Bowser Bones: The Fantasy of Biological Male Strength

Bowser bones is a phrase Andy and Jake came up with after playing way too much Mario Tennis. One afternoon, Jake chose to play as Bowser and easily defeated Andy, who was playing as Princess Peach. He accused Jake of cheating because Bowser's character has more power than Peach. This soon became a question about the assumption that man has more bone density than women. Andy pointed out what a gross fantasy it is whenever men assert this difference. Often times this assertion comes in the form of transphobia and the pearl clutching about trans women in female sports. Is there any way to assert this biological difference without leveraging violence? Sagi was at his honest and most cancellable best. Wondering if there is some sympathy that we need to give to the anxiety caused by sexual difference; its neglect, owing to the Christian framework that constantly polices and represses it, is something that colors current perceptions of male violence and transphobia. Andy looks at Freud's famous essay "A Child is Being Beaten" to help us think about the creation of this fantasy, and the anxiety of castration. Jake extends this idea by looking at Alan Bass who asserts the need to accept difference, while simultaneously critiquing the common narratives of sexual difference as concrete fetishes. We splay ourselves open in this pod, while advocating for love as transcendence of run-of-the-mill gender narratives.