Episode 10: Full House/Little Women

In episode 10 of What’s Your Damage?, AJ and AJ talk about the deep desire to escape into a different family. Growing up in traumatic family systems shaped how both of them turned to art—TV, books, and stories—as a way to survive the painful reality of their home lives. “A” is 13 weeks pregnant at this point and reflects on her childhood, where the TV was always on. As a kid, she escaped into Full House, fantasizing about Danny Tanner as her father—someone safe and kind, who wouldn’t call her the C word just for wanting to watch Friends.“J”, meanwhile, time-travels all the way back to 1868, fantasizing about being a member of the March family. (Let’s be honest—she was absolutely a Jo, the ultimate feminist icon.) The March family was shockingly progressive for 1868—which somehow made them feel more evolved than J’s strict Mormon household in the 1980s. She longed for the kind of sisterhood the March girls shared, something she wished she could have had with any of her sisters—though it hurt most that her closest sister was also her abuser.