ALOK: The Urgent Need for Compassion
Alok Vaid-Menon: The Urgent Need for Compassion
YouTube version: ALOK: The Urgent Need for Compassion | The Man Enough Podcast - YouTube
This month we did something we rarely do - listen to the same podcast series that we’ve listened to before - The Man Enough Podcast with Jamie Baldoni, Liz Plank, and Jamey Heath. Not only is that rare all on its own, but we listened to the series TWO MONTHS IN A ROW. That is unheard of for us, but frankly it was just so rich with information I felt like we had to. I hope you enjoy it as well.
In this episode the guest is Alok Vaid-Menon who is a gender non-conforming writer, performer, and speaker joins the crew and talks about their perspective on what gender, trans, and the entire spectrum around and between. It is quite literally full of mic-dropping, incredibly deep and poignant statements that couldn’t help but grab me personally in a way that I felt that I had to bring this episode to share with the team. I found my world view expanding in real-time while listening.
What I did not predict is that the most impactful part of selecting this episode this month was the discussion that happened in our group after we finished watching the episode (and yes, we viewed the video version together this time). We had starkly contrasting opinions of Alok’s position and perhaps most interesting whether Alok is really the right spokesperson to represent the trans community at large. In the end my personal takeaway is that even our discussion emphasized how broad the spectrum is here and how careful we need to be to both respect and honor a point of view like Alok’s (and learn from it), but also to be just as careful not to assume that it represents others or that anyone can be the “spokesperson” for a community at large.
Suggested discussion questions (if you need something to start the conversation):
How does one know who you are outside of what you have been told you should be?
Which statement of Alok’s did you find most intriguing? And is it because you agreed with it, disagreed with it, or just truly had to expand your mind to take it in?
What does non-gender conforming mean to you?
Compassion over comprehension. It’s a powerful statement and point of view. How does this relate to being an ally for others?