Do you guys celebrate Twitter?
-(chuckling) -WOMAN: Yeah.
-Okay. Well... -(man whoops)
Anyway, um, Twitter announced today
they have a new feature that they're gonna be rolling out.
It's like a paid subscription. It's called Twitter Blue.
And basically you pay, I think, it's three dollars a month
and they'll give you, like, top-tier features
such as you can, like, redo a tweet
but within 30 seconds of-of writing it.
Which I know some of you right now are like,
"Trevor, are they making us pay three dollars
just to, like, wait?" Yeah.
You're paying three dollars for, like--
It's just like a m-- Like, if you read your own tweets
before you send them, you don't need this feature.
But if you're the kind of person who, like,
is prone to, like, sending tweets
and then being like "Ah!" immediately,
then this is a great feature for you.
I should-- I should-- Sometimes I scroll Twitter
and then I'm like, "What am I doing here?"
If they paid me three dollars a month,
then I'd be like, "Ah, this-- What am I doing here?
Yes, I get paid. All right." Then I scroll.
I would do it. I think there's just other ways to make money.
It's still better than Facebook though, so...
-♪ ♪ -ANNOUNCER: Coming to you from the heart of Times Square
in New York City, the only city in America,
it's The Daily Show.
Tonight,
Christmas comes too early.
Are bees racist?
And Emily Ratajkowski.
This is The Daily Show with Trevor Noah!
Hey! What's going on, everybody?
Welcome to The Daily Show. I am Trevor Noah.
Joining me for today's headlines
is the one and only Ronny Chieng.
-How you doing, Ronny? -Hey! I'm good.
Thanks for having me back in here. Finally.
Nice comfy seat.
What do you mean, "finally," like you were waiting?
Yeah. I mean, I've been waiting all week to get asked back.
It's hard to get invite to this goddamn show.
There's no invite. There's just, like, different people
and then, like, you guys, like... You know?
Try to mess around. Yeah, I get it. Yeah, yeah.
Thanks for giving me the comfy seat though.
No one ever gets the comfy seat.
Because I'm special. Right, Trevor?
It's also the other seat was out to be cleaned,
-so... -All right. Well... (chuckles)
-You look good in it though. -Well-- Thank you. Yeah.
-You look very good. I like that. -Could use a cigar
-and a scotch though, but, I mean... -No.
No smoking or drinking on the show.
All right, let's get into today's headlines.
♪ ♪
We're gonna get to the big news from Washington
and around the world, but let's kick things off
with a story about Christmas.
It's the reason you let the fat man from the mall
break into your house.
Every year, people complain
about it coming earlier and earlier.
But, this year,
someone is doing something about it, finally.
NEWSMAN: Someone posted a photo of a sign from a Texas bar.
It says, in all caps,
"Mariah Carey's 'All I Want for Christmas Is You'
will be skipped if played before December 1" on the jukebox.
"After December 1, the song is only allowed
one time per night."
I don't hate Mariah Carey, and I don't hate Christmas.
NEWSWOMAN: But the general manager of Stoneleigh P says
customers play Mariah's megahit too often
and too soon before Christmas.
NEWSWOMAN 2: One person tweeted, "Is this the war on Christmas
I've heard about?"
The star responded with a photo of herself in body armor,
ready for battle.
Yeah, you better believe she's ready for battle.
This song gets her a new mansion every year.
You better back the (bleep) off.
And people shouldn't blame Mariah Carey
that her song is so popular.
Really, what we should be pissed off at
is all the classic Christmas songs for being so trash.
That's why everyone has to play Mariah Carey all the time.
Like "Deck the halls with boughs of holly"?
What is that? That's not a carol.
Those are just instructions.
And what about "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus"?
That kid is watching his parents' marriage fall apart,
and that's supposed to put me in the holiday spirit?
And don't forget "Silent Night."
You know how hard it is to have sex to that song?
Like, I mean, I've done it, but it's work.
-This is trash. -Yeah.
You don't want to mess with, uh, American pop star fan bases,
-by the way. People go pretty crazy with that stuff. -Yeah.
Like, one time, I forgot to put the apostrophe
on Beyoncé's name,
and the Beyhive came on my Instagram hard.
They just kept coming, man.
Like, they're not like your fans.
You know what I mean? Your fans are, like, pussies.
Like, I can talk shit about you all day,
no one ever comes after me.
I-I don't know. I think they get pretty angry
-if you say things. -Oh, I don't know. I mean,
we can try right now. I mean, Trevor,
enough with the book already.
'Kay? We get it. You were born a felon
or you murdered someone as a baby.
Okay? We got it. Enough.
Enough with the apartheid stuff.
All right? It's very depressing.
Come at me. Come after me, Trevorheads.
Or what do you call your fan base?
Afrikans. With a-- with a "K,"
so it's not racist.
Or maybe it makes it more racist. I don't know.
Just come after me, guys.
They're gonna come for you, Ronny.
They're not coming for me. They're not like...
-They'll come for you. -They're not like Mariah Carey fans.
I-I hope my fans are.
-They're gonna come for you. -No, they don't care.
And they're gonna make you regret what you said
and they're gonna ask you to apologize.
Come at me, guys. I'm right here.
@ronnychieng.
All right, let's move on from the war against Mariah Carey
to the war against COVID.
Governments around the world are using
every tool at their disposal to convince holdouts
to get vaccinated.
They're offering them money,
they're laying down mandates,
they're threatening to ban them from the NFL Hall of Fame.
And now Singapore
has decided to hit the unvaccinated
where it hurts most,
their wallets.
One country will no longer foot the bill
for unvaccinated patients.
Singapore says anyone who is unvaccinated by choice
will not get free COVID treatment.
Right now, the government is paying for treatment
for any resident who is sick with COVID.
85% of eligible people in Singapore are fully vaccinated.
The governor says people who don't want to be vaccinated
make up the bulk of new cases and hospitalizations.
Ooh. Singapore isn't messing around.
In America, if you say you don't want the vaccine,
the government is like, "Please. Please take the vaccine!
Please! We'll give you money!"
Singapore is like, "Okay, okay, it's gonna be like that?
"Oh, well, you best bring your checkbook to the hospital then,
because these ventilators are by the hour, bitch!"
They really don't mess around in Singapore, man.
Don't forget, this is the same country
that'll cane your ass just for littering.
They're like the parents down the block
that actually do the shit that you threaten your kids with.
You're just like, "Don't make me count to three!"
Then you look out the window,
and Singapore is stuffing their kid into a cannon.
"I told you, the toilet roll goes over, not under!"
And, look, I understand the argument here.
Why shouldn't you have to pay
for your preventable health problems?
I mean, would it be fair for you to pay the same rates
as the guys from Jackass?
Most people don't have to be treated
for being rolled down a mountain in a Porta Potti.
It's not fair.
But at the same time, though, it is a slippery slope,
because using that logic,
should alcoholics pay for their own liver transplant?
Should overweight people pay for their heart medication?
Should New York Jets fans have to pay
for their own anti-depressants?
Where do you draw the line?
Hmm? It's a sticky situation.
Yeah, but in Singapore... Trevor, I don't think
people realize, Singapore is saying
that if you don't take the COVID vaccine,
you have to pay for your COVID treatment,
which is a huge deal in Singapore
because Singapore essentially has universal health care.
So for them to come out and say,
"You are going to pay for your own stuff.
"If you don't take the COVID vaccine,
we're going to treat you like an American."
-That's huge. -That's...
That's a punishment in Singapore?
In Singapore, being treated like an American
in the health care system is the biggest punishment
-you could give someone. -Damn.
So you're gonna have to worry about your co-pays,
you're gonna have to look at your disbursements.
You have to call Blue Cross Blue Shield.
You have to find someone in network.
In Singapore, we just...
The health care system just works.
Like, we never... You know, I...
I can't explain this in five seconds
so no one's gonna care.
But essentially, it takes, like, free-market principles
and socialist principles and combines them together.
All they care about is efficiency in Singapore.
They don't politicize solutions.
Which is why it's so weird in America where everything...
I never even heard the word "socialism" until I got here.
I mean, we just care about inputs versus outputs.
-You know what I mean? -Um, I mean, I hear you.
I was in Singapore, and they...
That explains a lot of, like, everything there.
Yeah, it's all about efficiency.
-It's just extremely efficient. -Yeah.
What is the best thing? And then they do it.
Yeah. We don't care about labeling stuff.
We're not about labels. Just go for it.
But then, that's weird, because, like,
you've spent a lot of time living in Singapore,
-and you-you label me all the the time. -Yeah, but that's...
We're in America. That's why I came here for--
to label things and people.
Oh, so, in Singapore, you'd be nicer to me?
Oh, 100%, yeah. This wouldn't have even...
We couldn't even do this show in Singapore.
-We'd be arrested immediately. -(laughter)
In Singapore, you'll live forever,
-but you'll have way less fun. Yeah. -Okay.
All right, well, before we move to Singapore,
let's move, uh, to Washington, D.C.
You know, it's like Washington Marvel, but not as good.
Over the weekend, after months of fighting
between liberal and moderate Democrats,
the House finally passed
America's biggest infrastructure bill in decades.
It's gonna do things like repair America's crumbling bridges,
fix America's crumbling roads, and vacuum up the mess
from America's crumbling Nature Valley granola bars.
Who make those things? Why don't they never stick together?
It's like you don't have any... Anyway...
And even though this bill was mostly passed along party lines,
it wouldn't have gotten through
if 13 Republicans hadn't voted for it, too.
Which a lot of their fellow Republicans
are now really pissed about.
In fact, Donald Trump said the Republicans who voted
to fix America's infrastructure should be ashamed of themselves.
And Marjorie Taylor Greene, she called them traitors
who are helping the "communist takeover of America."
Which I know sounds crazy, but think about it:
how are Soviet tanks going to invade America
over the newly refurbished roads and bridges.
That's why you got to keep your infrastructure broken.
It's called homeland security, people.
But for some Republicans who helped to pass
the infrastructure bill, those comments from Trump and Greene
were actually the nicer ones.
One member of Congress says he's been harassed
for actually trying to deliver for folks back home.
Congressman Fred Upton was one of just 13 Republicans
to vote for the president's infrastructure bill last week.
Partly thanks to Upton's vote,
more than $10 billion will head to Michigan
to help fix those lead pipes, along with bridges and roads.
Despite that, one of Upton's constituents
left him this voice mail.
And they say political discourse is dead.
You know, I know this is terrible,
but if you look at the bright side,
he's just saying things that are eventually going to happen.
We are all going to die.
All our families are going to die.
So on a long enough timeline, he's just stating facts.
At the same time, though,
I will admit this is really disturbing.
Because what kind of person leaves voice mails anymore?
Yo, that shit is creepy.
Just write that shit on Insta comments
like a normal person.
What's amazing to me about this situation
is that this partisan anger, it's happening
over an infrastructure bill, people.
Infrastructure! I mean, I would get it
if the new roads they were building
all led to an abortion clinic,
or if they were adding special carpool lanes
that were just for nonbinary people.
But it's just fixing things for everybody.
So I don't get the anger.
I mean, this dude was so furious, by the end of it,
he was running out of people to threaten.
I hope your family dies and your staff dies
and y-your friends from college
and the guy at Starbucks who knows your order,
I hope he dies.
I hope my family dies and you feel guilty about it.
Goddamn it!
You know, sadly, this is the climate
that public officials have to deal with these days.
Congress members are receiving so many threats
that now they're just gonna have to change their call menu.
Yeah, it's gonna be, like: To ask a question, press one.
For office hours and address, press two.
To tell your representatives to go (bleep) themselves,
out of their (bleeping), press three.
Trevor, I think you're misunderstanding here.
That guy was just speaking American.
He was just saying:
I wish you would read the details of the bill,
because we believe that the states should decide
where the funding should go
instead of the federal government.
Like, I'll speak American to you right now.
-Okay. -(bleep) you. (bleep) your family.
I hope you die. I hope they die.
What I was really saying in American is,
"Can you come over for Thanksgiving?
-I'd really love to have you." -Wow.
Am I invited to Thanksgiving?
Yeah, of course, (bleep) you, yeah.
Okay, cool.
Now, while most of Congress is arguing over infrastructure
and social services, Josh Hawley, senator from Missouri
and that guy at your high school reunion
who keeps telling everyone how much his watch cost,
has his eye on some much, much bigger balls.
"Men are no longer men."
That is the lament of Republican senator Josh Hawley,
who is really trying to make masculinity a political issue.
The left wing attack on manhood says to men:
you're part of the problem.
It says that your masculinity is inherently problematic,
it's inherently oppressive.
As conservatives, we've got to call men back to responsibility.
We've got to say that spending your time not working--
and we have more and more men who are not working--
spending your time on video games,
spending your time watching porn online while doing nothing
is not good for you, your family or this country.
Okay, first of all,
working and watching porn
are not mutually exclusive.
Plenty of men have figured out how to do it.
It's called multitasking, Senator.
And, honestly, I'm surprised
that Josh Hawley is criticizing porn,
'cause that's the last place
that upholds traditional gender roles.
It's always a pizza delivery guy or a pool boy
while the women are cast in traditional feminine roles,
like stepmom, stepsister or step-cheerleader.
And don't get me wrong. Don't get me wrong.
There is an argument to be made about the negative effects
of excessive porn and video games on society,
but to blame it on the left-wing attack on manhood?
Yo, that shit is ridiculous.
You know why people are watching more porn?
Because it's too easy now.
Do you know how much effort it took
to watch porn back in the day?
You couldn't just pull it up on your phone.
Couldn't just type something into your laptop. No.
You had to ask to borrow a sticky, old magazine
from your older brother's cousin's friend.
And he buried it in a secret spot out in the woods,
so you're out there in the woods trying to find this magazine,
covered in dirt, fending off chipmunks and owls.
You get lost out there because you don't have an iPhone yet.
So now you're wandering around the woods. You're hungry.
But all you brought with you was the lotion.
So now you're eating the lotion.
And finally, you give up on finding the magazine.
You just rub one out to the hottest tree you can find.
Is that the dignity you're talking about, Senator Hawley?
I nearly died in those woods, man.
I nearly died.
Yeah, Trevor, this is...
This guy is talking about how porn is disgusting
like someone who just finished jerking off to porn.
You know what I mean? Like, give him 15 minutes.
-(laughs) -He'll be back on the po...
He'll be like, "You know what?
You know, porn, sometimes it's okay."
Also, I'm so confused once again in America.
Is this the country of freedom or not?
It's like, we're free to take the vaccine if we want,
but we... we're not allowed to jerk off
and play video games? What is freedom for, then?
I mean, also, this guy, like... He's talking...
He's also blaming left-wing people
for video games and porn?
It's not like...
Like, it's not like Bernie Sanders is going,
"We need free college tuition,
"free health care
and to yank it to these hos."
That would be a great switch for Bernie. I'm not gonna front.
-Yeah. I mean... -He would surprise people
if that's what he came out and said.
I know. It's just so confusing.
And look. And look, by the way, i-if Senator Hawley thinks
that men aren't learning responsibility
because they're playing video games,
on the other hand, like, maybe the solution
isn't to spend less time gaming.
Maybe the real solution
is to make games that teach men better lessons.
MAN: From the studio that brought you Grand Theft Auto
and that horse version of Grand Theft Auto
comes Grand Theft Minivan,
the game that teaches you
to be a responsible husband and father.
You'll learn about the dignity of a hard day's work.
Having a job is its own reward.
MAN: The responsibilities of raising a family.
Buckle up, Frankie. We're taking a shortcut.
MAN: And how to resist pornography and casual sex.
You're a disappointment to me and Senator Josh Hawley.
MAN: Grand Theft Minivan.
Rated "M" for masculine.
All right, when we come back, Dulcé Sloan is gonna try
to not get stung by bees. You don't want to miss it.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
There are a lot of stereotypes
about what Black people in America like
and what they do.
Well, Dulcé Sloan wants to break down those stereotypes
in our brand-new segment
the Black Monomyth.
♪ ♪
SLOAN: I'm meeting with Kham and Summer Johnson,
who are raising a family and...
(shudders) killer bees.
I'm going to follow them for the day
to mainly find out why.
Why in God's name not leave this honey farming
with death boxes to white people?
All right, fine.
I'm here. I don't know where I'm at.
-(chuckling) -What's the first step
in this beekeeping situation?
SUMMER: This is your first step.
-Wear what? -This will keep you safe.
I'm supposed to be safe in this laundry hamper?
-Yeah. -Keep the bees off your face.
-No problem. -Keep you cool.
SLOAN: Mm.
I think one of the reasons Black people
haven't gotten into beekeeping is because of the outfit.
No. They're bland and boring.
So I put my own together.
You know, I just wanted to wear something, like, low-key,
slightly embellished. Just, you know, real simple.
(ding)
Whoa! That-That's a bee suit.
Right! A little a pop, little razzle-dazzle.
SUMMER: I mean, you look like a big flower.
They might try to pollinate you.
-She's gonna get stung. -All right.
Now, as Black people,
we're in a constant state of danger, right?
What made y'all want to be in more danger?
So, we moved out to the suburbs
when Zach, our second child, was five years old.
He had really bad seasonal allergies.
He struggled with asthma.
We'd be in the emergency room,
you know, a couple times a year.
And so, we wanted something natural
instead of pumping his body full of steroids and medicine.
And so, we read about raw honey.
Right? The anti-inflammatory properties,
how good it was for him. We said, "You know what?"
"We got some land.
Let's experiment with beehives."
-And we got hooked. -Hold up. Hold up.
Hold up. Hold up. Hold up.
That kind of jump nobody makes.
Right? Like, you're not like,
"Oh, my kid is lactose intolerant.
Let me start an almond farm."
It actually worked. He had, no, like, allergies
or asthma after.
We cured him in a year's worth of honey.
SLOAN: Turns out if you have seasonal allergies,
local raw honey has healing properties
with allergens native to your area.
Over time, a person may become less sensitive to that pollen.
So basically, raw honey saves lives.
That's cheaper than health insurance.
Like I've been saying from the beginning,
more Black people definitely need to get in on this.
There's more Black people in beekeeping than you think.
-SUMMER: Yeah. -It's predominantly white,
but it's changing.
SLOAN: Okay, so there's y'all and...?
Dozens. We know dozens of beekeepers.
-Every state... -A dozen is only 12.
Well, that's fair.
So, what is the reason that, like,
beekeepers, for the most part, are white?
KHAM: I mean, there's a lot of, like...
There's a lot of, like, systemic reasons of, like, access to,
like, land, and I mean, you do need some space
to beekeep, and so, uh, you know...
We always admonish African Americans
to buy in the country, too.
-Uh-huh. -So they'll have more land,
and there's more agriculture going on.
-So land and racism. Got it. All right. -Yeah.
If sacrificing myself will inspire others
in the Black community to become beekeepers,
then I'm ready to meet these bugs with dagger butts.
But mainly, I'm doing this because I'm stuck
in the middle of Nowhere, New Jersey,
and can't get a Uber home.
Well, it's a good thing your son wasn't allergic
to electricity, or y'all would be the first Black Amish people.
All right, hold up, hold up.
This is too many bees. I'm not comfortable.
This doesn't feel like a safe space.
How do you make them, like, calm down?
-Smoke. -Um... yeah.
-That will keep you safe. -Yeah. Some put lavender in it.
SLOAN: So it's, like, flavored soap.
These bees are just vaping?
Yeah, so it simulates, like, a forest fire, right?
So they're distracted from us. The intruders are thinking...
-"How do I get out?" -"How do I get out of this?"
And they just get calm.
So the smoke makes them think that their hive is on fire.
-But they get calm about it. -Yeah, 'cause if my apartment
was on fire, I'd be real calm.
It sounds insane!
My only knowledge of bees is that a swarm of them
killed Macaulay Culkin in My Girl.
-Yo, man, (bleep) this. -So if they'd all do that
to a little white boy, I don't know what they would do
to a grown Black woman.
-Ready? -We're opening the box?
Yes. One... two...
SLOAN: They look like they're getting mad.
-Three. Let's do it. -(Sloan screams)
-It's dripping! - Smoke them, smoke them, that's your job.
-Nice. -Keep them smoked.
-See? You're doing good? -Yes, girl!
-You're doing great. See? -Calm them down.
-See all this honey here? -Oh, they just busted out the frame.
But see how calm they are? See, you're not gonna get stung.
If they were aggressive,
they'd be stinging the front of your veil.
Oh, so if they're mad, they go for the face?
-They go for the face. -Yeah, the face.
-Aah! -So, you want to look for the queen
in the bottom chamber.
You want to make sure the hive is healthy and those bees
can go off to another hive and find a queen, or vice versa.
Well, yeah, you got to take care of the queen first
in any situation.
That's why my doorman gives me my packages
before anybody else in the building.
It's kind of obvious that she's not, like...
aware of beekeeping at all.
Um, so, can you tell me more about their bee-havior?
See what I did there?
Now, isn't honey just regurgitated?
SUMMER: Bee vomit. Yeah, it's bee vomit.
Hey, America, honey is bee vomit.
-(chuckles) -Did you know that?
So, now we'll... Now we'll...
We'll go... We'll take this one and go in there and harvest,
and we'll show you how to extract it.
SLOAN: What began as a beautiful story
of parental love has blossomed
into a trailblazing Black-owned business.
-SUMMER: This is pure yumminess. -SLOAN: Mmm!
-SUMMER: What do you think? -It's really good.
And it has been inspiring to see
the symbiotic relationship that has formed
between humans and nature.
Just keep me away from the (bleep) bees.
So, young Zachary,
you see that your parents have done all of this,
and they got a whole bunch of death boxes in the back.
They worked very hard to keep you alive, young man.
What do you plan to do with your life?
I mean, I already, like, try to pitch in
and do the most I can for the honey and for the business.
Okay. What have they done for you?
(laughs) Well, my name is on it, too.
It's Zach and Zoë,
-so this business is for me, too. -KAM: Yes!
Listen, our-our hope through this whole thing
is that we've inspired, uh, more people to be beekeepers,
-especially more people of color to keep bees. -Yes.
-Mind your beeswax. -The puns.
SUMMER: To everybody. Black, white, green, purple.
-KAM: Uh, anybody who reaches out. -SUMMER: Yeah.
We're willing to help. Help them get started,
help them...
Point them in the right direction,
talk about the books, the beekeeping clubs.
-If Dulcé can do it, you can do it. -SUMMER: Yeah.
I really hope we made a beekeeper out of her.
-You know? -I think we did, right?
-She's not too far from us. -No! Changed my mind!
-No. No. -SLOAN: It's trash! (screams)
Thank you so much for that, Dulcé. All right,
when we come back, Emily Ratajkowski
will be joining me on the show, so don't go away.
Welcome back to The Daily Show.
My guest tonight is a supermodel,
actor, entrepreneur and debut author,
Emily Ratajkowski.
She's here to discuss her new collection of essays
about empowerment and our culture's commodification
of women.
Emily, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me.
This is one of the most interesting
and complicated books I've ever read about the subject.
(chuckles) Okay.
No, because when-when I read it--
I think a lot of people, you know,
fell in love with your writing, it was for, um...
-Was it New York magazine? -Yeah.
Right. And it was an interesting take
on a subject that we thought we knew everything about, you know.
What does it mean to be a model?
If you're a model, then it means you feel a certain way
about your body. You love everything about the industry.
But from the book and from everything you've written,
it seems like it's really complicated, no?
It's really complicated, um, not just about the industry
but I think for women in general.
Um, there's a sort of negotiation you do
with how you want to represent your body
in the world as a woman every day.
Um, and I think that's sort of what I'm interested in.
Obviously, my experience as a model, um,
which is an industry built on the way you look,
is very specific.
But I think every woman can relate
to the experience of getting dressed and knowing,
you know, sort of the negotiation
of how tight do I want my shirt to be?
How, you know, much do I want to cover up?
And how am I gonna use my sexuality
to my advantage or-or not?
I think that's one of the-the most intriguing parts
of the book, you know?
And I hope-- I hope a lot of men read it as well.
Because some might think,
"Oh, okay, it's My Body. This is a ladies' book and..."
But-but it's really just a book from a woman's perspective
on-- and-and I like how you say in the book--
I'll paraphrase it-- the lenses through which your body
-is seen through. -Mm.
-You know? -Yeah, the mirrors. The many mirrors.
-The many mirrors that... -Yeah. No, I definitely hope
a lot of men, um, read it.
And I was really happy when the-the New York magazine piece
came out, which was taken from the book proposal,
um, how many men read it and connected to it.
So...
So, let's talk about the journey of being a model.
I mean, everyone goes, "If you're a model,
-it means you want men to stare at your body." -Mm-hmm.
Right? That's-that's the assumption.
Someone might say, "Well, Emily, how can you ever say
"that there shouldn't be a commodification of the body
"if you yourself make money from a body
that is shown in a certain way?"
How do you explain that to somebody?
How do you... how do you even get into those conversations
-with something that is so nuanced? -Yeah.
And it's almost a paradox.
Um, well, I mean, I think I'm criticizing capitalism,
ultimately, um, and I'm not saying
that women's bodies shouldn't be commodified.
I think that's it's just the system that we work within.
Um, and I would never fault a young woman
for trying to capitalize off of her body or her image.
I think that, you know, there's...
I'm here talking to you right now about my book.
-There's undeniable power that can come with that. -Right.
For a long time, I believed that that was just empowerment,
and that was just feminism, and it's more complicated than that.
Um, and that's what I'm exploring in this book.
I don't think there's answers to, you know,
this is, uh... this is positive, this is negative.
-It's more complicated. -How do you think
you will know when you found it?
Like, when will Emily say, "You know what? This is it.
"I've completely claimed myself.
I've owned my image, I've owned my likeness"?
What do you think that means for you?
I mean, control is a huge factor,
um, and I think contr...
You know, empowerment is a word
-that just gets thrown around so much. -Right.
Um, but I feel like I don't even know
what it means totally anymore, um,
because power is such a complicated thing.
I mean, is empowerment a feeling, or is it, you know,
the resource that you gain from, you know,
financial success or influence?
Um, but I will say that the... the closest I've ever come
to kind of really understanding that word is
through writing this book, um,
not sort of through modeling.
That hasn't felt like the place where I've had the most control.
Um, but being able to write these...
to create something, really, just in general,
um, is incredibly empowering.
I think a lot of people will be particularly interested
-in, um, your essay about "Blurred Lines." -Mm.
-You know, that, as you say, was your big break. -Mm-hmm.
This was the moment when you were in the Robin Thicke video,
and everyone was like, "Who's that girl?
-This is amazing, this is the moment." -Yeah.
And for a long time, you know, it felt like your relationship
with the video was a positive one.
Was, like, you saying, "Yes, this is me
celebrating my empowerment, I'm doing what I want to do."
Over the years, it feels like you have taken
a different stance to it, or your views on it have evolved
in terms of what you should or shouldn't have done.
Talk me through that, and, like,
what do you think you would have changed or what do you hope
would change going forward in that type of situation?
'Cause I'm assuming you don't want to live in a world
where you say to women, "Oh, don't be naked
-if you want to be naked." -No.
But at the same time what you're saying is
be careful of how or when or who decides when you're naked.
(sighs) I don't even know if that's what I'm saying.
I mean, I think that it's more, um,
you know, we're now having a conversation around OnlyFans,
and I think it's actually a really great parallel
-Mm-hmm. -to my experience on the Blurred Lines set,
where you have this moment where woman are saying,
okay, revenge porn exists.
-Right. -I know that there's this way, you know,
that I can lose control over images of my body,
personal images.
Let me try to find a way where I can benefit from this.
-Right. -That being said, what we watched with OnlyFans
was, you know, somebody decided, probably mostly men,
said, "We want to clean up this brand,"
and all of a sudden all these women didn't have access
to making money, so they were actually the ones in power.
And I think that my essay about Blurred Lines
is really more, not about what women should do,
but about how to be-- or how we can be aware
of the power dynamics that are at play.
So, and that example, when I was 21, you know,
I was talking about that video, and I felt pretty defiant.
I was, like, I felt great. I was surrounded by women,
compared to other jobs that I was doing at the time,
where I was essentially a mannequin--
it was, like, front of the shirt,
side of the shirt, back of the shirt.
Having a great time.
People asked me how I felt. I had fun.
But ultimately, when somebody crossed the line
or something inappropriate happened,
we weren't in a place of... a position of power
to say anything, because we were on the clock.
And, you know, Robin Thicke was... it was his music video.
So as much as I, you know, felt like I was being powerful
and it was my choice, that wasn't just...
it wasn't just that simple.
And that's the reality that I want to talk about.
So, so, when you look at that...
You know, one of the things I struggle with
is trying to figure out how we process
time and our opinions on what we experienced
-or how we view things through the lens of time. -Yeah.
When you look at somebody like Robin Thicke
for that video specifically,
where do you think more responsibility could have been?
What do you think could have been different from his side?
Or do you think he should also be afforded an opportunity
to say, "Oh, I thought everyone was having fun,
and now I would do things differently"?
I think that I'm really not interested
in blaming individuals.
-Uh-huh. -I think that we live in a culture
that allows a lot of these situations to occur.
Um, even just...
Um, not in professional settings but on dates.
Um, and that's-- again, not to beat the horse--
um, but, you know, power dynamics.
That's what I'm interested in talking about
and really revealing,
um, because I think that, you know, in some ways,
uh, maybe that was like an-an attempt
at leveling the power for him.
-Right, right. -Um, and I think we need to look
at, you know, how this culture is bad
-for both men and women. -Hmm.
I love it. Um, congratulations on the book.
-Thank you. -Congratulations on a healthy little baby.
-Thank you so much for having me. -And, uh, congratulations
-on being back on the catwalk. -(chuckles) Thank you.
My Body the book is available now
wherever books are sold. We're gonna take a quick break,
but we'll be right back after this.
Well, that's our show for tonight.
But before we go, Thanksgiving is one of the busiest times
for the Feeding America network of food banks and meal programs,
and their mission
is to bring nourishing food to people in need.
If you would like to support them in their work,
then please donate at the link below
and help to make the holidays brighter for your neighbors.
Until tomorrow, stay safe out there.
Get your vaccine, and remember:
instead of watching porn, why don't you get a job.
A job watching porn.
Now, here it is, Your Moment of Zen.
Is that a real job?
Can I get a job?
♪ ♪
NEWSMAN: We're seven weeks away from Christmas.
Some people already kind of kicking
the Christmas spirit into overdrive.
NEWSWOMAN: Is it too early for Christmas decorations?
I'm just gonna on and put this out there.
-It's too soon. It's too soon right now. -Put it out.
-I might have to respectfully disagree. -Ooh!
I think you're pushing it if it's before Thanksgiving.
-You do? -You think so? -You think?
-Talking about Christmas decorations? -Yeah!
Man, I saw Christmas decorations and Halloween decorations
at the same time,
and I thought... I didn't know what to do.
-That's right. -Jayme, what about you? You putting up, uh,
-any Christmas, uh, decorations at all? -No.
-Nothing for the kiddos? Nothing. -Not-not yet.
-Maybe at their mom's house. -Yeah.