We’re kicking off 2026 with a fabulous guest Devni Vihara, a lawyer and content creator, who’s internationally recognised for her advocacy regarding gender equality, anti-colourism, and access to justice. In this episode, we tackle issues entrenched in Asian communities’ perception of beauty: colourism and fatphobia. Amongst the deep dive:

🌺 Why fatphobia is so difficult for feminists to unlearn

☀️ The role ‘control’ plays in our relationship with food and our bodies

🦀 Body positivity vs body neutrality: which approach is better?

🥥 The fucked up history and impact of the Body Mass Index (BMI)

🐠 What colourism means and how it shapes our lives

🌻 Devni’s strategic decision to become an advocate for ‘melanin beauty’

You can find Devni on social media platforms using this handle @devnivihara_

Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode:

• Susan Bordo, ‘Reading the Slender Body,’ in Unbearable Weight (1993)

• Carolyn Bronstein, ‘Fat Acceptance Blogging, Female Bodies and the Politics of Emotion,’ (2015) https://feralfeminisms.com/fat-acceptance-blogging/

• Bronwyn Carlson, ‘Indigenous Fat Rebellion: Rejecting Settler Fatphobia and Reclaiming Body Sovereignty’ (2025)

• May Friedman, Fat Studies: The Basics (2025)

• Margaret Hunter, ‘Colourism and the racial politics of beauty’ (2021)

• Carla A. Pfeffer, ‘Fat activism and beauty politics’ (2021)

• K. M. de Silva, ‘Sri Lanka: National Identity and the Impact of Colonialism’ in The Sri Lanka Reader (2011)

• Jamie Steele, ‘The Weight of Whiteness: Fatphobia and the Psychosocial Disavowal of the Ancestral Body’ (2025)

This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

What’s the connection between the Vietnam War, Dakota Johnson, and Australian KFC taking on the bánh mì? The answer is South Vietnamese refugees working in service industries. Joining us in this episode to parse out this rich history is fashion journalist Emma Do. As a writer and editor from Naarm/Melbourne, whose work covers fashion, arts and culture, Emma helps Scarlette and Miranda rethink the ‘Made in Australia’ label. We scrutinise the history behind Australian manufacturing and labour policies, which left a negative impact on the wellbeing of Vietnamese textile outworkers, whose experiences Emma captured with her book Working from Home (or May o Nha) with illustrator Kim Lam. Scarlette takes us on a wild ride connecting the establishment of Vietnamese nail salons in the United States to the first shop opening in Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne, 1998. We also discuss the racism underlying the reactions (or the lack thereof) to ‘Made in Vietnam’ or ‘Made in China’ label, the uncomfortable conversation around Uniqlo and fast fashion, and how to shop mindfully when brands gamify consumers’ experiences. Special shoutout to the Joe Rogan Experience listener who also listens to Not Too Sweet!

Check out Emma Do’s fabulous work:

• Website: https://emmaqdo.wordpress.com/

• With Kim Lam, Working from home (may ở nhà) (2021), https://mayonha.com/

• Her infrequent fashion podcast Smart Casual: https://omny.fm/shows/smart-casual/playlists/podcast

• Her substack: https://spacesbetween.substack.com/

• Her article in the Griffith Review: https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/buyer-beware/

Support the podcast by following, rating, and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode:

• Emma Do and Kim Lam, Working from home (may ở nhà) (2021)

• Susan Eckstein and Thanh-Nghi Nguyen, ‘The making and transnationalization of an ethnic niche: Vietnamese manicurists’ (2011)

• Milann Kang, ‘The Managed Hand: The Commercialization of Bodies and Emotions in Korean Immigrant-Owned Nail Salons’ (2003)

• Regan Morris, ‘How Tippi Hedren made Vietnamese refugees into nail salon magnates’ (2015), https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32544343

• Ingrid Piller, ‘The sociolinguistics of nail care’ (2012), https://www.languageonthemove.com/the-sociolinguistics-of-nail-care/

• Najma Sambul, ‘How Vietnamese Australians came to dominate the nail salon industry’ (2024), https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-01/how-vietnamese-came-to-dominate-australian-nail-salon-industry/104263066

• Jesse Adams Stein, ‘Rethinking “Made in Australia”’ (2022), https://www.uts.edu.au/news/2022/06/rethinking-made-australia

• Fiona Tregenna, ‘Characterising deindustrialisation: An analysis of changes in manufacturing employment and output internationally’ (2009)

• Myf Warhurst, ‘The history of the Vietnamese nail salon’ (2019), https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/myf-warhurst/nails/11161086

• Sally Werner and Phillip O’Neill, ‘De-industrialisation, financialisation and Australia’s macro-economic trap’ (2014)

This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.

In this episode, Scarlette and Miranda teach the girly pops about Marxist historical materialism! Just kidding. But really, we go to town on Rini: how the face mask brand’s marketing co-opts the language of self-care and play to integrate beauty regimes into children’s lives. We unpack our changing perceptions of plastic surgery, its manifestation in ‘unproblematic’ and ‘problematic’ Hollywood celebrities. We think through the decision to get beauty procedures via the theories of our old mates Karl Marx and Pierre Bourdieu, who are actually helpful for understanding contemporary conversations around pretty privilege, the pilates body, and clean girl aesthetics. Scarlette traces the roots of the clean girl back to the classical Renaissance body and to the ideal of a virtuous white woman within European colonialism. In response to respectability politics, Miranda fleshes out rationales behind cosmetic surgery in South Korea and how this might be perceived in Australia, all of which helps us tackle the racism underlying responses to the Australian Golden Bachelor. And Das Kapital, baby!

Important disclaimer: Miranda and Scarlette are not THAT kind of doctors so any discussion of cosmetic procedures are cultural commentary and should not be taken as medical advice.

Support the podcast by rating and reviewing us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Music. Sources consulted in the production of this episode:

• Dana Berkowitz, ‘Botox and Beauty Politics’ (2021)

• Alexander Edmonds & So Yeon Leem, ‘The racial politics of plastic surgery’ (2021)

• Joanna Elfving-Hwang, ‘The body, cosmetic surgery and the discourse of “westernization of Korean bodies”’ (2021)

• Joanna Elfving-Hwang & Jane Park, ‘Deracialising Asian Australia? Cosmetic surgery and the question of race in Australian television’ (2016)

• Ruth Holliday and Joanna Elfving-Hwang, ‘Gender, Globilization and Aesthetic Surgery in South Korea’ (2021)

• Mary Russo, The Female Grotesque: Risk, Excess and Modernity (1995)

• Helen Wood, ‘Beauty and Class’ (2021)

This podcast was produced by Scarlette Do and Miranda Park on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri People of the Kulin Nations.