Beauty Unlocked the podcast

Sometimes the hardest decision as a creator is deciding not to release something you're not proud of.Just a quick update to let you know what's happening with Episode 126 and Beauty Unlocked's upcoming summer break.Thank you for your patience, support, and understanding. I'll be back at the end of August when the show returns with new episodes and plenty more uncomfortable questions for us to explore together.Stay safe out there, my love buckets. Take care of yourselves and each other, and remember to stay curious, always.🩷🖤🩷🖤🩷

Why were Laetitia Casta and Aishwarya Rai criticized for their appearance at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival?What starts as celebrity gossip quickly becomes a much bigger conversation about beauty standards, aging, body image, and social media. Because the more I looked at the comments coming out of Cannes, the more one question kept nagging at me:Did the tabloids disappear—or did we become them?Are. You. Ready?****************Sources & References:Andrejevic, Mark. iSpy: Surveillance and Power in the Interactive Era. University Press of Kansas, 2007.Andrejevic, Mark. Reality TV: The Work of Being Watched. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004.Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books, 1972.Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. University of California Press, 1993.Dyer, Richard. Stars. British Film Institute, 1979.Festinger, Leon. “A Theory of Social Comparison Processes.” Human Relations, vol. 7, no. 2, 1954, pp. 117–140.Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan. Vintage Books, 1977.Gamson, Joshua. Claims to Fame: Celebrity in Contemporary America. University of California Press, 1994.Marwick, Alice E. Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age. Yale University Press, 2013.Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema.” Screen, vol. 16, no. 3, 1975, pp. 6–18.Senft, Theresa M. Camgirls: Celebrity and Community in the Age of Social Networks. Peter Lang, 2008.Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. William Morrow, 1991.Articles & Reporting:Arieux, Chloe B. “Laetitia Casta : insultes, grossophobie… ce qui s’est passé à Cannes choque.” Public, 29 May 2026.Reporting and commentary covering public reactions to Laetitia Casta and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan during the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, including discussions of ageism, body shaming, beauty standards, and social media scrutiny.****************Leave Us a 5* Rating, it helps the show!Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beauty-unlocked-the-podcast/id1522636282Spotify Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/37MLxC8eRob1D0ZcgcCorA****************Follow Us on TikTok & Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!YouTube:@beautyunlockedspodcasthourTikTok:tiktok.com/@beautyunlockedthepod****************Intro/Outro Music:“Fame Inc” by Savvier — https://icons8.com/music

In this episode, I’m unpacking the history of female body hair removal, the rise of shaving and Brazilian wax culture, and why women are taught to see natural body hair as “gross.”From Ancient Egypt and razor advertising to pornography, patriarchy, and Eurocentric beauty standards, we’re digging into how female hairlessness became tied to femininity, desirability, cleanliness, and control. Why is body hair considered masculine on men but unacceptable on women? And why does modern beauty culture reward women for removing visible signs of adulthood from their bodies?Are. You. Ready?****************Sources & References:Attwood, Feona. Mainstreaming Sex: The Sexualization of Western Culture. I.B. Tauris, 2009.Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1995.Gill, Rosalind. Gender and the Media. Polity Press, 2007.Herzig, Rebecca. Plucked: A History of Hair Removal. NYU Press, 2015.Ovid. Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love). Translated by James Michie, Modern Library, 2002.Peiss, Kathy. Hope in a Jar: The Making of America’s Beauty Culture. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.Strings, Sabrina. Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. NYU Press, 2019.Tyldesley, Joyce. Nefertiti’s Face: The Creation of an Icon. Harvard University Press, 2018.Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. Harper Perennial, 2002.Additional historical and cultural analysis referenced throughout the episode includes studies on Ancient Egyptian beauty and grooming rituals, Islamic hygienic traditions and body hair practices, feminist media theory surrounding bodily surveillance, pornography and beauty culture, beauty labor and gendered self-surveillance, racialized beauty standards, Eurocentric femininity, and contemporary discussions surrounding Brazilian wax culture, “clean girl” aesthetics, and social media beauty trends.****************Leave Us a 5* Rating, it helps the show!Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beauty-unlocked-the-podcast/id1522636282Spotify Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/37MLxC8eRob1D0ZcgcCorA****************Follow Us on TikTok & Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!YouTube:@beautyunlockedspodcasthourTikTok:tiktok.com/@beautyunlockedthepod****************Intro/Outro Music:“Fame Inc” by Savvier — https://icons8.com/music

What's a recession indicator you've noticed?Lately, one answer keeps resurfacing online: "You can see celebrities' ribs again." And as unserious as that sounds at first, history suggests it may not be entirely wrong.In this episode, I dive into Ozempic, recession aesthetics, quiet luxury, heroin chic, and the return of thinness as a cultural ideal. From celebrity weight loss trends to the politics of appetite, I explore how beauty standards shift during periods of economic anxiety, social instability, and cultural fear- and why women's bodies so often become the place where those anxieties are projected.Are. You. Ready?****************Sources & References:Bordo, Susan. Unbearable Weight: Feminism, Western Culture, and the Body. University of California Press, 1993.Bourdieu, Pierre. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Translated by Richard Nice, Harvard University Press, 1984.Debord, Guy. The Society of the Spectacle. Zone Books, 1994.Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Vintage Books, 1995.Foxcroft, Louise. Calories & Corsets: A History of Dieting Over 2,000 Years. Profile Books, 2011.Rose, Nikolas. Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. Free Association Books, 1999.Stearns, Peter N. Fat History: Bodies and Beauty in the Modern West. New York University Press, 2002.Strings, Sabrina. Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. NYU Press, 2019.Tolentino, Jia. Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion. Random House, 2019.Veblen, Thorstein. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Oxford University Press, 2007.Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. Harper Perennial, 2002.Additional reporting and cultural analysis referenced throughout the episode includes coverage of Ozempic and Wegovy, celebrity weight loss culture, recession aesthetics, heroin chic and 1990s fashion culture, wellness culture, self-optimization, and digital body surveillance from contemporary journalism, academic commentary, and media analysis.****************Leave Us a 5* Rating, it helps the show!Apple Podcast:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/beauty-unlocked-the-podcast/id1522636282Spotify Podcast:https://open.spotify.com/show/37MLxC8eRob1D0ZcgcCorA****************Follow Us on TikTok & Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!YouTube:@beautyunlockedspodcasthourTikTok:tiktok.com/@beautyunlockedthepod****************Intro/Outro Music:“Fame Inc” by Savvier — https://icons8.com/music