Having a Boyfriend is "Embarassing" Now? Unpacking Partnership | with Emily Duncan and Chris Beal
EMBody Radio
Emily Duncan
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 18 November 2025
⏱️ 106 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this tandem episode, I'm unpacking a question posed by the viral Vogue article: "Is having a boyfriend embarrassing now?"
We'll talk about the cultural shift that's made women feel like being in a healthy relationship somehow makes you weaker, less independent, or less "girlboss." I share how I've seen internet feminism swing too far into performative man-hating, why that still feels like centering men, and how to reclaim power, partnership, and sovereignty at the same time.
I also open up about what it's looked like in my own life — from losing myself in unhealthy relationships, to re-rootingwho I am, and now finding myself in a relationship that's healthy, supportive, and expansive.
This is a conversation about nuance, leadership, and emotional maturity, and about learning to build a life that's self-led and open to love if you want to pursue partnership.
You'll hear:
- Why "decentering men" still secretly centers them
- How social media's "soft hate" toward partnership keeps women disconnected
- The difference between self-abandonment and healthy interdependence
- What true feminine sovereignty looks like inside a relationship
- How to build your identity so partnership is additive, not definitive
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | this almost cultural trend of quote unquote decentering men or even going so far as hating men |
| 0:07.6 | and making men a part of your identity and personality is still inherently centering men. |
| 0:14.0 | Welcome to Embody Radio, the premiere podcast for ambitious women ready to elevate their body, |
| 0:19.0 | mind, and life to the next level. |
| 0:25.0 | On this show, we've used high performance, wellness and aesthetics, and self-mastery into a real-world blueprint for personal excellence. |
| 0:27.8 | Each week, you'll get real, grounded strategies and unfiltered conversations with high performers |
| 0:32.3 | who walk the talk, no fluff and no fake hype. |
| 0:35.1 | Because excellence isn't an accident. |
| 0:40.7 | It's embodiment. And this is Mbody Radio. |
| 0:46.8 | Girl, what's up? Welcome back to Mbody Radio where excellence isn't an accident. It's something you live. |
| 0:55.8 | I'm your host, Emily Duncan. And I am excited for today's episode. And I'm also a little bit nervous because we are going to be hitting on what feels like an internet culture behemoth. And this episode is going to be formatted a little |
| 1:03.7 | bit differently. The first half of this episode, it's going to be a solo. And then second half of the |
| 1:08.4 | episode, I'm actually bringing in Chris. So, and let me explain |
| 1:13.8 | before you two now. Today, I want to talk about the kind of internet trend that came from the Vogue |
| 1:22.9 | article, the article of, is it embarrassing to have a boyfriend or is having a boyfriend embarrassing now? |
| 1:30.4 | This article has kind of taken the internet by storm. |
| 1:34.3 | It came out late October. |
| 1:36.5 | It is an opinion-based article. |
| 1:39.3 | And it hit on a lot of points for me between the this article and the overarching concepts of |
| 1:49.6 | decentering men and the what I feel is a more extreme take of hating men. And I'm going to |
| 1:58.0 | preface this, not because I have to, but because I want to. |
| 2:02.5 | Anytime I record something or anytime I say something, I try to think a couple steps ahead. |
... |
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