ТРАНСКРИПЦИЯ 🔗
WEBVTT
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:01.520
And you apologize.
00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:02.160
Hello?
00:00:02.399 --> 00:00:03.680
Why would I apologize?
00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:04.959
I have not moved.
00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:06.639
You want to know why you apologize?
00:00:06.799 --> 00:00:08.880
Because you've been conditioned that way.
00:00:09.439 --> 00:00:12.400
I'm Gabby, and you're listening to While I've Got You.
00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:14.160
Let's start the show.
00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:27.679
When I was about 18 or 19, I developed my like longest and most withstanding pet peeve.
00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:34.000
And that is people's general lack of spatial awareness.
00:00:34.479 --> 00:00:56.799
And I think when I look back over the years, the area that really highlighted why this bothers me so much is someone when I was 19, 20, 18, somewhere in there, pointed out to me that women are more likely when walking down the sidewalk, if a man is coming to towards them on their side of the sidewalk.
00:00:57.039 --> 00:00:58.320
Think about the flow of traffic.
00:00:58.399 --> 00:00:59.600
We know how traffic works.
00:00:59.840 --> 00:01:18.799
If they're walking towards them on their side of the sidewalk, women are more likely to step off of the sidewalk to avoid colliding with a man than a man is to one, step off the sidewalk or two, navigate or glide their way back over to their side of the sidewalk.
00:01:18.959 --> 00:01:21.439
And that really pisses me off.
00:01:21.680 --> 00:01:32.319
When I realized that, when that was brought to my attention, I vowed that for the rest of my days, I would not be stepping off the sidewalk for a man.
00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:33.680
That's crazy talk.
00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:49.680
Now, the exception to that rule before anybody's yelling at me and I become your pet peeve is if I'm in a large group, I try to be spatially and situationally aware enough to if we're coming up towards people, I'll say like, hey, everybody condense or like step over.
00:01:49.920 --> 00:02:00.000
And my people, people that roll with me, will get into a single foul line before we crowd and take up an entire sidewalk to, you know, for a few seconds to continue a conversation.
00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:01.920
We can step off and come back.
00:02:02.079 --> 00:02:04.400
Um, those are my exceptions.
00:02:05.040 --> 00:02:19.759
But since college, since this time that this was brought to my attention, I have been in this tiny little rebellion, this tiny little personalized standoff with dominant cultures around the world.
00:02:20.000 --> 00:02:22.879
Maybe not the world, around me.
00:02:23.439 --> 00:02:34.159
So not only did that like start this pet peeve, I've been irritated by people being in my bubble since before COVID.
00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:38.479
We should have always been standing six feet apart, as far as I'm concerned.
00:02:38.719 --> 00:02:54.560
But this episode got brought back up for me because of a video I saw a couple weeks ago
Load full transcript
where this creator is talking about the study of proximics, which essentially is like the study of spatial awareness, spatial understanding.
00:02:54.719 --> 00:03:07.520
And several studies have shown that typically in socially dominant groups, those people expect are conditioned to believe that they have a larger physical bubble.
00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:10.719
And that got me fired up again.
00:03:10.960 --> 00:03:12.479
Because what do you mean?
00:03:12.639 --> 00:03:19.439
Within that conversation and why that happens, there's another thing going on, as there usually is.
00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:21.759
There's another underlying context.
00:03:21.919 --> 00:03:40.240
And that underlying context is not only does the socially dominant group expect larger bubbles in public, but as someone not in the socially dominant group, I have been conditioned to be out of the way and respect that bubble.
00:03:40.479 --> 00:03:58.479
And even in my awareness of this particular example, even in my awareness of the ways oppressive systems that benefit the socially dominant group, I talked about this and how those systems aren't really that beneficial in the long run in last week's episode.
00:03:58.719 --> 00:04:00.000
Victim of the same system.
00:04:00.080 --> 00:04:01.280
So be sure to check that out.
00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:11.919
But even being aware of that system, I have also been conditioned to subscribe to it, to operate within it, to have my own subset of behaviors that fall under that.
00:04:12.080 --> 00:04:18.079
And no, that awareness does not automatically cure me of those behaviors.
00:04:18.240 --> 00:04:40.160
So much of it becomes so unconscious and innate that there are times that I catch myself doing things and behaving a certain way that I have been conditioned or nurtured to believe are correct when really I'm just like closing the lid on the box that society has put me in.
00:04:40.319 --> 00:04:42.959
It can become such second nature.
00:04:43.120 --> 00:05:06.639
Think about like when you're driving your car and you're going somewhere after a long day and your mind is caught up in so many other thoughts, you're consumed with your train of thought zigzagging and zooming all over the place that you eventually arrive at your destination or you arrive at the wrong place, not even remembering the drive over.
00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:15.360
That repetition and that behavior becomes such second nature that it takes so much internal work to like dismantle.
00:05:15.519 --> 00:05:23.759
Another really good example of this is I used to be someone who would be standing completely still.
00:05:23.920 --> 00:05:28.319
Again, this is about spatial awareness because it is my biggest pet peeve.
00:05:28.480 --> 00:05:37.600
All of my issues with the general public can be folded into a pretty little package of a lack of spatial awareness.
00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:52.480
But you can be standing completely still, stationary, not buried in your phone, minding
your business, hands to yourself, in your own very tightly contained bubble, because your expectation is not that you have a larger bubble.
00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:59.920
You can be stuck in your skin-sized bubble and someone bump into you and you apologize.
00:06:00.079 --> 00:06:00.560
Hello?
00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:02.079
Why would I apologize?
00:06:02.240 --> 00:06:03.360
I have not moved.
00:06:03.519 --> 00:06:05.040
You want to know why you apologize?
00:06:05.199 --> 00:06:07.120
Because you've been conditioned that way.
00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:15.040
So I have been in this awareness and in these tiny little mini protests for a while.
00:06:15.279 --> 00:06:22.560
That example, because I see so many other people do it, I have stopped apologizing.
00:06:22.800 --> 00:06:23.759
Unless I'm wrong.
00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:26.800
If I'm actually wrong, then I go, oh my God, I'm so sorry.
00:06:27.040 --> 00:06:33.040
If it is such an inconsequential thing, or I bump into someone, I'm gonna apologize for that.
00:06:33.199 --> 00:06:41.360
But if it is such a small miss, or me and somebody else bump into each other, and they go to apologize, it was a mistake.
00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.639
There's no reason, like we're fine, everything's okay.
00:06:44.800 --> 00:06:48.480
You didn't see me standing here because you were wrangling a kid.
00:06:48.560 --> 00:06:49.199
That happens.
00:06:49.279 --> 00:06:49.759
I get it.
00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:54.000
And so I've stopped letting people apologize to me for that.
00:06:54.160 --> 00:06:58.879
But I also don't have time to be like, do you know why you apologize to me, ma'am?
00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:01.920
Maybe I'll be like, hey, I have a podcast, you should check it out.
00:07:02.079 --> 00:07:04.319
I talk about this exact thing you're doing right now.
00:07:04.480 --> 00:07:07.120
But right now, I usually just say, Oh, no worries, you're perfect.
00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:08.160
Or don't worry, you're perfect.
00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:09.439
You're perfect, you're perfect.
00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:20.800
I always say you're perfect when someone apologizes to me over something that is so inconsequential that it does not need you to be sorry for taking up space.
00:07:20.959 --> 00:07:26.639
Those are my two, like at the forefront of my mind, little acts of rebellion that I do.
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:31.600
And on the one hand, they definitely make me feel pretty good.
00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:48.720
I don't know how much they're really doing to break down the systems that have labeled me and prescribed me a set of default behaviors that I'm supposed to do to abide by to fit into societal norms.
00:07:48.879 --> 00:07:53.920
Like in the grand scheme of things, bigger conversations are happening.
00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.120
Are my two little will collide?
00:07:57.519 --> 00:08:01.920
You can mess around and find out, but I'm not stepping off this sidewalk.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:10.959
Is that moment or my you're perfect, like throwaway comment, letting that be my throwaway comment instead of, oh, you're fine, I say you're perfect.
00:08:11.199 --> 00:08:15.439
Is that doing anything in the grand scheme of things?
00:08:15.600 --> 00:08:20.639
It's not enough to dismantle oppressive systems by playing chicken.
00:08:20.879 --> 00:08:30.720
Even if in the moment when it's happening, and I'm very aware in those instances, specifically this sidewalk instance that I can't shut up about because it drives me nuts.
00:08:30.959 --> 00:08:33.759
I'm very aware in those instances.
00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:39.039
Like, I feel like Katniss Everdeen when I don't move off that sidewalk.
00:08:39.519 --> 00:08:42.559
If we burn, you burn with us.
00:08:42.799 --> 00:08:47.519
Like we're gonna get into kerfuffle if you don't move.
00:08:47.759 --> 00:08:49.120
Because why would I move?
00:08:49.279 --> 00:08:56.879
It can't be my job alone to take down, in this specific example, the patriarchy.
00:08:57.200 --> 00:09:07.039
So maybe standing on the sidewalk and maybe tailoring my language instead of saying, oh, it's fine, and brushing it off to say, don't worry about it, you're perfect.
00:09:07.360 --> 00:09:09.360
Maybe those are enough.
00:09:09.519 --> 00:09:26.240
On the one hand, I can see that again, maybe those are enough, that there are little ways that I am conscious and aware in trying to dismantle the unconscious behaviors I enact to follow the guidelines of the labels that have been placed on me.
00:09:26.399 --> 00:09:54.480
And also, if we're being realistic, I am sure that there are a thousand little things that I do every day, day to day, that enforce or instill limiting thinking, limiting beliefs in my mind about who I am, what I'm capable of, who other people are, the ways in which I categorize other people and put them in oppressive states or behold them to oppressive labels is my sidewalk game of chicken addressing those.
00:09:54.639 --> 00:10:06.240
I think an example of this is if you've listened to the last 15 episodes of this podcast, then I think you have a pretty general sense of who I am to some degree.
00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:07.919
We're getting to know each other, don't worry.
00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:09.919
I'm sure you'll know so much more about me.
00:10:10.159 --> 00:10:25.519
But I think that a good example of the thousand little things that I do and the work that goes into trying not to uphold behaviors that reflect a belief system that I don't agree with.
00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:32.960
I have a local restaurant and bar that I love, that me and my friends go to all of the time.
00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:39.200
It's very important to me if I'm going to frequent a restaurant that I know people's names.
00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:40.080
That's important to me.
00:10:40.159 --> 00:10:41.360
It's important to my friends.
00:10:41.679 --> 00:10:47.279
And there is a bartender at a local restaurant that uses they, them pronouns.
00:10:47.519 -->
00:10:57.519
The times that I have gone with friends who have been there a bunch of times and I say, oh, so-and-so is on the bar tonight, they totally understand who I'm talking about.
00:10:57.679 --> 00:11:05.919
But when I go with people who have never been and I'm talking to the hostess, I say, who's on the bar and they tell me who it is.
00:11:06.159 --> 00:11:22.639
When I try to explain who this person is, out of all of the other strangers that my friend doesn't know, I have a hard time trying to describe them and give them descriptors that don't follow a gender norm that they don't subscribe to.
00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:25.279
And again, I'm aware of that happening.
00:11:25.360 --> 00:11:29.600
I'm aware of the system that wants me to use particular pronouns.
00:11:29.679 --> 00:11:35.360
I'm aware of the system that wants me to use particular adjectives to describe this person.
00:11:35.600 --> 00:11:42.320
And in the moment, I am fighting for my life to not subscribe to that.
00:11:42.559 --> 00:11:53.039
So think about all of the little ways that I am aware of the system and not aware of how it has trickled down and affected me.
00:11:53.200 --> 00:12:04.879
Every new one I learn about or I discover is like I was 22 before I realized that band-aids are the color they are because they're made for white skin.
00:12:05.120 --> 00:12:05.440
What?
00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:06.720
I had no idea.
00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:09.120
I just thought that was the color of band-aids.
00:12:09.279 --> 00:12:11.120
No one told me this information.
00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:15.279
And I just accepted it because if I got a cut, I gotta cover my cut.
00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:25.120
So there are so many things that are happening and I'm operating in and I'm doing myself that on the one hand, I'm like, why try?
00:12:25.360 --> 00:12:31.279
Why do these little behaviors even matter if in the grand scheme of things they're not making a difference?
00:12:31.519 --> 00:12:36.399
And then on the flip side, I'm like, well, all little things make a difference.
00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:40.320
I guess both of these things are fair and valid.
00:12:40.559 --> 00:13:00.159
If you are someone who is being super intentional and doing big work to dismantle oppressive systems or reach across the aisle and be a helping hand, if you're doing the big, noticeable award-winning things, I think that's great and that's beautiful.
00:13:00.320 --> 00:13:07.440
And I love that you're in that season and I appreciate you like running the race for those of us who can't right now.
00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:26.720
And if you're on the flip side and all you can do is small things, if you are, you know, like too busy trying to be a survivor and survive in this economy or survive in this oppressive system, and all you have are your small micro behaviors, that's valid too.
00:13:26.879 --> 00:13:32.320
I think I talk a lot, a lot, a lot about grace on this podcast.
00:13:32.639 --> 00:13:34.240
It is my middle name.
00:13:34.399 --> 00:13:37.440
Um, genuinely, I'm not trying to be funny, but it works.
00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:42.960
It's it's a double entendre in a way, because grace has a definition, but I am also Grace.
00:13:43.120 --> 00:13:51.279
So I talk a lot about grace on this podcast, and I talk about showing yourself grace and showing other people grace, like extending that.
00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:55.600
And I don't necessarily want to continue to reiterate that.
00:13:55.679 --> 00:13:57.360
I'm sure it will eventually.
00:13:57.519 --> 00:14:01.600
We could all use a little bit more grace in this world than in our day-to-day lives.
00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:11.919
But I think that the challenge is more so noticing that any effort towards changing oppressive systems deserves to be honored.
00:14:12.080 --> 00:14:15.840
It's the same way that I feel about boycotting Target.
00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:20.559
I've been in Target, I think, twice in the last two years.
00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:26.559
And I am, I'm holding the boycott, sometimes it feels like, by myself.
00:14:26.720 --> 00:14:30.639
I did have to go in there semi-recently for an emergency.
00:14:30.879 --> 00:14:32.320
Don't look at me like that.
00:14:32.480 --> 00:14:38.000
I said emergency, but I also am ordering from Amazon every other day.
00:14:38.159 --> 00:14:49.919
If you look at Meta's full system and all the crap that they're doing and the problems that they have, I should probably not be posting on Instagram and Facebook as frequently as I am.
00:14:50.080 --> 00:14:50.879
Make sure you're following me.
00:14:51.039 --> 00:14:51.919
Make sure you're following me over there.
00:14:52.000 --> 00:14:53.360
I'm working really hard on that content.
00:14:53.519 --> 00:14:54.480
Make sure you're following me.
00:14:54.639 --> 00:14:59.919
But I probably shouldn't be posting that much on Instagram and Facebook.
00:15:00.240 --> 00:15:05.360
But on the flip side, like, I don't have Twitter anymore.
00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.840
So I'm doing my part.
00:15:08.000 --> 00:15:12.559
I think the point is that all rebellion is good rebellion.
00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:18.000
When it comes to oppressive systems, I am not talking about January 6th, and you know I'm not.
00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:23.600
All rebellion is good rebellion, and there is really no clean second side.
00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:30.720
The options are not, you're either doing the work or you are enabling the system.
00:15:30.960 --> 00:15:50.960
The real options sometimes are just you either succumb to the behaviors or you experience burnout trying to deprogram and reprogram every area and interaction and aspect of your life down to the micro behaviors that have you stepping off the sidewalk.
00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:52.399
Neither are realistic.
00:15:52.639 --> 00:15:59.039
Both have to come in waves and you have to crawl before you walk and you have to walk before you run.
00:15:59.200 --> 00:16:15.919
And so I think I'm landing this plane for now and deciding that for me, if even on your worst day, your minimum work is not shrinking, is not overapologizing, is not stepping off the damn sidewalk.
00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:21.279
That baseline is what eventually rewires the walk and the run.
00:16:21.440 --> 00:16:27.519
So my challenge to you is to look at all of the little ways in your life that you crawl.
00:16:27.679 --> 00:16:30.320
Those are important, those matter, those are valid.
00:16:30.559 --> 00:16:40.000
All of those little ways that you crawl is the fuel that will ignite the fire of the season that you are supposed to be walking or running.
00:16:40.159 --> 00:16:49.039
The work matters no matter how big or small or insignificant or marginal the outcomes feel or seem to be.
00:16:49.279 --> 00:17:02.480
When loudness and grandiosity is not where you are in that season, it is all of those subtle shifts, like little tectonic plates, that end up shaking the room.
00:17:02.720 --> 00:17:18.720
And I think that if you have little rebellions on some days and you do big work on other days, all of those moments are working together and are preparing you for a season that required that level of foundation that you built in the little habits.
00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:24.880
And those little habits are worth recognizing and noticing and appreciating.
00:17:25.039 --> 00:17:29.359
They are little nuggets of fuel and we could all use a little fuel.
00:17:29.440 --> 00:17:30.720
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:36.240
Please feel free to share it if you're watching it with video on YouTube or wherever you're listening.
00:17:36.400 --> 00:17:40.079
Please tell your friends I'm trying to increase my weekly downloads.
00:17:40.160 --> 00:17:44.960
Um, you can follow me on Instagram, TikTok, at while I've got you.
00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:48.160
Um, I just started a sub stack as well, so you can check me out over there.
00:17:48.240 --> 00:17:50.640
And I will catch you next week for next week's episode.
00:17:50.960 --> 00:17:51.440
Bye.