Hannah Marcus - SHOULD ANYTHING REALLY BE TABOO?

Our guest on this episode is Hannah Marcus. Hannah is a cultural researcher and strategist with a deep expertise in the taboo sector and the ways embarrassing and the unspoken impact both individuals and society. 

Hannah joins us on The Day One podcast to share what things in the industry she’d like to see banished to Room 101 forever. The main pet peeves Hannah describes are: Sanitised Taboos, “Hard to Reach” demographics, the phrase “Divide and Conquer” and using social listening as a full solution. Hannah provides meaningful criticism during our conversation, and we hope you enjoy it. 

Key Quotes:

“Should anything really be taboo? We should be comfortable talking about anything, and I think that's the first principle that you start with. I think as I've worked in the space more, we've been finding that actually, it's never quite as simple as that. You never just sort of go ‘let's talk about something’, and then make it not taboo, and then that's it, it's solved forever.” (7:54)“The difference between research that's done into taboo topics where your goal is to look at something that's not been looked at in a lot of detail before, and actually go ‘here are the nuances, here are the things that we haven't heard. This is the lived experience. This is human-centered research'. And then research that's looking into taboo topics where the goal is advocacy and where what you're trying to find is that like soundbite that makes people go ‘hey, I didn't know about that and now I do and I'm shocked and I'm thinking about it and we're sort of calling it out.’ (13:15)“[Essity] are using their adverts to showcase these deep emotional stories and experiences that no one else is talking about in a way that's really creative and really accessible. But then for people who want to look into more detail, you can then go and they've got a whole research report on painful conditions or painful sex that's sort of illustrated with different language and emotions of how to talk about pain. So they're using that adverts to put stuff into the public eye, but then they're also backing up with here's the depth that comes underneath it.” (14:57)“I think that's something that I'm not seeing yet. As more diverse groups get involved, how do you get that really bespoke knowledge for your particular community or your particular needs?” (20:30)“We shouldn't be saying that certain groups are hard to reach because that's almost making it their fault, they live in an inaccessible area, they aren't engaging with the right sort of protocols, and things like that, and therefore that's why we can't provide for them properly. And it's sort of being used as a bit of an excuse and a crutch.” (22:42)“The actual problem that we have is that resources are distributed unequally, that the research and data is not including all of the people that it needs to, and when it does, it's not necessarily putting a lens on it in a way that is necessarily fair to the experiences of the people that are being researched.” (24:45)“If you're talking about those kind of stressful or intimate experiences, people are talking about it online and in really interesting ways. There are some topics that people are not talking about online, or not necessarily more meaningfully than they're talking about it in other ways. And I think we've got a shift from going social for the sake of social, and instead go to ‘is this a conversation that people are having online and where are they having it online and how can we harness that?’” (34:10)

Key Topics: 

Hannah Marcus describes how her career in research and cultural insight started (2:46)She discusses her interest in how is culture affecting society (4:05)Hannah raises the question “Should anything really be taboo?” (7:54)She finds as you make something less taboo, something else becomes more taboo to replace it (8:25)Hannah’s first nomination for Room 101 is “Sanitised Taboos” (9:27)When is something considered a taboo, and when is it just not talked about enough? (12:05)Hannah explores the difference between how taboo something is, and how big the impact of that thing being taboo is (12:25)She discusses navigating nuances in taboo topics (13:15)Hannah shares which companies and brands are doing a great job of breaking taboos and facilitating understanding and shared experience (14:30)She discusses the connection between taboo topics and women’s health and the possible impacts that increased awareness will have for females in the future (16:50)Is technology helping us facilitate conversations about taboo topics? (18:05)Hannah’s second choice for Room 101 is the idea of “Hard to Reach” demographics (22:10)Hannah challenges the terminology around “Hard to Reach” or “Easy to Ignore” and if researchers use it as an excuse (24:00)Discussion around how inclusivity in research can impact results (27:56)Hannah decides her third item for Room 101 is her bugbear, the phrase “Divide and Conquer” (30:40)Hannah challenges how social data is seen as either “everything or nothing” (33:30)Hannah explores the research value in social data, particularly around health-related questions (35:50)It is agreed that “Taboo Topics” should be banished to Room 101 (40:25)

About – Hannah Marcus:

Hannah is a cultural researcher and strategist with a deep expertise in the taboo sector and the ways embarrassing and the unspoken impact both individuals and society. Her work includes explorations and investigations into global health taboos, foundational narratives of incontinence, erectile dysfunction, menopausal experiences, and the language of vaginal pain conditions. Her work on unmet needs in women's health won her the MRS Health Award in 2020, and she continues to explore taboo and hard-to-discuss topics in her role as a trustee at Talking Taboos, which is a charity designed to highlight the impact and solutions of taboos that affect mental and physical health.

Relevant Links:

Hannah Marcus – LinkedInTalking Taboos - https://talkingtaboos.com/Day One - https://www.dayonestrategy.com/Hannah Mann - LinkedInAbigail Stuart – LinkedIn

The Day One podcast is published by the Day One Strategy and produced by Zorbiant.

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