(suspenseful music)
- [Host] In an age of call outs,
culture wars, and perfect facades.
People can be afraid to express how they really feel.
So we brought together seven strangers,
protected their identities
and asked them all seven burning audience questions.
What will be revealed when we take the "Mask Off"?
(suspenseful music)
If the answer is yes, you will flip on your light.
I watch porn.
(suspenseful music)
- [Jessica] Yeah, I do. (laughs)
I don't think I've like ever talked about it
with anyone.
'Cause it's like, I mean,
it's not just something you casually bring up,
like, "Oh yeah, see that one thing?
Yeah, me too."
- [Valerie] I don't really talk about it,
but I started talking about it, like you know,
during quarantine.
Me and my friends,
like it was like, Dave,
like 5,000 in quarantine.
And we were like, "Do you guys watch porn?"
And then we all just said, "Yeah."
And we're all girls.
Like, it's just like,
we might never see daylight again,
might as well like tell each other
like our deepest, darkest secrets.
Yeah. We watch porn.
And like, since I'm in a relationship,
I don't really watch it that much now.
I mean, like when I do watch it,
it's just for educational purposes.
- [Host] I'm gonna bring everyone else
in the conversation now.
- [Chloe] I feel like the whole concept of it
is kind of corrupt.
And it's kind of like, objectifying women.
If men go to,
or women,
go to like the site and they're just seeing pornography,
it's kind of like this idea that women are just objects
because it's for the male pleasure.
I don't even see it as an educational purpose
because it doesn't show
what sex should really mean.
- [Bob] Back in high school, it would be so annoying
because anytime I would wanna wear, like, nerd glasses
for like my style,
I would be called Mia Khalifa all the time.
It's just ridiculous.
Like not every girl with brown hair and brown skin
looks like Mia Khalifa.
It doesn't make any sense.
- [Host] Do you think that hair bodies are attractive?
(suspenseful music)
- [Valerie] Personally me,
I'm not really paying attention to like the body.
I'm paying attention more to the person.
And if you make me laugh, then that's really all I need.
- [Bob] When I was a kid,
I saw this ad for hair removal
and I saw this girl take off her hair on her arm.
And I was like, "No, it looks so pretty."
I thought it was really pretty.
And then growing up, I realized,
"Oh, maybe it's not an attractive thing to society."
So I start shaving it.
And I guess now I'm like,
going back to what I originally thought when I was a kid.
- [Chloe] For me, I find it more,
like cleanliness,
to be clean and I guess have just no hair on your arms.
It's not really a social thing.
Oh, because someone else is doing it, I'm doing it.
It's more of a personal thing.
- [Jazmin] To the like cleanliness thing,
like I can say this 'cause also, like, person of color,
like, also that is something that was like,
pushed onto me, as a Latina.
Like, "Oh you have to be, like, perfect.
And you have to look this way
because how else will men want you?"
Soap still exists.
Like hair doesn't stop soap from cleaning you.
- [Chloe] True.
- [Jazmin] In any way.
And if it grows on you, then that's like natural.
And also like hair
grows in specific places to keep it clean.
Like your vagina and stuff like down there,
hair grows down there to help keep it clean
and to keep stuff out of it.
Having hair doesn't mean you're not clean.
It just means you gotta clean it.
- [Host] I don't like the way I look.
(suspenseful music)
- [Jazmin] Well, I've been getting better at it.
Like learning to, like, accept my body.
Like body neutrality,
not positivity, body neutrality.
Ever since I was like a young girl,
I've always been like on the like chubbier side.
I've always.
I've recently been diagnosed with PCOS,
which basically makes it like,
I have more testosterone in my body
than what is the, like, normal amount,
for like females or women.
In the past like year or so,
I've been doing like a lot better
and like learning to accept myself.
But I still like am not there yet.
- [Bob] I looked up to usually white girls.
That's kind of like,
even now, like, that's who usually
get the hype on TIkTok.
Even on TV, I never really saw anyone who looked like me.
I don't want to be white now, but I'm like,
"Oh I wonder what it would be like if I was white?"
- [Chloe] For me, I have a birthmark on my face.
And so that used to be like a really big insecurity.
I remember people would make fun of me when I was little.
And so my mom used to tell me like,
"Don't feel like that because, like,
you're so much more than just a beauty mark
or a birth mark."
I'm beautiful just like everybody else.
And I have to accept the fact that we're not the same.
Body changes and that's just the way of life.
You can't really outrun yourself.
If you're gonna be stuck with your body and your face
and everything about yourself,
then you might as well love it.
- I agree with you. - Yeah.
- [Jessica] That's a really good mindset.
- [Alex] That's really good.
- [Jessica] Probably try to implement more.
- [Host] Do your parents treat you differently
because of your gender?
(suspenseful music)
- [Jazmin] I mentioned earlier, like,
I come from a Hispanic household, Latino household.
So that means if you are a woman,
you are automatically a house maid (laughs) and a cook.
My brother is, not like a grown man,
but he is in his twenties, 22.
I'm only 17.
And I get tossed a lot more of the housework,
ever since I was a child.
But also emotional labor,
where my mom has literally told me
if something ever happens to her,
then I have to help my stepdad take care of the house.
Not my 22 year old brother,
me, the 17 year old girl.
When she told me the first time, I was only 15.
Having this burden of having to take care of my home
at such a young age
was something that my brother has never had to face,
at least not to the extent that I do.
- [Chloe] I'm so sorry that you feel that way.
- [Jessica] Can I actually turn my one on?
I don't think my parents do it intentionally
and I don't think any of my family does it intentionally.
But when you said that all the girls clean
at your family gatherings,
that has really happened a lot.
So whenever we're cleaning up,
even if it's like, Mother's Day,
the women still plan it, they clean everything.
And it's just kind of like an unspoken rule.
- [Avery] I'm Hispanic as well.
So there's definitely, like, the machismo in the culture,
but in my family, we're just all girls except my dad.
So we all like grew up like sharing roles.
I never felt like a difference between my cousins
that are males.
'Cause they also go to work
and then they share like all the roles.
So my parents like always instilled,
my dad washes dishes,
my mom does too.
So it was like always balanced out
and it never felt different.
- [Alex] I also grew up in a Hispanic household
and I could see the clear difference
in how they treat the boys versus the girls.
Because every time there was a rape allegation,
it was always, "Yeah it's 'cause she wore this."
It was never, "Why did he do this?"
Like they never questioned him.
It was always, "Well, what did she do?"
So, you know, growing up,
I always felt an intense pressure on me to cover up
and stay quiet about, you know,
what happened to me,
with my sexual assault case.
Because you know, I felt like
they were going to blame me for it.
Even though I was seven years old.
- I'm so sorry. - I'm really sorry.
- [Host] Have you ever been in a toxic relationship?
(suspenseful music)
- [Jessica] Yeah, I definitely have. (chuckles)
It was my last relationship.
There was a lot of things he did that was just,
just super disrespectful to me
and I just didn't, I didn't deserve it.
And when he's a grade above me
so when he went off to college,
you know, he cheated on me.
- [Avery] My last relationship led me and my mother
to argue a lot.
And now looking back on it,
I should have, like, listened to her.
She was right.
- Me too. - She was so right.
- [Jessica] My dad, he was,
from the beginning he was like, "I don't like him."
And I was like, "What do you mean?"
- [Avery] Exactly.
It was like that.
And I was like, "No.
You're wrong. You don't know them yet."
- [Alex] I was in a, like, friend circle
with some girls in high school.
I didn't know that
they were talking smack about me behind my back.
They were telling the school
that I was a slut, a prostitute.
But I guess like you said,
it's like the teenage girl drama.
- [Jessica] As toxic as mine was,
I'm kind of glad that I had it
because now I know exactly what to not look for.
Even though it was toxic,
I'm in a weird way, thankful for it.
So I don't have to experience it
when I'm a full on adult 'cause we were like 17, 16.
So, yeah
- [Host] Gender equality is possible in my lifetime.
(suspenseful music)
And that's no one
- [Jazmin] They're planning to take down Roe V. Wade.
Like we haven't even had that for like, what is it,
not even a century.
It seems like we're just going backwards.
And who knows?
Because taking away Roe V. Wade
is taking away your right to privacy,
which can also go into things like right to privacy,
which is the basis of the case
for allowing gay people to get married
or even interracial marriages.
All of those Supreme Court cases were based on privacy.
Right now, it's a very scary time
to just exist, (chuckles)
as anyone, as any version of someone who has been oppressed.
So I just don't think it's possible
in the next lifetime.
- [Alex] Personally, as a woman, you know,
as a Latina woman, you know,
if I have kids in the future, I will treat them all equally.
And I know that's hard outside the world
because there are norms.
But you know, I will teach my kids,
you can be anything and anyone,
as long as you put your mind to it, you know.
I want to break, you know, gendered stereotypes.
- [Jessica] If we want to spark change
it's our responsibility,
just because we are the upcoming generation
and we will be the next legislators
and like Supreme Court justices.
And I think we really do
want to see any sort of change,
like we do have, it's our responsibility,
whether we like it or not.
- [Host] I can't be honest about who I am.
(suspenseful music)
- [Bob] When I was in middle school,
being Muslim,
I was really afraid to tell people I was Muslim
because a lot of people would make terrorist jokes
all the time.
And I would get really embarrassed
when my mom would pick me up
and my grandma, who wears a hijab,
would be sitting in the passenger seat.
And then everybody would look at them and be like,
"Oh, you're Muslim?"
I was just, it was, I can't believe I thought that way.
The things I would do to go back to that
and see my grandma again.
But sometimes I feel like
I wanna wear a head scarf outside
but I get scared that I'll be, like,
I'll get something thrown at me.
And I don't know, it's a fear of mine.
And I know a lot of people, they don't experience that
but I also know some that do.
- [Alex] I've been battling with mental illness,
I am diagnosed with OCD,
PTSD, anxiety.
And I might get tested for bipolar, being bipolar.
You know, growing up, I experienced two murders.
I've experienced sexual assault.
You know, I grew up in South Los Angeles,
which is a violent neighborhood.
So I've seen a lot of dark shit.
And you know, I was sexually assaulted
by my own uncle, like, and my family,
they're right now trying to
understand me,
but they were, you know, in denial.
And a lot of my trauma has really affected me.
I would say OCD really has affected me
because it affects my relationships.
Because a lot of people judge me
when I tell them I have OCD.
And one major thing that people don't understand about me
is I find it gross if you had previous partners.
And a lot of people think it's 'cause I'm misogynistic.
I don't know, what's the word.
But it's not that.
I've talked to my psychiatrist about this.
And she told me that it's the fear of contamination.
I'm battling these inner, you know,
my disease or whatever you wanna call it.
But it's tiring living with OCD
and it's just super damn hard.
- [Valerie] Honestly, all of high school,
I have been happy with who I am.
I met my girlfriend.
She also told me like,
after, like, I fell in love with her and everything.
Like, she told me that her family is really homophobic.
But then she breaks the news like,
oh, like they're homophobic to the point where like,
I can't even like surround myself with gay people.
You know, I love my girlfriend so much
and I want to be around her.
I literally had to go back
into the closet.
That's like a really big shift for me
because I'm out, like, in seventh grade.
And then senior year of high school, I'm shoved back in.
And I know I should, like, remove myself from this
but I really can't because
I'm dating her and not her family.
It just like sucks hearing, like,
all that, like, stuff,
especially 'cause my brother's trans
and all of like my siblings
are literally part of the LGBTQ community.
I know the easiest way is to like break up with her.
But like she did nothing wrong.
Like she's,
she's unlearning everything they taught her.
I even went to her church
and they talk about gay people too.
And it's just sad.
And like, I just think of her going through it alone.
And like, she has to hear that too.
Like, it's not just me taking the hit,
it's also her.
(sniffles) I'm sorry. - No, I'm sorry.
- [Bob] I love talking about different issues,
especially since we're all like around the same age,
I thought it was really cool.
I've never got to experience something like this.
- [Avery] I enjoyed it,
feeling like we could talk about anything and everything
without fear of repercussion.
- [Jessica] I think it was good
to hear everyone else's opinions
to realize that we're not as different as we think we are.
We have a lot in common
and I think that's really comforting.
So I'm really glad to learn
that people have the same ideas as me.
(upbeat tense music)