Russell Brand - Some Aspects of Gender Are a Construct | Joe Rogan

And it does seem that there is a particular, what I want to say, a condemnation of male energy. Do you think it comes from a misunderstanding? Yeah, and I also think it comes from a big generalization too. It's easy to do, right? And if you're a woman who's had negative experiences with men, maybe you've dated men that have been physically abusive or maybe known men that have been physically abusive and you're around that and you just, it's very convenient and very easy to just generalize and decide that all men are negative. And that masculine energy is negative and especially white males. And if you say that, you'll get props online. People go, yes girl, yes, clap, clap, clap. People get excited. But those are also people that are short-sighted. Like you want to make as many people your ally as you can. You want to make as many people your friend as you can. And you have to understand that there's some people that are just wired different than you. There's some girly girls and there's some really feminine men. And then there's some masculine men. But everybody is okay as long as they respect you and they're kind to each other. But the problem is we associate certain behaviors and characteristics with either negativity or hedonism or toxic masculinity or someone being a bitch as a man. And these generalizations are often way more harmful and just, it's just too convenient and easy and lazy. Yeah, there is no simple way. And when I think about my own attitudes in this area, there is a degree of complexity because I've got young daughters. I've got a two-year-old and a one-year-old, right? And they're, you know, daughters. So like, but when, the other day, because I'm staying in Los Angeles, Gabby, she's Mexican, she used to, when I first moved out here and lived my entourage lifestyle, she used to look after the house and she used to think, oh, my baby, my baby. She loved me. So I'm like, I'll take a matriarchal figure wherever I can find one. And Gabby used to look after me. She adored me and stuff. I stayed friends with her. Yesterday she come around. She bought like, what I can only describe as a bikini for like my baby daughter. Like a two-year-old doesn't need like a bikini like top. And I, excuse me, burping on the mic. I like it. For me, I thought, I don't want to put my daughter in that. That's sort of, in a way, sexualizing the... That child and like, and also a lot of the time, like with my daughter, I don't, like with my wife, particularly with our first child, I'm like, don't dress her up in little dresses and stuff because she won't be able to like run around. And I thought, my God, I'm not, that's not that different from like the cliche of a male parent that wanted a son. And I didn't want a son or, you know, in particular, I love this kid. I love this kid regarding, you know, it doesn't mean I love having a daughter, a daughter. But like, I am aware that these things of like dress a child this way, dress a girl this way, are constructs further to what we were talking about again before about Michelle Foucault. We got a lot done before we went live, man. When we were talking about Michelle Foucault, what he exposes a lot is that they're a deluge, Gilles Deluge, is that a lot of things that we take for granted as being normal are actually constructs. And when I say a child's bikini, there's no reason for any child of any sex or gender to be wearing a bloody bikini. A child with tits is a terrifying idea for all but a very small and terrifying percentage of the population. So like that is an example of the external feminization of a child. Like so when there's an argument, a feminist argument of, you know, gender is a construct, I can see, oh yeah, to a point it is. There are constructs. Kind of like my opinion is you can't argue with biology. Chromosomes are doing what they're doing in the physical realm. And like, you know, like being a father to a daughter has made me feel like I don't obviously, and I know you have daughters or at least they do three three daughters, like I'm certainly very aware of I don't want to push them down some culturally prescribed avenue, whether it's about their dress, their sexuality or anything. So I've got, you know, where do I where am I on that dial? You know, yeah, you got to just not put any pressure on them and let them enjoy their life and let them find their path. That's what's weird, right? It's like I see people, they're, you know, they're getting their daughters to dress very, very feminine with little mini skirts and stuff and they're five years old and high heel shoes. I've seen little kids with high heel shoes. His name is very strange to me. I don't like it. Yeah. What so, you know, but for me that is being sourced from like, we can extrapolate that to then why should a 20 year old woman wear high heels? I mean, I've read cultural analysis. I'm sure you have a blah, blah, blah. The lipstick is to emphasize the lips because it's redolent of the vagina. The high heels is to make a woman seem more vulnerable and to accentuate aspects of body shape. And this can be seen as evidence of the influence of patriarchy. You know, there's loads of areas where I feel like why are we looking for shit to argue about in this area? We're just human beings. Most of us are the most important people in our life of the different gender or sex to us, you know, why we're looking for arguments. You can see the influence of cultural forces that are, you know, not neutral. Yeah, you certainly can, but I think it should be up to the choice of the person once they're an adult. The real problem is putting pressure on them to dress one way or another and not letting them find their place. But if a woman becomes, you know, whatever age you decide and she wants to wear high heels and a skirt because she likes the way it looks, like there's nothing wrong with that either. No. The demonization of sexuality is also a problem. You know, it is almost as much of a problem as people who will prey upon vulnerable people, the people that think there's something wrong with being sexually attractive or something wrong with being desirable or wanting to be desirable. There's nothing wrong with that either. And that kind of suppression, the suppression of these feelings that you have and this desire that you have, it's very unhealthy as well. It's a normal thing to want to be sexual. It's a normal thing to want to look good. If a girl looks good in a skirt, a skirt and high heels and she likes to dress like that, who the fuck is anyone to say there's anything wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with it. If that's what she likes, that's fine. What's interesting to me is particularly in really progressive ideology, they look down upon women who wear short skirts and high heels and a lot of makeup and open tops that show their boobs because they think that they're playing into the patriarchy or that they're somehow or another falling into these gender traps. But yet they celebrate that in transgender people. They celebrate that in trans men that transitioned to women and then they really doll it up. And they're like, you go girl. Then they're celebrating the fact that this person is embracing these traditional aspects of womanhood. You see that a lot with people that are celebrating trans women. I find it very fascinating. The aesthetics of what would be perhaps could be referred to as sexualized dress or I suppose in males, expressive or garish clothing, jewelry, tattoos. I understand in British culture that these are often indicators of class. It's typically the lower down the class structure you are, the more likely you are to dress in a way that is exhibitive or women from a blue collar background dress in ways that are exposed and revealing. Men have leery cars and lots of tattoos and jewelry. Expressive ways of demonstrating wealth. The higher you go up the class, the more subtle, the more dressed down, labels, all that stuff. In British culture there's a different system for referencing it. I wonder how that works in American culture with it's evident and much discussed racial divisions. Certain things, it seems like a subtle way of condemning particular types of womanhood that may not just be sourced from dress this way for the male gaze. It can also be a way of saying dressing that way is an indication of a lower class background or of a particular type of ethnicity. There could be that but there's also the reality of males and females. There's a lot of fucking jealous people and there's a lot of women that just don't have the type of physical body that looks good in a short skirt with high heels and a low cut shirt and they don't like when they see it in other women because they're not comfortable with their own bodies. There's a reality of that. Women get as much or more hate from women as they ever do for men. Particularly if women find you to be too overtly sexual with the way you dress or behave that you're damaging male-female relationships, you're damaging the dynamic, particular office dynamics if there's one girl in the office that likes to tramp it up and all the guys are paying attention to her, women will get mad at her. I did an interview a while ago where I talked about parenting our kids, me and my wife how we parent our kids and I said, goes, I have to be honest, my wife is much the more dominant parent. She's much more practical than I am. And stuff that got really negatively written about, people said, she changes more diapers than I do and stuff. Not like I don't change diapers or whatever, it's just my wife, regardless of our respective sexies is the more efficient dominant parent she's much more likely with like with me, if my daughter goes, I want that chocolate, the answer to from me is, all right, you know, I can't bear to see the resistance, the emotional explosion, I concede much too early. I tap out very quickly with my two-year-old. My wife is much more, no, let's play the long game, let's bring up a child that's not governed by impulses like you. And I spoke in fact to that gab or mate, that expert on addiction, he's amazing. And he says, because of your own anxiety and pain from your own childhood, with no disrespect to my magnificent parents, like, you can't handle seeing your kids suffer. So you like straight away, you bail and do what she wants and stuff. Now the like, so there's so much complexity in the reality of our personal little domestic relationship. And I'm certainly not saying, and everyone else should run their household in that manner as well. So help me God, any man that changes it up, you know, but the way it was reported is like, that's what happens, I think, in modern media is they change what you say, then you have to defend what they said you said. And that ain't what I meant. I'm like, you know, I'm not saying that because my wife is a woman, she should take more domestic duty. I'm just saying that in our household, she seems to have a set of attributes and characteristics that make her take control of that aspect of parenting. And it's like the desire to judge, condemn and object is the priority as opposed to, you know, no one's looking to go on. You know, who cares or what, you know.