Beauty Is $$$: How to Hop Off The "Hot Girl Hamster Wheel"

The Money with Katie Show

Money with Katie

Investing, How To, Self-improvement, Business, Education

4.8 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2023

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today's episode throws it back to a concept I first wrote about several years ago: The Hot Girl Hamster Wheel. It refers to the expensive maintenance that “traditional female beauty ideals” prescribe: haircuts, manis/pedis, spray tans...the list goes on. But why is this never covered in personal finance sector, despite how much these costs add up? We dig into the numbers, the effects beauty has on our self-esteem and the world around us, and how to do a Hot Girl Detox to reclaim your time (and wallet). I'm joined by Jessica DeFino, a beauty culture critic, author of The Unpublishable (https://jessicadefino.substack.com/), and journalist who's been called "the woman the beauty industry fears." Transcripts can be found at podcast.moneywithkatie.com — Mentioned in the Episode How 'Empowerment' Became Something for Women to Buy by Jia Tolentino, from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/17/magazine/how-empowerment-became-something-for-women-to-buy.html The average American woman spends $3,756 on her beauty and personal care regimen: https://swnsdigital.com/us/2017/06/women-spend-a-quarter-of-a-million-dollars-on-their-appearance-in-a-lifetime/ Self-Care Culture is Making Us Broke, with Chelsea Fagan: https://podcast.moneywithkatie.com/self-care-culture-is-making-us-broke-with-chelsea-fagan/ Studies on "Pretty Privilege": https://scholarworks.smith.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1822&context=theses The Age of Instagram Face by Jia Tolentino in The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/decade-in-review/the-age-of-instagram-face — Follow Along at Money with Katie: https://moneywithkatie.com/ Watch on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MoneywithKatie Follow Money with Katie! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moneywithkatie/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/moneywithkatie Subscribe to The Money with Katie Newsletter - Sign up for free today: https://www.morningbrew.com/money-with-katie/subscribe/2 Follow the Brew! - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/morningbrew/ - Twitter: https://twitter.com/MorningBrew - TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@morningbrew Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to the Money with Katie Show, Rich People.
0:11.8	I'm your host, Katie Gatti Tossan, and today I have a little treat for you.
0:16.7	Today's episode throws it back to a concept that I first wrote about several years ago,
0:21.6	so some of you may have seen the title and been like, aha, the Hockerel Hamster Wheel
0:25.9	returns, and indeed it does.
0:34.0	But today's episode is also reflective of the very first chapter of the book that I'm working
0:40.3	on with Penguin Random House Portfolio to be released sometime in 2025, so I suppose
0:46.0	you could also consider this a bit of a sneak peek too.
0:49.3	The Hockerel Hamster Wheel is how I refer to the never-ending litany of expensive maintenance
0:54.8	practices that traditional feminine beauty ideals prescribe.
1:00.0	And yes, that was a lot of jargon, but the metaphor felt incredibly fitting a few years ago.
1:04.9	When I was starting my financial journey and I was looking under the hood of my own spending
1:09.4	habits for the very first time, the reason I think this conversation matters for a personal
1:15.4	finance show that's hosted by a woman is that it's a money-relevant topic that I never
1:21.2	heard discussed in financial media, despite how much of my budget it comprised.
1:27.8	These expenses were not as simple to cut out as brand name cereal or take-out benches
1:32.7	because they were fossilized in my self-esteem.
1:36.4	I had to chip away at a lot more than just dollars and cents in order to unpack my financial
1:41.8	decisions in the beauty realm.
1:44.0	Now of course, it's not only women who engage with the Hockerel Hamster Wheel, but they
1:48.3	have historically been the primary intended audience of glossy advertising campaigns
1:53.7	the world over.
	...

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