‘Yeah, What She Said’ explores a variety of topics pertaining to feminism
A weekly talk radio program on CJSW boasts being the only feminist news program in Calgary.
“Yeah, What She Said,” discusses issues relating to women and feminists, and also hosts an assortment of guests.
Three women from different backgrounds, who all identify as feminists, host it.
Jennie Palmer, who has been a host on the show for six years, said it started out as a show called “Dykes on Mikes” before evolving into the show it is today.
Produced by: Lindsay Douglas
Although she hasn’t been on the show since its inception, she says the station has always tried to maintain a feminist presence within their radio programming.
“CJSW really tries to represent all facets of the community and feminism is one of those facets,” Palmer said.
“If we were to all disappear tomorrow, I’m pretty sure that the station manager would go out and find another group of feminists to start up a new show because it’s really important to them to represent all that in Calgary.”
This includes topics from roller derby, sexual assault, issues in pop culture and many more. Allison McNeely, who has been a host on the show for a year now, said “the show is pretty broad in scope. Our main goal is to present stories and topics to people who are feminists and to create shows that they may be interested in.”
The show hosts different guests throughout the year as well.
Geea Anatase, who has been a host on the show for three years said, “It’s anybody who’s doing something interesting in the community as it relates to feminism.”
McNeely said that one thing the show is looking to do more is expand the scope of their guests by “trying to get more people from across Canada, from North America, from other parts of the world, because our show doesn’t really have a Calgary specific mandate.”
She admits that it does pose more of a challenge to interview these guests.
“If you’re doing something cool in Brazil and it is related to feminism and you think a Canadian audience might be interested in it, than that’s definitely something that we’d want to do.”
The word feminist comes with a lot of negative connotations, which McNeely easily rattles off: “We’re angry, we don’t like men; those ones have been around for a long time. Some other ones that we don’t like sex, we don’t like pornography, we’re sort of anti-sex in that way; we’re all lesbians or that we’re all gay. We don’t shave our armpits; we’re all communists.”Allison McNeely, left, and Geea Antanase during an airing of feminist radio show “Yeah, What She Said.”
Screenshot courtesy of: Lindsay Douglas
Anatase says that feminists in Calgary are coming together and are trying to get rid of those tired stereotypes.
Feminist groups are putting on events like “Take Back The Night,” that helps out with the show.
However, Anatase says there is still a lot of work to be done.
“There are so many misconceptions about what feminism actually is that it’s going to take more than a few events to clear that up.”
“There are definitely angry, man-hating feminists out there, but the percentage is so small. Most feminists are just average, cool gals who are totally into gender equality,” Palmer says.
The show airs on Monday nights on CJSW 90.9 FM from 8 – 8:30 p.m.
Their perspective can also be found online on their blog.
ldouglas@cjournal.ca