Post 11: Guy Branum and My Favorite Murder

TW: murder/rape

This post is going to be part story-time, part connections-corner, part Izzy-talks-about-a-murder-podcast-again; I’m caffeinated and passionate, and I haven’t spoken to people in a while, so buckle up, ladies and Nick!

During the Dr. Hanrahan-predicted quaran-stream going on currently, I have been scouring the episodes of my current obsession, My Favorite Murder, to find ones that I have not already listened to. I come across one titled “49 – The Great Guy Law-Time New Year’s Spectacular” posted in December of 2016. Cool, I watch SVU, I took Intro to Criminal Justice, I’m down with the judicial side of crime, too, *clicks play, continues doing homework*. Theme song plays, the hosts Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark begin chatting (if you decide to listen to this episode and you are not familiar with this podcast, I will tell you that these two women have almost the exact same voice—I have listened to nearly every episode of this podcast and I still can barely tell them apart). They introduce their guest as none other than the law school extraordinaire, Guy Branum *cue my realizing meaning of episode title*.

Okay, story-time is over. Onto why I really wanted to write about this podcast, let’s head over to connections corner.

Karen and Georgia actually introduce Guy Branum by saying that we may be hearing a “laugh that everyone knows and loves” and pointing out how distinct and recognizable his laugh is. He laughs loudly and in a deep tone, I may even venture to describe it as jolly. As soon as Guy started speaking, I thought back to his (and our) discussion of “gay” voice (43), back when we read excerpts from his book. He speaks clearly, in a fairly high-pitched tone that is much different from his laugh.

I bring this up particularly because, later in the episode, Guy Branum discusses using “gay voice” and how it can be an advantage, whereas in his book, he told us the story of how detrimental having “gay voice” was to his social, academic, and familial life as a child (I call that growth). On the podcast, as the three talk about women being attacked or feeling unsafe as they walk alone, Guy says: “when you’re a gay guy walking down the street at night and a woman starts to walk faster or have any of the reactions…to a man walking behind you in that way, the inclination [is] to pretend to have a phone call so they can have gay voice…I will frequently start singing to just be like ‘don’t worry’” (46:00). He then goes on to give an example: “I have literally been in a situation where I giggled at something, and a woman’s physical behavior on a street was just like, ‘oh, I’m fine’” (46:30). This anecdote was so interesting to hear after reading the stories about his struggles with “gay voice”, and it was also quite hilarious. Guy Branum’s number one tip on staying safe? “I can’t recommend being a creepy, gigantic man enough, it’s amazing” (48:50). I mean, come on, its sarcastic, funny, and recognizes male privilege and the dangers women face just for being women! However, Branum then goes on to describe walking through a dark alley to a gay bar as the “closest [he] could come to the feeling [women] have every time [they] walk to the car” (50:10). *cue applause*

Branum and the hosts, throughout the rest of the podcast, hit so many important points that Branum somehow can always relate back to their conversation about the law and crime. For example, sexism, racism, homophobia, etc.

I’ll give you a few here:

•         Branum discusses a straight man who murdered another man for having a crush on him and announcing it on TV: “’a gay guy hit on me and then I killed him’ means you’re doing six years, instead of ‘I decided to kill some gay guy’, which means you’re doing fifteen to life” (11:00).
•    Branum talks about “murder’s best buddy, rape” in the origin of our legal system and according to “old school laws”: it is a “horrible construction of this situation where [rape] has to be a violent act, and it has to be against someone other than your wife” (15:30).
•       Branum, to no one’s surprise, talks about the legend Ruth Bader Ginsburg and her fight for equality for women. RBG is “why [women] have to serve jury duty”.
•         Branum identifies “what’s wrong with the law, all the laws were written by [old, straight, white men]” (17:50).
•         Branum also brings up the case of Trayvon Martin as an example, “we can put our minds into the head of ‘white dude’, but we can’t put our minds into the head of ‘black teenager’” (40:00).

There was so much more that I couldn’t fit into this post, so I really do recommend listening to at least a portion of this podcast episode (it’s two hours, I know). If anyone does end up listening to this episode, or another, I’d love to discuss it with you!