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Just Another Girl on the I.R.T (1992) dir. Leslie Harris
35 Plays11 months ago
In this episode, we follow a New York teen, with dreams of becoming a doctor, who is navigating the challenges of generational poverty, racism, and...boys.
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Transcript
Introduction with Iconic Quotes
00:00:00
Speaker
This is a song to all the ladies. I am big. It's the pictures that got small. I am Catwoman. Hear me roar.
00:00:14
Speaker
All this way for my advice, I feel like Oprah.
Embracing Individuality: A Personal Hollywood
00:00:20
Speaker
Person your seatbelts. It's going to be a bumpy night. What the hell? I'm not going to worry about if people accept me or not. I'm going to make Hollywood wherever I am at.
Introducing Chantel: Breaking Stereotypes
00:00:32
Speaker
Ah, as if. Lots of folks think books and girls are real tough.
00:00:38
Speaker
I'll let nobody mess with me, and I do what I want. Don't put her down before you know who she is. Don't tell her where to go.
00:00:59
Speaker
You're not ready. Don't shut her up. Isn't it important to talk about the things that are going on today? I mean, the things that we have to do something about? We'll take care of you, all right? I love you. I just hope there'll be some real men at this party, because I've been taking my sister's birth from Tokyo. What? This woman, you have to get over this. Yeah. Don't tie the love you wish you had.
00:01:40
Speaker
If you can't tell by now, Chantel's definitely not just another girl on the IR team People be tripping when they find out how smart I really am
Welcome to Screen Queen Podcast
00:01:50
Speaker
Welcome, everybody, to the Screen Queen, where we discuss movies directed by women. From the women that shattered the glass ceiling to those carrying the torch today, I am your host, Tapia Leitodibo, and I'm here with my co-host, Caris Adam. Hey, hey. Hey, hey. I love your hat. I love that it says legendary. Thank you. Thank you. This is old Roots merch.
90s Fashion and Its Influence
00:02:11
Speaker
Is it? Yeah. I think I've had this hat for probably a decade. Amazing. Amazing. And like, I feel like we're both right now in homage to this movie, either on purpose or accidentally given like full 90s right now. And I love that. You were definitely on purpose. I'm definitely on purpose. I was not. I was like, where are my hoops?
00:02:36
Speaker
Where's my bucket hat? You need to show people the shirt. I got my black Betty Boop. It's so hard to find a shirt every time I Google black Betty Boop shirt.
00:02:47
Speaker
I get a white Betty Boop with a black hair. I was like, Google, no.
Betty Boop's True Inspiration
00:02:52
Speaker
I think people need to look it up that it's based off of a black woman. It's based off of a black woman. So I feel like, you know, just as Beyonce is out here reclaiming, we're reclaiming Betty Boop back. She's just ours. And she looks so sexy on her motorbike in the city.
00:03:11
Speaker
And she and I feel like she's the right girl to join us for this for this episode because as promised
00:03:20
Speaker
We're gonna be while we watch. So just another girl on the IRT.
Cultural Significance of 1992
00:03:24
Speaker
And I really had to look up the IRT since I don't live in New York. Find out that it's the like the inter-burrow rail transit system. So that was like fun to learn. And this movie is from 1992. So like early, we just left the eighties. We're out here in the early nineties. And I'm trying to think of like what happened in 1992? Like what was going on in the world?
00:03:49
Speaker
Oh goodness, what was going on in the world in 1992? Let's see, I think the 90s, I like to think about the 90s just like utmost possibility. You know, it's so like a moment where people were going to college and you're learning.
00:04:08
Speaker
There was just so much happening. I think my U.S. history is pretty bad, but I think the U.S. was in a time of economic prosperity, right? We kind of just came out of the 70s and hard rock, kind of like crack 80s epidemic. Now we're in the 90s, so there's music. There is a little bit of war as we live in a war mongering country.
00:04:38
Speaker
Absolutely. And I learned today that this was the peak period for In Living Color. Exactly. Because right as we entered into the 90s, they kind of exploded and it really changed a lot of things.
'In Living Color' and Black Culture's Mainstream Impact
00:04:52
Speaker
It's like the first time you really see an all-black skit show on TV. The weigh-ins really like...
00:05:02
Speaker
just change things, brought black culture, black music, black vernacular to the mainstream. So it's like a huge time for black people with feeling like, like you said, possibility, optimism. That was a time. Free your mind and go. There you go. 1992. There you go. hip-hop is everything. Jump around. There you go. I'm so excited. Let's dance.
00:05:30
Speaker
And then you have just another girl in the IRT, which mirrors some of that, right?
'Just Another Girl on the IRT': Chantel's Journey
00:05:37
Speaker
Like, she's like, I'm getting out of here. The whole premise is that it's this high school, junior, really. She's a junior, but she really wants to be a senior. She wants to graduate. She's going to college. She's going to be a doctor. She has really, really high hopes and plans for herself. She's very, very confident in the way that also
00:05:57
Speaker
Yes, and she's loud, which is what like when you think of the 90s, you're kind of told that this is what it was. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, she gets sidetracked along the way. She really does. And I mean, who I am among us have not been sidetracked.
00:06:16
Speaker
My good brother. I don't know if he's good. But you know, a Q phase. Yeah. Nice abs. A boy with a jeep. A boy with a jeep. Listen, he got a car. He's going to get her off that train. And that's all the matters. So, yeah. So, you know, for this one, I feel like, you know, juxtaposing to our previous movie, we go from the valley to the city and our main character, Chantel, black girl.
00:06:46
Speaker
And this movie because I don't want to forget the point of us talking about this movie is about it's directed by Leslie Harris And we will we will get into Leslie I feel like should we do director first talk about the director first and then do the movie or did the movie?
Challenges for Black Female Directors in the 90s
00:07:02
Speaker
Like I'm so I'm sure torn. I feel like talk to talk about the director first because she doesn't really come back out and make a
00:07:10
Speaker
a film after this, if I remember correctly. Yes, this was her directorial debut and her only debut, which is really, really sad. And I like, this is why I went down like this rabbit hole. Cause I was like, why? Like why in God's name?
00:07:28
Speaker
is it that this was the only thing that she made, you know? And I remember I was reading something about it. She was being interviewed for this film festival. And like her movie's coming back out now with everything that's happening with Roe v. Wade, right? And so they screened her movie a few years ago, I think, at Metrograph as part of a series on abortion in American film. And
00:07:53
Speaker
she was talking about how like when she came out with this movie like first of all like you know nobody wanted to fund her for a start so no surprises there and then it was just her and Julie Dash and if you don't know who Julie Dash is Julie Dash came out with Daughters of the Dust which was huge for one it was a black woman making a movie about black women in a
00:08:16
Speaker
just black community, it was like full black cast. And it was in 1991. And so there was like literally no other person out there doing these things. And then Leslie Willie was the only other black woman. So they were just comparing, you know, mixing them up and comparing it to. And when you fast forward to today, and you think, okay, well, okay, you know, we do have more black female directors, right? Like, okay, so how bad is it? It was better, it's getting good. And I realized that women of color only make up 2% of film directors.
00:08:47
Speaker
And that's a today. So in 1991 and 92, it was like...
00:08:53
Speaker
You were nobody. You were just out here just really trying to get people to take you seriously, to fund you. And so what's sad is after this, all she did was commercials. She didn't really get hired to do anything. She had a whole bunch of screenplays and nobody wanted to fund her. And it's so sad because I really love this movie. And I love that it's coming back into the mainstream. I really do.
00:09:23
Speaker
Yeah, no, we need to talk about her. Yeah, I think the first time I saw just another girl in the IRT.
00:09:31
Speaker
was maybe about four years ago, three or four years ago. So it's pretty recent and I watched it for this. What made you want to watch it? Like what, what will happen four years ago that you're like, I want to watch this. That's a fantastic question because your friend is slow to watching things. That's true. If it's not coming out in a movie like theater now. Yeah.
00:09:54
Speaker
You may, I may not never see it. It may never happen, especially when it's, and then when it's filmed about black experiences that I have witnessed to some degree, it can be a little like, I hate the word triggering. I think we overuse it to be honest, but it kind of puts you in a space. Yeah. Well, you need to take a minute.
00:10:21
Speaker
I am an escapist. Escapism is the term. We'll make escapist the word. I mean, words aren't real. We make up words every day. There we go. Greg, let us know.
00:10:37
Speaker
I mean, Greg can put it like, this is the word that she meant. But yeah, I watched film and engage in things in that way to really like get out of my own space, things that I have witnessed. And so it was, I avoided this movie for a long time. Yeah, I'm the same way. I feel like, you know, one of the reasons I never finished watching The Handmaid's Tale was because it was happening at the same time as everything else was happening. I'm just like, okay, I'm living this right now. Why do I want to like,
00:11:05
Speaker
I had to watch it with someone. Exactly. You know, it was very difficult to watch just sitting at home after I've gotten all the work from my job and a half or whatever, you know? Yeah. And be like, ooh, yes. That's a question. And
Navigating Identity and Representation
00:11:20
Speaker
she felt pressure. Oh, the joy. Just sprinkle it in a little pressure, darling.
00:11:30
Speaker
And I think the director, you know, as much as I think that's a struggle with like black creatives is that you are torn when wanting to do your work between bringing joy to your work
00:11:44
Speaker
as a way for people to escape from things that they live through every day and wanting to shed light on the things that they live through every day. I feel like that's probably a constant struggle. And you're an artist, do you feel like that's something that you juggle every day? Yeah, for sure. Going through school and I remember asking my mentor in undergrad,
00:12:08
Speaker
when you start to break down and analyze the artists that are in the field, that get museum representation or gallery representation, you go through so many of those. You're like, oh, they're all making work about identity. Yeah. All making work about violence against a lot. They're all making work about death. Like, you know, and I'm interested in the politics around all of those things, but not necessarily making direct work about those things. Yeah.
00:12:35
Speaker
You know, like some people just want to talk about, you know, something and you just happen to be black talking about it. You just happen to be black creating art. You just happen to be black making a movie and you happen to have a character that's black, but it doesn't necessarily have to be like, here's our trauma on screen. Here's our trauma in the work.
00:12:55
Speaker
And I feel like sometimes the things that get funded is the trauma stuff, like they want to see it because it's gritty, it's hard. This is reminding me of American fiction. Yeah, exactly. It's like that. And I do love that kind of a little backstory of how Leslie got to this film is that she initially was making this
00:13:18
Speaker
as a short film. And I think she did make it as a short film from Planned Parenthood. And it came out of her own experience. And, you know, from there, I think she was able to really garner some interest in some funding from like, you know, women in film and people who were funding women in film at that time. But it's really interesting. Like, I was just surprised. I mean, like, of course this would be a Planned Parenthood film. Like, it makes sense.
00:13:44
Speaker
the topic and everything and how like, you know, you know, she talked about like the way black women were represented and she just wanted to show like, you know, we can be really smart and ambitious in like our environment is what we're constantly fighting against. Exactly.
Film's Connection to Planned Parenthood
00:14:01
Speaker
And, you know, to achieve our dreams and it's just everywhere, you know, and, you know, she talks about how like this kind of grew out of her own experience.
00:14:11
Speaker
because her and her friend, they were very much like Chantal and her friend. They were like the smartest in school. They were getting great grades. They were ambitious. They wanted to do so many things with their lives. And then her friend got pregnant and just kind of seeing the profound impact it had on her.
00:14:27
Speaker
And, you know, all of the, seeing all their dreams and aspirations kind of just like float away because now she has this huge responsibility that she has to take care of. And then you can't just, you know, it's not like there, you have this family that can take on that load for you so you can continue your education. And, you know, it still talks about the,
00:14:50
Speaker
the struggle that, you know, those women, if you live in that environment, go through, but there's still a little bit of optimism, I feel, in that work as well. Yeah, you have to have it, right? Like you have to have some form of optimism. And this is to say that every woman that got pregnant early is, you know,
00:15:13
Speaker
still on that damn train, try to get to McDonald's, right? Like that is not the case. Like obviously there are people out there who are living fantastic lives and were able to really like get through that moment. And at the same time, that is a stressful ass moment to say the least.
00:15:33
Speaker
It's stressful, you know. Having adulthood or like things about what we consider adulthood. Yeah. Swap you in the face at like 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. Even without a kid. Yes. You know, so I think I remember seeing something on, I think it was on Instagram is like, you know, it's weird that we expect teenagers to suddenly know what they want out of life when they've been asking for permission to go to the bathroom. Exactly.
00:16:01
Speaker
They need a whole class. And suddenly they thrust into this world, it's like, oh, you're on your own now. Good luck. Make good choices. You have no idea how many times, because I teach college level classes, where I have a student come up to me and ask me, can I go to the bathroom?
00:16:14
Speaker
All the time, can I go to the bathroom? Can I go eat my lunch? And I'm like, yes, go do that thing. Come back and get to work. But like you said, we expect them to just suddenly know what they want to do for the rest of their lives, right? You're sitting in college. You know what you want to do. You need to figure out how to pay for it. And you need to learn all the ways of like sex.
00:16:40
Speaker
right like you need to somehow someway know the politics and the repercussions of sex and how someone talks to you if they're lying to you right you're just supposed to already know that and of course you know like
00:16:56
Speaker
This whole podcast might go a little political, but you have parts of the country too where they don't even teach that in schools. They want sex ed to be about abstinence. And it's like, ain't nobody abstaining from nothing. So you might as well give them the information they need so they can protect themselves, so they can be careful. If they choose not to do it after they get all that information, that's great. Then they have abstained. That was me. I got the information that
Global Perspectives on Sex Education
00:17:24
Speaker
was like,
00:17:24
Speaker
Thanks. Yeah, that was me too. So that was one of my questions for you, because you said, but I also had read that this was made for Planned Parenthood, or it started off as that. Yeah. My question, because I can see the clearest day that I'm wheeling in that damn TV and playing something like this, like, oh, you think you're smart? You have a baby, your life is over, right?
00:17:51
Speaker
I have some like that. What was sex education like in the UK, in high school? I mean, it had to be, because here's the thing, like in England, England is like, at least when I was growing up, I don't know what the stats are now, they were the top country for teenage pregnancy in the whole of Europe. Okay. Top, like, and I knew so many, like in my neighborhood, there was so many girls that
00:18:20
Speaker
basically got pregnant before they graduated. And the difference is you get government support. So the government would provide you with state housing, stipend, and just basically help you take care of the baby. So for girls getting pregnant was
Sex Education in Texas: Limitations and Impacts
00:18:42
Speaker
Yeah, okay, I don't get to go to college, but it wasn't as devastating. You know, you weren't going to end up homeless. Nobody was going to come take your baby away unless you wanted your baby to be taken away. So there were some girls that like, I would literally hear conversation about the aspiration of being a teen parent because it was like somebody was going to take, you know, someone was going to take care of you. Like you go to your own place, you go to move out. It was a way to move out of your parents' house. And I'll let go.
00:19:09
Speaker
Now that I'm a parent, I'm just like, it is not as free as you think. That is not what it was like in Texas. What they tried to do, it's weird, because I went to a school that really pushed sex ed, even though I lived in a community where everybody was just getting pregnant.
00:19:29
Speaker
They had the videos, but they also had like a human person you could ask questions to. We had a session on how to put condoms on a banana. We had that. We talked about HIV. We talked about sexually transmitted diseases. But you also know my mommy is a nurse. Yes, there is that part. She's Nigerian also. So my real education was in a moving car.
00:20:00
Speaker
where I could not escape. And my mom explained to me what it was like to have a child in your body. And I swear to God, it was like watching aliens. And I was so freaked out. I was like, I do not want to penis even a mile near me. After that conversation, I was like, no, thank you. So I feel like it was a combo. And also like when you're raised by African parents,
00:20:28
Speaker
The fear of God is second to the fear of your parents. Yes. Yes. I've heard this before. Because there is no thinking about getting pregnant. There's no even thinking about sex. There's no even thinking about boys. No.
00:20:49
Speaker
No, like I, the fear, like I was so afraid, even when I got into like my late twenties and I had a job, I was still afraid of getting pregnant. Cause I still had my mom in the back of my mind be like, don't do it. Yeah, absolutely. That's so interesting. So Texas sex education was poor as you know, you haven't called it sex education. So I remember like sex awareness, right? Sex awareness. I remember two conversations.
00:21:19
Speaker
One was in sixth grade where they split us up by gender, right? So of course they didn't recognize any other genders or non-binary. So they still don't. So cis females, cis males, they split us up.
00:21:36
Speaker
And they made us, everybody watched, from what I understand, a video on the biology, like your ovulation, how that happens, how your initial cycle happens, and this other video.
00:21:55
Speaker
So I don't know how to explain it other than you were inside the body and you were watching people have sex via inside the body. So it's like, okay, when a penis enters a vagina, this happens. And then it does this. And you say, swim. Like it did that, right? So it was very,
00:22:16
Speaker
Very, very biological. You didn't have anything to do with desire or respect or a consensual play. None of that wasn't even words. This is the factual way it happens, so you know. This is the factual way that it happens. And so there was that. That was conversation number one. The second conversation happened at some point in high school. There was a health
00:22:44
Speaker
a health summit or something and they sent students from every high school in that district. And there was a whole bunch of things. And then I remember at some point them sitting us all in like a ballroom.
00:23:01
Speaker
like at a hotel, like a ballroom of some sort. Yes, right. Like a conference center kind of thing where the carpet is maroon and the walls are taupe colored. I can picture it already. They set us all in there and they talked about sex, condoms,
00:23:25
Speaker
birth control, but that you could have it, like there's access to birth control, you can have pills. And I think that's all they talked about. I think they talked about pills and maybe the patch had just come out. So they were talking about the patch. And then I remember them saying, but you know what, and I remember this, they said, you know what works 100%?
00:23:51
Speaker
No, it don't. And that's all they said. And that was all my conversation about it. That's all jabronis. How am I supposed to abstain from a guy forcing himself on me? Tell me. Tell me.
00:24:05
Speaker
Yeah, never, never, rape was never a conversation and consensual anything was never a conversation. Like, you know, if you are at a party and you pass out, whether you're drinking or not, like, where is the abstinence part? Are we, are we talking to telling the boys not to have sex? You know, like, it's just so, I would love to really
00:24:26
Speaker
delve deep into this, but I don't have the education. I just know from my own personal experience how these things in reality do not work, you know? Yeah. But anyway, let's dive into the movie.
Where to Watch the Film
00:24:44
Speaker
Yeah. If you guys have not watched the movie, I highly recommend it. It's sure it's pretty much like 90 minutes. I think it's available on Hoopla. And the great thing about Hoopla is that
00:24:56
Speaker
It's connected to your public library. So if you have a library card, you can get this movies for free as well as audio books and eBooks if you're into that. So, you know, go to your local library or if you don't want to get it for free, you can always pay for it at Apple and Prime. But I love Hoopla. I watch so many cool stuff on there. There are like movies that I've struggled to find elsewhere and Hoopla just has it. I just, it's one of my favorite little platforms that they have.
00:25:24
Speaker
I'll tell you this, Harris, once we got to the train station in the beginning and this guy is like chatting her up, I swear to God, I feel like your spirit sat next to me in the chair.
00:25:40
Speaker
I could hear your voice be like, this Negro ain't shit. And I was like, right. Yeah, right. And I was just like, Harris is going to have so much to say about this. And like every time something happens, I feel like I could just hear like what you would say. And I'm so excited to like actually hear if that's what you would say. I just feel like you are already watching it with me. I was like,
00:26:07
Speaker
He's gonna have so much to say about this about boys about men about boys two men like About boys two men it's still a transition But I think what's really what I thought was really interesting about in giving props to Leslie Harris because You know, I feel like she
00:26:31
Speaker
kind of was also out around the time of Spike Lee. Like this was giving some really strong Spike Lee vibes. For sure. Yeah, like do the right thing, you know, like that breaking of the fourth wall. Cause like she kind of shot this almost like a mockumentary. So it was almost like we're following some of the Chantal through her life and you know, we see kind of things happening, but then she, you know, Chantal also
00:26:54
Speaker
invites us into her world and talks to us and explains who people are, what's happening, what she's thinking. And sometimes people overdo it, sometimes it's not the greatest technique. But I feel like in this sense, because nobody understands teenagers and what the hell is going on in their heads, it was actually perfect.
00:27:19
Speaker
to have that be the way that we entered into this movie. Exactly. Yeah. So we enter into the movie with Chantel walking, going to a train station, right? Talking with her friends. I believe it's Natette. Natette is the best friend. I always want to say Nanette. Nanette. I always want to say Nanette because that's a familiar one, but I think her name is Natette.
00:27:45
Speaker
That's our our best friend, our best friend in the movie. The train is its own character. Right. Almost immediately. I think within two or three minutes of the movie, another friend, someone that they went to school with, I believe her name is Denisha. And she has a child and they were like, damn, she was tired. Like that's the first thing they say. That's right. By the way, guys, I'm also very tired, but concealer is out here doing the Lord's work. Let me tell you.
00:28:16
Speaker
Because you should have seen the bags before I started recording. Yes, I know that feeling. I'm tired and I don't have a child. No, no, no. That is your child's role. That is your child's. I'm actually a toddler is what he is. He is professional. He is toddler. Mine will eventually grow out of it. Yours will never come out of it. He will not. He'll just go from toddler to like old man like them. That's it. Very soon I'll be having like carry him up the stairs. Let's just say I'm a boys though.
00:28:43
Speaker
There we go. So Chantel lives in a small apartment with her parents who were always arguing and her two younger siblings. And if I remember correctly, the dad who plays her dad is also the guy who plays was a kid's dad and house party. I think that's the same man. Oh, you think so? I think so. I can't be wrong about that, but I think so. He died early in his life, unfortunately.
00:29:11
Speaker
But it's the same thing. And so they already set up this tension that this is a smart girl. She is cute. She's sassy by the terms of.
00:29:22
Speaker
The idea of confidence of the 90s as it was portrayed in this film is to be a little sassy. Yeah. Right. But you always got something to say. And that's also how we think about New Yorkers. New Yorkers always got something to say. They don't talk right back at you, right? It's a different breed. Yeah. It was very much like, well, this is how New York is. I haven't really met a New Yorker like that, but I also
00:29:48
Speaker
I have. Don't tell you what you have. I have. Greg's one of Greg's really good friends for the longest of Sabrina. Like as soon as Chantal entered the picture, I was like, I turned him, I was like, that's Sabrina.
00:30:03
Speaker
You know that breakup. Yeah, I don't know any of them like that. But, you know, like everything is kind of on the surface is the idea that we think about New York is that everything is out there on the street, just like walking on the street. Right. Everything is. I mean, it's a joke. You know, it's a concrete jungle. And I feel like you can't be you can't be soft in New York. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think you can. I don't think you can. I'm not sure if it's this level of
00:30:33
Speaker
I'm not sure if it's this level of, what is it, fast or attitude. So as, you know, I, my, my husband's nephews and nieces, when I met them, they were teenagers. And I gotta say,
00:30:47
Speaker
that it's very much like the overconfidence of teenagers to be sassy. Like it comes out as sassy, but they get to a certain age where their hormones kick in and they just think they know it all. And they think that they're smart and everybody and everybody needs to listen to them, blah, blah, blah. And like they are sassy. And I think that Chantel channeled it.
00:31:09
Speaker
Oh, Chantel did. Yeah. She's like, you know, as I, you know, because I think if you're watching as you don't, you're like, oh, my God, this is like over the top. But if you ever hung out with a gaggle of girls. Yeah, it is. It is. They do. They are loud. They're obnoxious. I never hung out with a gaggle of girls.
00:31:31
Speaker
And they realize the problem, Kerris. They realize the problem, right? That's the problem. That's what happens when you have a whole bunch of brothers. I would say go hang out with teenagers, but they are brutal.
Role of the Oldest Daughter in Black Families
00:31:41
Speaker
Yes. I will say, when I taught high school for the years I was in Chicago, that is where I did, I witnessed some of that, where they were constantly
00:31:51
Speaker
They were constantly trying to like check you on something, but they never quite had the information to do it. No, no, no. So it would just be hilarious to me. It's like, are you really doing this right now, child? I love your confidence though. Like you really said that confidently with zero information. They sure did. I was like, Oh God, that's what I do not miss. I was like, Ooh, I won't be doing this again.
00:32:16
Speaker
And then for a couple years, I was like, I want to be doing this again. Three out of 10 would not recommend. There you go. There you go. But I have to say that, like, it didn't. I loved her self-belief. Like, I loved that she, you know, you have all of these messaging around you, around her. And there's like, you are nothing. You will not be anything. You are just here to basically help that white lady find
00:32:43
Speaker
Caviar or whatever she was looking for for her party. Like, you know, but she rejected all of those messages and she was like, I know I'm smart. I know I've got what it takes. I'm going to be a doctor. Like, you know, and it's really easy to knock that out of.
00:32:59
Speaker
like young women, regardless of what background you're from. And the fact that throughout the movie, even when she was at her lowest, like she still had this self-belief in herself. I was just like, you know what? We should just all nurture this in young women. Like just keep nurturing it because that's what is going to get you through the hard times.
00:33:23
Speaker
And so in the very beginning of the movie, I should say we see her meet Dinesh on the train and she's like, that will never be me. I think she said she breaks the fourth wall at one point says that will never be me. Her parents are fighting in the other room. She's like, this will never be me.
Chantel's Teenage Love Dynamics
00:33:40
Speaker
She asked her mother to go to a party and her mom says no, but she ends up going anyway at some point. She's got a little boyfriend who may live in the building.
00:33:53
Speaker
Oh, his name is Gerard. Gerard. Gerard. And so he may or may not live in a building, but they flew around a little bit in the laundry room on the floor. I was like, that did not look comfortable. But then again, my back has not been the same.
00:34:11
Speaker
I was like, I don't know. One story, really quick. I worked at an art center that will go unnamed in Chicago and it had a staircase. All you have to do is look me up on LinkedIn. Seriously, I was going to start googling this down.
00:34:27
Speaker
It had a staircase that was perpetually dirty. The reason it was dirty is it wasn't on the contract for the cleaners to clean. And you had a separate entrance where you could get into that staircase and we would often find teenagers
00:34:45
Speaker
doing all kinds of shit in that gross staircase. There was once, I was leaving my office, getting ready to go down the staircase and they were up against the door on the other side. And so when I opened it, I hit them and I thought I had hit someone who was like coming in. And then I realized that they had no clothes on. So my deputy director was down the hall and I,
00:35:16
Speaker
I clap my hands. I say, kids fucking in the stairwell. And we had to run because we were trying to catch him to be like, look, we have seen your face. Don't do this again. Don't put us in this position. Stop coming here to do this. I cannot see what I have seen. Right. And so like he runs downstairs. I stay at the upstairs and then finally open the door.
00:35:44
Speaker
And the dude is the dude, the boy or whatever is pissed like mad that we have interrupted his session. I mean.
00:35:55
Speaker
I guess. I wasn't going to go that long anyway. Right? He's just like, man, you hit me with the door. And I was like, that's your concern right now? That is your concern. Yes, that is a teenage for sure. And the girl, when I say, she stood there with a stone face. She didn't look at nobody. She didn't say a word. She just stood there.
00:36:19
Speaker
Oh, so we're at, we're telling them like, Hey, we know hormones are raging, whatever. Yep. Yep. Please don't come here to do this. Like this puts us in a really awkward position. If we get you again, we're going to have to get your IDs and potentially call your parents. Like don't put us in this position.
Teenagers and Sex Education: Misconceptions
00:36:35
Speaker
And when I tell you, she didn't blink, she didn't bat, she didn't breathe. She didn't do nothing. And.
00:36:43
Speaker
I remember thinking to myself, like, if you have to have sex and you can't do it, at least in a clean place, you shouldn't do it. So I remember telling her, I was like, girl, they don't clean this stairway. You don't know what's in here. Because I didn't want to shame her. But at the same time, I'm like, do you not see all these dead bugs? And you wanted to do this here?
00:37:07
Speaker
Well, you got to know that they they got to have like no choice for that to be the prime location. Exactly. Yeah. Let's just go on here and say, well, I wasn't going to be doing it. Her mom, bless her heart, working night shifts.
00:37:23
Speaker
and then coming home, doing the chores, taking care of everything while the dad, I don't even know what he was doing. My man was useless. Her mom worked day shifts and then her dad worked midnight. Is that what it was?
00:37:40
Speaker
Actually, yeah, because he was sleeping during the day. Because he was sleeping during the day. So yeah, she was never going to be able to have sex at home, much less with her brother. But also, her mom did her best to just be like, I don't want you hanging out with those people. I don't want you hanging out here and getting into trouble. But you know this one was too tired to really invest time in paying attention to what was going on. Exactly. Her daughter almost became the third adult to take care of her siblings. And when I say that,
Impact of Teenage Pregnancy
00:38:10
Speaker
Like, I can relate to that so strongly because I am the oldest daughter. I am the oldest child. And there is a lot of leaving it to, particularly if they are a woman, for them to take care of everybody else. Even sometimes the father.
00:38:28
Speaker
You know, and there were times like my mom would work those long hours. She was a nurse, come back, clean, cook, do all this stuff. Whereas, you know, there were times when my dad, you know, that's all he did. He went to work and then came home and just sat in front of his computer.
00:38:45
Speaker
or there was a time when he was unemployed for two years and didn't do anything in the house. And, you know, like, I just, I was like, I've lived through this. I think that's why I love this movie so much because I was like, I saw myself in Chantal. I saw myself in that situation. I know that given where I grew up, I could easily have ended up in the same situation. But, you know, when they say that the oldest daughters are some of the toughest men you'll ever meet,
00:39:13
Speaker
I'm telling you, it's for real because like the stuff we have to put up with the sacrifices that we have to make, you know, it's just like someone put it really interestingly today. Like I saw an article, I don't know why it came up on my Instagram today, but it was like Refinery29 was like being the oldest daughter is like an unpaid internship for the rest of your life. And I was like.
00:39:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, I think that's true. And even until now, even now it's like my mom expects certain things of me that she doesn't expect of my brother. And we both adults, you know, is like, you know, the I just.
00:39:55
Speaker
I loved how real that was and I could relate to the mom being tired. I could see that she did the best that she could. For sure. And so with all of that, Chantel continues to excel in school. She does think she knows everything and she argues with her teacher often.
00:40:16
Speaker
She's being threatened with suspension because she wants to, which I thought was so funny. She's like, I don't want to talk about the Holocaust. What about HIV in the AIDS crisis? What about child death rates? Boys being shot in the streets. Yeah, she's very much like, yeah, can we talk about this now?
00:40:37
Speaker
Warrented. Right. Warrented. Wrong class, but warranted. Wrong class, but warranted. She's often chastised that she should act like a lady. But she makes a good point, though. What does a lady got to do with being a doctor?
00:40:52
Speaker
Yes, that's exactly what she said. I just want to be a doctor. I'm not trying to be a lady. Yes. And I wrote down, does Chantel have a point? And the answer is yes, she does. Yes, she does. She does. So she's really fighting for some independence is what I think she's also fighting from being police. There's many times where people have tried to tell her what she is supposed to do, how she's supposed to be, who she is supposed to be. And she is always just like,
00:41:22
Speaker
No, you know, like when, when her boyfriend is like, you know, trying, I mean, I'm skipping the head a little bit, but you know, um, she, she's thinking about having an abortion. A lady is like, well, you know, and we have to like, I can't really give you that information. She's like, I want an abortion. It's my business, not the government's, you know, like, you know, and her, you know, the person that she slept with, I don't know if it's a boyfriend. I think they just, you know, we're having a good time together and he's trying to talk to her about what she's going to do with the baby. And she's like,
00:41:50
Speaker
You don't make decisions for me. This is my body. There's just so much pushback from her, from all these people that are trying to tell her what a woman is supposed to be, how a woman is supposed to act. And I feel like we're still doing that today. And I'm tired.
00:42:08
Speaker
Yeah, for sure, for sure. You know, it feels like this movie is just as, you know, you don't even need to remake it. It's now. You definitely don't need to remake it. Like any time you watch it, you're going to see something that you can connect to, whether that's like a painful thing or this humor is going to do. You're going to find something. And so needless to say, she meets Tai.
00:42:34
Speaker
And Ty is the one that has the Jeep and that's all he needs. He's tall and he has a Jeep and he seems to... There you go. It's like there's this idea that he must be successful or headed towards success. Look, you could be the ugliest boy at a party, but if you got a car,
00:42:58
Speaker
I guess. That's team math, girl. It's just team math. It's team math. You don't want to ride the train, okay? Yes. Now, did I, am I correct in that Ty is 24 years old? Is he? I don't, I thought, well, when you go, when you see his brome, he has all these trophies.
00:43:22
Speaker
So I don't think that he is, he's clearly old enough to drive. So he might be, he's not a high school student, but I don't think that he is in college. Correct. He is not. And, but I don't know that he's, he might be like 21.
00:43:41
Speaker
Yeah, but he is of an adult age. He's an adult age, but I don't think he's like mid 20. Yeah, I could be wrong. I wasn't paying attention to his age.
Ty's Influence on Chantel
00:43:50
Speaker
I was paying attention to his jeep. There you go. You like a man with a jeep. Teen math was kicking in all because you watched just another girl with an IRT. So of course they meet. It's like love.
00:44:07
Speaker
And he talks to her in the way that men used to talk to women in the 90s, like, come here. Like, let me grab you charge. Yeah. Very take charge. Like, let me grab you. Let me put my hands on you and tell you what you're going to do. Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:23
Speaker
Definitely sit next to you while you were watching this. I heard it. And he takes her to dinner eventually. He tells her that he's tired fooling around in the Jeep. And it's time for them to get a bucket and naked as Bunby says. And then Sean Paul says, get busy, you know? There you go. Get busy. What happened to Gerard? She just stops talking to him, OK? Gerard, all you're looking like Martin wannabe.
00:44:52
Speaker
Gerard, also someone who is clearly like 26 years old. He's giving Carlton from the Fresh Prince. And he was so mad about the whole Jeep thing. He was like, I got tokens. She can get on trade any time. He's like, what is this? Again, right? Like she's, she's in love. She wants independence. In your words too, she's like, she doesn't want to be policed.
00:45:17
Speaker
So, anyone that's asking her anything, she's like, I ain't got it for you. This is where I'm at over here. But I think she's also like, I think maybe, and I'm just projecting here, what she sees in Ty is kind of somebody who is successful, right? Someone who is able to take care of themselves, because Martin is like, what's he got that I don't? He takes me out for nice meals, we never go anywhere. It's like, he is this idea of a man, it's part of her,
00:45:47
Speaker
collection of dreams, you know, I'm gonna be a doctor, I'm gonna have a family, I'm gonna have somebody who is, you know, who works, who can provide for my family, you know, anything that's not what her father is, what her mother is going through, what her current situation is. And so, like, maybe there's a little bit of projection from her side because Tyrone is not any of that, he just appears
00:46:14
Speaker
to be. And you realize that when he had to borrow money from his uncle, like he just, he's not that person, but that's what he sees simply because he owns a car. Yes. And this is a teen math again, right? And again, going back to our earlier conversation where they don't really teach you how to spot a partner. No one's taught like this is what you should look for in a partner. You're just looking at, oh, well, he got a car and he can take me places. Yeah. And he took me to like that nice restaurant once that
00:46:44
Speaker
It could have been Popeye's, but it was, you know. Once, he took me to that nice restaurant. Once, right? We had Escargot. And so she's hanging out with Ty, eating snails. She's hanging out with Ty more and more. She forsakes her friendships, right? Gerard is looking angry from across the field or whatever. So just more and more and more, she's hanging out with Ty.
00:47:10
Speaker
And then, of course, they have sex. And then, of course, she starts puking at school. Yeah. Let me tell you that ain't the number one sign that a problem has occurred thrown in the middle of the day. At that point, though, it's too late to take anything. So one of our questions was what makes.
00:47:32
Speaker
people who get pregnant physically throw up. What makes them throw up? Girl, I don't know. I don't know. I just had a child. Look, I was I was going through it. I wasn't trying to understand it. OK. I too went through the if I just ignore it, it will go away. Now, do you sit there and you just feel nauseous? Is it like your stomach is cramping? It just you just.
00:48:01
Speaker
You just, you just feel like your lunch is about to come up. Like you just feel, I know, but here's the thing. Some people never have it, which is wild. I don't know who those people are. I wish I were you, but I actually, my nausea wasn't as bad. Like I think I threw up like once or twice, but it was mostly just kind of like, oh, my stomach is like moving around, but like,
00:48:24
Speaker
I actually had it not as bad as some people who like it literally day night and they call it morning sickness, but it's actually all day all day. Yeah. You can have it for the entire. Yeah. But like I would say like mine was pretty much for like the first trimester and in my second trimester I was feeling good. I'd like, I was glowing. My body felt great. I had no sickness. I was just like, look,
00:48:49
Speaker
I do remember that. I am the moment. You know, like, yeah, I was dressed as sexy, even though my belly was like, you know, coming out. I do remember these images. Yes. But like, yeah, at the point where you're thrown up, like there is literally no going back. You know, the morning uphill ain't gonna work. And I know when I was like, when she was doing that.
00:49:09
Speaker
I was like, you know, as smart as you, because remember they were like in the park talking about, uh-huh, they're talking about birth control. And the net one, the Tet was like, Oh yeah, I've been taking my sisters. Yeah. I have that. I'm stupid ahead of some things, but yeah, someone who took birth control. It's one of those things where like, first of all, it takes like several.
00:49:34
Speaker
months. Like I think it's supposed to take like eight to 10 weeks before it's actually effective. So you can't just take it like the week before and it works. And then, you know, so I, you know, I really want to know what Chantel did because she was like, I took the pill and I doubled it. And I was like, are you treating it as the morning after pill, but the morning before pill? Like what? Yeah.
00:49:56
Speaker
What are you doing? Because that's not how that works. It's barely in your system. Your body probably rejected it, first of all, which is why we say use condoms, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, boys, and men, boys who are going to be men, please just use a condom. Like it was this whole conversation about like, oh, I don't want to have sex with plastic.
00:50:21
Speaker
It's not, it's not like that. It really isn't. Like you said, like without the education of what it is, what it's like, there's all this like misinformation. Even, even like Mattette being like, oh, AIDS and HIV only affects gay people. I was like, first of all, it does not. Because how would we, how would we have HIV positive babies?
00:50:44
Speaker
Yes, like the miseducation was so on the surface. And Chantel was a victim to it as well. But she understands what's happening. So of course, being the bookworm that she is, it really goes to the library to read some books on it.
00:51:04
Speaker
Yeah, she takes a number of tests from what I remember with them tests. The one. Oh, how far we've it's funny. We've come so far to make pregnancy tests more effective, but not the education that comes before that. No, no, it is. It is. And so of course, she's like, all these tests must be wrong. I'm going to go to the clinic.
00:51:29
Speaker
Yeah. No, which is good though, which is good because there are false positives. So like she's smart enough to know it's like, I need a professional to tell me to make this sure. Cause I did the same thing, even though like I saw the little thing on, you know, I did like a couple of tests. I still went to the doctor. It was like, it's just to make sure. Yeah.
00:51:49
Speaker
Yeah, well, that's very good. You did good. I did good. Now, Chantel missed two periods, less two months without a cycle. Which men don't know, which apparently all of these people making laws about.
00:52:04
Speaker
They don't know? They don't know. They're like, oh, but you'll be able to catch it in the first six weeks. It was like. Oh, no. That's not how that works. It is how that works. Yeah. You have to miss a period or two. Yeah. Unless you are like you are trying to get pregnant and you're like checking in on your body and taking tests. And even then I would say like, you know, I think I took a test eight weeks and it barely like I had to hold it up to the light like this. And it's like, is it a cross?
00:52:36
Speaker
It's barely showing up at that point. And then hospitals, I don't know if that was the same in the 90s, but like clinics will not see you until you're 10 weeks.
00:52:52
Speaker
So, by that point, like, if you're saying there's a six-week ban, it's too late. Like, it's too late for them to do anything about
Contemplating Future After Teenage Pregnancy
00:53:01
Speaker
it. Yeah, it is. It is too late. So, Chantel goes... I'm looking at my notes. That's why I'm looking down. Chantel goes to the clinic. You know, they test her and they're like, yes, girl, you are indeed... You are indeed with child. With child.
00:53:16
Speaker
They talked to her about adoption options and abortion options. And immediately we see Chantel's life plans flashing before her eyes because she immediately goes to the welfare office as if to look at her options. And she figures out that because she lives at home and her parents both work a job, her household income is too much for her to qualify for welfare.
00:53:44
Speaker
And then the welfare office is loud and there are children running around and it's full of people who have small babies, right? And she's just immediately, you know. People who is about their first time there, probably their 20th time there. Exactly. So again, just like on the train with Denisha, it's flashing for her eyes at, okay, this is what my life may be like.
00:54:09
Speaker
But somewhere in between leaving the welfare office and going to the pharmacy, she buys a girdle and decides she's going to hide the pregnancy.
00:54:19
Speaker
until she decides if she's going to keep it or have an abortion. But she waits too long in the abortion. She actually just never goes down that route, so I want to understand. It just continues lying about it. And Natette, her best friend with the weird hair. It wasn't weird hair. You know what it was? That was some fried ass hair of the night. That's what we all looked like. That hair was fried.
00:54:46
Speaker
And the hair was just fried, dressed, gelled, pressed again. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot coke. Hot
00:55:02
Speaker
Sorry, Natette. They did you dirty. They did. Natette, as her best friend, has gone from, like, I'm being mad that you are hanging out with Ty to, like, something is going on. Yeah. Yeah. She does. Are you going to tell me? Yeah.
00:55:17
Speaker
Yeah, so she goes back and forth. And when she finally tells Ty, she does not tell them that's it. But Chantelle tells Ty and he immediately blames her and accuses her of trapping him straight up.
00:55:33
Speaker
No responsibility for what you're addicted. None. None. And he's like, how do I know the baby is mine? Which is like one day go to one day. Yeah.
00:55:48
Speaker
Like, just one day. It's like, I would have been like, of all the Negroes, do you think I want it to be you? I would go find myself someone who can actually take care of the baby. So he, he screams, he curses at her, he storms off, right? Yeah.
00:56:03
Speaker
And she moves forward in this kind of denial. He appears at the library and gives her $500. And it's like, look, we can go across the bridge to New Jersey and get this taken care of. She's like, well, I didn't say I was doing that, but she takes the 500. She takes the money and decides to treat Natette.
00:56:27
Speaker
You treat them how they get their nails done. They get clothes. They're like they're having a good time with now. Why does she do this? I know. Why do you why do you think she does this denial? And what else? What are you thinking? What was I thinking? I was like, oh, you stupid.
00:56:48
Speaker
Well, his teen math is denial, but she's like, this is what I want. I just want a man to give me some money. Money, so I can just go, but it was like a wrong guy because he borrowed that money from his uncle. He doesn't have $500 just lying around. Yeah. He has enough to wine and dine you once.
00:57:07
Speaker
Yes. Yes. But she wants to be carefree. She wants to be carefree. And I think I won that for all of us, right? Like, you know, I think that we, I've been reading stuff about like how millennial women really want the soft life. Like we're tired of hustling. We're tired of the corporate ladder. And because, you know, it's getting harder and harder for us to like
00:57:32
Speaker
basically afford things, mortgage in a house. Like everything is so stressful and we're going instead for a soft life where we get to enjoy our hobbies. We get to relax. We get to like spend time with people that we love. And I get it because like she doesn't want to struggle like her mother does. And then here's somebody giving her money.
00:57:53
Speaker
Yeah, essentially do whatever well, I mean he wanted her to do one thing with it She did something else with it and it was good. It feels good to be Exactly middle of the day at the mall buying whatever you want, you know at the beginning She was like I really wanted them shoes. I wanted a jacket in
00:58:11
Speaker
You know, it's short-lived, but in that moment, I'm sure it felt really good and she forgot that she was... It allowed her to forget, right? Yeah, you know, but it also allowed her to live for a brief moment because I remember she had this conversation. It's like, I'm going to be like, Ernie, I'm going to have bank. I'm going to just be like out there buying whatever I want, taking care of myself. She wants to live a better life and allowed me to like really
00:58:39
Speaker
experience that, even if it was just for an afternoon. Uh-huh. Yeah. And of course, I have not seen her mouth shut. Both here. Yeah, she sure couldn't. Both here. I also want the soft life. And we'll talk off podcasts, but I'm trying to get it. Me and you both. Me and you both. So needless to say, she doesn't have the abortions. She spends the money. She eventually apologizes to tie about it. But now we are in the winter.
00:59:07
Speaker
And she is. Yes, we are in the winter of our discontent. And she buys all of what she didn't even have to buy. She's a New Yorker, right? So she's got the coat.
00:59:23
Speaker
She's got some jeans. She does buy two pairs of jeans. I do love it. That's how she's trying to hide that from her mom. And for a moment, I was sitting there being like, how do you not know there's something wrong with your daughter? But again, I go back to overworked. She's tired. She has two other kids outside of this one that she expects. I think we also just assume that older girls
00:59:48
Speaker
the oldest daughters that they're good. Like they're mature. They know what they're doing. We've done what we needed to do. So we don't have to worry about them. And it's like, you do have to worry about them. They're mental and emotional health. And I think, you know, I don't blame the mom. I don't blame the dad.
01:00:07
Speaker
I blame the deaf for some things, but not that. I think for him, it was like he's kind of, his little girl is growing up really fast. He just doesn't know how to deal with that, right? He doesn't know how to deal with it. Doesn't know how to talk to her about it. It really is teen math to be like, I'm going to buy the same clothes, but in bigger sizes so that if my mom, she will notice that I have like put on weight. Yes, yes.
01:00:34
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, also teen math is her going into the kitchen in the middle of the night and throwing away food. Yes. Right. Not eating it. She's throwing it away so that it looks like she's been overeating to compensate for her weight gain. Yeah. Yeah. She's also so she's small for her. What's the word? Not her trimester, but like where she is in the pregnancy.
01:00:58
Speaker
Yeah. I mean, that is like her, you know, the process, the different trimester, because when she said she was 25 weeks, I was like, girl, I was not that small. But, you know, because I mean, that that's practically if I'm out, she's not eating months. Yeah, she's not. She's not eating.
01:01:16
Speaker
But there are some people who look that small though, and they don't even know they're pregnant. Like they're, again, due to a lack of education, you don't know what it's supposed to look like, where you're supposed to. Some people look big, and some people don't even show it all, and then they have a baby.
01:01:34
Speaker
And I feel like, again, this is what's missing in sex education, like not just the social, emotional, and the mental education about it, but, you know, the biology isn't just about how the baby
01:01:49
Speaker
like starts but also like what does it do to the body and then there's also you know what we call the fourth trimester which is postpartum which is just a dark void and then nobody talks they just say i don't even know what that is he snaps back it just not
01:02:11
Speaker
You know, because if they knew just how long the postpartum period was, we would be getting more than two weeks of maternity leave, more than six weeks of maternity leave, depending on where you work, because some places have been weeks. They expect you to push out a human out of your body and then back to work in two weeks. Wild.
01:02:30
Speaker
Yes, that's what it was for the fourth trimester. The fourth trimester is basically after you've had the baby. And those have the first those first three months after you had the baby, which is apparently very crucial. And when we talk about, you know, and I posted on our screen, the Queen Instagram for Black Maternal Health Week.
01:02:51
Speaker
It's one of the most crucial periods for black mothers because that's usually where we find the most mortality rate is that, you know, things are missed either physically, emotionally that can lead to them dying after childbirth. And so that period is so important for
01:03:13
Speaker
not just physical healing, but also just kind of checking in on their mental and emotional wellbeing. Like when I would go to the doctor, I had to fill out all these forms and it was like 10 questions of like, are you depressed? I was like, I'm not sleeping. So of course.
01:03:31
Speaker
What? What do you mean? You know, and like you you're still bleeding. You're you still have some like there's a whole bunch of things happening inside of your body. So they, you know, like it's it's a term that's kind of becoming more popularized over the last decade or so that there is not just three trimesters, just the third because your body's producing milk. And there's all of this other stuff going on. I'll just be you, but also the child. And that's where, you know, I'm so
01:04:01
Speaker
I'm glad that I had a black doula because a lot of my understanding of that was from her. Shout out to Clark and Black Bomb as ATX. They really just prepared me for the whole journey and what was going to happen after was in checked in on me afterwards to make sure that I did not become another one of the statistics when it came to childbirth.
01:04:25
Speaker
And, you know, I can't even imagine in the 90s what even was available in the city for teenage girls, probably nothing. And, you know, she did have, I mean, it seemed to me that she had a premature birth.
01:04:43
Speaker
Yeah, it seems to me that as well. So somehow, someway, she goes to Ty's house. And it seems that she goes there because she's missing her man. That is kind of what it seems. And as they are laying in bed, her water breaks. And even to him, he was like, hey, you didn't got big. And she's like, well, actually, I'm very small for this late in the pregnancy. So I kind of gleaned that it was a premature birth that she has.
01:05:12
Speaker
in Ty's bedroom. And one of the first things he's like, go what you did to the floor. Right. It's his first reaction. But I'm also trying to keep in mind that some men, cis men, I would say, feel worthless or like during this process, like they have their own essential. I mean, they shouldn't be doing shit.
Men's Involvement in Childbirth
01:05:36
Speaker
What was it I saw on Instagram it was like a man contributes eight seconds on a good day to this But his own he's also Miss educated he doesn't know what to do He's out here filling an empty milk bottle of water for a live birth
01:05:57
Speaker
Yeah. He does not know what to do. So his concerns are the same concerns that they've always been because he hasn't been involved in this process. No. And also has never witnessed it. So he's concerned about the floor or the sheets or whatever. But in his moment, he's also trying to convince her like, we need to go to a hospital. And she's like, no. Yeah. And she's constantly refusing.
01:06:25
Speaker
Because she's scared, because it would make this thing very, very real, right? She'll be reported because she's a minor, so they would have to call her family. The mama will find out, and you know. I will find out. So he leaves. I forgot why. No, he... He goes somewhere, and then she calls.
01:06:48
Speaker
Yeah, I think he goes to like maybe get some stuff because the other thing is like a cut with him in the bathroom and then she's like on the phone with this lady who might be her clinic and the lady as true to form calls the emergency services who are like, we don't go to that neighborhood. Yeah, which I was just like,
01:07:12
Speaker
where they're like, it's going to take 45 minutes. 45 minutes, which is true, right? Like an EMT is not all, it's not always tied to the state. No. Or like it's a four process. Yeah. And it depends on what night it is and what's going on. They might be super busy. And they can very well deny going to a place like they do not have to show up.
01:07:36
Speaker
because you know the Hippocratic Oat and everything I don't know if they take it I know the doctors do but this is doing harm and you know and I mean I never had the intention of ever giving birth at home I was this close I mean
01:07:54
Speaker
This is for all y'all. I nearly gave birth in the Wendy's parking lot, by the way. That's how fast this was coming. And I was just like, no, I am not doing this. I'm giving birth in a clean, sterilized environment because God knows what's on that bed. This is a boy's room. It's not clean. And I think one of the realest things was he thought she was having twins, but it was after birth.
01:08:18
Speaker
And you don't really see that in a lot
Realism of Chantel's Premature Birth Scene
01:08:23
Speaker
of movies. When they show women giving birth, it's this glamorous process, even when there is a lot of blood and you see the baby.
01:08:34
Speaker
They don't tell you that there's this other thing that's coming out of you. That's when they said this was from Planned Parenthood, I was like, oh, that tracks. I can see them consulting with Planned Parenthood and really getting an understanding of this process.
01:08:51
Speaker
Because if you don't know what's going on, it is terrifying. It is just the wildest thing. It's also just miraculous that she recovered given one, there was no anesthetic, there was nobody around. You know, like when I was in the hospital, they were putting IVs in my body. I had monitors on me, like I was taking care of.
01:09:16
Speaker
And just to have that whole process alone with somebody they, I mean, maybe fucking a few times, like it wasn't like y'all aren't married. You're not like long term. At one point, can you wait? Yeah. I wrote in my notes. Hold on a second. Let me hear here. Time is a fucking idiot. Just like, let me just press pause on this. Yeah, no, this is it. I turned. I turned to Greg. I was like,
01:09:44
Speaker
He was like, I would never have said that to you. You would have killed me out. Had Grant seen this before? No. This was his first time. So he came into it as someone who had went with me through the birthing process. He was there with me doing all the breathing and stuff. And he also was like, this boy's an idiot.
01:10:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Ty is a fucking idiot, but he's trying. Like he he oscillates between like, I'm an idiot or like, oh, no, no, no, that's not the right response. Let me try. And then he goes back to being an idiot. Oh, wait, wait, let me try. After the baby is born and she's like, take it away. I don't care. He's even trying to get her to like
01:10:25
Speaker
see the baby. I do come around to Ty afterwards because he grows through that whole process. As much as he doesn't want to be this at this point, he takes the baby in a trash bag no less. So just warning you guys, it's not the greatest
01:10:48
Speaker
approach here. So dump it outside and someone calls the police because they heard a baby crying.
01:10:56
Speaker
Like me and Greg just like, oh my God, like me as parents, just like, how could you do this, you know? And knowing that he went back to pick up that baby, like you just thought that you couldn't go through with it. And that was a big arc for him. Because it was like, now you are becoming the man that she needs. The man that she wants, the man that she needs. And it was like so important.
01:11:22
Speaker
that men be involved throughout and really educate themselves on female bodies. It's not just because you might be in a situation where you might have to be a doula, but understand what that person is going through.
01:11:38
Speaker
because you are a part of that world building, right? You are part of that child existing. And the best way to be a partner, a sexy partner, is to like support them in one of the most exciting, scary, and I don't even, there isn't a word to even describe it, but like that is what you can do. And I think sometimes men just assume it's not their problem because it's not their bodies.
01:12:08
Speaker
Well, that and I think sometimes they feel useless, right? They're like, well, what can I do other than, and they don't think like, they don't think that being there as support. Yes. Is enough. Yeah. I think then there needs to be a shift of mentality that I am now a coach.
01:12:26
Speaker
And that was what Greg did. He was like, I am now a coach. This is my player. We about to land this ball in the zone. He was like, I hate to use sport metaphors, but that's what we're doing.
01:12:42
Speaker
Just do better than the Cowboys, that's all I'm saying. If you need to be a coach in this situation, that's great because I needed someone to tell me that I could do this. I needed someone to really help me. There were things that I learned, like the breathing, that I forgot. And then having him remember it because he's not in that situation to be like, okay, here's how we breathe. What do you need? Do you need water? Do you need this?
01:13:08
Speaker
That that is more than you could possibly. No one else is doing that. Like the nurses are just standing there waiting for the thing to come out. So, you know, I think men just need to shift. You're like, I'm disgusted. I'm closing my eyes. Yeah. Just like, oh, God, I didn't win this one birth. And that was this gone. Yeah. I lived in Austin at the time. My cousin had her baby and.
01:13:37
Speaker
I was just like, Oh God. And I remember my aunt, if she, if my cousin is listening to this, what she probably doesn't know is that my aunt, her mother called me and she's like, Harris, I'm on the way. You do not go anywhere. You stay. And this aunt,
01:13:54
Speaker
is one of the sweetest human beings in the world. She never really tells you what to do. She's always the one that'll encourage you to think about something or to think through something. And Paula Walla, that's what I call her, called me and said, get to that hospital.
Witnessing Birth: A Personal Account
01:14:15
Speaker
She was like, you stay here. I was like, I don't need to stay here. I was like, I do not need to stay here. So my arm was driving down from Dallas. And so she got to Austin. I was like, all right, girl, peace out. Let me know what it was. No.
01:14:35
Speaker
You stay here with Crystal. I was just like, I don't want to stay. And I witnessed a baby coming out and his eyes were open and he looked dead at me and I was like, good God.
01:14:50
Speaker
I
The Trauma of Being Born
01:14:51
Speaker
was just like, you know, and so we were all crying and I was crying not because it was like this this miracle of a person. I got through this, but because this baby looked me dead and it's something with through my soul.
01:15:11
Speaker
You look at me directly in the eyes. And I was like, fuck. And he wasn't crying when he came out. No, no. They did a little. Yeah. He was just like, OK, here I am. But he was looking dead at me. And that is, it's a good thing that they don't remember. Because I got to imagine that really is a very traumatic experience for a baby. Like, one minute, you're like warm and cozy.
01:15:34
Speaker
Food is on delivery, room service is on the room. It's suddenly you're like out in the cold and there's lights and there's all these people you don't know.
01:15:43
Speaker
man you know yeah yeah that must be that must be wild play it must be um and that little kid is hilarious and i think he's 12 now oh i think that's how long it's been um and uh he's still dead in the eye he sure does he looks you dead in the eye the last time he looked me dead my he said why is your car so old it's
Balancing School, Co-parenting, and Community Support
01:16:12
Speaker
He said, your car has buttons. I was like, yes, it does. Thank you. Yes, it does. So just another girl on the IRT wraps up when Chantel is still in school, right? She's finishing up school. She's taking classes. Her and Ty are co-parenting, not language that they've had at that time.
01:16:12
Speaker
got
01:16:35
Speaker
but he's with like another girl and she's dating. I was like, girl, would you have time to date? I barely have time to shower, but okay. Yeah. She's like, would you know, we making it work. What I liked in that last like two or three minutes was it did feel as I'm witnessed with other people who had children, young,
01:16:59
Speaker
It felt like not only did things snap into place, but on a maturity level, like spiked. She understood that, yeah, it's a struggle. I'm looking at home, but people are helping out how they can. It was very much instead of like, everyone is against me, or I am against everyone.
01:17:22
Speaker
We're in this together. Yeah, she really saw the world in a different place. And I'm sure that now if she sees another girl in that situation, it's probably going to be less judgy. But, you know, it's really easy to kind of, you know, I'm sure she can, flashes back to the beginning thinking of what she said about Danisha in like being in that same space now. I guess what? Danisha is going to be giving you some great advice.
01:17:48
Speaker
You know how to take care of your kid.
The Film's Soundtrack and Its Narrative Contribution
01:17:51
Speaker
But I want to pivot for a minute because like that movie again, very quick, 90, tight, got through everything real quick. The soundtrack though.
01:18:02
Speaker
The soundtrack was so, even in the beginning, like they are describing Chantel that she's smart, she does this, she does that. So the soundtrack felt like not only another character, but it felt that it was crafted and customized for this movie.
01:18:20
Speaker
I think so because it's called Chantel's Theme. That's the title. I'll tell you, this is when I told you I was going down like a rabbit hole. I tried to find this soundtrack. It is unreleased. I cannot find it anywhere except for snippets that are on the internet. But Nicky D is the one that... And y'all check her out because I listen to one or two results. It's dope.
01:18:46
Speaker
I fucking love this whole soundtrack. I want this whole vinyl release. I want it in my hands. It is so good. Nicki D raps about trains. Trains is the only automobiles I'm getting around in where people steady hound in. People look sweet just to get a seat and half of the capacity is begging for the E. Somebody getting robbed in the next car. Hero comes quick. Hero shot. Now here is a fallen star. I mean, come on.
01:19:14
Speaker
That's good. So good.
Nicki D's Introspective Music
01:19:17
Speaker
And then she also did Daddy's Little Girl, which is also a very beautiful lyric. And if you read it, it almost feels like it was written for this movie, but I think that Nicki wrote it because I actually found it on streaming. So if you have a title or whatever, look up Nicki D, 2Ks, and her album, which has like 30 songs on it. And Daddy's Little Girl is on it and it is.
01:19:42
Speaker
Such a great track. It's introspective. It's deep and it just talks about you know
01:19:50
Speaker
basically growing up and coming into your own and not being the girl that, you know, your parents think you are, like they don't really understand you, they don't know you, and just kind of what that means. And it's amazing. I just absolutely loved it.
Angie Stone's Resonant Lyrics
01:20:05
Speaker
And then, you know, another track that was kind of constantly going throughout the film was Angie Stone. And the little caption, I said, Angela Stone. I was like, that's Angie to you, okay?
01:20:19
Speaker
That makes me AMG. And she's just costly singing the refrain, baby growing up in a mixed up world. And it's really, because I remember trying to grab me like, it's such a double meaning because she's the baby growing up in this mixed up world. And then she's also bringing a baby into this mixed up world. And it's such a beautiful, I mean, if y'all know Angie Stone, she is such a soulful, beautiful, and it just brought so much,
01:20:47
Speaker
levity to the whole thing. And I'm so frustrated as I'm going through all of these songs. You know, I even went back to the video and I'm listening to it and it's just like on release. That's nowhere. Yeah. And the one that I was actually looking for was, um, we want money. Mm-hmm. Which, um, you know, I think it was playing around the time where the, she's out there like spending all the money and whatever. Yeah.
01:21:14
Speaker
And I was like, okay, they must have made this for the movie. This is by a band called BWP, Bitches With Problems. They apparently had two gold records, We Want Money and Two Minute Brother, which I sent to you. You did.
01:21:35
Speaker
You felt that in your soul, didn't you? I did, a little bit. I fucking love that track. I need to play it constantly.
Unreleased Music by BWP
01:21:43
Speaker
But again, their album, The Bitches, is not out anywhere. And even their second album, which they were going to release in 1993, Life's a Bitch,
01:21:57
Speaker
with Hawaii was unreleased because apparently the record company said the lyrics were so explicit for the women and they want to be connected to it. And I feel like if you listen to the songs, you listen to the lyrics, it's basically what Megan Thee Stallion and the Cardi B are doing right now.
01:22:16
Speaker
But I knew that little Kim before that. You had Kim before that. You had like, what was it? Mama Rainey. Like, you had people who did explicit music. Who pushed the boundaries of what women were supposed to talk about. Like, two minute brother is basically calling out a guy for like basically saying that he's really good at sex and telling her all the things she's going to do to her. And then when he shows up to actually do it, it's like one and done. And she's just like. Three and a half pumps. Three and a half.
01:22:45
Speaker
I had one once where it was three and a half pumps. And I remember asking my homegirl, I was like, does this count as sex? And she said no.
01:22:56
Speaker
Oh, he talked cash for months. You know, I I really hope that I really hope that that their album, the bitches get released because I I when I found the track listing, I couldn't not find the songs. But when every single title in that was fucking gold and I was like, I can just tell this is going to be good. And Two Minute Brother, I actually found on SoundCloud. And then We Want Money was the music video that they released, which I found
01:23:25
Speaker
on YouTube. And then they apparently also, they have a music video called, they had a music video called Wanted where they talk about police brutality and they actually paid the person that recorded the Rodney King beating. They paid that person so they could put some of that in the video. And I just feel like these ladies were
01:23:51
Speaker
maybe not, in a way they were ahead of their time, they were really like setting the bar of like what women could do and were basically punished for it.
Systemic Issues for Artists of Color
01:24:01
Speaker
And I really hope that their music comes out because man, I feel like one, the Just Not A Girl soundtrack is just amazing. Every single song was just, it was like it was made for this movie, but then discovering these artists that, you know, and I feel like we could tie this to Leslie Harris again, having this,
01:24:19
Speaker
amazing piece of work and not given an opportunity to do more. And similarly with BWP, having this amazing body of work and not being given the opportunity to do more. I just feel like,
01:24:32
Speaker
We did both of them dirty. I mean, not we, but, you know, the establishment, the music scene, the Hollywood. For sure. And so I would say like, guys, go out there and if you are in a music industry and you have some power here, please release, release the cuts. Release the cuts. Maybe Greg can like cut in some of the song for like these teams. Oh, I hope so. I hope so. They're great anyway.
01:24:58
Speaker
That is the movie. Please go see it on Hoopla. Do you want to know what our next movie is going to be? I sure do, because you know I didn't look at the calendar. What are we watching next? We are watching. This film got released in 2021. It's called Bergman Island. Hell, we would write it down. It's directed by Mia Hansen Loewe. I hope I pronounced her name right. At least she's a French.
01:25:22
Speaker
director and it's busy. I actually picked this with you in mind as well and also for me because it's about a couple who are both creatives and they go on a retreat to an island to
Introduction to 'Bergman Island'
01:25:41
Speaker
They go for the summer so they can write the screenplays for their upcoming films. And the movie is basically delving into their marriage.
01:25:54
Speaker
kind of juggling their creative pursuit in their family lives and basically the difference between like how the women do, men does it, and how that affects their relationship. So like for me, like me and my husband are creatives. And we have, you know, we have a son. I'm like really interested to watch it from that perspective, but I'm also interested in you as a creative who has
01:26:16
Speaker
done retreats and things related to your craft, like what we both gained from this. So I think that it's going to be super fun to talk about. It is streaming on Hulu. And if you have Criterion, it's also streaming on there so you can watch it there.
01:26:32
Speaker
But that will be our next one. The next one. It sounds good. Well, until then. Yeah. Thank you guys for
Expanding Podcast Reach Across Platforms
01:26:40
Speaker
joining us. As always, follow us on Instagram. Screen the Queen's. Subscribe to our podcast so you can get the alert when we drop this episode. And guess what? We're on YouTube. Yes, we are.
01:26:53
Speaker
Yes, we are. I'm terrified. You can watch us act a fool on YouTube. It's the Screen Queens podcast. And so if you want to watch us instead of listen to us, that's an option for you. But thanks, y'all. And please don't watch the movie. I haven't watched it. All right, to lose. Peace. Woman walking down the street. Woman walking down the street.