Hello and welcome to this special episode. I’m Pang Ying, with Zhan Qingyun beside me. With International Women’s Day approaching, Vistopia’s editors invited us to record this rather unexpected special.

The assigned theme is that women are the ‘second sex,’ disadvantaged relative to men. Beyond gender, however, anyone can become a second sex or disadvantaged group in a particular setting. How should we understand this, and face predicaments any of us may encounter?

01:05The veil of ignorance helps us approach predicaments we can scarcely experience ourselves.

02:31Events still unfold within a patriarchal hierarchy, beginning with scenes of returning home for Lunar New Year.

06:46Have women’s contributions to the family suddenly ceased to count?

09:26Whatever my achievements, I refuse to play the patriarchal game.

11:34People begin from themselves, so different people judge differential-treatment policies very differently.

15:08Reasoning bias: anything unlike oneself is assumed bad or second-best.

21:30Race and nationality can make someone accustomed to being first experience life as second.

24:44Prejudice toward a group often comes from seeing too few of its members.

26:48Another source is whether society gives that group enough opportunity to display its possibilities and diversity.

29:31Labels created by society can be broken.

32:23Unless I imagine myself becoming vulnerable or a minority in some aspect of life, my fortunate days make it hard to accept a different society—one that actively cares for the weak.

39:02Only by staying at the table and displaying women’s diversity can we break the stereotypes attached to women.