National Student Pride has launched The Outtakes, their brand-new podcast series for 2023. The first episode stars Juno Dawson, presented by National Student Pride committee member and podcast host, Ben Court. Episode 1: Behind the Scenes with Juno Dawson, out now, features an upbeat and relevant discussion on trans rights and representation.
Listen to the podcast in full HERE
Opening the podcast, Juno Dawson and podcast host Ben Court discussed their love for the Spice Girls. Describing Mel C as a “phenomenal ally,” Juno went on to explain how unheard of it was to see five working-class women on TV at the time. Ben mentioned the importance of pop culture as a way to navigate queerness, and Juno expressed how she outed herself with her love for the Spice Girls, “all I knew was I wanted to be a Spice Girl, what got lost in the process was that I just wanted to be a girl”.
On the topic of university and its ability to offer an escape, Juno, who studied Psychology, explained: “I was able to completely reinvent myself at university, the bullying didn’t follow me… queerness was cool”. Juno spoke further about her university experience, recalling conversations of whether the LGB society should become the LGBT society, and expressing how it was only by the late noughties that she got to meet trans people in real life, describing how it was these interactions that helped her explore her gender identity.
After discussing Nadia Almada’s Big Brother S5 win, as the first transgender housemate, Juno called people out for looking back at the season with “rose-tinted glasses”, describing how she was treated on the show as “rotten”.
Continuing on media representation, Juno referenced the “massive disconnect” between media dialogue and real-life people’s perceptions of trans people. Ben and Juno discussed the political landscape, with Juno blaming the Brexit-supporting media for scapegoating to avoid discussing the “actual threat to life in the UK,” the cost of living crisis, food shortages and isolation. Juno referenced the lack of trans CEOs and trans politicians in the UK.
Closing the podcast, Juno expressed the need to see trans rights as human rights: “If we take away that right for trans people to exist, we take away religious freedoms, we take away gay and lesbian freedoms, we take away the freedom of women to work, where does it stop? Why would an authoritarian government stop with trans people? This is a matter of human autonomy.”
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