Why Beauty Culture is a Cousin of Diet Culture with Elise Hu

About this episode

Elise Hu discusses the connections between beauty culture and diet culture, sharing her experiences with beauty standards and disordered eating.

Journalist, podcaster, and author Elise Hu joins us to discuss her background with modeling and disordered eating, why beauty culture is a cousin of diet culture, Elise’s experience with intense beauty standards in Korea, and the realities of pushing back against performances of femininity. Behind the paywall, Christy and Elise discuss the rise of K-Beauty globally, problematic K-Pop body ideals, the lack of mental health support in many Asian countries, and how the technological gaze is reshaping beauty standards online and around the world. This episode is cross-posted from our other podcast, Rethinking Wellness . Elise Hu is a journalist, podcaster, author and most recently, a filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Currently she’s the host of TED Talks Daily , the flagship podcast from TED conferences. You can also hear her as the co-host of Forever 35 and the host of Raising Us . Her book, FLAWLESS , came out in 2023. It’s a non-fiction exploration of beauty, consumerism, and womanhood. Check out Christy’s three books, Anti-Diet , The Wellness Trap , and The Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Binge Eating & Body Image Workbook for a deeper dive into the topics covered on the…

People in this episode

Host: Christy Harrison

Guest: Elise Hu

Topics covered

• beauty culture
• diet culture
• disordered eating
• K-Beauty
• K-Pop body ideals
• femininity
• mental health

Keywords

• beauty standards
• diet culture
• disordered eating
• K-Beauty
• K-Pop
• femininity
• mental health
• Elise Hu
• Christy Harrison

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: TED Talks Daily, Forever 35, Raising Us, Rethinking Wellness

Books & works: FLAWLESS

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