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The Rise of Skinny Culture (Again) · Pop Culture Junkie®

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♪ Entertain me, entertain me right now ♪
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- Hello and welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie podcast.
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I'm Olivia.
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- And I'm Shauna.
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- And we are back with another special episode.
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Shana and I are fresh off of Pride Weekend,
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having a simply lovely time.
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And so before we get into today's episode,
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I just wanna take you on a little adventure with us.
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- Shana, how was your first
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San Francisco Pride?
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- It was so much fun.
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Yes, it was a wonderful weekend.
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We have plans for next year too
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to actually go to the parade, I think.
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But I'm okay that we missed it this year
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because we just went, we saw a drag,
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we just have multiple drag queens.
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Lots of drag artists.
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We went to a punk rock drag show.
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We were married.
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It was a lovely weekend.
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And the weather was just gorgeous.
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Lots of whimsy.
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- Very whimsical weekend.
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- Whimsical weekend.
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- Yeah, it was so fun.
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So you guys have probably heard me talk about it before,
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but I go to this bar all the time in my neighborhood.
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It's like a punk bar.
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And every single time Shana has been in town,
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they do not actually have a punk or a metal or a rock show
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going on.
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It's always like a DJ event.
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- It was like a live night one night, which was fun.
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But, or disco, I'm like, didn't you say multiple times
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as this is a punk rock bar?
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- Yeah.
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- I'm like a promise.
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And then it was so fun.
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We were front row the whole time.
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- Yeah, it was front row.
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- The drive queens and kings were lovely.
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They were amazing.
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And so it was really just such a fun event.
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And then yeah, we took Shana and Stephanie to Dolores
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for Sunday.
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We did miss the parade, but the parade is quite crazy.
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And there was a lot going on on Sunday.
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So we really just avoided paying a lot of money for Ubers.
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- Right, we really did good.
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And then Olivia and I, I have to put this on the Instagram
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for pop culture junkie.
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While we were at Dolores Park, we did a wig snatching competition
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where we both had these wigs on and then tried to like
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pluck them off the other person's head as fast as possible.
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And we perfectly tied.
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Like 100% not.
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- And that's on being best friends, you know?
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- Right.
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It was great.
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But yeah, it was so fun.
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Olivia bought a great Buffy looking jacket.
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- Yeah.
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- It was a great coat.
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- It was, it was a very drunk convinced purchase.
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Like you need this and it really did.
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I do need that time.
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- I'll give you half of the money for that right now.
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And you were like, I'm an independent woman.
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I can buy myself a coat.
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- I don't need a Shana or a man.
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I'm gonna pay for it myself.
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- You need a Shana.
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- I do need a Shana.
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- But not a man or a Shana to buy you a coat.
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- I don't need Shana's money.
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But yeah, it was so fun.
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- Honestly, it was deeply healing.
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- Yeah.
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- And you know, we always love when we can be together
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and have a silly goofy time.
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On Sunday we were like, I'm so sad you're leaving.
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But at least we get to record on Tuesday.
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- I know.
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I didn't want to leave.
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I went home though and I got into bed
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and I had the worst heartburn of all time.
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I was just like groaning in bed.
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Just an android washed the sheets.
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But of course not put them back on the bed.
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Like of course that.
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- It's so absolutely creepy.
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- Forrest all with a fitted sheet.
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I'm just like, oh yeah.
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- That is actually the worst crime of all time.
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You're like hungover trying to get like the corner to stick.
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- Yeah.
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It was just my heartburn.
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It was just like too old.
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- And that's what drinking age.
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- And that's what drinking age.
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- Yes, eating and drinking when you're 37
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just a wild abandon.
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But that's okay.
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It was not the heartburn.
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It was.
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It was.
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And it was a simply lovely time.
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And so if you've never been to San Francisco,
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might I suggest coming during Pride?
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It is just like an electric time.
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Everyone runs around just saying happy Pride.
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Everyone's so happy.
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- Everyone's so nice.
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- Yeah.
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And everyone's so nice and gay.
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- It's so beautiful.
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- And both of the words.
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- It's up to the word.
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- Yeah.
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- Well, I have a gay old time.
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- Let's get.
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- There she goes.
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There she goes.
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She has to whip it out every other episode.
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Old timey gay.
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Old timey gay.
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- She's an old timey gay.
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(laughing)
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- She's an old timeer gay.
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I do love meeting an elder gay when I'm out.
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They're just apart like a sense of wisdom onto me
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that sometimes I feel like I need.
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And so yeah, we love that.
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Real time gay, elder gay, whatever type of gay.
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We love you.
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And we love the gay.
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- Pride month.
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And this is gonna come out after Pride month.
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So you can just listen to this.
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- That's okay.
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- I'm just the gay month.
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- I'm just the gay.
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- Yeah, it's your bifobic if you don't listen
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to pop culture junkie.
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(laughing)
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- But yeah, we wanted to just kind of recap a little bit.
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I'm a fun weekend.
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And to segue in, we're gonna actually talk about
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not as light topic.
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We wanted to talk a little bit about what is going on
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in pop culture, what we're seeing
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from some of our favorite celebrities
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and the rapid decline in their weight.
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- And so, you know, really, as I say this,
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I'm sure there's going to be a celebrity
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that comes to mind that has been a little bit
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in the zeitgeist right now or the conversation.
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- Let's do a quick trigger warning.
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We are gonna be talking about bodies,
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body positivity, rapid weight loss eating disorders.
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This is not to say no matter what size you are,
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if you are thin, larger, anything in between,
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you are perfect and beautiful.
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But we can't deny what we're seeing with our own eyes
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that thin is becoming a trend again.
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- Yes, and you know, we see this every couple of decades.
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This ideal body type really comes back in fashion magazines
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and celebrity swings and the rise of fascism.
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We often see this body type coming back.
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100%.
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And really it is just this sense of like control, right?
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And you know, in the 1920s, we had the flappers,
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the 1960s, brought us petite models like Twiggy
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and in the 90s and 2000s, which is what, you know,
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Sean and I grew up in.
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We saw the rise of heroin chic.
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So we had Kate Moss saying things like nothing.
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- Tastes as good as skinny feels.
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- Yes, nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.
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I definitely like heard that quote when I was going
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through puberty and such.
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Yeah, and was like, she's right.
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She's right.
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Like those things just stick with you so hard.
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And like seeing all of the celebrities that we were told
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were overweight and then looking back at them now
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and being like, oh my God, she was a size six.
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Like, I mean, we just all watched.
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- Yeah, like the Jessica Simpson cover of her
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at that like state fair or whatever.
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- She's in those high-waisted jeans.
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- Oh, she was literally such a bitch.
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- And if you grew up in that era and you remember
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that cover and being like, she's a fat cow.
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And then now it's like people got it
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and it's like, oh my God, she looks like she's eating.
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Like what do you mean?
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- You were owed financial compensation.
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- Yeah.
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- You really truly were.
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- I think of Britney Spears during her,
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what was it 2007 performance at the VMAs?
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She was obviously going through other things at that time,
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but people were ripping her to shreds saying she was fat.
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She was absolutely not.
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And even if she was who fucking cares.
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But it's just like the, and Renee Zellweger
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and Bridget Jones die every.
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- Oh my God, that actually still traumatizes me to this day
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because did you know that she went from 100 pounds
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to 120 pounds and they were talking about it
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like she doubled in size.
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It was actually insane.
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And she looks damn good in that movie.
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- Literally.
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- Like, even though she's gained so much weight,
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you're like, no, she's body tea, body tea.
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- Body tea and one of the like ongoing plots of the movies
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that she's just so fat, like, are you kidding me?
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We think of Kate Winslet and Titanic.
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There was so much discussion around the way
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that her body looked in that movie
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and that she was too large for Leo.
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It's just all of these things that were just stuck
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into our minds during such a formative time in our lives.
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And now teenage girls are getting that again
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'cause big yeses come back around and is in style again.
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- Yeah, and I think that we wanted to talk about this.
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Of course, like, you know, as Shonda mentioned,
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like every body type is beautiful.
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And we are so passionate about this topic
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because we really went through that, right?
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And just the experience of being a woman
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and growing up and going through kind of that,
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that level of media consumption where everyone is so skinny,
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it's all you see, like it really is quite damaging.
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I think in my younger years, I was quite naturally thin.
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And as I aged like a normal person,
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that really went away.
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And so as I went into my late 20s, my early 30s,
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like I didn't realize how much that had impacted me personally
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because I was like, oh, well, I'm thin, right?
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And then you move into this
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and it really is just so pervasive.
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And then now it's coming back and you're equally triggered.
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- I totally agree.
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That was like the same experience for me.
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I was always the super thin girl
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and I was like, oh, this kind of comes naturally to me.
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And then what'd you know of it?
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You'd move into your 30s and your metabolism slows down
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and it's harder to just maintain natural thinness, right?
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Like the way that people would just, you know,
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tell us on social media that we're supposed to be, right?
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Or those little voices coming to our head
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that we remember of like, remember that size six is huge.
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Like they said it in the Devil Wears product.
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They said it in that movie that used to watch.
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You look like Jessica Simpson on that cover
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of the blah, blah, blah.
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And you're like, well, I was taught that was bad.
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- Yeah.
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And it's really quite crazy how much that level of media
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can stick with you even if you're like,
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well, I don't ascribed that.
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I don't think in that way.
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But then that little voice comes into your own head
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when you start looking at yourself and your body changing.
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And you know, say what you want about the Kardashians.
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I think that one thing that they did bring to us
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was the idea that volumptuous people
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could be incredibly sexy and moving into that.
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And I think that one of the scariest things
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about seeing the swing back is even they have, you know,
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gone down the skinny trend of like,
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I don't give there too much credit for that.
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Because I think that they were,
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their bodies were definitely like the go to, right?
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And like the mid 2010s, like all of a sudden
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it was huge boobs, huge butt, but still a tiny waist.
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So it's like, we never see that real representation
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of like actual volumptuous women
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'cause there's always still like a perfectly flat stomach, right?
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But no, I get what you're saying, like, you know,
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in Jennifer Lopez and you know,
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and the body positivity movement came.
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And you know, Lizzo came around,
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we won't talk too much about the positive she is.
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But you know what I mean, but yeah, now all this sudden
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the Kardashians are real thin too.
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And also pushing how they lost all that weight.
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Well, they got to tell us the truth.
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(laughing)
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It was just a waste trainer.
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I do Pilates for 20 minutes every day.
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Yes, yeah, oh gosh, I wish I wish they could get me there.
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No, I don't, I love how I love that.
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You know, see, it's getting me, getting me.
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But you know, largely over the last few years,
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we started to see this return to thinness
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and how it is so pervasive.
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And largely we have seen kind of this rise of skin and culture
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come back within two ways.
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We've seen it a lot with GLP ones.
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I mean, like I will say, the second I turned 30,
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I started getting two sets of ads, Botox and GLP ones, right?
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Yes.
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And extremely pervasive thing advertised to women.
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I mean, it started when I turned 30,
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the medicine came out then.
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So I'm sure it's even going to younger and younger.
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And it's an easy way to do it.
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And I think that the medication itself
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really does have positive impacts
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to a certain group of people.
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Yeah, we're not talking shit about anyone on a GLP one.
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Like this is an actual medication.
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Lots of people like use it for medical reasons.
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And even if you use it to lose weight,
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that is whatever your business is, is your business.
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It's just like that all of a sudden this kind of like,
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like you said, easier way to lose weight,
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very effective way to lose weight comes out.
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So it starts off with people who are like,
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you know, at health risk using it or diabetic
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or using it or who have like a significant amount of weight to lose.
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And now you don't have to be like, quote,
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medically obese to get on a GLP one because they have the mail-in ones.
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You can be, oh, I just want to lose 15 pounds.
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And you can get prescribed to GLP one, right?
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Like you talk to any of those doctors and they want the money.
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So yeah, I mean, unless you pop on and look like
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you geney-acuni or something on your Zoom call with them,
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then they're probably going to prescribe it to you.
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Yeah.
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And in the media, we see it's in the advertising.
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It really is just being pushed more and more.
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And I wanted to talk a little bit about what I mentioned earlier
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in the episode is the rise of skinny culture and fascism.
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So sociologists and political scientists
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have increasingly drawn a correlation
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between the modern rise of skinny culture
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and the broader ideologies of fascism.
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So this is often referred to as body fascism.
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And it operates on the premise that strict bodily discipline,
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ultra thinness and physical perfection,
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are direct reflections of personal morality, social status,
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and superiority.
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That's so interesting.
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And the tradwifed trend that we see coming around,
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how do we keep women?
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And obviously this applies to men too.
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They have the right to look more strong.
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Or the rexia looks maxing stuff going on.
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But the tradwifed trend, how do we keep women
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small, quiet, and submissive?
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So literally in the way that we act and in the way that we look,
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make them as thin as possible, encourage them
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to be as tiny and thin as possible.
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But then also to take up the least amount of room emotionally
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and socially too.
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So stay home, cook, clean, do the perfect women things.
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It's so interesting.
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It really is.
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And if you think about it, take up as little space as possible,
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but just from a physical standpoint,
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if you are not eating, if you are struggling
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with a disordered eating, that's going to drain your energy.
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It's going to lead to a lack of cognitive bandwidth.
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It is much harder to participate in critical thought
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or a little resistance to stand up to fascism.
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Yeah, so your body is truly declining
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and it's just trying to survive,
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it's trying to store energy as much as possible.
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And so I think that as we said, we've struggled with this
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as well.
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If you find yourself questioning your worth
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based on the size of your body, it's
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like, who benefits from this?
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And I think that that's such an interesting way
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to really dive in and look at it as well.
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Who benefits from this?
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And you know who benefits from this?
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You know who benefits from us breaking ourselves down.
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Like that capitalism and brands and companies
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that try to sell you weight loss pills and waste trainers
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and the new GLP one and the weight loss lollipops
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and weight loss gummies that have been Kardashians promote.
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Skinny tea, think of all of these brands,
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think of all of these things that we buy, right?
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And just all of this bullshit.
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Like I have bought so much bullshit in my day
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because it'll show up and be like, oh, you do this once a day.
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If you take a scoop of this powder once a day,
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it'll speed up your metabolism, right?
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And now I just have a scoop powder in my cabinet.
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And yep, that brand got 35 bucks from me.
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And now there's--
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And now I have IBS.
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And now I have IBS.
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I'm checking all the accidents.
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Literally.
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And there's a new piece of plastic in my house.
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Capitalism thrives on us feeling shitty about ourselves.
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If we felt great about ourselves and didn't want it and,
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you know, like, oh, I don't need to change anything about me.
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Then who's going to be actually like, oh, why is--
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Why is a man making me feel this way?
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Why are these power structures in place?
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Like truly, I think that, you know, when we look on it,
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like, Chana and I feel like the aunties that have been through this
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and we're screaming at the world, like, oh, my God,
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no, please don't come back.
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And, you know, if, like, you are yourself struggling
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with any sort of issues, you can reach out to a NAD,
17:51
National Help Line at 1-888-375-7767.
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I mean, we implore you.
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You know, there are so many pressures within this world.
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Please reach out to someone if you are struggling
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and just know, like, you are so beautiful,
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no matter how much space you take up, no matter it--
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Literally.
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I feel like you are not the perfect ideal body version
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of yourself.
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We love you.
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And we want to talk a little bit about what
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we've been seeing within pop culture right after the break.
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So unless you've been living under a rock,
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you have probably seen one celebrity, maybe two,
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that are disturbingly skinny.
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Yes.
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And causing a sense of concern.
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So--
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And we're not going to talk about the worth of these people,
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or if, you know, they--
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I don't know.
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I don't want to make it seem like we are picking them apart
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and they're such bad people because they look this way.
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But, like, you can't deny what you see with your own eyes.
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And I think that there is this shift, like,
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to--
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if you talk poorly about somebody's body,
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then you're not being body-positive.
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You're picking them apart for the way they look.
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And that's bad feminism.
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And like, OK, yes.
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We don't pick people apart based on the way they look.
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That's the whole point of this episode.
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But also, it's OK to comment on, like,
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we are seeing this person or certain people get
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to a point where they used to look healthier.
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And now they are wasting away.
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And young girls are seeing this too
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and creating content around it, such as skinny talk.
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How do I look like XYZ celebrity?
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So, you know, we're not going to deny what we're literally
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seeing with our eyes, you guys.
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Yeah, like, again, we grew up in this time of, like,
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pro-Anna Tumblr.
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And if you don't know what that is, I love that life for you.
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I'm so happy.
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But it is--
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Don't go, it's going to be drawing forever.
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But it is pro-anorexia.
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Tumblr at the time.
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Now it's pro-Anna TikTok.
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And it is, you know, women who are struggling,
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restricting, disorderly, eating, and ultimately, kind of,
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like, cheering each other on.
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And so, if you haven't figured it out yet,
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we wanted to talk a little bit about what we are seeing
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with Miss Ariana Grande.
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And kind of the tour images that have come out
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of her eternal sunshine tour.
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And, you know, I think that we started to see this on wicked,
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a little bit of this thinning of her body
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the appearance of a ribcage truly just kind of, like,
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a very concerning thing.
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And I think we talked about this two years ago when Wicked One
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came out, where we were quite concerned.
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We were very concerned.
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It's even, like, worse now.
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Like, she's lost so much weight.
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Like you said, like, these tour photos came out.
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And it looks shocking.
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Like a black mirror episode.
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Like, stand.
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Yeah.
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There is this picture.
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And it is her in front of the stage.
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You can see, like, her entire ribcage.
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And everyone behind her has their phones out.
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And it is truly like a black mirror episode.
21:09
Like, you're just open.
21:10
So just open.
21:11
Who is visibly wasting away in front of us.
21:16
And, you know, if you look at a video footage
21:18
of her performing on this tour, it is very scary
21:22
compared to what she used to do.
21:23
She looks like we talked about earlier.
21:26
She used to be so energetic in her show.
21:28
Yeah.
21:29
Like dancing.
21:30
And do that.
21:31
And that's fun if you want to, yeah.
21:33
If you want to change, like, your tour program and things
21:36
like that, but it looks like physically painful.
21:40
And it looks like she is struggling.
21:42
And you can hear it in her, in her breath.
21:44
You can hear it just throughout this.
21:46
And, you know, we were going to actually record this a week ago.
21:50
But we ended up pushing it to this week.
21:52
And one of the things that just came out today is she has canceled--
21:58
she's not canceled.
21:58
She's moved three of her tour dates for this tour in the coming weeks
22:03
in July.
22:04
She has cited safety concerns.
22:06
She's not really provided any details.
22:08
Yeah, like what does that mean?
22:10
Who is safety?
22:12
Are they safety?
22:13
You're safety.
22:15
Yeah.
22:15
Like, that's very, all very strange.
22:18
Yes.
22:18
And so, you know, I think that we--
22:21
welcome having this conversation.
22:23
We know the Ariana stands are going to absolutely come for us.
22:26
But to go back to the original conversation of, hey, you know,
22:32
what's most disturbing is we see these stands like you're just jealous.
22:37
Don't comment on people.
22:38
You're just a hater.
22:40
Like all of that.
22:41
And it's like, hey, I get that you really want the opportunity
22:45
to see Ariana Grande live.
22:46
But it feels like a moment where she really needs a hug.
22:52
And she really needs someone in her life to step up for her.
22:55
If you want to see Ariana Grande live,
22:58
you would want her to be healthy so that she can continue
23:00
to perform live in the future.
23:02
Like, if we just run these celebrities down to the bone,
23:07
literally, I guess, like--
23:10
I don't know.
23:10
And I hate seeing that, like, just that wheel of, like,
23:13
burn them through them celebrities.
23:16
And then we look at them and go, oh, god, she's so--
23:18
look at her now.
23:19
I can't believe she-- like, Brittany.
23:21
You know, I can't believe she looks like that.
23:22
I can't believe she's doing that, like,
23:24
her Amanda Bines.
23:25
And it's like, of course.
23:27
Of course they are.
23:28
Like, look at what we've all done to them.
23:30
So I think also there was pictures recently
23:33
that came out of Demi Moore.
23:35
I want to say the Cannes Film Festival.
23:37
And she looked ultra-rail thin.
23:40
And the headline was, Demi Moore shows off toned arms.
23:45
And thankfully, there was a little pushback in the comments.
23:48
People were like, this isn't toned if all you can see
23:51
is literally, like, her musculature, like, her bones.
23:53
Like, that's--
23:54
Yeah, that's a really--
23:55
Yeah, that's it.
23:56
Yeah, yeah.
23:57
I mean, we-- Kelly Osborne, obviously--
24:00
Oh, my gosh, Kelly Osborne.
24:01
--and we know that, like, she was going through grief
24:04
and grief affects everybody in different ways.
24:06
And Kelly was bullied relentlessly, also--
24:10
Like, around our time--
24:11
Yeah.
24:12
--for her way and for being, like, chubby.
24:15
And so, of course, she, like, is mentally taking that
24:19
to the extreme now while she's grieving, right?
24:22
But, yeah, she looks very unwell.
24:25
So I don't know.
24:26
It's just--
24:26
Yeah.
24:27
The Kelly Osborne is quite scary, especially
24:30
because it's, like, not just in, like, the body.
24:32
It's the face.
24:33
It's the temporal way sting.
24:35
Like, you know, you start to see these really, really scary
24:40
signs of malnutrition and ultimately, like, people just
24:44
aren't taking care of themselves.
24:46
And the three examples we just gave there, right?
24:48
Ariana Grande has had immense trauma in her life.
24:52
She's been through terrorist attacks.
24:53
She's gone through things.
24:55
And we want her to heal and go through things.
24:58
Obviously, she has her fair share of messiness,
25:00
as most people do when they're dealing with complex PTSD.
25:03
Same thing with Demi Moore and Kelly Osborne.
25:07
I mean, you know, I'm going through my same version
25:10
of brief of losing my father.
25:12
And I think it's such a scary point in time.
25:16
But the biggest thing is, and the reason
25:19
that we wanted to talk about this is, like,
25:21
there is a sense of, like, these people
25:24
have a sense of responsibility as well.
25:27
Yeah.
25:27
To totally agree.
25:28
The people that follow them, right?
25:31
And I do think that to sweep it under the rug
25:34
gives us more Britney Spears.
25:36
It gives us more, you know, people who, they go,
25:41
"Oh, wish."
25:42
They were gone too soon.
25:43
How did that happen?
25:45
Right?
25:46
I mean, like, like, even Karen Carpenter in, like, the 70s,
25:49
and it was right there in front of everybody,
25:51
right, that she was wasting away and that she had an eating
25:54
disorder.
25:55
And no, I totally agree that, like, celebrities
25:57
do have a sense of responsibility.
26:00
Like, they all are going through their own shit
26:02
because they're human beings too, right?
26:04
And they're allowed to have mental disorders
26:06
that they're dealing with.
26:07
But then you think of, like, the celebrities
26:09
and the influencers.
26:11
We should talk about influencer culture
26:13
to a little bit, like, who tried to tell you
26:16
how you can look like them too.
26:19
So Kim Kardashian, when she wanted to fit into Marilyn
26:22
and Rose Dress, or the Met Gala, like, went on this insane
26:28
restrictive diet, lost a ton of weight to fit into this dress
26:32
for one night.
26:33
And people were applauding her.
26:35
How great she looked.
26:36
How amazing she looked, right?
26:37
Lily Reinhardt actually, like, won't go to the Met Gala
26:40
anymore because she released a statement afterwards.
26:43
And was like, are you fucking kidding me?
26:46
We're, we're hyping this woman up
26:47
for losing, like, 20 pounds in two weeks
26:49
to fit and do a goddamn dress.
26:52
Like, yeah.
26:52
This is, like, bodies are not trends, right?
26:57
And they always fluctuate of what's in and what's out.
27:01
Yeah.
27:02
But, like, she--
27:02
When she's on games, like, five pounds
27:04
from the morning to the night.
27:05
Yeah.
27:06
But we really know.
27:07
I need to take a good solid dump.
27:09
Listen, is that gonna make a break out?
27:11
I feel that way.
27:12
But yeah, like, there's so many, like,
27:14
skinny talk is thriving now, like you said.
27:17
And just influencers telling you how you can look like them.
27:21
And what they're doing, the what I eat in a day trend
27:25
has, you know, been very popular in TikTok and Instagram.
27:28
And there was a little pushback about, you know, that of, like,
27:31
what I eat in a day is just a person instead of a person
27:35
trying to lose weight.
27:36
Yeah.
27:37
Oh, I thought they were saying I ate a person.
27:40
I ate a person.
27:42
What I eat in a day is a cannibal.
27:43
Yeah.
27:44
[LAUGHTER]
27:45
A day, morning, some toes.
27:49
I started light with some toes.
27:50
Yeah.
27:51
And I think it's interesting.
27:52
Like, five years ago, right?
27:54
There was an Instagram, or in a TikTok influencer,
27:57
Remi Bader.
27:58
She actually gained popularity within her body positivity
28:02
moment where she was sharing, like, what
28:05
does this actually look like on my size body?
28:07
What does that actually look like?
28:09
And then she started to share her journey with GLP ones.
28:14
And really got a lot of backlash for it with it.
28:17
She ended up having, like, a gastric bypass and came back,
28:20
like, 100 pounds lighter and really got, like,
28:25
severely bullied for it.
28:26
And, you know, I think there is this sense of pressure
28:30
of, like, damn if I do, damn if I don't, right?
28:33
Yeah.
28:33
What does that look like?
28:34
How do I stay this way?
28:35
And so, as with most things, I do not envy being a woman.
28:40
I cannot imagine being a woman in that sense
28:44
of popularity and influencer and the amount of, like,
28:49
body comments and you're to this, you're to that.
28:52
And I think it is very harmful to the psyche.
28:56
And I don't think I could handle it.
28:58
Like, if I were Ariana Grande right now,
28:59
I would probably be struggling with the same thing.
29:03
100%.
29:04
But I would hope that someone would comment and say, like,
29:07
hey, I don't want to see this or I don't support this, right?
29:11
And yeah, the Barbie movie speech, like, you think
29:14
about it, you're to this, you're to that.
29:15
And I think that it's impossible to be a woman.
29:18
Yeah.
29:18
Even body positive influencers, like you mentioned,
29:21
if they to lose weight, they're ripped to shreds too.
29:25
Because then people are saying that they're falling
29:27
into societal beauty, standard norms.
29:30
What if they really wanted to lose weight?
29:31
What if their doctor told them that, like,
29:33
they needed to lose weight for their blood health,
29:36
for their joints, for their heart, like, you know,
29:38
just whatever reason a person wants to.
29:42
But yeah, because influencers make their entire propiles
29:46
around their bodies sometimes, you are so pressure
29:49
to stay looking that way and maintain thinness
29:54
or maintain being plus size.
29:57
And you're not allowed to shift one way or the other.
29:59
So literally impossible to be a woman.
30:01
It really is.
30:02
And I think that, you know, at the end of the day,
30:06
the hardest part of this is like, how do you navigate
30:09
this conversation, you know, where you're trying to have it
30:12
in the most positive way together?
30:14
But I think it just comes back to like the conversation
30:18
of who benefits from this.
30:20
And how do we even kind of stop ourselves
30:23
from falling into the trap?
30:25
And again, we're being brainwashed every single day,
30:27
every time we scroll, every time we consume any sort of media.
30:32
And so really, we just wanted to have our little
30:35
anti-conversation with you guys.
30:37
Yes.
30:38
You are perfect the way that you are.
30:41
Do the thing that is going to be the best for you.
30:46
Focus on what your body can do rather than what it looks like.
30:50
You went on that hike today.
30:51
You walked maybe you're healing from trauma physically
30:54
or mentally.
30:55
You made one extra step today into that direction
30:58
of what you want to go to, right?
31:00
Like focus on the things that you can do
31:02
and that your body does for you rather than what you wish
31:06
it would look like in the mirror.
31:07
And this is all so much easier, like said than done.
31:12
But I mean, one thing that helped me is I got off of Instagram
31:17
for six months.
31:18
I mean, I would scroll a little bit,
31:20
but I didn't post for six months because I felt myself
31:23
starting to get into that like influencer thing.
31:27
I was getting brands reaching out to me
31:28
wanting me to wrap their products and stuff.
31:31
And I had so much pressure of like posting every single day.
31:34
And how do I look?
31:35
Oh my god.
31:36
Look at my role in that picture.
31:37
My acne star and that one of it just like done.
31:41
I'm done.
31:42
I'm taking a break.
31:43
I am taking a detox.
31:45
You can set an alarm on Instagram.
31:47
I'm sure TikTok has it too.
31:49
Yeah.
31:50
Where it's like time limits on your day of like,
31:52
you've reached 45 minutes for your day or whatever.
31:54
Time to log off.
31:55
Unfollow accounts that you know are just going to trigger you.
31:59
If there's accounts that you're following just because
32:01
she's hashtag body goals, don't do that to yourself.
32:06
Like, oh my god, don't do that to yourself.
32:08
Don't because you know she does that too.
32:11
She's following pages that are also her body goals.
32:15
For some, you know, she's comparing herself to someone
32:17
who's comparing herself to someone.
32:18
No one's ever going to think they're good enough.
32:20
So as much as possible, if you're looking at Kylie Jenner's
32:24
account every day, like, fuck, I wish I looked like that.
32:26
Unfollow her.
32:28
She's got enough followers.
32:29
She doesn't either.
32:30
It's all fake and it's all edited.
32:33
And you know, all of that.
32:34
It is.
32:35
Yeah.
32:36
And, you know, we implore you, you know, love yourself.
32:41
Reach out to supportive family, friends, mental health
32:44
professionals.
32:45
Again, if you do find yourself struggling, please reach out to
32:49
the Anad National Help Line at 888-3757-677.
32:58
And that's going to be it for this skinny panic episode of
33:01
Pop Culture Junky.
33:02
As always, we ask that you take care of yourself and seek
33:06
whatever is going to be best for you.
33:08
Take care of each other.
33:09
Yeah, yeah.
33:10
You know, call a friend.
33:11
Have your girls up.
33:13
Everybody looks great.
33:15
Compliment a girl.
33:16
Yeah.
33:17
Compliment a girl today.
33:18
Yeah.
33:19
Be the positivity that you want to see.
33:21
So, Shauna, where can her listeners find you online?
33:25
You can find me, Shauna Trinidad on Instagram and Threads @shaunatrinidad
33:28
S-H-A-U-N-A-T-R-I-N-I-D-A-D
33:29
And you can find me, Olivia on Instagram @livimariez
33:40
L-I-V-I-M-A-R-I-E-Z
33:41
And if you want more Pop Culture Junkie, which I'm sure you do,
33:47
then hit up our website at popculturejunkie.com.
33:50
That's where you can find links to our podcast and all
33:52
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33:57
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33:59
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34:19
You know, with the Pop Culture lens.
34:22
Yeah, you know, we love to gab and we are going to bring it
34:24
back to this impending doom sometimes.
34:27
But again, we can have fun and we can chat through Pop Culture
34:31
and what really matters at the same time.
34:33
And again, exactly.
34:34
What was silly one next week?
34:36
Yeah, promise.
34:37
We'll do a silly at the beginning.
34:40
We talked about how we were probably getting in San Francisco
34:43
before we talked about silly.
34:45
But we'll do a silly one just to bring the mood up.
34:50
Yeah, I think the one that we just released was also
34:52
like violence against women.
34:53
So we are in theme right now.
34:55
And we're going through it.
34:57
The country is going through it.
34:59
Yeah, you know, dark times.
35:01
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35:14
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35:19
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35:22
And even a personalized shout out from the both of us.
35:26
And come back next week for another hit of Pop Culture.
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The Pop Culture Junkie Podcast is produced by Cheryl Lightfoot
35:36
for the Pop Culture Entertainment Network.
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