S1E5 | Body Image: Who Benefits From Our Insecurities?

Disclaimer: Body image can be a sensitive topic and bring up difficult feelings. If you need immediate support, please contact the helplines provided below.

Did the aunties comment on your weight over your Lunar New Year celebrations… and now you’re thinking about whether you should go on a diet or exercise more? Yeah, unfortunately our well meaning loved ones can be a major trigger for body image issues.

Top it up with the lack of body diversity in media, weight stigma in healthcare and fatphobia in society, and it becomes an ongoing battle for many.

Today, we’re going to be spilling the tea on how body image has been weaponised by the ruling class, capitalism and patriarchy to control and oppress us, to the point where we oppress ourselves.

Don’t worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. Vi-An and I also share our own body image struggles and how we’ve healed our relationship with it.

In this episode, we discuss:
🍵 The racial origins of fatphobia, and how it prevails in modern society
🍵 The concerns around the rise of GLP-1s like Ozempic for weight loss
🍵 How tuning out of the external noise and into your body resists oppression and improves body image

Through this hour-long conversation, we hope you’ll remember that the problem was never your body. It’s the systems, structures and stories we’ve been taught.

Please join our listening ritual — brew yourself some hot tea and sip along as we spill the jasmine tea on body image.

P.S. Apologies for Amanda’s binary gendered language at one point of the episode. We aim to be inclusive of diverse genders but sometimes fall short. We'll always learn and do better.

HELPLINES

• Butterfly Foundation National Helpline - 1800 33 4673
• Eating Disorders Australia - 1300 550 236

RESOURCES & LINKS

• “Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia” by Dr Sabrina strings
• Venus of Willendorf
• Reagan Christine - https://www.instagram.com/ragenchastain
• Louise Adams - https://www.instagram.com/untrapped_au
• Amanda Huynh – https://www.instagram.com/heyitsamanda.x/
• Vi-An Nguyen – https://www.instagram.com/antampsychology/