Episode 55: Christmas Special! Shit Sandwiches, 'Chosen Family', and Great Expectations
56 minutes long. Link to audio file. Link directly to this episode.
This special edition episode discusses the taboos surrounding Christmas, including overfamiliarity, serving up passive-aggressive 'shit sandwich' situations to younger relatives, the weird 'queer' concept of 'chosen family' (that doesn't exist in practice), and the traditional expectations of harmony and happiness which many families do not manage. We also consider the questions of unequal domestic labour amongst the sexes within family structures, the non-existence of feminist communes as alternatives, and fraught dynamics between people who do, or are pretending, to love one another.