Jennifer Crawford - The Stakes of Authenticity

Jennifer Crawford is a gender creative queer who I could happily gush about for the entirety of this episode. We first met cooking for an organization called Sistering in Toronto, which does critical work with women and trans people who are predominantly street entrenched and fleeing violence. You’ll hear that story upfront. (I promise, it’s a warm one.) Jennifer is also the first queer winner of MasterChef Canada, and—wait for it—a professional wrestler who goes under the moniker of Moon Miss. BOTH of which make it super easy for us to talk about the inherent multi-dimensionality that comes with being a person (period), and that leads us right into talking about the trauma that first causes any of us to mask, and the secondary trauma that comes from the pain of masking. It’s a lot of uncovering. "There's a lot of peace in learning how your mind works and giving yourself that permission slip to treat the stakes as high as they are. When I think about authenticity, it's not something I think about a lot in terms of like, ‘Oh, am I being authentic?’ I think about the stakes being so high—and they are for so many. It's not just a thing we do for clout online. It is a thing we do to survive, and connect with other people, so that we can thrive together.” - Jennifer Crawford. Take that in. And get ready to feel a whole lot of permission.