Publication Date

Summer 8-2020

Description

This paper examines an episode of popular storytelling podcast The Month, titled "A Walk on the West Side" (2014), in order to explicate and uncover how gender, race, and class might attach to certain voices. In this episode, Jones (a stage performer, writer, and gifted impressionist) first relates her memories of being typecast as black female stereotypes; she then tells the story of being pulled over by LAPD a few days later, under suspicion of sex work. Ultimately, Jones baffles the cops who detain her by affecting a flawless British accent, disrupting their assumptions. Her story-told on the podcast in a myriad of different voices-literally speaks class, race, and gender into being, only to challenge the fixity of these signs, showcasing the simultaneously disruptive and productive potential of speech.

Journal

Gender Forum

Issue

77

First Page

51

Last Page

68

Department

English

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