Not Too Sweet

We conclude this jam-packed season of Not Too Sweet by reviewing the latest season of Bridgerton ft. Korean-Australian queen Yerin Ha!!! We love seeing fellow Asian women on screen, especially in the notoriously white period romance genre. But does Bridgerton’s depiction of a race-less society and the show’s choice of colourblind casting signal a promising future for racial diversity and inclusion...

To help expand our understanding of beauty and wellbeing beyond aesthetics standards and practices, we are joined by early career researchers Meg and Alex Lee. In this episode, we discuss issues of access, mobility and belonging shaping the experiences of migrant youth in rural communities and Asian Australian young adults. We explore what wellbeing feels and looks like for those living on the mar...

‘HIGH MAINTENANCE beauty habits that will make you look LOW MAINTENANCE’. ‘The 6 PROVEN ways to heal your gut health’. ‘POV: A week in the life of a Victoria’s Secret model’. Beauty vlogs play an important role in how young women see themselves and practice their femininity. This episode, with the help of Dr Tisha Dejmanee from the University of Technology Sydney, we unpack vlogs’ role in the neol...

Why are there so many white man/Asian woman pairings? Why are Asian men always ranked last in terms of desirability? From University of California Santa Barbara, history PhD candidate Tandee Wang shows Miranda and Scarlette how historical patterns of migration, military occupation, and settler colonial policies in the United States and Australia shape our desires and dating preferences. Amongst th...

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...

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...

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 cel...

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...

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 standa...

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...

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 o...

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 pri...

In this bonus episode, we chat with Varsha about how being an Indian Australian has shaped her advocacy. She reflects on the need to direct our energy towards important battles, the joy of community, and how Asian Australians can learn from First Nations groups in our fight for climate justice. Varsha stresses the importance of listening to those impacted by climate change and the freedom of risin...

As the Trump administration continues its attacks on DEI, it's more important now than ever to think critically about what these terms mean. Join the co-hosts and special guest Varsha Yajman as they unpack the good, the bad, and the ugly of ‘diversity’. We uncover how while diverse representation matters, it can be co-opted by institutions like school, university, and corporations. Varsha draws on...

In this special bonus episode, Caroline shares more about her exciting PhD project, which investigates the rise of diasporic Asian cinema from the 2010s onwards and their portrayals of Asian femininity under the influence of neoliberal feminism and multiculturalism. Caroline discusses the huge cultural and personal impact of Crazy Rich Asians , a movie that sparked her interest in what is now her...

We are joined by special guest, Caroline Wang, as we examine stereotypes of Asian people in film, television and musical theatre. Caroline brings her expertise as a Film Studies scholar to help us unpack the various and often problematic stereotypes of Asian women in musicals like Miss Saigon and films like Charlie’s Angels, Set It Up, Joy Ride and Crazy Rich Asians. We discuss the complexities of...

In this episode we discuss the concept of ‘authenticity’, covering everything from our visceral reactions to being asked that annoying ‘where are you from?’ question, to our love-hate relationship with Asian fusion cuisine. Miranda talks about her fears of being seen as a ‘fake Korean’ and Scarlette explores how language, accents and appearance have shaped other’s perceptions of her ‘authenticity’...

Thanks for tuning into our first full episode of Not Too Sweet! This week we talk about ‘liminality’ and what it means to inhabit liminal spaces as Asian Australians. We share experiences of border crossing, learning to fit into white educational and social settings, navigating cultural differences and language barriers with our families, and encounters with old Vietnamese men playing chess on the...

Introducing Not Too Sweet, a podcast from two friends, feminists, and grad students. Join Miranda and Scarlette (and their very fabulous guests) as the co-hosts talk about everything related to Asian Australian experiences, from the banal strawberry matcha to the not-so-mundane issue of settler colonialism, and ideas like 'neoliberalism' and 'disavowal'. Follow Not Too Sweet on Ins...