"We need to expand what beautiful is" with Ione Gamble

Beautiful Misfits

Mary Portas

Society & Culture, Business

4.5 • 834 Ratings

🗓️ 27 October 2022

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week's Beautiful Misfits guest is Ione Gamble. I absolutely loved talking to this intelligent, questioning, energetic and – crucially – hopeful young woman. Ione is a writer, editor, art director and founder of Polyester Zine. She is also, in her own words, a ‘gross girl’. Diagnosed weeks after her birthday with Chrohn’s disease – a debilitating inflammatory bowel disease – Ione’s young adult life has been shaped by illness, and hospital wards.S he channels all this into her work as she questions many of the stories still being told to us as women - particularly about physical beauty. Because despite all the body positivity, beauty is all too often still slim, white and able bodied. But how many of us feel we actually fit these archetypes? Ione joins me to talk about all of this - plus the the world of fashion, social media and how ‘good taste’ is often just about propping up the existing power structures. Follow Mary Portas on: Instagram: @maryportasofficial Facebook: Mary Portas And to get in touch with team Portas, email us at: [email protected] and you can subscribe to the Portas POV Newsletter for musings, provocation insights and inspiration.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	However far we've evolved, there are still powerful and age-old stories being told to us.
0:09.3	On television, in advertising, social media, stories are used to constantly tell us what we must collectively aspire to.
0:19.4	And for women in particular, one of the most powerful that's been told for centuries is about physical beauty.
0:26.6	Beauty is white, beauty is slim, beauty is able-bodied.
0:31.6	It's also affluent enough to keep up with trends and taste.
0:35.6	But how many of us really feel we fit these archetypes?
0:40.3	Not many. To combat that, we've entered an age of body positivity and while the discussion
0:47.3	may have opened up to some degree, there's still a long way to go before we can reach that
0:51.4	level of inclusivity that genuinely allows us to feel good.
0:57.0	Women are filled with a constant and exhausting sense of failure. Whatever representation
1:04.0	there is in wider culture, it's our internal stories that are still full of self-loathing.
1:10.0	And for younger women in particular, this is even more powerful.
1:14.7	Those who have come of age with social media are judged again and again by their visual representation.
1:21.1	Have you heard about the latest hashtag trending on TikTok?
1:24.5	Body checking.
1:25.6	It has six million views and counting, and it involves young women
1:29.8	examining and critiquing their weight, skin folds, and even the circumference of their wrists.
1:37.5	For all the positive talk, we've gone backwards. The prison of physical beauty seems even more
1:43.1	confining today than it ever was.
1:46.1	And whether it's physical beauty or any other standardised set of ideals about the perfect woman that's been created for us,
1:53.1	the echo chamber of mass media and the algorithm feels like an inescapable weight.
2:00.1	My guest today is brilliantly and intelligently dismantling all of this.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mary Portas, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mary Portas and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.