Diet culture is an insidious beast. You set firm boundaries with your family, curate your social feeds and shake off the shackles of fad diets and toxic gym environments only to be whacked in the face with the news that Lizzo is on a juice cleanse.

Lizzo is an icon. She pushes against societal expectations by just existing and we worship her for it. So when I saw her actively promoting products that profit off of fat people hating themselves, my heart broke.

I would never tell any woman, especially a woman of colour, what to do with her body…

Friday afternoon brought an issue to the attention of millions of Instagram users around Australia — one that we in marginalised communities have been aware of for years: the Instagram algorithm favours thin, white, cisgendered people, and effectively censors the rest of us.

It all started on Friday when comedic juggernaut Celeste Barber posted the latest in her #CelesteChallengeAccepted series of parody images: a side-by-side photo of her imitating a post from former Victoria’s Secret model Candice Swanepoel, clutching her bare breast. Both were wearing a shirt falling off the shoulder, exposing side-boob; Barber had added a string bikini.

But…

Gender is a social construct. A concept widely acknowledged by the LGBTQIA+ community but outside of the safety and acceptance of queer spaces, and sometimes even within them, people are often misunderstood and gendered for the sake of mainstream society. What happens when you remove the pressures of society and allow people to live their lives without the constructs of gender norms and stereotypes?

Sitting in a tiny underground bar in Melbourne’s CBD, listening to Oliver Reeson discuss gender and toxic masculinity as part of the Melbourne Writer’s Festival, I looked around the room and saw every external presentation of…

It’s not hard to break the internet these days, and from Kim K to Salt Bae we are very rarely without some new cultural phenomenon causing controversy and providing us with the meme material we so desperately crave. However, not all cultural phenomena are created equal, and none have caused the controversy or physical bodily reaction quite like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallions “WAP.” Yep, we’re talking wet ass pussy.

Whether you’re to the left or hard right, man, woman or enby, if you’ve seen WAP I bet you have an opinion. But in 2020 where people and women…

Instagram vs reality posts are those two side-by-side images we see all over our feeds.

One image is the perfectly curated and posed version of ourselves that we share on Instagram, and the other (usually taken 30 seconds later) shows a less posed, less glamorised version.

Often the point is to show off micro-flaws such as fat rolls, skin pigmentation, stretchmarks, or cellulite. These posts are naively intended to remind us that influencers and celebrities are real people and that they have ‘flaws’ too.

I hate these posts.

I hate these posts because the majority of people posting them are…

A nurse, a student, a writer, an influencer, my life has changed… but haven’t we all changed?

There aren’t enough photos to show how much my life has changed but I hope that by sharing my story that you have more insight and are also a little kinder to yourself if you are struggling.

I was meant to write this piece weeks ago but ironically the nature of anxiety and creativity is that as it comes and goes it affects your life in ways that you can’t control. I’m also a nurse and a freelance creative which meant that in preparing for COVID-19’s imminent arrival to Australian shores one aspect of my life became chaos and the other all but disappeared. …

Illustration by Lucila Perini

Editor’s note: This piece is part of a collection of stories on fat travel, curated by guest editor, author and activist Virgie Tovar. It’s the first in a series at the intersection of travel and inclusion, published by Airbnb Magazine.

Dear Thin Friend, we’ve been planning this trip for months, and the day is finally here. I’m so excited to be embarking on this adventure with you. It fills me with joy to be traveling with you to far-off lands to experience new cultures and reach a level of relaxation neither of us has felt for…