The Politics of Body Hair

The Femininity Tax: What Fat Queer Women Are Expected to Prove

In this episode, we're talking about something that doesn't get named nearly enough: the unspoken expectation that fat queer women perform conventional femininity as compensation for their bodies. Not femininity as self-expression, not femme as a queer identity and aesthetic, but femininity as apology, as proof, as a tax paid to a culture that has already decided your body requires justification. We're tracing where this expectation comes from historically, how capitalism and the plus-size fashion industry cash in on it, why androgyny is a thin person's aesthetic in a way that rarely gets talked about, and what it actually costs (financially, physically, psychologically) to perform a presentation that was never really yours. ✨ Tarot pull of the week: High Priestess Reversed ✨ Journal prompt: Is there a version of yourself, a way of presenting, a style, or an aesthetic, that you've never let yourself try because you didn't think you had the right body type for it? What would it mean to try it anyway? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/ [https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/]  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476] Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A [https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A] Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll

What is America’s Protein Obsession Really About?

In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on one of wellness culture's most beloved obsessions. We're tracing the protein craze from its roots in 19th century racist nutrition science, through the bodybuilding boom of the 70s and 80s, to the multi-billion dollar supplement industry that depends on your anxiety to function. We're also talking about the flip side: the demonization of carbs, and why the foods being villainized just happen to be the staple foods of most of the world's cultures. We dig into what your body actually needs (probably way less than you've been told), who bears the heaviest burden of protein culture (including queers, fats, and communities of color whose food traditions have been dismissed as inferior by the same system now repackaging and reselling them at a markup) and why protein obsession is one of the most common unrecognized entry points into disordered eating. We close with practical tools to help you start untangling your relationship with protein and the fear of carbs that so often comes with it. ✨ Tarot pull of the week: Three of Pentacles Reversed ✨ Journal prompt: What kind of body have I been told protein will help me achieve? Is that actually what I want, or have I been taught to want it? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/ [https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476] Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A [https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A] Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll CHAPTERS * (00:00:00) - Queers Against Diet Culture * (00:00:28) - What's America's Protein Obsession Really About? * (00:01:38) - Tarot Card, Three of Pentacles R reversed * (00:02:46) - How The Protein Obsession Started * (00:06:31) - Protein and Fatphobia * (00:10:06) - What Your Body Actually Needs * (00:11:25) - Is it Even Possible to Become Protein Deficient? * (00:13:03) - What Happens When You Eat Too Much Protein? * (00:15:56) - Queer People & Protein Culture * (00:21:29) - Six Ways to Stop Feeling Like You're Not Getting Enough Protein

The Politics of Body Hair

Body hair has been framed as a personal choice for so long that most of us never stop to question it. But the way we groom ourselves isn’t as neutral as it feels. In this episode, we’re unpacking the history, politics, and power structures behind body hair, from early 1900s razor ads to the way hairlessness became tied to cleanliness and morality. We also explore how these expectations show up differently across identities, especially within queer and trans experiences, and how body hair can become a site of both pressure and reclamation. This isn’t about telling you whether to shave or not, it’s about helping you understand where your choices come from so you can decide what actually feels like you. ✨ Tarot pull of the week: Three of Swords Reversed ✨ Journal prompt: Do my grooming choices come from a desire to feel comfortable in my body or from a desire to be accepted by others? What would it look like to prioritize my own comfort? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/ [https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476] Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A [https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A] Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll [https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll]

Learning to Trust Your Body When You've Been Taught Not To

If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body, second-guessed your hunger, ignored your intuition, or felt afraid to listen to yourself, this episode is for you. In this episode, we unpack how diet culture trains us to distrust our bodies, why that distrust can feel even deeper for queer folks, and what “trusting your body” actually looks like in real life (spoiler: it’s not perfect intuition or constant confidence). We talk about why trust feels so scary, how rebuilding it is a practice, and gentle tools you can start using without forcing yourself into “body trust” before you’re ready. ✨ Tarot pull of the week: The Moon ✨ Journal prompts: 1. In what small ways does my body already try to communicate with me? 2. What happens inside me when I ignore a bodily signal versus when I listen to one? 3. Where am I confusing control with safety? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/ [https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476] Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A [https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A] Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll

Unlearning the Beauty Standards That Were Never Made for Us

Mainstream beauty standards weren’t created with queer bodies, identities, or lives in mind, yet many of us spend years trying to mold ourselves to fit them anyway. In this episode, we unpack where cis-hetero beauty ideals come from, how they harm queer and trans folks specifically, and why so much of what we’ve been taught to call “beauty” is actually about control, conformity, and survival. This isn’t about creating a new standard to live up to, but about loosening the grip beauty rules have on us. If you’ve ever felt like your body, your gender, or your self-expression was “wrong” simply because it didn’t align with what you were shown growing up, this episode is an invitation to see things more clearly and to start defining beauty in ways that actually support your life. ✨ Tarot pull of the week: Ace of Swords ✨ Journal prompts: 1. When did I first learn what was considered “beautiful” and who did I learn it from? 2. Which beauty standards have I been trying to meet that were never designed for my body or my identity? 3. When do I feel the most like myself? Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/ [https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/] Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476 [https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476] Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A [https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A] Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/ra/let-good-times-roll CHAPTERS * (00:00:07) - Queers Against Diet Culture * (00:02:30) - A Tarot Card for This Episode * (00:05:43) - The CIS hetero Beauty Standard * (00:11:09) - What does heteronormativity look like in queer communities? * (00:13:43) - Why Unlearning Beauty Standards Feels So Hard * (00:16:04) - How to Reclaim Your Beauty