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- [00:10]
A
Okay, Jesse, I put a link to a ski in our shared dock there. In our notes, please click.
- [00:18]
B
Well, I'm gonna have to surely switch to my burner, because I'm sure by. Oh, I'm already out logged into my blur. Blur. My blurner.
- [00:27]
A
The blue sky burner. The blur.
- [00:29]
B
Leaving those caught. Leaving Juicy Sick.
- [00:31]
A
I'm not even gon to. I'm going to leave him on. Yeah, Jesse is always coughing.
- [00:34]
B
No, no, no. This is different. I'm playing her.
- [00:36]
A
This is different. But I can. I can recognize your various coughs and snortles and size by. At this point in those. By the sound waves. Because I've been doing this now for six years. But today, this is a special. A special occasion. I'm not even going to delete them. We're just going to let you cough through the show.
- [00:57]
B
Well, the thing is, I did. I came back from California to New York and I immediately got sick. And because it's. It could be. It could literally be hantavirus, A family of rat. Rats climbed into my mouth while I was sleeping.
- [01:10]
A
Definitely possible.
- [01:11]
B
It could be, like. If that was the case, that would not surprise me. But it's unfortunate.
- [01:14]
A
I saw that episode of Sex and the City.
- [01:16]
B
It's not even a. I don't even get that joke. Because Sex and the City, it's not a joke. Such a good show.
- [01:21]
A
It wasn't a joke. There was an episode where Carrie. There's a rat in her hair. She's sleeping, and there's a rat in her hair. Not a joke.
- [01:28]
B
Oh, she said Sex in the City. Not six feet under.
- [01:30]
A
No, I did not say nothing.
- [01:32]
B
No, see, because I'm hallucinating because of the illness. Also, I had a roommate in a gross group house in D.C. she was asleep. It was not a polycule.
- [01:43]
A
I don't. I'm not gonna want to hear this, am I?
- [01:45]
B
You could cover your ears and go, la, la, la. I'll tell everyone else.
- [01:47]
A
Okay.
- [01:48]
B
Okay, everyone else. As she was asleep, a mouse ran across her face. And she sort of told the rest of the house. She was like, well, I was asleep and a mouse ran across my face, so I'm not gonna live here anymore. And we were all just like, I completely get it. That's completely fair. So that was it. Anyway.
- [02:06]
A
Did you get a cat?
- [02:07]
B
We did not get cat. There was also.
- [02:09]
A
Just let it happen.
- [02:10]
B
It was a great house. Okay.
- [02:11]
A
All right, let's go to the skeet.
- [02:13]
B
Yeah, this is Dave Roberts. David Roberts, who's a real.
- [02:18]
A
My former colleague and a real pos.
- [02:20]
B
For reasons I'll get into, but I'll first read what he said. It's hard to avoid the conclusion that Blue sky has been a net negative for US politics. They corralled everyone on the left into a little glass fishbowl. Actually, let's just pause here. They. They? Who's they? Who's the they? David Robins, they forced you to be a. Okay. They corralled everyone on the left into a little glass fishbowl where they shout at one another and everyone else ignores them.
- [02:45]
A
We corralled ourselves into a little glass house and we shout at each other and everyone ignores us. That's what that should read.
- [02:53]
B
Meanwhile, all the polls, all the politicians and institutions stayed on X and are being dragged further. Right. There's a lot of just like passive voice. And then he has to. Then I guess people get mad at him. Wow. 153 reposts, 990 quotes.
- [03:07]
A
He got ratioed for this. Read his. Read his follow up. Skeet.
- [03:13]
B
Very telling that so many people are interpreting this as a defensive acts. All right, well it seems I did not communicate my point very effectively. I doubt anyone involved in this goofy pylon cares what I really think. But just for the sake of posterity, let me clarify a few points and then he does 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 more skeets that we are not going to read.
- [03:33]
A
Yes. So David Roberts almost is almost onto something. It is true that Blue sky doesn't matter. The only, the only reason I know about this is because Ben Ryan screenshotted it and brought it over to X. A platform that unfortunately still does power, albeit in a different direction from the the heyday of David Roberts over there. But yes, he cannot take. He. As you can tell he's not taking any. Any responsibility for his own part in, in this corralling into the fucking fish tank.
- [04:01]
B
I have only on rare occasions like done a whole newsletter dedicated to one particular journalist or p. I don't want to revisit all this stuff but in 2022 Emily Bazon did like a. A really time intensive in depth magazine article on the youth gender medicine stuff. And Dave Roberts like his reaction as a veteran journalist himself was just, I thought disgraceful. Just this whole thing of like look at these weirdos obsessed with trans issues. How can, how can she say that? Some quote, something about this just absolutely breaks people's brains saying Basilon's brain was broken and her piece was like really balanced. So Dave Roberts, to me, I think he has a spot on Freddy Deboer's Good White Men list. But I think he.
- [04:45]
A
He does.
- [04:46]
B
He's not like the most. He's like, pretty well known. He's a very successful journalist. He's. But he's not like a star. Super influential person. But in terms of people I would list as making online left of center spaces incredibly inhospitable to normal people. And in terms of being a judgmental prick in the way that just has accelerated Blue sky becoming an insane asylum. It's really weird that he's now like, vaying this problem like someone else forced people to go on Blue sky and become huge assholes.
- [05:16]
A
I will say at least he acknowledged the problem. I think that's gross, Dave. So I used to.
- [05:21]
B
Well, but he's not. He's not. He's not. He's saying it's like other.
- [05:24]
A
Other people, but he is saying that Blue sky is. It's unimportant.
- [05:28]
B
Sure. At this point, it's hard to deny the craziness of Blue sky and you're seeing more and more politically sympathetic people do.
- [05:36]
A
So. Yeah, he. So, you know, he and I worked together at Grist and he was sort of weird. He worked from home. He lives in Seattle, but he was the only person who worked entirely from home, even though it wasn't. I mean, there was like, the Office was distributed. If you lived in San Francisco, they didn't expect you to come into the office in Seattle anyway. I didn't see him very often, but he would come in when we had happy hours every once in a while. I smoked pot with him once. He was a per. He was one of these guys who was perfectly pleasant in person, but online he is, yeah, a raging prick.
- [06:11]
B
He gives the edit. He's like one of these. The sort of person who, whatever, we don't. I just, I. I have like a specific sore spot for like, journalists who choose to take on complicated subjects and do so competently and professionally. And then some fucking peanut gallery asshole like David Roberts is trying to ruin Baseline's reputation. But obviously this is partly my ongoing psychological issues involving my own shit. I'm projecting a little bit, but, like, I don't know. Imagine if Dave Roberts did a long substack investigation over some energy issue and you or I, people who don't know anything about it in question, we're just like, wow, what a piece of shit. I can't believe it. Like, fuck off, man. You don't know anything about this.
- [06:55]
A
My favorite David Roberts story is that after he might still have been a Chris. Anyway, at one point A former colleague, in a completely like, well meaning way, went to have a conversation with Dave Roberts. Like, they went out for coffee and she wanted to talk to him about his treatment of women because he was always. And that's another thing. He was like, very much like feminist, male ally type. And he. But she wanted to talk to him about how basically he was disrespectful to women that he worked with. And he talked over her the whole time. According to her.
- [07:24]
B
I wasn't there during. During. During the talk.
- [07:27]
A
During the, during the intervention. He talked over her the whole time.
- [07:30]
B
Yeah.
- [07:30]
A
And then he became. And then. And then after this, you know, me Too happened and he became one of these, like, stalwart defenders of women.
- [07:38]
B
It is a. It is. I don't know anything, any of those details. I can't speak to the veracity of that story. But that is definitely a type. The. I mean, there's like, there's, there's.
- [07:47]
A
Let's just hear, you know, what. Let's say allegedly, because I wasn't there during the conversation. So let's just.
- [07:51]
B
But you heard firsthand from the person.
- [07:53]
A
I didn't.
- [07:53]
B
Who talked to him. Sure. Allegedly. Allegedly. Allegedly. No defamation. But there is a type of guy, usually, but not always male, who is incredibly aggressive online about policing what other people say and think and just endlessly pointing out what a good person they are. And I, you know, I think a lot of the times these people in real life are maybe not great. I think, like, if you have to constantly show how great a person you are online, there's some void there that you're attempting to fill. Sometimes I'm doing a little bit of over psychoanalyzing because some people who are assholes online are, like, really nice in real life. But I don't know, Roberts is just.
- [08:32]
A
Yeah. Which he. He was when I met him. But, yeah, I'm trying to do the opposite. I'm a great person, but online I'm an asshole. But what I'm. But people. What people don't know, it's that I'm actually Mother Teresa. Basically, you.
- [08:45]
B
You fed, housed and clothed a sex offender against children.
- [08:50]
A
I did. I did. Where's my Nobel? Okay, Jesse, let's move on. Today's episode takes place entirely in Port Townsend, Washington. Are you familiar?
- [09:01]
B
Not only am I familiar, but you, me, Jana and Moose and Dave Roberts hopped in your little car. I don't remember. I assume it was a Subaru Outback.
- [09:09]
A
It was. No, well, it was a Crosstrek, but very close.
- [09:12]
B
And we drove there what do I remember from that? I remember.
- [09:15]
A
I'm surprised that you were. I thought that you were gonna say no, I've never heard of it.
- [09:18]
B
We went to a. No, I only forget stuff we record. This was you and me in person, which is a rare treat. We went to a big bookstore. I remember waiting in line forever for the bathroom. Yeah, it was like a bookstore with like a bookstore. Oh, no, maybe it was a supermarket.
- [09:33]
A
Oh, that was. That was Aldridge's. It's like. It's like there is a bookstore upstairs, a tiny one, like in a closet. But there's like. It's like coffee shop market kind of place.
- [09:42]
B
Oh, there were deer everywhere.
- [09:43]
A
Lots of deer.
- [09:44]
B
Like deer infestation. I say that as someone who's lived in a lot of deer infested places. And then we drove to a military base that sometimes hosts like, it's a state park. It's a retired, I think a. It's now a state park. Oh, and there was mountains and ocean and moose. Oh, and there was a dog beach. We were near the dog beach.
- [09:59]
A
Yeah, you pretty much got it.
- [10:00]
B
Okay, so Port Townsend and Janet cooked a lot of stuff. And also this was last fall. Yes. And I was.
- [10:05]
A
So Port Townsend is a town of about 10,000 people in the north northeastern trip. Excuse me. Of the Olympic Peninsula. And it's so. I live 20 minutes from there. It's. I really like it. It's one of the most unique places on the west coast. So it's this Victorian seaport town, like genuinely Victoria, not theme park Victorian. And it's got this great mixture of mountains and sea. So it's at sea level, you're on the water, but you have these big views of these giant snow capped peaks. And it's unique because in much of the US this style of architecture there, it's. It's Queen Anne architecture. But most of a lot of the good architecture in the US was destroyed by urban renewal efforts in the 20th century. They just went and raised all these beautiful buildings. And one of the reasons that Port Townsend is so well preserved and so special is because there was this spectacular. Well, that is. That is part of it. But there was this spectacular economic collapse. It was meant to be kind of the big city on Puget Sound. They were going to build a railroad there, but for various reasons, including geography, they didn't. And instead that dubious honor went to Tacoma. In Seattle, Port Townsend went broke. And you had all these Victorian buildings and homes just sitting there fallow for decades until hippies arrived in the 1970s. And decided that this was exactly the kind of place they'd been looking for. So today there's a lot of. A lot of the hippies are still there. They're just old now. And there's this pretty vibrant art scene. Lots of artisans and craftspeople and boat builders, organic farmers and a hell of a lot of retirees. It is very old, which is what I love about it. Although I will say gas is now like 650 a gallon, so that's not great.
- [11:35]
B
Otherwise great Place seemed very, very beautiful. I was struck by the beauty of it.
- [11:40]
C
Yeah.
- [11:40]
A
Anyway, so it's basically Victorian grandeur meets Pacific Northwest counterculture. It reminds me of Asheville in a lot of ways. Like Asheville also has some stunning architecture. Although the best stuff there is art deco, not Victorian. And this style was also preserved there because Asheville was broke during urban renewal. So person bother to ruin it. And the vibe is similar to their artsy foodsy, you know, in a little bit. Okay. A lot self righteous.
- [12:03]
B
Okay. So I assume, I mean we can infer from this the politics are probably similar to Asheville's. Ish.
- [12:08]
A
It's very Dave Roberts. You know what I'm saying?
- [12:10]
B
Very Dave Roberts.
- [12:11]
A
Yeah.
- [12:11]
B
Can I talk a little more about Dave Roberts? Just kidding. We're done.
- [12:14]
A
It's very progressive in the county itself. Jefferson county is big, at least compared to east coast city. Like western counties can be enormous. And culturally, not racially, but culturally, it's pretty mixed, which lends itself to some interesting tension. So you've got tree huggers and hippies living in proximity to loggers and fishers and there can be some conflicting values there. But Port Townsend proper is very progressive like the port. Like as an example, the Port of Port Townsend, which is a government agency, they just announced that they will no longer be posting on social media because of it. It has a negative effect on human connection.
- [12:47]
B
That is not actually I don't know if that's progressive. That's like John Height and. And the lefty, real lefty. Well, we're mixing up. We're mixing up lefty progressives and John Height, blah, blah, blah. That's not like the woke opinion I guess is John Height is bad, therefore social media is good. That's more like. That's more like hippie ish.
- [13:05]
A
Right. Not posting on. On Facebook is ableist.
- [13:09]
B
Yeah. Yes. And if a single elementary school kid is denied access to their cell phone, that's a war. That's a warcraft.
- [13:15]
A
That said, I do find this stance aggravating. The port is A very important governing body in this area. And I feel like they should make information as available as possible. Like, no one.
- [13:25]
B
It's like a bridge collapses. They're like, I don't want to tweet out about this. That would reduce human connection.
- [13:31]
A
Let me read to you from the press release about this. Starting in May 2026, the port will no longer maintain active Facebook or Instagram pages. Instead, the port will direct people to the port's website, the local newspapers, and radio station. The port will also encourage people to phone or visit one of the four port offices for information.
- [13:47]
B
That is so idiotic.
- [13:48]
A
It's so idiotic. Like, do you think?
- [13:49]
B
But it's idiotic. Not in a walkway. It's like a hippie way.
- [13:52]
A
I'm gonna. I'm actually gonna do this. I'm gonna stop by. I'm gonna start stopping by the port every week. Every day. What's up? What's sweetened? What's your status update?
- [14:01]
B
It's also funny because, like, of all the. Of all the myriad indefensible uses of social media.
- [14:07]
A
Yes.
- [14:08]
B
Updates through like a state government agencies, like. Yes, that is a good use of it. That's like the good use of it.
- [14:12]
A
Yeah, exactly. And despite the fact that Port Townsend is overwhelmingly progressive, there are of course, factions. Like one perennial fight, as you would guess, is over development. This is a major issue there. So the median listing price for a home right now is over 630,000. And there's just not a lot of housing, particularly apartments. Very few apartments. And like many places, there's a housing crisis. People who work in the cafes and shops and schools and hospital, they can't afford to live there. And every time there's an attempt to upzone and increase density and build more housing, there are bitter, bitter fights and lawsuits from people who want to preserve the genuinely unique character of the city. And to be clear, I am on the side of the NIMBYs, in part because the average Port Townsend resident went to Woodstock. You wait a few more years and there's going to be a lot of empty Victorians, if you know what I'm saying. Apartments are not going to be necessary.
- [15:03]
B
That's not. I mean, joking aside, they'll. Well, won't they? They'll give them to their kids, but their kids are like doing interpretive dance in Seattle and won't want to move back to Port Townsend.
- [15:15]
A
Right. Anyway, before I moved to Washington State in 2015, I had never heard of Port Town. And I think few people outside of the Pacific Northwest or the Victorian cosplay scene have and we will get back to the Victorian cosplay scene. But in 2015, Vox published a first person essay by a writer named Sarah Chrisman about living in Port Townsend. Jesse, please click this link right here. I want to see if you remember this one.
- [15:39]
B
I love the Victorian era so I decided to live in it. Yeah, this strikes me as very mid up.
- [15:45]
A
Do you remember this article?
- [15:46]
B
I don't.
- [15:47]
A
Oh my God. This was such a huge day on the Internet. So please read this excerpt from Christian's piece.
- [15:52]
B
Our heat comes from 19th century gas heaters and from an antique kerosene space heater. In the winter we took hot bottles into bed with us. And even the cotton covers that I sewed for those bottles are made from period appropriate fabric. Its designs are copies of fabric patterns from the late 19th century. Imagine being stuck in the in a corner at a party with this person. I bet you're curious where my shirt came from. I'm not. Our bed itself is an antique from our period of study. And since it didn't have a mattress when we bought it, I sewed one by hand and stuffed it with feathers. I bake all our bread from scratch using a sourdough culture I keep constantly bubbling in the back corner of our kitchen in a bowl that belonged to my grandmother. When I want whipped cream or an omelette, I use an antique rotary egg beater. When we want to grind something, we have a Victorian food chopper as well as mortars and pestles.
- [16:38]
A
Okay, first of all, making whipped cream with an antique rotary egg beater. That's actually Jana. She makes me shake a fucking jar. That's how we do whipped cream in this house. That like what she does. What Sarah Christman did was high tech compared to what's going on over here.
- [16:52]
B
Just shake it, baby.
- [16:53]
A
Just shake it for 20 minutes.
- [16:54]
B
Are you strong enough for that?
- [16:56]
A
Do it for like a minute and then I have to give it back to her.
- [16:58]
B
Could you tie it to Moose's tail and then just run around with him
- [17:01]
A
for a while and then if we like drove him to the beach and he started squealing. Yeah. So 10 years later we just call this woman Nara Smith and buy her cookbook. But at the time, in 2015, this went viral for all the wrong reasons. So there were hot takes all over the Internet responding to this article in this couple and the responses were overwhelmingly mean. And I think this one nicely sums up the reaction to to Christmas article. So, Jesse, will you read this?
- [17:22]
B
I'll read while I still can. It's easy to see why people have reacted strongly to Crispin's essay. What the couple is doing is silly, for one, and not a little inconsistent. Crispin may use an icebox, but I'm pretty sure Vox doesn't accept submissions written in fountain pen. She also has a website and a couple of books out about this elaborate history project. She additionally fails to mention how she and her husband pay for their corsets and woolen swim trunks. But the most common complaint about this piece is that it shows both Christmas privilege and her naivete. The couple is nostalgic for an era of colonialism known for the rampant and systematic oppression of women and minorities. So much has changed. That's a sarcastic parenthesis. Parenthetical. It makes you want to shake your head and say, white people. That's the most 2015 thing I've ever read.
- [18:06]
A
Who would you guess wrote this?
- [18:07]
B
Dave Roberts?
- [18:08]
A
I wrote it. That was me.
- [18:11]
B
You wrote that? Oh, my God, you were insufferable.
- [18:14]
A
I know. I would have made an incredible woke scold had things turned out slightly differently. I would have been calling people out left and right. I would have been doing accountability circles, renouncing my privilege. I could have been. I could have been the head of fucking blue sky.
- [18:27]
B
I will say it makes you want to shake your head and say white people is actually true. Because this is like. I don't know. I don't. I actually didn't mind that line.
- [18:34]
A
Well, as you will hear, it's actually the Victorian cosplay scene is diversifying, but we will get to that. Okay, but this is the sort of place that Port Townsend is, right? They're are a fair number of eccentrics here, particularly people who got a little too into the Victorian era. So I'm guessing Port Townsend was one of the few places Christman and her husband could actually ride their penny farthing down the street and no one would think they were freaks.
- [18:56]
B
Okay, so why are we talking about this, Candy?
- [18:58]
A
Okay, so there is a recent controversy that we're going to get to. It's got to do with the annual Victorian Festival. We will get back to that in a bit. But before we do, I want to go back to an earlier Port Townsend controversy. This One was in 2022 and it's possible that we actually talked about this when it happened. I couldn't record of it in our notes, but I have a distinct memory of talking to the main character on the phone. So we might have discussed it. But in summer 2022, an 80 year old woman named Julie Jamon was banned from the local YMCA in Port Townsend. Jesse, any guesses why a YMCA swimming pool?
- [19:31]
B
Oh, we talked about this.
- [19:32]
A
Did we?
- [19:32]
B
Okay, yeah, she was banned. I think this had to do with trans stuff and like an inclusive gender policy.
- [19:37]
A
Yeah. So what happened is that Julie was in the locker room one day at the pool and she heard a male voice. Now, what Julie didn't know was that males can also be women. She had not been properly re educated on that. So when she looked up and she saw what she perceived as a man in the locker room who was at that time was watching young girls change, she was concerned, she said.
- [19:59]
B
Was watching young girls change.
- [20:01]
A
Yes. We'll come back to this. Julie confronted the person by her own account. She said, do you have a penis? And told this person to get out and then went to the pool manager to complain. But rather than listening to Julie's concerns, the pool manager immediately banned her from the pool for life for violating the YMCA's code of conduct. Code of conduct around disrespectful language towards staff. Because it turns out that the person, this is a male to female, transsexual or transgender person, was an employee of the pool and was supervising the girls after the swim lessons in the locker room. The manager also, I should mention, threatened to call the cops on Julie.
- [20:36]
B
Okay, so this is. Maybe they need, like, if they're going to have these gender inclusive policies, there should be like a sliding scale based on age. Or if you're 80, if you're 80, you get like five chances to follow the policy before they ban you for life.
- [20:49]
A
Like the Wyatt does have a sliding scale for.
- [20:51]
B
For income level income, but also for age.
- [20:54]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yes, this is what we're getting here is what we're getting to here is this clash of cultures. And I find this interesting. Like we must be inclusive of penises in the ladies room, but not cultures or ages where mixed sex dressing rooms are taboo. Including our own. Until five minutes ago. You know, we also saw this at the Olympus Spa outside Seattle where a Korean woman's nude spa was forced to admit males against their will. It's not very inclusive, if you ask me. And Julie herself, she's an old activist. She processed it against Vietnam. She moved to Port Townsend in the early 80s and started working with victims of domestic violence. And so she, she saw this as a real threat. You know, here she is trying to protect girls and she's the one who gets banned from the pool.
- [21:35]
B
Sounds about right. This, this issue, like, just hasn't really been Handled as you know, the norms are changing. We need to educate people. I mean, whatever you think about it, it's really just like this is the new way of doing things. You're a bigot if disagree.
- [21:46]
A
Yes.
- [21:47]
B
Wait, so what did she do after this happened?
- [21:49]
A
She went right next door to the police station and filed a complaint.
- [21:52]
B
And she was arrested for transphobia.
- [21:54]
A
She's in jail now. She later spoke about it at city council meetings as well. Julie is a frequent commenter on city council meetings. I searched her name in the meeting minutes for city council meetings. There were. She had spoken at 60 of them. She is civically active, let's put it that way. Bit of a godfly. So this is a big story in Port Townsend. People are talking about it on Facebook, a local blog called the Port Townsend Free Press, this kind of anti woke citizen journalism type place. They broke the story locally. Outlets like Redux and Feminist Current, they found out about it. They made local news in Seattle and then outlets like Fox News and international outlets like the Daily Mail, they covered this. And a few weeks later, a local turf named Amy Sousa organized a rally in support of Julie that was held during a city council meeting where the city council was considering a procure, a proclamation in support of trans rights. So they've got the city council meeting, the rally in support of Julie outside, and then a counter rally. So, Jesse, here's how the event was described in the Port Townsend Free Press. Do you want to read this?
- [22:58]
B
The event began with Susan, two other women singing a refrain from Sarah Hester Ross's savage daughter. I'm my mother's savage daughter. I will not cut my hair. I will not lower my voice. At this point, a wide circle of women holding hands surrounded the singers. Susan X spoke, and the mob that numbered in the hundreds closed in tightly around her and her group, forcing them backwards. Their once wide circle collapsed, so they were pressed into each other. When Susa spoke about the four mothers of the women's rights movement, the mob screamed to drown her out. When she spoke words honoring mothers, the crab booed her. That sounds about right.
- [23:29]
A
So the turfs were well outnumbered by the trans rights activists. And there was some violence, according to this report, including an elderly woman being pushed up against the wall, another woman being knocked to the ground.
- [23:39]
B
So sorry, did. I mean, did the women protesting to keep the locker room sex segregated get any support from local government? I'm guessing not that, no.
- [23:50]
A
So while this rally was happening outside, this rally, in the counter rally, the. The city council was inside passing this proclamation for Trans rights. And I should mention that in Washington state, gender identity is protected by anti discrimination laws. So even if the Y had wanted to ban trans women from the bathroom or prevent this one trans employee from supervising little girls, which I'm sure that they did not, they legally couldn't have done this. So when all this started, the city put out a statement explaining that. I mean, to be clear, the city is not TERFs. This was not just about the letter of the law. And after this trans proclamation passed, then Mayor David Faber tweeted this. What an incredible night. The Port Townsend community showed up in huge and beautiful fashion to say that hate has no place here. Trans and CIS allies alike spoke, love and support, and the only TERF speaker was from out of town tonight reminded me of white Port Townshendism. Now, this did not go over well on Twitter. And when he says that the only TERF speaker was from out of town, that might have been true at the city council meeting itself, but it was not true at the rally. Julie Jamon is the. Is from there. Amy Sousa is from there. There weren't that many women who spoke at this rally, but it was not true that it was, you know, all out of towners. And so Faber gets extremely ratioed on Twitter, and so naturally, people start looking into his old tweets and they find the following. So Jesse read these.
- [25:09]
B
Having sex with a dog to make a yam you are happy with. What does that mean?
- [25:14]
A
I wish I could tell you, but the account he was responding to has been. The tweet is still up. The account he was responding to has been suspended. So I guess we'll never know. Maybe it was Mad Libs. I don't get it. I don't like it. I don't understand it.
- [25:28]
B
I mean, but it's like there's. There's. It's so devoid of context that it's impossible to know how to feel about it.
- [25:34]
A
It. Right. The fact that he. In his profile picture there, he appears to be making out with a dog.
- [25:40]
B
Just dog licking that.
- [25:42]
A
That makes it a little.
- [25:42]
B
No, the dog's about to give him a little sloppy kiss.
- [25:45]
A
He's. That's what making out with the dog is. The dog's giving.
- [25:47]
B
Okay, I don't. I don't. I mean, I'm sh. I bet if you poured over my tweets, it's reality joke, but I'm not sure this is more than just a dumb joke or. I don't even know if it's a dumb joke, because we don't know the Context.
- [25:58]
A
Right. And he was not the mayor when he tweeted this, but he was on the city council.
- [26:02]
B
He was the dog catcher.
- [26:03]
A
Yeah. All right, read these other tweets.
- [26:06]
B
As the mayor, I guess this was when he was mayor. I am legally required to be a pervert and deviant.
- [26:12]
A
Yes.
- [26:14]
B
And then there's a screenshot of the official thresher rice purity test. Your score, 17. What does this mean?
- [26:22]
A
It's like one of these things where it's like, have you done these things? Like, here's a checklist of like, like sex things you've done. You know, the important part is the pervert and deviant part. All right, keep going.
- [26:33]
B
I mean, if it. This is a different tweet from 2022. I mean, if it's alive, it's morally wrong. If it's dead, then the act of fucking the chicken isn't morally wrong. Now a bigger question remains whether killing the chicken was. Is morally wrong, which is something I struggle with all the time as a meat eater. Parentheses and chicken fucker. That's really funny.
- [26:52]
A
It's a good tweet.
- [26:53]
B
That's a good tweet also. I agree. I don't think fucking a dead. I don't think fucking a dead chicken is immoral. I think eating it. Killing a chicken's immoral.
- [26:59]
A
Right.
- [26:59]
B
I hate to. I hate to hand it to him, but you have to hand it.
- [27:02]
A
Yeah. I mean, would I have tweeted this as mayor Pro. Probably not, but it's four times an hour.
- [27:06]
B
But also. Well, you never would have been elected, man.
- [27:07]
A
That's true.
- [27:08]
B
The scandal, upending your campus. I don't. I'm not. If someone told me they had sex with a dead chicken, I'd be like, that's weird. And you should maybe get that looked into.
- [27:19]
A
No, you'd be like, at least it's not alive.
- [27:22]
B
Well, first of all, I'd say at least it's not alive. But this is a. This is like classic psychology. Discuss, like John Height stuff. I don't actually. If just in isolation, if a single guy, a single dead chicken, there's. I don't think there's a moral problem with that.
- [27:37]
A
What if he's married?
- [27:38]
B
If he's married, he should tell his wife or. Or husband or husband that he the chicken and make sure he was safe and wore, I guess, a condom.
- [27:49]
A
There's a lot of back teary on. What if it's cooked? Yeah, you gotta wash. That's a real debate. Do you do wash the chicken or do you just cook the Chicken. Okay, move to the next word.
- [27:58]
B
I think. Hold on, hold on, hold on. Let's leak this through. If you. You pick up a cooked rotisserie chicken from the supermarket and you let it cool off and then you have sex with it, I don't think the same bacteria, like giving. Passing a bacteria onto your wife is the same problem. So I don't think the ethics of that are the same.
- [28:17]
A
In the immortal words of Dan Savage, I'd rather be screwed than stewed.
- [28:22]
B
Nice. In the immortal words of some guy on the Internet, I forget. Keep that chicken.
- [28:26]
A
All right, read the next one.
- [28:28]
B
Someone said, not sure who needs to be reminded of this, but Peewee Herman was not arrested masturbating public theater. Not like you think. He was at an adult theater where masturbation is encouraged. And it was a sting operation targeting queers. David Faber. Faber, quote, retweets that and says Peewee did nothing wrong. If that's true, is that true about the porn theater?
- [28:51]
A
That is true.
- [28:52]
B
I for. I think that that story has gotten a little bit game of telephone.
- [28:57]
A
It wasn't at the Little Mermaid. It was at a porn viewing. Still weird. But technology wasn't as good back then, so.
- [29:04]
B
Because. Because so little is going on in Port Townsend.
- [29:07]
A
Yes, his.
- [29:09]
B
These tweets, three quarters of which I either agree with or just don't understand enough to know how to feel about them, these became like a local controversy.
- [29:17]
A
Well, not really a local controversy. They became a controversy elsewhere. You know, people here were, I think, definitely mixed on this, but I would say that, that locally, people generally supported Faber, including in government. And that's especially true as the story got bigger and bigger and more outsiders started to show up. So there was a rally a few weeks after the first one. This one was organized by a guy from Portland. And some of the people he recruited to come to this were members of the Washington 3%. This is the far right group. The organizer said he was bringing patriots and proud boys. So this is a very different crowd from the women who had gathered to sing songs and hold hands. And in fact, Julie herself disavowed the second rally.
- [29:56]
B
Gotcha.
- [29:57]
A
But I think that when a. When a bunch of out of towners showed up causing trouble, particularly right wingers, even locals who may have supported Julie and thought that the mayor's tweets were inappropriate. They get turned off by this. Right. And definitely. And Faber definitely had supporters. So at another city council meeting, this younger right wing citizen journalist out of Seattle named Katie Daviscourt, you've probably seen her on Twitter Jesse, sort of the white girl equivalent of Annie Ngo. She went to the meeting and read some of Faber's tweets and asked Mandy.
- [30:25]
B
No.
- [30:29]
A
She went to a meeting and read some of favor's tweets and asked if the city council would condemn his behavior.
- [30:34]
B
Do sirs, do you condemn the chicken? This is, this is such like, sort of scoldy. I don't know. It's like what they're becoming what they claim to hate. It's like cancel culture sort of.
- [30:49]
A
Right. But I mean, I, I, I do think the tweets are inappropriate for like, he tweeted these while he was.
- [30:53]
B
Ideally, a mayor would. Yeah, ideally a mayor would not. It shows poor judgment. He'. Not, he's not a mayor of a real place. This is a place where people.
- [31:01]
A
He's not.
- [31:02]
B
By hand, the population of deer to people in Port Townsend, the ratio is like 50 to 1. This is not. He doesn't. He doesn't. He controls like a little fiefdom that. No, like, if it disappeared tomorrow, no one would care. No offense.
- [31:15]
A
He actually, he actually controls less than that because the mayor of Port Townsend is not elected by the people. The mayor is basically, he's elected by deer. He's elected by. He's. So the mayor is a member of the city council. So the people elect the city council members and then the city council elects the mayor. The person who actually has the most power in, in Port Townsend is the town manager, not the mayor.
- [31:39]
B
That's. And the town manager, he's a chicken. Did he ever tweet about. He said a vowed chicken.
- [31:45]
A
He did not, as far as I know. But another. But when Katie Davis Court was at the city council meeting calling them out, only one city councilor responded. And he said, I fully support May our mayor, David Faber. I am entertained by his Twitter account and do not understand that as any way representing the city organization.
- [32:03]
B
Okay, gotcha.
- [32:04]
A
And there was no recall effort, anything like that. There was one, one local who goes by the name Reverend Crystal Cox, director of the Universal Church of Light. She did file an ethics complaint. She's a whole other local character we can't get into now. But her complaint was dismissed. And David Faber finished out his second term in 2024. So despite some regional and national outrage, even international outrage, the local response was essentially to tell Julie Dumond to take her Speedo and shove it and to support the mayor.
- [32:32]
B
Was Faber term limited or is he still mayor? You said he finished out a second.
- [32:35]
A
Actually, I don't know if there's a term Limit. But he is. Like, he didn't resign because of this. He finished out his term.
- [32:41]
B
I want to spend more time with my chickens.
- [32:43]
A
Yeah. So that's the kind of place Port Townsend is. And by the way, Julie Jamond did sue the city. She was seeking $350,000, a formal apology, and she wanted back in the pool. She didn't get that. But they settled last year for $65,000. No apology, and she still can't go to the pool.
- [32:58]
B
That not be able to go back in the pool. Having visited this area, those of us who live in society, we take for granted. Like, if we want to swim, there's probably a pool nearby. I'm guessing there's not a lot of other options for pools.
- [33:10]
A
No, the nearest pool is in Squim, which is like.
- [33:14]
B
That's not. There's no way there's a place called Squim.
- [33:16]
A
There is, and I know you're how it was spelled. You'd be disturbed.
- [33:20]
B
How do you spell it? Let me guess. S CKQ U I, M M M
- [33:28]
A
S E Q U, I, M, Squim. Yeah.
- [33:32]
B
Squim. Okay, Squim. Continue. Sorry.
- [33:35]
A
Okay, so all that brings me to the subject of the most recent controversy. So, Jesse, it will probably not surprise you to hear that Port Townsend has an annual Victorian Heritage Festival. Sorry, I got new. New trays for my. Every time I put in new trays, I get my list back.
- [33:53]
B
Oh, wait, hold on. Let's keep this. I forgot about the lisp update.
- [33:55]
A
Yeah.
- [33:56]
B
How's it going?
- [33:56]
A
I. I can hear it. I'm still lisping. Can you not hear it?
- [33:59]
B
I can't, but I'm so sick. I can't hear anything.
- [34:02]
A
It's a phantom lisp. So, Jesse will probably not surprise you that Port Townsend has an annual Victorian Heritage Festival, which is exactly what it sounds like. An annual celebration of Port Townsend's Victorian heritage, and it's organized by the Port Heritage Heritage Association. It involves walking tours, historical presentations, a community contra dance, and the historical figures fashion show where costumers walk the Runway. And they're historically accurate Victorian era costumes, lots of petticoats and crinoline. Crinoline. Crinoline. Crinoline. You know how to say that?
- [34:32]
B
What the is crinoline? I don't even know what that is.
- [34:34]
A
I feel like I can. I can hear it. Doesn't it sound like it'd be crinkly?
- [34:38]
B
Yeah.
- [34:39]
A
So it's the fashion show where today's micro scandal took place.
- [34:42]
B
Is this a free episode?
- [34:43]
A
Yes, it's A free episode.
- [34:45]
B
So we should do housekeeping.
- [34:46]
A
Oh yeah, let's do housekeeping. We do it.
- [34:48]
B
Do I have to? Despite being sick, I'll do it.
- [34:50]
A
Yes, we are a podcast. You can reach out to us at blocked andreported podcast gmail.com. please send story tips, feedback, but not too much feedback. You can send pictures of your dogs, requests for feet pics, whatever you want. You can email us there if just hypothetically. Yeah.
- [35:09]
B
And I've realized, I think when I'm, when I'm sick, I usually I just am carrying the podcast, but I'm just doing digressions and interruptions instead to try to counter that I compensate. Could you imagine a situation where someone sent you the right offer and you agreed to send them foot pics?
- [35:28]
A
No question.
- [35:29]
B
Yeah, me too. What's your. What's your. About 50. 50. But no, not 50. Cuz once they're out, they're out there. They're. They're there for.
- [35:35]
A
Why would I care if somebody. It's not like a titty pic. Why would I care if there were pictures of my feet?
- [35:39]
B
75 grand for me.
- [35:40]
A
Your feet are not worth that. I'm sorry, they're not.
- [35:43]
B
I think to some people my feet would be worth way more than your feet. Katie, let's be real here.
- [35:47]
A
Okay, well if anybody would like to give me $50 for a footpick or Jesse. 75 grand for a footpeck. Blocked and reported podcast Gmail dot com.
- [35:55]
B
Yeah, sorry. Continue housekeeping please.
- [35:57]
A
More importantly, if you go to blocked and reported.org you can become a primo subscriber and you get so much extra content. You get twice as many episodes every. You also get access to our lives. We've been doing, we've been doing a lot. We did Helen Lewis or I did Helen Lewis last month. Before that, Benoit Denizet Lewis and I,
- [36:18]
B
I wanted to join, but you literally, you and Helen conspired to figure out when I would be on a cross country flight and did it then. So I was excluded.
- [36:26]
A
We hacked into your, into your calendar and we found out exactly when you were going to be on a plane and we said let's do it then. Time. Yeah, that's what happened. So our primo subscribers can get access to that as well. You get access to our comment section, our community, our chat. You get your episodes two days early. And most importantly, that is the best and really the only way to support the show. So if you want to keep this show going, please join us.
- [36:50]
B
Blocked and please.org and Raiden review us on Apple podcasts. That does help. Yeah, a little bit.
- [36:55]
A
Okay, so all of this cosplay sounds pretty nerdy, right? I mean, these are people who enjoy sewing larping from a different era. But I will say 2026 Victorian cosplay is not necessarily what you might expect and it's not necessarily who you would expect to be doing it. Like, I have a friend who's a costumer. Shout out to Naja, Jesse, I just want you to. I put. I put a link to her Instagram here in the show notes. I just want you to click on that link and describe what you see.
- [37:26]
B
Yeah, well, this is like a more. It's a diverse group. Group, various races. There's a non white person wearing al ears. There's some, I'd say titillating imagery.
- [37:38]
A
It's sexy.
- [37:39]
B
It's sexy.
- [37:39]
A
Like, it's like this is not.
- [37:41]
B
Not like a dead. Not dead chicken sexy, but sexy nonetheless.
- [37:45]
A
It's very much like. It's like elaborate costumes. But this is not like the kind of shit that you would see at Ren Fair. This is more like this is not
- [37:55]
B
your grandma's Renaissance there.
- [37:57]
A
Absolutely not. Like, she'd probably do pretty well on only fans.
- [38:01]
B
Yeah.
- [38:02]
A
And. And she's part of this community of younger. A more diverse group of people who are really into cosplay who make it like very. It's very elaborate. It's a lot of work. It looks very fun for them if this is the sort of thing you're into. But it's just. It's like we're not talking about Civil War reenactors. It's hot.
- [38:20]
B
Yeah.
- [38:20]
A
So that's the direction that costuming is going to. It's very tiktokable. And the subculture is getting increasingly diverse. Maybe this is the Bridgerton effect or social media, but for whatever reason, the historically accurate costume world is evolving. And at the Victorian Festival this year, a black woman was invited to walk in the fashion show. She's also on social media under the name Sulani Seamstress. And she makes a lot of her own stuff. It's very impressive. And she also purchases costumes from other creatives. So let's watch one of her tiktoks talking about this.
- [38:50]
D
That let's get ready in 1860s day wear. Hi, I'm Sulani Seamstress. I'm a historical costumer and I got a new 1860s day dress in the mail. Actually my first 1860s day dress ever. I typically don't really touch Civil War era clothes, typically, because Civil War historical reenactment attracts a certain type of person. But like we said, vintage clothes, vintage fashion, not vintage values. So. So keep that in mind. I think it is my duty as a black historical costumer to try on clothes that my ancestors would have worn throughout all the time period.
- [39:24]
A
So it's a Get Ready with Me video. This is a genre of TikTok and Instagram, but she's doing it in this 1860s dress. So at the Port Townsend fashion show, this woman was invited to walk and show off her dress. Not that dress, a different dress. This is one that she made herself. But when everyone was lined up to walk, she was placed. She was two places behind a man in a Confederate Civil War costume.
- [39:45]
B
Oh, God.
- [39:46]
A
Now, I doubt that it would have been obvious to anyone who isn't really steeped in historical fashion, which, to be fair, these people are. I doubt it would have been obvious to the casual viewer that this was a Civil War uniform. And I'll explain why in a moment. But during the Runway walk, the MC for the event announced precisely what this costume was and said it took this guy nine months to make it. So everyone there knew what the deal was.
- [40:08]
B
I don't. Don't people know? I don't think that's a particularly obscure costume. The Confederate.
- [40:13]
A
When you. You. I'm going to show you pictures of it. This is not. This is not what you're thinking of.
- [40:17]
B
Okay?
- [40:17]
A
Now, at the fashion show itself, not much happened, but afterward, Solani Seamstress, she was having drinks with a friend of hers named Gigi Colson, who was also at the big fest. Gigi has an interesting resume. So According to her LinkedIn, she was a wildland firefighter, an environmental planner, a social scientist, and now she's retired from that, and she runs a nonprofit called Costumers of Color.
- [40:38]
B
What do they. What do they do?
- [40:39]
A
So the description on the website is building a multicultural community of belonging, where the diverse history and artistry of people of color pockets is respected, celebrated, and valued. And they do events like Gigi leads classes and trips and retreats to Venice and Scotland and Tuscany and Port Townsend. They have a scholarship program, stuff like that. So. So Gigi's there at the festival in Port Townsend, and her friend tells her about her experience walking in this fashion show behind this guy in a Confederate uniform. And Gigi, she gets pissed. She gets on TikTok live and she posts this.
- [41:13]
C
I am really disappointed in the porn Townsend Victorian Heritage Festival today. I was sitting down, having wine with some friends. This is the second day of the festival, and they that friend related to me. They walked in the fashion show, and they were a black woman. They walked in the fashion show, and two people ahead of them was announced a Confederate state soldier or someone who is dressed as someone from a Confederate battalion from Louisiana, which I'm from Louisiana. Like, I. Yeah, awesome. They chose to dress in Confederate clothing and walk in this fashion show, and this organization chose to let them maybe not understand that. That is akin to having a woman walk two spaces behind someone who's dressed as a rapist or a Jewish person walking two spaces behind someone dressed as a Nazi. Right. Confederacy meant death to me. Confederacy meant I am not a human because I am black. I should be enslaved, I should be raped, I should be murdered at will because I'm not a real human being. That is what Confederacy meant. This woman of color still walked in the talent show or the fashion show. She did her job for this festival. She basically co signed on their efforts of inclusion with her presence. But she was terrified. Her cortisol went up, her adrenaline went up. Her trauma response, her epigenetics was telling her, maybe this isn't safe for me because they would let someone like that who means death to me be here.
- [43:10]
B
Yeah, I, I don't know. I mean, I, I, I'm sympathetic. Like, was this. Yeah, I, I don't. She seemed upset that someone was dressed like a Confederate soldier. I don't know. I feel like I, I did not, I did not find anything like that over the top about her response.
- [43:28]
A
I did think that when she said that this is like having a woman walk behind a man who is dressed like a rapist. That's just a woman walking behind a man. Also, epigenetics is fake. But Gigi goes on to say that after she heard about this, she confronted the MC for the fashion show. Her name is Val. She said Val was very receptive. Val said it hadn't occurred to her this would be a problem. And she was horrified and said she she's gonna read about Gigi's organization and talk to organizers about how to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again. So Gig pleased by the response from Val, but then she goes across the street, she goes to the contra dance, and she asked to talk to one of the festival organizers, Scott. So here's what Jeezy says about that.
- [44:09]
C
He is immediately aggressive. He's immediately, what's the complaint? And I was like, well, you know, there's a young woman who walked in your fashion show who was harmed by the presence of a Confederate soldier or Confederate Battalion member walking. Do you understand how that could be impactful to her? And because your organization purports itself as one of inclusion, this is in direct opposition to that claim.
- [44:38]
A
So.
- [44:38]
C
So what can we do in the future to not have this happen? He's like, well, you know,
- [44:44]
A
I'll go
- [44:44]
C
to the board and I'll tell them three to five people had a problem with this. And I was like, wait a minute. Not just three to five people. Maybe like every person of color and every person not of color who is anti racist or anti white supremacist or anti patriarchy or just a good human being might have a problem with this. So not just three to five people. And he goes, well, you know, I would think that the Klallam Indians, he said, would have more of a problem because, you know, Victorians displaced their whole. Their whole tribe. And, you know, they would be here. And that's when I realized Scott is a. Wow. Scott is. Scott's not listening to me.
- [45:26]
A
So Scott does not say the right thing. And Gigi feels disrespected. She says that she realizes that Scott has no intention of making the Port Townsend Victorian Fest truly inclusive. They might say that they're welcoming, but they ain't. And she ends with this.
- [45:40]
C
I will never be back to the Victorian Heritage Festival. I will suggest no person of color or any white person, person who cares about actual inclusion and equity come to this ever.
- [45:57]
A
So Gigi is calling for a full boycott of the Port Townsend Victorian Festival. And her video starts to circulate not just on costumer TikTok, but in local Port Townsend Facebook groups. And it spurs a lot of discussion there. Most of it, I would say, supportive of Gigi and embarrassed for the town. Remember, Port Townsend is very progressive. Lots of well meaning white libs. Not okay to be racist or to be seen as racist. Here. The local news outlet, the Beacon, they pick up the story. They get this statement from Scott, the organizer. Quote, apologies were made in person to those involved over the weekend. Those apologies were accepted. Now, Gigi very much disputes this. She says that this is just false. Apologies were neither offered nor accepted. But according to the Beacon, Scott, quote, remembers the conversation differently. Gigi told me that she spoke to the fashion show organizers and that they expressed their apologies for this unfortunate situation. I even offered my condolences, my condolence if the African American costumer was offended, but it was not intentional. And no one in the audience reacted as Gigi had. Scott also told the paper, quote, gigi asked me multiple times how I was going to Fix this. And I told her I cannot fix something that has already happened. I told her the only way that I can personally fix this is for me to resign as a festival co chair.
- [47:09]
B
Well, that doesn't really make sense because that wouldn't fix it either. But did he resign?
- [47:13]
A
No. But two other co chairs did resign. The festival also offered an apology, so this was posted on Facebook. Our 2026 fashion show included a model in a replica Confederate uniform. We were subsequently contacted by individuals who were deeply uncomfortable with this inclusion. We sincerely apologize to our models, festival goers, and supporters. We will work to ensure that we do better by all our patrons and participants in the future. Sincerely, the Port Townsend Victorian Heritage Festival. Now, this did cause a bit of debate. Some people in the comments were like, thank you for addressing this. Some people were like, this isn't enough. Do clap. Better clap. And other people were like, well, here's an example. Jesse, why don't you read these comments?
- [47:53]
B
So, by your logic, any actor who plays Adolf Hitler on film or stage must be advocating the ideas of the Nazis. I will no longer be attending future Victorian Heritage Festival events. And other. Everyone, I'm sorry. I thought this was a historical event. I wasn't aware it was a pick and choose your own history event. If you are appalled by his presence, and I am appalled by your stupidity, I'm actually curious if, like, back in the day, if you went to certain sorts of, you know, larpy history events, if it was more common to dress up as the baddies, and if people got less upset by it.
- [48:26]
A
I mean, certainly Confederate reenactment.
- [48:30]
B
Oh, yeah. I mean, that's like a regular part of Civil War reenactment.
- [48:33]
A
Yeah, yeah. And as you can see, the Confederacy cosplayer did have some defenders. Now, neither of the people whose. Whose comments you just read live in Port Townsend. They do live in the area, but not in Port Townsend. The first was definitely at the festival. I looked at his photos. He was there. He actually appears to be a furry. But I want to stop here and just discuss the merits of the debate, because I think this is a genuinely fraught and pretty complex issue. The Confederacy was a part of American history. There are many people in this country who enjoy recreating aspects of history, including war, including the Civil War. And to those people, any sort of blanket ban on costuming or recreations or monuments for that matter, is erasing history. But you know, when I think, like Gigi said in her video, you wouldn't allow a Nazi uniform in a fashion show, that's undeniably right. Everyone would know that. That's just offensive. And the line between acknowledging history and celebrating it is really thin. So I understand why she was offended. I probably would have been taken ab by this too. Plus, Port Townsend is about as far as you can get from the Confederacy and still be in the United States. Like, Washington wasn't even a state until decades after the Civil War, so there's no connection to this local Victorian festival whatsoever. Jesse, what's your instinct here?
- [49:44]
B
I don't know. I'm so far from the world's involved. Like, I, I've never dressed up as anything. Except for Halloween, obviously.
- [49:52]
A
You dress up as a Confederate soldier for Halloween.
- [49:54]
B
Yeah, exactly.
- [49:55]
A
The.
- [49:55]
B
The comment that's like, oh, so you can, you can't dress up as Nazis in a movie is silly because if you're doing, if you're filming.
- [50:01]
A
Yeah.
- [50:02]
B
If it's a movie or like even a Civil War reenactment. Yeah. You need to have the. Yeah, the bad guys. If you show up at a convention, I can sort of get why people would take that differently. I mean, I'm guessing the norm is not with other characters or other historical figures that you endorse the person you're dressed up as. It just feels like it hits different because you're not doing it as part of a broader effort to reenact something or so I don't know.
- [50:29]
A
Right. So at first I was like, yeah, this is inappropriate. Why is this guy wearing the uniform of a failed rebellion from 3,000 miles away? Like, this makes no sense. It's obviously offensive. I was picturing, you know, the, the classic Confederate gray wool with the flat cap, like, why even fucking bother? But this specific costume was very different. So Jesse, I want you to take a look at the image there in our show notes.
- [50:49]
B
Oh, I don't think I would have recognized this as a Confederate outfit. Fit.
- [50:55]
A
Right? So the actual costume was described as an authentic 1860 Confederate Zouave soldier from Louisiana. This uniform is fly as. So the drawing that we have here, the soldiers wearing like a red do rag, red MC Hammer pants. He's got gators, a sash, a sword. It looks like something a gay pirate would wear. It's very cool. And so that changed my calculus a
- [51:18]
B
little bit because the guy just like tanned. He also, he has like bronze colored skin too.
- [51:22]
A
The guy wearing it know, Cajun. It's. This uniform is. It's like both stylish and comfy. I would wear this. It's too bad that it's associated with the Confederacy. Because I. I can completely see why a costumer would want to make this costume and wear it. It's that cool. So that's what I was thinking, but then yesterday, when I was stumbling around Facebook, I found an actual photo of the guy who wore this in the Fashion in the Fashion show. Or at least I think it was the actual guy. Unless there were two Confederate Zouave shoulders in Port Townsend on the same day. So, Jesse, please describe. Describe the actual costume itself.
- [51:56]
B
Oh, he does not look fly as. It's like he's wearing sort of like striped sailor pants and socks on the bottom.
- [52:05]
A
Like. Like, the socks are horizontal stripes and the. And the pants are vertical stripes. He's power clashing. But the pants are not. Just. They are, like, MC Hammer pants.
- [52:13]
B
Yeah. And then, like, he's got, like, the blue jacket over a red. Sure. I would not. This does not strike me as screaming Confederate either.
- [52:24]
A
He looks like a minotaur, except instead of being half bull and half man, he's half racist and half circus clown. Yeah, it's way less cool than the drawing, but.
- [52:34]
B
So has there been the same sort of reckoning in these communities you've seen in others communities? We've seen other communities.
- [52:40]
A
So I got in touch with Gigi, and I asked her that, too. She said race and inclusion have been ongoing issues in historical costuming, although they often show up in ways that people outside the community may not immediately recognize. Some of the recurring issues include Confederate or colonial imagery, being treated as neutral, people of color being expected to tolerate symbols that carry direct histories of racial violence, assumptions that certain historical aesthetics belong primarily to white participants, and a lack of meaningful response when concerns are raised. Being black in historical costuming can be joyful and exhausting at the same time. There is great beauty in reclaiming space, researching overlooked histories and showing that black people have always been a part of fashion artistry, refine assistance in public life. But there is also a burden of entering spaces where some people want the beauty of the past without being honest about the violence, exclusion, and hierarchy that shaped it. She also said that in response to this, she's building something constructive. It's called the Belle Epoch Retreat, and it will be held next spring in Port Townsend. So to me, both the story of Julie Draman and of this fashion show, really, they embody the contradictions of what Port Townsend is. It's this little Victorian city on the sea, and it prides itself on progressive values. But those values are not oil and harmony. You know, whether that's perennial issues over preserving the character of the city versus building more housing. Or Julie Jamon, the woman who thought she was protecting women and girls, getting branded as a bigot and getting kicked out of the Y. Or this festival which now has to figure out how to celebrate or mark difficult periods of history without offending the very people they're trying to attract. So there you have it. The latest in Port Townsend, Washington.
- [54:11]
B
Thank you, Katie. We should make this a weekly, weekly feature update, Port Townsend Update.
- [54:16]
A
Maybe I could tell this story on the local radio station.
- [54:20]
B
Oh yeah, because you're going to be doing if you, if you play your cards right you could get some on
- [54:24]
A
air opportunities if, if so we'll see.
- [54:27]
B
I probably won't thank you for that, Katie.
- [54:29]
A
You're welcome.
- [54:29]
B
This has been blocked and reported as always. We're produced with help from Jesse the 80s baby. Thank you for listening. Goodbye.
- [54:36]
A
Bye Sam.