but it's all been pretty heavy. I mean it's a heavy time, but the positive news for this week is today is National Coming Out Day and I just wanted to say a big I love you to anyone out there who is either preparing to come out, who has come out recently or who, like me, came out 20 years ago, is feeling proud and resilient and joyful and in love with themselves and has abandoned any aspect of shame around who they are and around not conforming to what again empire I'm going to use that word again empire has demanded of people in terms of sexuality, love, commitment and vibrancy. I see you, I love you. I am proud to be the weird, queer, adhd, passionate justice warrior that so many people over the course of my life have tried to shame me for being, and I'm proud of myself and of my inner child and I'm proud for her that I no longer feel afraid of what that shadow looks like in me, because actually it's not a shadow at all. It's a beautiful exotic bird and gosh. How wonderful to be part of a community of people that bring more colour and life and options and choice and diversity to the world. Love is love and you, my friends, deserve as much love as anyone else. So happy National Coming Out Day. That has been the Friday Five for the week ending October 13th 2024. My name is Clementine Ford. I'm a chaos witch, a ratbag, a writer, a podcaster, a lover and a fighter when it counts, and it has been my pleasure to be with you this afternoon.
Speaker 1:As part of my Untethered podcast channel, I also make two other episodes. The main episode drops every Wednesday. They're conversational hours. I have incredible guests. The episode that was released this week, which is available for you to listen either now or over the course of the weekend go for a long walk is with the amazing Dana Omari, who is on Instagram as IG, famous by Dana. Dana is a Palestinian American and we have a really incredible and vulnerable and honest conversation about what it means to be Palestinian American right now in the current political climate, and Dana shares some important views, I think, on this election and the choices that people are making about their candidates and what that means again for the Palestinian American community. So I'd really love for you to listen to that. Next week's Wednesday conversation is with my wonderful friend, marie Carty, but I'm also doing on Mondays.
Speaker 1:Now I've brought back Dear Clementine, my beloved advice line. I am the mother you always wanted, the sister you never had and the auntie who always listened. And I on Dear Clementine on Mondays answer your burning questions. Now I give you advice that you may not want but that you definitely need to hear, and you can listen to all of that just by subscribing to the Untethered podcast channel. Wherever you get your podcasts, if you subscribe, you'll never miss an episode. Please also consider rating and reviewing it, because it helps other people to see the podcast.
Speaker 1:I love reading your emails too, so you can email me on untetheredpod at gmailcom. You can email about. You can send in a Dear Clementine question. You can also email me about the Friday Five. If there's a particular news story as well that you would like broken down that maybe comes up during the week, don't hesitate to get in touch, because I definitely want to respond to what you want to hear. And lastly, if you would like to support me and the podcast, then you can do so by subscribing either to my Substack All the details are on the liner notes of this episode.
Speaker 1:You can also find them in the link in my bio on Instagram or just go to wwwsubstackcom. Forward slash at Clementine F. It's $14 a month, which works out to about the price of a very cheap coffee once a week. Subscribers to Substack also get access to my closed friends list on Instagram where I post some more private things, more personal things. You can also support my Patreon, which is just username clementineford on the Patreon site. You can do that for as little as $2 a month, and $2 a month is, you know, it's just a coin. It's just a coin. It's like throwing it into a busker's hat, but it all adds up and it really helps to support me financially to pay my bills, to pay for podcasting, to pay for my equipment, to pay for the sound production Shout out as well to my producers of the conversations at Cardigan Creative. They do an amazing job.
Speaker 1:But the most important thing that supporting creators like me to do and supporting us financially, even with just something as small as $2 a week, is that it helps to maintain independence.
Speaker 1:We really need independent media right now and we need people who aren't afraid to speak the truth about things, who aren't constrained by employers' regulations, who aren't at risk of losing their jobs because they say things that upset the public, as I did last year at the end of last year, when I lost my podcast at Nova, which was the advice podcast which I've brought back on this channel because there were too many complaints about my views on Palestine. That is the reality of working in the media when you work for corporations and organizations that they own you, basically, and if they don't like what you say, they get rid of you. So, again, if you would consider supporting my Patreon or my Substack, I would appreciate it, but I also think that it's important in this climate to support more independent voices. And even if you don't, these podcasts will still be produced for free for you to listen to, and I appreciate you being here. And so, lovers, until next time, stay informed and stay untethered.