Ep. 238: Insecurity Maxxing
EQ: How are current trends around extreme self-improvement influencing and challenging long-held beliefs about beauty, specifically defining masculinity and femininity?
Guest: sweetpea flaherty–whom you may know from our previous book episodes such as on Ep 214: Shelf Awareness, Ep 196: New Year Fresh Reads,Ep 186: Pumpkin Spice & Bookish Advice and Ep 184: Hot & Steamy Summer Reads. Today, sweepea is here not as a book seller but a regular person.
This week, sweetpea joins Hope and Annie, not as a book seller but in fact a regular person. We’re attempting to talk about some masculinity trends like looksmaxxing and if there really is a “male loneliness epidemic”. An underlying idea is that consumer culture is driving our increasinly complicated relationship with our bodies. And Pete Hegseth’s fixation with massculinity is making things worse. What happens when the quest to optimize the male body moves from the internet into actual policy? And, naturally, we find a way to talk about books along the way.
Related Resources:
BBC: Inside Looksmaxxing
Jia Tolentino’s New Yorker article “Our Plastic Surgery Nightmare” and Interview on Fresh Air
“Hesgeth Plan to Screen all Troops for low testosterone"
The Atlantic: “Hegeseth Wants YOU To Test Your Testosterone"
The Guardian: “Judge Orders Hegseth to to Explain US military new testosterone policy”
Do Your Fudging Homework:
Hope: check out Jia Tolentino’s writing relevant for all of us as we think about aging, beauty standards, and our relationship with our bodies.
Annie: self protective attitude–watch your feeds and the narratives.
Sweetpea: read more trans authors–trans masc and trans fem; Thomas Page Mcbee Amateur.