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Sept. 8, 2021

Season 3, Episode 2

Season 3, Episode 2

Eric and Gil discuss the horrific Texas abortion ban and we Lizzo's list and music.

Transcript
Eric:

Hello and welcome to the Q lounge. I'm Eric

Gil:

and I'm Gil.

Eric:

Join us as we discuss news stories and life situations. As they relate to the LGBTQIA+ experience, please visit us at theQloungepodcast.com and hit that subscribe button or listen wherever you get your podcasts. Hello and welcome to the Q lounge. I'm Eric and I'm Gil. Thank you for joining us. And again, welcome back to season three, episode two. So we're super happy to have you guys with us again, to all of our listeners. Thank you very much for tuning into our podcast. All of our listeners around the world and all of our local listeners as well, we greatly appreciate every single one of you. A couple of quick things, please feel free to visit us at theqloungepodcast.com. Listen, wherever you get your podcasts, while there please leave us a review. Preferably a five star and a written review is also nice. Preferably through apple podcasts. I feel like I'm using the word preferably a lot. Today is the word of the day. Probably. Also check out our swag while you're on our website. We have some cute shirts. We have cute crop tops. We have bags. And I don't know if we have the face mask up, but I can put those up if we need to, if I need to put those up we have computer holders or laptop holders, and we have phone cases. We have a lot of cool little swag things. So please check that out as well. And I think that's your place get started. So how hey, Gil. How's everything going with the, you can see I'm a little tongue tied right now.

Gil:

Oh no, you are fine. I'm surviving right now. I am suffering from a little bit of stress for having a job transition right now. The say goodbye to my team. So I'm breaking out into my mouth. So please, excuse me, just a little bit, I'll be drinking a little bit of water here. Actually I always break out with

Eric:

The whole true thing is he's trying to give my voice a run for the money. So we're like, here we go. He's getting his Barry White on. All right.

Gil:

But yes that's how I'm doing right now. How are you doing Eric?

Eric:

I am doing pretty well, actually. Yeah. Things are going, there's no change, but things are about going about the same.

Gil:

We'll take it.

Eric:

No drama is good. Yes, unless it's my self-inflicting trauma that I put on myself. But I'm not doing that right now.

Gil:

We're giving a break. Yes, no, we'll definitely take it. Okay. Do you want to go ahead? Let's go ahead and dig in with let's. Go ahead and dig in pop culture. Do we want to head with politics? What are we craving?

Eric:

Let's get politics out of the way everything's political anyways, but let's get politics out of the way.

Gil:

Okay. So let's start off with our third world states called Texas. Yes.

Eric:

Oh

Gil:

Lord. Bless their hearts there.

Eric:

Yeah.

Gil:

So yeah, if people don't know a Texas abortion ban SP it's happening, it happened SB8 were all nice and clear without one. And the Supreme court was mum on this new law. That pretty much it's correct me if I'm wrong. The abortion is illegal after the six weeks.

Eric:

So what is not necessarily so well, yes, it is. After six weeks, which is where there's a quote unquote detectable heartbeat. Yes. Which a lot of women don't even know they're pregnant at that time. Correct. So what it is, it's allowing individuals to Sue others who have facilitated in the act of the abortion. So the doctors who have performed it, your friend who drives you to the clinic anyone who has helped to finance it, so you can anonymously tip, quote, unquote tip, or a non the authorities. And you can actually take legal action against those who you think have had an abortion. And those who have aided in the abortion. Or you can Sue for $10,000 too. So technically dude can rape you and then Sue you for thinking that you had an abortion

Gil:

and it is in the law. There was no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest.

Eric:

Nope. The only exception is medical emergency. Interesting. Okay. I'm so sick of the fucking pro-birth crowd. I just have to say that.

Gil:

Okay. I just I'm I don't, I just don't get it.

Eric:

It's taking away women's rights.

Gil:

This is what I don't understand that maybe listeners could possibly use light shine, a light on this situation. Oh, can I say one thing really

Eric:

quick? Go ahead. The, so it's I was reading this article earlier today and this is one of the main I don't know if he was one of the writers of the law, but one of the main facilitators of it, it's the Texas,Right to life campaign group. The head of it is a dude. Again, you don't have a fucking uterus, correct? You have no right to have an opinion. I know we're giving our opinions, but we're standing with women who stand with them in, on this podcast, but you have no right to you. Ha you really have no, if you don't have a uterus, you have no say because you will never be in that situation. If you want to really, I didn't mean to cut you off now. I'm on my little soap box. If you really want to stop unplanned pregnancies and stop abortions, then every single guy needs to have a vasectomy when he is hitting puberty. And then after he's quote unquote married and has discussed it with his wife, that they're ready to have kids, you can reverse the vasectomy because Vasectomies are reversible and a guy can impregnate thousands of women throughout the year. A woman can have one child, maybe two, depending on if she got pregnant, like later on in that second year.

Gil:

Yeah. Because the women have X amount of eggs in their body, once it's done versus men are producing sperm till or into the ground. Yeah. And that's, I just, I don't, I guess this is about really trying to understand now where this is such a, whatever the woman is doing with whatever the conversation is between her and her doctor. It's a private situation. It's none of our fucking business. It's none of your damn business. What we discussed with our doctor, what kind of health concerns or she wants to keep the kid, or doesn't want to get the kid. It's none of your damn business. It doesn't affect your day to day. It, if there was an abortion every single day, I would not know. You would not know you would still continue your day and get your damn, pumpkin spice latte right now. I would not be drinking. I love it. But to me, that it's a deeply individual situation. Absolutely. On the flip side, the state of Texas also is reversing about mandating masks, mandating vaccinations. That is a space that is a public safety issue. That is not an individual. And I feel like they are not understanding the two yes and date. Then they're putting all these harsh laws on women. But when it comes to something where you cough and you can infect people, you can infect. Mass group and that could continue on and spread it and get everyone sick and using up all of our medical resources, because these idiots cannot put a fucking mask on. We are

Eric:

in a fucking global pandemic.

Gil:

I don't like, that's what I don't understand. Why is that not enforced or pushed, it's considered an individual, right? Or choose

Eric:

the thing is that there is law that you can mandate vaccines. Cause it was all with the smallpox. It went to Supreme court. Supreme court has either decided not to see cases or they refer to the smallpox case in which it was mandated. COVID as a public health crisis. It is a global pandemic. I

Gil:

mean, this is just to clarify for those who are questioning about why is this a social issue or is it an emit individual issue, your individual right. Being infringed as they like to say your right as an American. And when it infringes on someone else's right, absolutely. You choosing not to get the vaccine and coughing on people, not following the guidelines. You're infringing on my right as an American, also to live my life, to live freely, the abortion is your own, Individual situation. It is not in my fucking business, what you do with your doctor or what you choose to do it. It's your body, it's your body.

Eric:

That's your own personal health women have the right to autonomy.

Gil:

That's what I don't understand. And that's the part I'm just questioning. It's okay, so this is okay, but this is not, it seems so backwards. It's disgusting that we're still talking about this damn thing about the abortions as if sex is, suddenly it's a new thing. It's oh, there, these kids are just having sex freely. It's been, oh yeah. Your jokes, what is the, the hang coat, the coat higher

Eric:

things, the coat hanger. Yeah. What's going to happen is you're going to go back to back alley abortions. Yes. I actually saw a meme with the state of Texas. The border was made out of a wire hanger. But you also have to think about it too. This is, has a whole bunch of racist and socioeconomic. Implications.

Gil:

It does

Eric:

because most. You ha you're a rich people are still just, they're just going to pay across state lines and go have their abortion. Correct.

Gil:

And the vaccines, but the first launch and

Eric:

The poor communities are not going to have those, that ability. And most of your poor communities are your ethnic communities, correct. Black and brown people. And that way we can strap them with more kids, keep them poor, and they will never dig out most likely. Yeah, it can happen, it's such a misogynistic privilege situation. And it's these old white men who are trying to just hold onto their power. It's a Napoleon complex and they're using their religion. Again. This country was founded on a separation of church and state. Which we have a church here rumor is, there's a church out here who is giving religious exemptions for the vaccines, for anyone who wants it, whether they belong to the congregation or not.

Gil:

Once again, bullshit. Yeah. I call bull on that.

Eric:

So I don't know what we do. Other than voice our opinions and stand with women and support women's right to choose. It's a woman's life she has. I don't know what else to say. Like women have. Should have that right. Women deserve just as much rights as men do, actually possibly more because they really do birth the child. Correct.

Gil:

I just, I don't, like I said, it just, it felt so stupid. Like I'm still talking about this and it's 20,

Eric:

21. I state neighbors that state

Gil:

like it's 20, 21. I don't understand why this, we shouldn't even be talked about it more, like having to reiterate about the gay rights because this is it's like you think at this point in time, but this also goes to down to the local elections, it goes down, down to your, to that level of why it's important to vote. Why, I'm currently in California. So we're having a real fucking recall situation here. It gets ridiculous. And simple thing of it comes down to. Your local politics. It comes down to making sure that you guys are staying on top because otherwise shit like this starts happening. It starts steamrolling like, oh, look at all the support. There's no one votes these people out. They think these are these lifetime appointments.

Eric:

A lot of it is because people get, I don't want to say they get lazy, but they get lazy. Oh, that's name recognition. Oh, I, that I know that name or they've been there for a while. So we'll just let them have it. And until it actually affects you personally, people don't care. It's the American way. Yeah. But the thing is that you need to care because what affects one group is going to eventually affect another group. Yes. And even if it never affects you, you have to realize that all these other people are being fucked over and screwed over because of the way things are policies need to change. Yeah.

Gil:

Absolutely. They definitely do. They need to update with the times. And I think just to be, this is where I'm hoping that with the amount of people moving out of the cities during the pandemic, it blew some of the suburban areas. Yeah. To a degree because a lot of them were now eligible to be voting in these new areas where they probably would have never wanted to live. But there was a lot of relocations. Yeah. Some kind of hoping that's what happens right now and straighten this out because this is just, it's ridiculous. This law is, are you kidding me?

Eric:

It is like a downfall backwards. It's not even like a step backwards. We was just like, literally like just fell back.

Gil:

You know what I'm shocked. No, one's really, no one's really gotten involved with the abortion part and argued it from a woman's right. That this is targeting a specific, this is a gender based discrimination and no, one's, everyone's arguing as a purely, oh, this is a hell. I don't know whatever

Eric:

the argument is. No argument is in the Bible. Oh, the Bible says the Bible actually doesn't say anything about abortion and it wasn't

Gil:

even in English.

Eric:

I know it's a bastardized interpretation of man's written work. Yeah. So there's that. But yeah they're going off of their own beliefs because of what they think because of some preacher who has stood in front of their congregation and told them, this is what the Bible means, this is how I'm interpreting it. And this is how I'm going to tell you about it.

Gil:

And with that, it just, I don't understand when they're like, as soon as someone says, I feel I'm like, but what's fact. What is factually preventing this abortion from happening? And if you it's your damn business I don't understand, you know what I'm saying? It's and

Eric:

the thing is also is like in the Bible, life begins with the first breath, which is after the baby's delivered. Yeah. And most abortions happen within the first trimester. It's cells right. At that point. Yeah.

Gil:

But my question then is if these people are so pro-life like, how many have the adopted?

Eric:

Exactly. They're pro-birth. They're not,

Gil:

not pro-life because they don't fucking care once you're out of the vagina Bo best of wishes. You're now being taxed. Yeah. That's like, how many have they adopted? I'm going to keep your public.

Eric:

Yeah, none. And the thing is, oh, you've committed a crime. We're going to give you the death penalty. What about pro-life there

Gil:

very Christian on them? I'm just saying these are their rules or regulations

Eric:

like that that woman, Ashley Babbitt, who was shot during the insurrection. Oh yeah. And people are like that group, that side, that faction is like super upset about it and, oh, it was a careless murder and no, she was committing a crime. She could, she was committing treason. A lot of people could have died.

Gil:

They should have died.

Eric:

I've been, I'm talking about like Congress and

Gil:

if they were black, that entire group would have been shot. Or

Eric:

we all know this. I know

Gil:

that I don't get it. Like one white woman died. Yeah. Like I know I read that story too. And I was just like, are you fucking kidding me? And this is what you're.

Eric:

Yeah cause that whole group is mad that the police officer isn't facing charges should

Gil:

not be, he did his job. You were causing an insurrection on the United States government. Yeah. The government has the right to defend itself. Yes. There's a clause within there that we could, write to it where the bare arms comes into place, because so that you could create your own militia under assuming that the government is, wrong, you could try to, but it does not state explicitly that the government can protect itself and it's going to protect itself. So what the fuck you thought was going to happen? Yeah

Eric:

let's see, they're saying that she had a right to life. Yeah.

Gil:

Her rights as an American, the day she decided to cause, or to create treason onto the United States government, the day you decided to turn your rights are gone. Yeah. You're going to be treated as such

Eric:

then and then, and not to bring the name up. And I hate when people make this comparison. And so I'm not trying to make this comparison, but there was, they were trying to make the comparison to Breonna Taylor or say her name, whatever for Ashley Babbitt. Cause that's fucking insulting. It's disgusting. But when she was murdered, cause she was murdered, They try to bring up every character flaw that she may have had. Yeah. And that's completely irrelevant. She was literally just murdered and this girl committed treason and she was former military. Like she was air force. She committed treason. Yes. And you're trying to make her a hero.

Gil:

She's not a martyr. No, she was committing treason against the government because they're our country. I think that's what people need to realize. This wasn't a red versus blue situation. This is a person who actively stop it. Like what did they think was going to happen? Yeah, like I said, if this was a mob of black people try to revolt, they all would have been shot accidentally. Of course it was

Eric:

four Black people walking down the street.

Gil:

That's true. That's true too. So find the lie.

Eric:

Yeah. I just dropped my mic. It's like I was having this discussion earlier. A Black person in a hoodie is completely different than a white person in a hoodie you can't walk down the street in a hoodie and be nonwhite and be treated the same way. It's true. Look at what happened to Elijah McLean, which luckily the state of Colorado stepped in and had the attorney general dig more into this case. And so three cops and the two EMT is, are now being charged. I forgot with how many, like an obscene amount of criminal charges. For manslaughter and for the ketamine injections that young man was literally just walking home from the store and someone called the cops and said, oh, someone looks suspicious. And then they just oh, that must be him. And they literally killed him. I know he died three days later in the hospital from a heart attack, but they had pinned him down, put him in a choke hold, injected him with an obscene amount of ketamine. Yeah. So luckily Colorado stepped up now and the governor had them take a look at it. And the ag like actually filed charges. Is good, but the thing is, it shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Gil:

No, because where they have treated, if he was white, the exact same weight, we know the answers

Eric:

and look at Ahmaud Arbery, that case is finally going to pre-trial or they literally drove and hunted him down. So you're going to protect an insurrectionist and insurrectionists. Like they, all of them, they're trying to just get them passes. And then you're going to tell a rapist, oh, you can rape a woman and then not have to ever pay child support. And if she tries to terminate the pregnancy, you can Sue her for $10,000 anonymously.

Gil:

It's like you're punishing the woman completely for this situation. It is because I, at no point does I mention the man,

Eric:

a woman is being a woman is punished just for being a woman. Yeah. If you look at birth control. Yep. They had a male pill, but oh, it caused so much stress and it was such an influx in change in hormones. And did all these things to the hormone. It does that to women, but because it was a guy, oh, we got to take it off the market. Yeah.

Gil:

Again, it's an issue.

Eric:

Yeah, because suddenly it's an issue. Men vasectomies are reversible. Like I said, give all prepubescent boys a vasectomy. If you want to stop unplanned pregnancies and you want the abortion rates to go down and you want to be in someone's body about it and regulate someone's body, then give every guy, a vasectomy as a gay man. That doesn't bother me. Cause I'm still going to be in the same thing with it. And then look at like when a woman wants to have tubal, ligation. Yeah. She has to consult with her husband. Oh shit. And they have to make the decision together. And if a woman is not of a certain age yet, and she wants to have a tubal ligation, the doctors will usually tell her let's not do that yet. You may want to have kids. Let's wait until you get married and decide if you're going to have kids and let your husband or your partner be involved in this discussion. It's her body.

Gil:

Yeah. It's back to the it's none of your damn business.

Eric:

Absolutely.

Gil:

I just, I, I don't know. It goes as basic as that it's none of your business, mind your business. It's not like it's a, this does not affect you. I fall asleep every night. People would be having it. I don't care. I really don't. I don't know. It doesn't affect me. All right. Let's do the American thing and ignore this because it doesn't affect you.

Eric:

Not at all. And I think I've said before in this podcast, I know I've said it in my normal life. I don't know anyone's given situation. So who am I to say what they can and can't do. And like I said, I don't have a uterus, so I sh I have no say a guy has, does not have a uterus. He has no say,

Gil:

yeah, it is completely true. There are people out there who should not be parents to begin with. Yeah. Let's be real. I've seen people at their own, like how are you? And they tend to be the most fertile too. Yeah. It's like they have 10 kids at a sudden. It's what the hell? Yeah. How was this a thing? Like,

Eric:

and like you said, once they're born, like they don't care. They do know being an unwanted child is so traumatic and there's just no care for that. From that group.

Gil:

The gays are trying to adopt it. I know there's going to be more laws. I'm sure. Down that pipe. There

Eric:

are already,

Gil:

already. Yeah. But because Chris and I are, I know we've talked is okay, we have to do this. Look for that. And it's just it's a lot of hoops to be jumping. Yeah.

Eric:

As you were talking about, like with the mask mandates and everything else, Corona virus has more reproductive rights than a woman does in the state, Texas.

Gil:

And the only reason is because it affects a guy and that's the only reason that the vaccines are being, shutting up on amongst the conservatives or mask and stuff

Eric:

like that. You want to hear something interesting too, who makes Viagra?

Gil:

Is it's Pfizer?

Eric:

So you're trusting us with your ed, but you're not going to trust us with the vaccine. It shows you that it's all a penis club.

Gil:

It really is. We know it is. And it's bullshit. And then obviously Texas again, is having issues with voting rights right now.

Eric:

Oh yeah. I forgot about

Gil:

that voting rights. Oh my God. I just keep sighing because it's just, it's so ridiculous. I just it's like, where does it end? How determined are they to be a third world state? Like they're doing a great job.

Eric:

Can they just succeed from the nation? And

Gil:

All right. We will not stop him. California leaves. The United States will fall. We know that or too big. But Texas. I know the next biggest one, but they're not

Eric:

first. Can we give them deuces we can keep up. We can keep Austin. Yeah.

Gil:

I put a wall around. It's like Berlin, I, again, I don't get it. We literally look at your United States. History has invaded or armed third world countries in the hopes of freedom. You're, we've had people die in the name of it yet. You're restricting your own American citizens for voting. Once again, please explain how is this? Okay. I'm open. I'm curious. Cause I maybe I'm missing something here.

Eric:

Yeah, no I would like to know that as well.

Gil:

I don't get it. I really don't. It's like you're making it more restrictive all you need IDs. All you need is it's race driven. There's history of this people a simple Google search. That's what your phones are there. It's all started with race. This person only accounts for X amount of percent of a person or, oh, they had to have a literacy test. I can't pass that shit. I saw that from the like 1920s, same thing. I was like, oh no, can't pass it.

Eric:

Yeah. It started with the genocide of the Native Americans and then we went into slavery and all those other things.

Gil:

Yup. There were so concerned. Here's a newsflash. The minorities will be a majority very soon. It's happening. Whether you want it or not to happen, it's going to happen. I don't understand. You're fighting the inevitable. It's going to happen. It's okay. It happens, that's just part of it. That's life. Yeah. But Texas bless their heart. Yeah.

Eric:

And for those of you who are from Texas, who believe in women's rights, this is not aimed at you by any means. Yeah, because we do have some listeners and supporters in Texas. I don't want our Texas listeners thinking that we're taking aim at them either. So just at the state, just state, government and state level,

Gil:

I'm trying to muster something nice to say around it, but I'm just, I can't, I'm out of words for that one. I just don't get it. I don't get it. Then again, we had Arnold Schwarzenegger sworn in before here in California. So we have our, we've had our bad days too. Yeah.

Eric:

Here's a Hollywood celebrity. I know Matthew McConaughey was going to run for governor of Texas Jesus against Abbott. Did you know that they don't have term limits in Texas? Really? Yeah. So he can keep getting voted in as governor forever.

Gil:

That's interesting. Yeah, I actually prefer the term

Eric:

limit again. Term limits. I think term limits stood. It exists.

Gil:

Oh yeah.

Eric:

And since like representatives only get like a two year term. Yeah. I'm cool with giving them like an eight year term, not an eight year, a four year term or four term limit that gives them like a total of eight years. Yeah, that's fine. Me maybe six, because Senate gets six years. So then two terms would be 12, but they shouldn't get more than that. Yeah,

Gil:

because you should. Like me where I'm like, literally from almost birth.

Eric:

I Feinstein.

Gil:

Hi. Yeah. It's been Feinstein the whole time. And for a minute there was Feinstein boxer. That was it. I get it. It's the recognition and yeah. They're Democrats, but even as Democrats, I'm like, we need a new change here. Yeah. Because

Eric:

those are like, democrats, like they're right of moderate.

Gil:

Yeah. They're not, I didn't know. Feinstein's never been moderate. She's moderate at best. Yeah. Put it that way, and there should be a term limit because things change. That's what part of the people, we vote it. It's not lifetime appointments. It shouldn't be, it's not, that's why I don't understand. These people get uncomfortable with 30, 40 years in the Senate. I was like, oh honey, got to change. It's okay.

Eric:

Like what's his name? Moscow Mitch. Has had what he's going to in his seventh term now. Yeah, That is if when he finishes his seventh term, that will be 42 years that he was a Senator. Yeah.

Gil:

Remember Domenici was New Mexico with 38 years. Something like that. It is in the senate. I was like holy mother. They last forever.

Eric:

Yeah. And they have all this amazing socialized healthcare

Gil:

EV they're benefiting for everything that they're voting against. Bless them.

Eric:

A lot of them have had affairs and they have paid for their mistresses abortions.

Gil:

Yep. They'll want that outlet out there. I don't know. I'm just saying it like, it's just, it's very. Funny. It's so hypocritical. It's a man's world.

Eric:

It's a man's world.

Gil:

It's still a man's world. Yup. It shall change though. It will change.

Eric:

I hope. I hope so. Cause I am sick of that. I'm just sick of this. I'm sick of the cock club. Yeah. I would love to go to a cock club myself, but I don't think the world should be run as a cock club.

Gil:

Yeah. It's okay. It will eventually, I think this is why the gays, especially we've always loved their divas and we've always related to her the struggles. It's not like that, but yeah, we're always happy to back, especially. Absolutely.

Eric:

Absolutely. Absolutely. I love a strong woman and people laugh at me because I love angry bitter woman music. I relate to it so hard. I love it. Yes. I love when a woman is assertive and just,

Gil:

Oh, it's beautiful music. I'm hearing. I'm like, yes. I agree. Yes.

Eric:

Yeah. Big ups to our

Gil:

divas. Yes. Speaking of music, Lizzo came out with a yeah. With the list. Let me read the list to everyone before we start digging it because we got some opinions

Eric:

and I will make sure that I do not say any of my opinions until the list is done. Okay.

Gil:

Okay. bite your tongue, gently of course Of

Eric:

course it might bleed, but

Gil:

so let's start off

Eric:

with the obvious and the bleeding is not one of my kinks. So

Gil:

king of pop, Michael Jackson. Queen of Pop Janet Jackson, prince of pop Bieber princess of pop Britney Spears. The pop princess question, mark is a Rihanna queen of music Beyonce queen of soul Aretha Franklin queen of RnB, Mariah Carey, the queen of hip hop soul, Mary J and queen of rock and roll. Tina Turner

Eric:

really quickly. One name that's not on this list is the king of RnB. And that's Usher. She put that like on, in a separate thread. Oh, does she? Okay. Yeah. I just happened to see it

Gil:

or King of rock and roll, which I would assume Elvis Presley, but

Eric:

we don't know. So yeah. What do you think of the

Gil:

lists? Queen with music, Beyonce I'll right off the bat. That's bullshit. We know that's wrong. That's okay. Lately.

Eric:

That is my, actually that is my biggest gripe with the list. We'll talk about the other big, huge controversy in a minute, but that is my biggest gripe with the list.

Gil:

Yeah. I

Eric:

think queen of music, Cher, Diana Ross,

Gil:

somebody who's transcended like generation after generation. Some like as soon as you say it's boom, you know who it is? Everyone knows. Yeah. It could be easily. Diana Ross. It could, you know it, I don't know. Beyonce. Eh,

Eric:

I just don't know what the fascination is with her. I know I'm not a big fan of hers and I do like some of her songs, most of it is like her first album and Destiny's

Gil:

child. I was gonna say, does a child. I like Destiny's child. Yeah. But I didn't care for when she went solo her. It just doesn't resonate with me. Even her suddenly, what is a, her 10th album or 15th album instantly she's woke. And she became a PA a member of the African-American community and experience. I don't get it. They're like, she's been always fighting for the cause. I'm like, which album? I've not heard it. Tracy Chapman. Yes. I don't get it. Help me understand. Or she sells out. Yes, absolutely. If it's a new cause, she's probably part of it now suddenly she cares.

Eric:

I'm sure she has. I know for a fact she has done a lot for Houston and like when hurricane Harvey hit and stuff like that, and her production of Black is King was beautiful and very well done. I'm not going to go in on her from that angle. I

Gil:

going it because that's, to me, it's a publicity.

Eric:

I, but I'm just not a fan of her per se, but I don't think she should be queen of music. Cause as you said initially, she's I don't think she's transcended anything. You could put Aretha, Aretha has already been dubbed the queen of soul, but you could put her queen of music too. Yeah. Like technically you really could. It's Aretha. Yeah.

Gil:

I have a, you're talking about epitome of diva. Like it's Aretha even when with what do they do with divas 98 or something like that. And the bitch was out singing everyone while smoking a cigarette. It's Aretha I would not, if there's a queen of music, I would agree. I would not be in any disagreements whatsoever. Yeah. Yeah. But Beyonce, I don't know.

Eric:

I just don't think she's the queen of music. I think she gets a lot of accolades that are undeserved, but yeah, I'm also just not a fan. So that could be why?

Gil:

Oh no, that's very true.

Eric:

I'm confused though, on what the princess of pop versus the pop princess I don't understand the distinction or the difference. I

Gil:

don't know.

Eric:

Like I would give it to Britney Spears, but re like to me, Rihanna is way more versatile than Beyonce. So she should, if Beyonce is going to be on the list, Rihanna should be on the list. Plus Rihanna is a self-made billionaire. She just joined the billionaire club. Oh,

Gil:

she did? Yes. Yes.

Eric:

And so the big, the biggest controversy from this list is my diva, Janet Jackson being dubbed queen of pop because the Madonna fans are saying no, it's Madonna. Madonna's queen of pop. I'm a huge Janet Jackson fan. I think everybody knows that like even people who've never met me or see me know he huge Janet Jackson fan is like an understatement. Yes. And I'm not a big Madonna fan. I like some of her stuff, but I'm playing devil's advocate here with myself. Okay. Madonna has done a lot for women in music. Yes. And she's done a lot for music as well and video, like she really has. I'm not going to take anything away from what she's done. She was a woman playing into a man's world, which we just had a huge discussion about men in this world. And she used their rules against them and threw it in their face. Correct. And I saw an interview with her and I think I've mentioned this in our podcast when we were talking about diva is at one point, I think, was it like season one, episode three or four? I don't remember exactly off the top of my head where she had made a comment in an interview that I saw or read that. I think I read it one of the few times I read something. Because as if people don't know, I'm not re I don't read, I'm read to you, but I actually did read this article where she was saying that she knew she didn't have the strongest voice like vocally, but she knew she had a lot to say. So she used whatever means necessary to get people, to see her. She used her voice to get her point across. Yeah. I applaud that. I'm not going to take that away from her. She has sold millions and millions of albums. I think she is the top selling female artist,

Gil:

I believe. Yeah. She's still

Eric:

holding that, right? Yeah. And I think it's, I actually think it's Madonna, Mariah, Janet rank wise. So it's a valid argument in a lot of ways. I get it. I get it. I, Madonna should be on this list because Madonna has done a lot for music and has done a lot for women in music, whether you like her or not. I know a lot of people who don't like her, like I said, I'm not a huge fan of hers either, but she's done a lot and she has spoken out a lot for women's rights and stuff like that throughout the year. Correct. Don't preaches about abortion, the right to abortion.

Gil:

Yeah. That's my favorite song. That's what I'm always like. No, it's a great,

Eric:

great. Yeah, it's a phenomenal song. And it's a very like heartfelt song. Madonna has some great bops, so don't get me wrong just cause I'm not a huge fan. Doesn't mean I don't appreciate a lot of her music and that's a great song. Here's my thing like with Janet, Janet has, is the only artist who has been nominated across five different genres in the Grammys. Janet Jackson has the top selling tour for debut tour of any artist. She's also the first person to have was it seven singles on the top five off of one album? With the rhythm nation album. I was reading an article today that was referring to this list. It was about the Janet versus Madonna thing. And it was talking about how the music industry is very much a racist industry. And even today it still is because when you look at it, Janet Jackson has done a lot. Madonna has done a lot, but Madonna never had to do a quote unquote crossover. Yeah. Janet Jackson was put on the RnB charts and then she had to cross over on to the pop charts. So she has tons of number ones on the RNB charts. She has a lot on the pop charts too. Yeah. But she's a Black artist. Yeah. And yeah, automatically RnB and that's the Black chart. Madonna has one song to make it onto the R and B charts and her whole career, like a Virgin, which is like 83 Madonna, like 4 80, 4, 84 Madonna, like very early in her career. It was that number nine on the RnB charts.

Gil:

And I, oh, I was talking to you off about, I thought it would have been Take a Bow, should have been the one on the RnB chart. That's what I surprised.

Eric:

And it's a very RnB influence track and you have, it is Babyface as the producer. And then she's also worked with Timberland and

Gil:

that's a great, that's a

Eric:

great song. Yeah. That was a great song too, actually. Yeah. But no, that's a great song by Madonna. Take a bow is a great song and the video is stunning and I find it interesting that Justify My Love, which I love that song. And I love that video. And I've talked about how beautiful that video is. It samples a Public Enemy song, which samples, the James Brown song. Yeah. Yeah. So when you, when I was thinking about it that way, I was like, okay, like it's just showing more hurdles that Janet's had to climb. Yeah. And yeah, I know she has a famous last name. She's a Jackson. I was

Gil:

going to say that was normally the thing is she already had name recognition in compares to Madonna.

Eric:

Yeah. But she had to battle not being on her brother's coattails. Correct.

Gil:

So I know this is probably piss people off. I do prefer Janet over Michael. I am not in Michael fan. I prefer Prince. Same here. That's why, when you they talk about the king of pop stars. Oh, it's Michael Jackson, man. I would almost make an arguement. And I don't know if this will always piss off people, but also from a racial thing. But John Lennon might, because to me, the Beatles is a pop band. They are not rock, band. I'd never considered a big rock band. They were pop. They are a boys band just like in sync, just like to me, John Lennon or Paul McCartney or a pop band.

Eric:

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know enough about the Beatles. Yeah. And on that, I like a few of the Beatles songs Fool on The Hill is actually one of my favorite songs just across genres altogether. But I can't really weigh in on that

Gil:

because no one ever argues against Michael Jackson about it. Like for me, even within Michael Jackson in the eighties, I still preferred Prince. I love prince. And his music is, he did 40 instruments for God's sake.

Eric:

You have to also like Michael Jackson revolutionized video, the video and MTV was a big thing in the eighties when that came up. So because he had such pull. Yeah. And Thriller's, I think it's still like the top selling album. I think of all

Gil:

time. It is. And that music video is still number one. Cut. Obviously that no one's going. Yeah, literally, it's going to be

Eric:

maybe the Christians wall to something. So I, I see where you're coming from, but I'm cool with Michael Jackson being king of pop, because I think he's undisputed king of pop. I'm more insulted when people try to say that the weekend is now the king of pop and I'm

Gil:

like, oh fuck that. Are you kidding me?

Eric:

Really? I think that title just belongs to Michael Jackson.

Gil:

Yeah. If you do like a generational thing, like who is the current, like obviously then I would probably argue Britney for our generation.

Eric:

Huh? Oh. So say

Gil:

Janet for millennials. I

Eric:

maybe. I'm like at the end, but Janet was huge in the nineties.

Gil:

It's a Gaga. One of the two would be our people. I, this would be the same Beyonce. Yeah. One more time. It

Eric:

could actually even be on the list as far as if you're going to go generational now thing, now it would be Ariana. Yeah.

Gil:

And it's, and I'm always been, the contrary where I'm just, I'm never in the same moment with the divas. I'm always like slightly behind road filing something obscure ish. So I'm always like, to me, I'm like, who is my queen of pop? It wouldn't be any of them because that's not what I was listening to. It will be Annie for me. And, obviously I'm in an extreme minority with that bubble. And that's, cause that's me, that's my music. Yeah, or me, I'm like, where's my alternative code, the king of alternative music. I like what I don't pay. I probably go with a fuck. Why am I blanking on his

Eric:

The Cure? Oh God Rob, Rob something.

Gil:

Yeah. Yes. Like that, or, somebody from joy division, new order. It like that to me is more like alternative back in

Eric:

Mac. Okay. I think I'm thinking of crying. Did you hear about that whole situation with Nirvana? No. So you know the nevermind album?

Gil:

Yes. With the little baby.

Eric:

Yeah. And how now he's suing them. Are you kidding? He's suing them for sex, sexual exploitation and trafficking of his image as a minor and. He has recreated that photo six times throughout his life. And his parents are the ones who signed the documents. I'm sure it's just going to get thrown out because it's a no case yeah. Lawsuit, but it was just interesting to me,

Gil:

especially if he recreated it, six is a six different times in his life.

Eric:

Yes. recently as a white two years ago. Oh, a year ago, something like that. I guess something like there, I don't remember the whole situation, but there was like an art opening and they wanted to use the image or something like that. And then, so Nirvana was like you need to speak with our legal team. Like the living members of Nirvana, like you have to speak with the legal teams, blah, blah, blah. So then he decided he was going to sue them.

Gil:

Oh, wow. That's just being petty.

Eric:

Yeah. So one going back to this whole chart thing. Yeah. So I, when you look at it that way with the whole, there has to be a crossover. Yeah. Yeah, there was a lot to go through and a lot to pass. When you look at like Latin artists

Gil:

automatically, they have,

Eric:

they have to go through the Latin charts before they get into the pop charts. So like Shakira has to go through the Latin charts before she can't see the pop charts, Ricky Martin Selena and the Enrique Iglesias Paulina Rubio. Like they have to go through the, and there's a Latin Grammys. I know there's a huge variety of Latin music, so I could understand why they have their own award show, but it's oh, we don't have to give you the regular Grammys because we're going to just give you your little Latin Grammy. Yeah. And only when you have that crossover appeal and power, you be invited to the big kid's table. Correct. And like you look at K-pop yeah. And the reason why I'm bringing up, K-pop like my mom's a huge, I don't know if I don't think I've said this on the podcast, but my mom's a huge BTS shut

Gil:

up. Is your mom

Eric:

really part of the army? For sure. For

Gil:

sure. Oh my God. Just real quick, because we were selling their stuff, their BTS I guess they parked with cram or something like that for skincare. It's Chile. Yes. And they literally flooded in these people, flooded it, all the fans buy thing, get the free bag that goes with it. Blah, blah, blah. I was like, what the hell is this? I'd never heard of that because that's just not, no. And like I said, there are times where I'm in the know and there's times with this kind of stuff over my head.

Eric:

It's funny. Cause two years ago, my mom was like, what is K-pop? What is K-pop I'm like it's Korean pop or what is it? It's the type of, it's a musical genre. Yeah. Who's this BTS group. They're like the newest thing in K-pop and she was like, oh, okay. And then it was, she just got fascinated with the fact that there was the, their fan base is so intense. Like I get is their fan base may be more intense than the beehive they are. My, she just started like watching things with them oh, they're going to be on. I want to see them. And it just turned into this big, huge thing. So my mom loves BTS. It's funny. And she's always why can't it just be pop? Why does it have to be K-pop like, why is there a labels? And not at all? Because that's the genre, but it goes back into the thing, like they have the number one song in the country, they've been on the top of the charts for more weeks than most artists in recent times. Yeah. And they don't get, they hardly get any nods and awards because they're, K-pop, they're not pop. Yeah. I also have to say too, because I've been a K-pop fan for awhile. Cause like I loved BoA that level it was back

in

Gil:

the day, back in the day, like what's the

Eric:

big thing. Yeah. I like

Gil:

J-pop too. I liked J-pop back in the early two thousands I think.

Eric:

And and BoA has a J-pop career as well. Yeah. But like I'm now into BlackPink. No, I like, I've been literally listening to BlackPink on repeat for the last like week. I think I am just like totally digging BlackPink. I like female artists more than male artists. But I think BTS is really great and they do their stage shows are visually stunning and their ability to dance is damn. And I liked that they re-released Butter with MeganThee Stallion. Cause I think we'll talk about that too, because that was interesting. You heard about that whole controversy, right?

Gil:

I did not actually what, we'll talk about that in a second, but it goes to this I'm like in the dark.

Eric:

Okay. Which is also a good movie. Yeah, I think it's interesting when you think about it that way too, like these Korean artists are not getting any type of respect because they're K-pop, they have to cross over to be taken seriously in the music industry, because the music is still, the music industry is still very much a racist industry because Madonna never had a crossover into R and B Taylor swift has never had a crossover. or can you pop Eilish who I do really like, and I enjoy her music a lot. She's doesn't have to do any type of crossover. So when you look at it from that angle, it's like interesting. So I think for me personally, and I know I'm a huge fan, so I'm biased. I think Janet deserves queen of pop because she's had. Go against more stuff, more obstacles to, it goes to the BTS thing. I know all this BTS stuff there. Cause my mom like informs me about it like 17 times right now. Yeah. My mom loves BTS. It's super cute actually. Yeah, I guess they had done the remix with MeganThee Stallion for B utter. Okay. Which the song is okay. The original is okay. My mom's eh, it's okay. I like, she liked Permission to Dance and Dynamite better, which are the reason I'm mentioning those three songs because those are like, they're all English songs Gil's,

Gil:

Okay. Nodding away.

Eric:

And my mom was like, I prefer those other songs. She's like Butter's just there's something that she just didn't like about it. And I was like it's a more like adult song or a more sexual song than the other songs are. And, oh, I have a funny story too, about BTS really quickly. Like my mom does not like Hip Hop or rap and she's not, she's not into violence or anything else, but I guess BTS has some really dark music and she's all into it and they have like their solo projects and one of her favorite member, I think it's, I don't remember. I think it's Suga. I don't know all of them I think he's the main rapper though. Oh, I could be wrong, but he has like this whole video that she made me watch where he like behead somebody. And it's this really dark, gruesome video. It's like her favorite song. What? Yeah. It's like amazing. But it's

Gil:

hot. Is your mom gonna get like a 5 0 5 tattoo now on her neck and she's going

Eric:

to drop, I don't know. But yeah, so that's interesting. So anyways, so they did this remix with Megan Thee Stallion and apparently her record label nixed it and was like, no, you can't release it. It's going to be, it's going to be suicide for your career. Like it's going to ruin your career. And she took her record label to court. And the judge ruled in her favor because by cutting out this remix, it stunts her career because it keeps her from an audience that she wouldn't normally be exposed to, which I think is true because I think it's beneficial to both parties because it takes her to this global audience, the K-pop audience, the BTS army, which is like this massive machine unto itself. Yeah. And I guess it's multi-generational, it is, it goes from like the little kids all the way to pass my mom's age.

Gil:

And one of my coworkers is part of it. That's the only reason I'm informed of that. So I was like, what is that?

Eric:

I hear about it. And what they've done to other artists, like with Katy Perry and like what they've done to a few other people, I'm just like, oh my God, that's a little intense. And they actually went for BoA too, which like really set me off. Cause I love me some, BoA people? So anyways, so she won the lawsuit and I, like I said, it exposes her to that global BTS market, but it gives them the more urban market and it gives them a little bit more credibility within that genre. So I think it was beneficial to both and the remix with her on it is way better. Even my mom, even my mom who does not like Megan the stallion, because it's just not her type of music. She's it's better with her on it. She was like, I don't know what it is like, cause it was missing something. She was like, yeah, it was missing something she's like even her little, like ad-libs. Just make the song that much better. And so now she's like bumping that song now, too.

Gil:

See, I'm over here celebrating the fact that ABBA is about to release their first single in 40 years. That's

Eric:

awesome. That's

Gil:

what I am. I'm thrilled. I'm super excited. Cause that's something I get like when my husband was talking about, oh, if you were to do a corporate visit to Stockholm, my first thing was like, oh my God, there's an ABBA museum. I would love to go because I am an under in the closet about that. I love me some ABBA. I really do. I do not like the, what is it? The what the hell is the movies that are based on it? The songs, mama Mia. I don't, I'm not

Eric:

fan. Yeah. I haven't seen the second one. I saw Cher's part, but that was it. And I've seen, I think I've seen at least half of the first one, but not like I would just in clips.

Gil:

I love the, I like the music of Abba. I just don't care for the actual isn't Ace of

Eric:

BAse from

Gil:

Sweden too. Yeah. Is Ace of Base, Roxette then they've. Yeah, but she passed

Eric:

away, which

Gil:

was really sad. Yeah. I know. Poor thing. She was dealing with cancer and all that was unfortunate.

Eric:

But speaking of ABBA, like when I was in high school and I went to work, I went to a Christian high school people. I think I've mentioned that before, but I went to a Christian high school and we had to do senior projects and I did a dance. This, I did a dance project and this was before I actually knew I could dance. Oh. I was a late, I was late to the dancing game, honestly. Like I was really late to the dancing game. So it's remarkable that I had any type of career when it came. Something about Janet as queen of pop just popped up Twitter. Anyways, going back to my story. I went to this Christian school and so we had to do we had to write a paper like cited info and all that other stuff, like our bibliography and all that other stuff and cite sources. And then we had to do like an actual presentation. Okay. So I ended up doing like a 45 minute dance presentation. Like my written paper was trashed. I think I got like a C on it. Cause I didn't really put any effort in it because I just, yeah, whatever. But like my presentation, like I got like an a plus on, I was like a 45 minute dance presentation of dance through the era's, but we actually use an actual almost, like expelled for my project. So that's a whole other story. I didn't obviously, cause I graduated, but I, I used Abba in my seventies, collage montage of like music of music to dance to, we use Waterloo. Oh,

Gil:

I love a good job.

Eric:

So we were originally going to do dancing queen, but we're like, eh, that's a little

Gil:

like it's over double. Yeah. It's kind oh yeah, but Waterloo's gray. And this

Eric:

was like when I was a senior in high school. So this was like way before I even thought I was in the community. So

Gil:

your basket was on its way.

Eric:

I still never got my free toaster, but anyways, so yeah, like even then I was like, dancing Queens a little over done, but come to think about it though oh my God, that's more signs. I was like, oh, I love ABBA. I love dancing queen. But no I go to this Christian school, so I'm straight. Yo. Yeah. I would never do that, bro. Just meet me at the glory, holes behind the building.

Gil:

Some of the music that, you look back as a kid or what you liked. And for me, I loved ABBA. It was one of those like early as a kid that I loved. I, but I'd never told people or wanted people to know because it was associated with the community. And I was like, oh no, I just love them all the straight guys look at. And I'm like, oh no, they don't. No, they don't. Or, like I like let's see, what else would be Bananarama I enjoyed my obviously Madonna. I like Janet, it was all on female artists or the weather girls. What I love the, it's writing man and I'm like, oh my God, I love this song. It's so fun. Really is that the song to you want to go with?

Eric:

I actually was never into that song.

Gil:

I

Eric:

enjoy it. And I did have a group. I did have a moment in life where I was until I male artists, because I was really into eighties, hair metal, like poison and Motley crew. And then I got into Metallica and skid row. Sebastian Bach was like my idol forever. So I liked male music for a lot too, but Janet was always there. Like I always liked

Gil:

doing it because male artists for me would have been like more recent. When I was in college. Then I started liking alternative music. It is predominantly male. There's not a lot. There's female, but it's not, I don't know the whiny there it's different than whiny in any other genre. Why the alternative women it's very, for me I get bored. I don't know what it is about it. I can see that it's blob okay, I hear this. Okay. Yeah. But anyways, that's where I started liking some of the guys, a Brandon Flowers for the killers and stuff like

Eric:

that. And you introduced me to Ivri Lider.

Gil:

I did. I love my Mika,

Eric:

not a huge fan of his, I know he did that song with Arianna when she was first coming out. Yeah. Pop artists.

Gil:

And I was so agitated when I heard that verse, it was on the owl. I can't stand it. I still don't like her on it.

Eric:

Did he have an original without her? And then that song with her? I always thought it was her song that he just featured on. No,

Gil:

it was his song on his album. Featuring her. And I was like, why is she on here? It is. But she was not big at the time. No, she wasn't. And I found her so annoying. I was like, oh please. But I, like I said, I'm probably in the minority again with area with Ariana. Grande's just I think it was like two songs I like to write.

Eric:

I like a lot of her stuff now. And I love, and I know we've talked about this a couple of times. I loved her performance on her sweetener toward God, as a woman, how she did a whole thing on the last supper.

Gil:

Yes. I seen that. That was pretty

Eric:

damn amazing.

Gil:

And then I love what she stands for socially,

Eric:

socially. Absolutely. I was just going to go there. I was like, I remember an interview where they were like, trying to say, oh, what kind of emoji do you like? And how long can you go without your phone? Oh, you're a girl. And she's cause you literally think this is what girls. No. I was like, I can go hours without my phone. And you think we sit here and look at emojis all day long come on, I'll get it together. And she was like doing a re a radio interview. I was like, you go. Like I stan you in right now for shutting these men up. Yeah, we did a lot of men bashing, but I think they

Gil:

deserve that. But we are man. So we're going to bash ourselves because we know where there's a lot of flaws and issues with gender. We know that gay men are aware. It's a degree. Shit. We're toxic within our own community. We know.

Eric:

Yeah. That's true too. Yeah. Thank you guys for listening to us, ramble on and show our face for. Possibly an hour. Just a quick few things. If you want to follow us on Twitter or Instagram, we are @TheQLounge. If you want to find us on Facebook, we are TheQLoungePodcast again, you can visit us@thecueloungepodcast.com or listen wherever you get your podcasts. And thank you for listening to us.

Gil:

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed your time in The Q Lounge. If you have any comments, questions, suggestions on topics, or if you would like to be a guest or contributor, please email us at info.theqlounge@gmail.com or through our contact page at TheQLoungepodcast.com while you're there hit that subscribe button or listen wherever you get your podcasts. If you would like to further support us, hit that donation button

Eric:

until next time live in your authenticity.