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Woman's Hour: American comedian, actor, activist and musician Lea DeLaria

16/11/2018

American comedian, actor, activist and musician Lea DeLaria

BBC Radio 4 - Woman's Hour, American comedian, actor, activist and musician Lea DeLaria

Actor Lea DeLaria, Ruth Coppinger & Irish rape case, writer Judy Tate, Leeds and sex work

Comedian and activist Lea DeLaria; Ireland, Ruth Coppinger and underwear in parliament; award-winning writer Judy Tate; Leeds and sex work managed area.

Comedian, actress, activist and musician Lea DeLaria is famous for playing ‘Big Boo’ in ‘Orange Is The New Black’ but she made her name as the first openly gay stand-up on a late night show in America. She joins Jane in the studio to talk about her jazz homage to David Bowie, being butch and the importance of rage. 

This week an Irish politician held up a pair of knickers in Parliament. Ruth Coppinger did it to protest at the way a teenage girl was treated in a rape case. The lawyer for the man accused of raping her, who was found not guilty in the end, told the jury: “You have to look at the way she was dressed. She was wearing a thong with a lace front.” Ruth Coppinger says she used the underwear to highlight “routine victim-blaming.” The unusual gesture has led to a series of protests in Ireland about consent and how women are treated in sexual assault cases. It’s sparked a social media campaign and a washing-line of knickers in Dublin city centre.

Parenting under any circumstances can be tricky – but certain circumstances can make it much, much more challenging. Louise Halling was diagnosed with a form of muscular dystrophy –at 19. It’s a degenerative illness, which causes muscles to waste. She and her husband Mark, have a six-year-old, Jacob. For her, and other mothers with a disability, parenting has all kinds of additional hurdles to overcome - which are not often really acknowledged or widely discussed.  

Courage Everywhere is the National Theatre’s four day nod to the 100th anniversary of the first women in the UK gaining the right to vote. This evening’s play-reading, In The Parlour, is set in March, 1913 in the US: a discussion between two women, divided by race, the night before the first suffrage demonstration, the African-American women are not being allowed to march with the white female suffragists. Award-winning writer, Judy Tate joins Jane explains the significance of this historical event.

Since 2014, Holbeck in Leeds has been a ‘managed area’ for sex work, meaning that sex workers are able to operate between certain hours without being prosecuted. But recent outcry from local residents has led to an independent review of the approach. So what does a managed area mean for the safety and rights of sex workers? Jane is joined by Professor Teela Sanders, criminologist from University of Leicester and Gemma Scire, from Basis Yorkshire.


Presenter: Jane Garvey
Producer: Kirsty Starkey

Interviewed Guest: Ruth Coppinger
Interviewed Guest: Susan Dillon
Interviewed Guest: Lea DeLaria
Interviewed Guest: Louise Halling 
Interviewed Guest: Judy Tate
Interviewed Guest: Gemma Scire
Interviewed Guest: Teela Sanders
Reporter: Catherine Carr

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

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