I’ve now managed to listen to all of yesterday’s Women’s Outlook show on Ujima. I think we did OK. I’m still very much learning to do radio. It requires a lot more thinking on your feet than blogging, and sometimes you just can’t make the points you want to make because the discussion has moved on. Also Ujima is much more of a working class environment than the parts of the blogosphere I move in. I don’t expect the people I end up talking to there to have the same nuanced understanding of sexuality and gender that is expected of people online. I’m much more interested in knowing that people’s hearts are in the right place, than in having them use “correct” language all of the time.

Anyway, the first hour of the show is available here. In it we talk books, and I get to enthuse about Angela Carter’s The Passion of New Eve, and Stella Duffy’s Theodora. There’s also a lengthy digression on the subject of Julie Burchill. That’s followed by a segment on lesbian life with my friends Annabelle, from the City Council, and Janet, a recent arrival from Australia. Annabelle explains that Bristol Council has placed 21st overall, and 3rd amongst local authorities, on this year’s Stonewall LGB employer index. Janet contrasts the legal situation for lesbians in the UK and Australia. I get to be rude about Stonewall and explain intersectionality.

Toward the end of the hour you get to hear some background noise as Donald pops in to tell us off for using bad words, followed by Paulette apologizing for having quoted Julie Burchill. Later on we talk quite a bit about the forthcoming Revealing Stories Exhibition, and I talk about Michael Dillon.

Hour two, available here, starts off with the standard “lighter side of life” segment, which Paulette and I agonized over a lot beforehand. We ended up talking a lot about cross-dressing in comedy, and I think I got all of the right points in eventually. I also got to enthuse about the very wonderful Bethany Black.

The second segment is, I’m afraid, all about me. Everyone except Kevin can fast forward through that and on to the final segment in which a group of us chat generally about sexuality and gender. I get to comment on the relationship between LGBT folks and gender, and to dump on the Tories.

Next week the topic for the books section will be “warrior women”, which will be my opportunity to enthuse about the likes of Mary Gentle and Kameron Hurley. Even if you are not interested in the LGBT stuff, I hope you’ll take a listen to the books segments of these shows. Sooner or later someone at Ujima will notice they are getting downloads from all over the world.