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.

Beauty practices often involve cultural appropriation: the ‘Scandinavian’ scarf, box braids, the 1990s Asian chic qipao. But what does ‘cultural appropriation’ mean and why is it so difficult to talk about? Helping us flesh out this topic is Dr Lauren Nilsson-Siu, an Anglo-Indian Australian researcher who lives and works on Gadigal and Wangal Land. Drawing from her expertise on gender and cultural studies, as well as critical race and ethnic studies, Lauren leads Miranda and Scarlette through why we have such strong emotions regarding cultural appropriation. Importantly, we discuss how ‘cultural appropriation’ is a Trojan horse for thinking about racism in postracial and multicultural societies like Australia.

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

• Sara Ahmed, The Cultural Politics of Emotion (2004)

• Sara Ahmed, ‘Affective Economies’ (2004)

• D. W. Anselmo, ‘Gender and queer fan labor on Tumblr: the case of BBC's Sherlock’ (2018)

• Lauren Berlant, ‘Cruel Optimism’ (2006)

• Rina Deshpande, ‘What’s the Difference Between Cultural Appropriation and Cultural Appreciation?’ (2019) https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/yoga-cultural-appropriation-appreciation/.

• Nadia Khomami, ‘“Cultural Appropriation”: Discussion Builds over Western Yoga Industry’ (2022), https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/dec/12/cultural-appropriation-discussion-builds-over-western-yoga-industry

• David Knox, ‘Vale: Swami Sarasvati’ (2023), https://tvtonight.com.au/2023/03/vale-swami-sarasvati.html

• Lauren Nilsson, ‘Critiquing Cultural Appropriation, Building Community: Desi Online Activism on Tumblr Shame Blogs and #reclaimthebindi’ (2022)

• Lauren Camilla Nilsson-Siu, ‘“I Don’t Want to Look Too Fresh off the Boat, You Know?” Nationhood and Belonging: The Cruel Optimism of Contemporary Australian Multiculturalism’ (2024)

• Minh-Ha T. Pham, ‘Racial Plagiarism and Fashion’ (2017)

• Elspeth Probyn, Blush: Faces of Shame (2005)

• Elspeth Probyn et al, ‘Productive faces of shame: An interview with Elspeth Probyn’ (2019)

• James O. Young and Conrad G. Brunk, eds. The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation (2009)

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

Not Too Sweet returns for a new season, this time with a focus on ‘Beauty.’ Join co-hosts Scarlette Do and Miranda Park as they unpack their experiences growing up watching Disney movies, dealing with Australian beauty standards, and the lessons they learned about surveillance, morality, class, and race. Scarlette and Miranda think about whether K-Beauty offers a path towards diverse beauty standards and the role of neoliberal postfeminism in all of this.

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

• Ana Sofia Elisa, Rosalind Gill, and Christina Scharff, eds, Aesthetic Labour: Rethinking Beauty Politics in Neoliberalism (2017)

• Rosalind Gill, ‘Post-postfeminism? new feminist visibilities in postfeminist times’ (2016)

• Rosalind Gill, ‘Neoliberal Beauty’ in The Routledge Companion to Beauty Politics (eds. Maxine Leeds Craig, 2021)

• Patrick O’Keeffe, ‘Power, Privilege and Place in Australian Society’ (2024)

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

In this final episode of the season, we explore the concept of ‘celebration’ and the significance of celebration in our every-day lives. We unpack the various rituals associated with certain cultural celebrations and personal milestones, our feelings about ATAR reveal videos, the politics of gift-giving and which Australian public holidays we’d like to fuck, marry or kill. Scarlette discusses the importance of remittance to Vietnamese transnational families and Miranda explores the significance of a baby’s first birthday in Korean culture.

A disclaimer for explicit language at the start of the episode and Scarlette mentions “Hobshawn” in reference to the historian Eric Hobsbawn.

Sources:

• The Invention of Tradition by Eric Hobsbawn and Terence Ranger

• ‘Establishing Hồ Chí Minh's Cult: Vietnamese Traditions and Their Transformations’ by Olga Dror

• ‘The Tensions of Diasporic ‘Return’ Migration: How Class and Money Create Distance in the Vietnamese Transnational Family’ by Mytoan Nguyen-Akbar

Our final bonus episode this season delves into Jessie Liu’s fascinating PhD research in the daigou trade and her postdoctoral fellowship with the Australian Centre for Gender Equality and Inclusion at Work.

Where the PhD project led Jessie to important questions about her disciplines and the questions of race and labour in Australia, her postdoc investigates how rostering impacts the wellbeing of midwives. Jessie speaks to the hybridity, expansiveness, and inclusivity of the ‘Asian-Australian’ category for those who have experienced demands for racial purity in their societies.

Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast .

In this episode, the co-hosts put on their smarty-pants to unpack how the term ‘disavowal’ can illuminate Asian Australians’ role in settler colonialism. Jessie Liu helps us flesh out this psychic structure–an active suppression or forgetting–through ideas of depoliticisation, class, and localisation. The hosts return to the topic of names and how, although English names help us access certain privileges, this is also an act of symbolic death and haunting.

Jessie explores how Asians’ disavowal of generational wealth maintains narratives of meritocracy and Scarlette joins in with her reflection of using the ‘first gen academic’ label. Miranda draws on Claire Jean Kim’s research to think about Asian Australians’ solidarity with other minority groups before we contemplate the difficulty of sitting with painful knowledge and heavy responsibilities.

Sources:

• ‘The Vanishing Half’ by Bennett Brit

• ‘Alien Capital: Asian Racialization and the Logic of Settler Colonial Capitalism’ by Iyko Day

• ‘Asian Americans in an Antiblack World’ by Claire Jean Kim

• ‘Introduction: Public Policy and Indigenous Futures’ by Nikki Moodie and Sarah Maddison

• ‘Decolonization is not a Metaphor’ by Eve Tuck and K Wayne Yang

• ‘Introducing: settler colonial studies’ by Lorenzo Veracini

• ‘Settler colonialism and the elimination of the native’ by Patrick Wolfe

Follow us on Instagram @nottoosweetpodcast