The State of Beauty Politics and What It All Means with Tressie McMillan Cottom

Botox, filler, beauty trends, and the pressure to keep up with it all. This week, Christiana sits down with NYT columnist and UNC Chapel Hill professor Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom to explore how beauty culture is changing around the world, why our appearances carry so much power, and what happens when the rules of beauty keep changing.

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01:37 Meet Dr. Tressie McMillan Cottom 

03:45 Sculpt and how beauty norms became what they are right now

06:12 The democratization of plastic surgery and injectibles 

09:06 Beauty and ugliness as structural concepts 

13:14 The end of body positivity a return to whiteness 

15:13 How technology has changed time, our attention, and beauty norms 

16:55 Peptides 

19:45 How what is seen as beautiful has changed 

21:00 Thinking of ourselves as scientific compositions 

22:05 Grappling for community 

22:39 Discourse around “the Black community” 

24:15 Ethnic rhinoplasty 

25:51 The death of the natural hair movement 

26:30 What is Black beauty now?

27:10 The homogeneity of beauty 

30:14 How the formula we were taught for a good life isn’t working and cruel optimism

35:26 Observing neutrally and knowing our choices aren’t neutral 

39:10 The cost of resistance and choosing our defeats 

42:49 Bracing for impact 

45:00 Black women being punished 

45:40 Conservative movements among white women and where white women go next

49:55 “One Household, One Vote” and women retreating from the workplace 

52:30 Late-stage capitalism and AI will come for everyone, including men

54:00 Men committing Interpersonal violence

55:30 Going analog 

56:38 How Tressie approaches reading and engaging with ideas

01:01:22 What Tressie is turning to for nourishment and delight 

01:06:25 What Tressie is working on now

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