Queers Against Diet Culture

Today we're asking a question that diet culture has spent decades making sure you never thought to ask: if weight loss wasn’t the goal, what could you actually be working toward for your health? We're covering why weight loss fails as a reliable health goal (and why that failure is biological, not a discipline issue), and why a $72 billion industry structurally depends on its own products not work...

In this episode, we're talking about something that doesn't get named nearly enough: the unspoken expectation that fat queer women perform conventional femininity as compensation for their bodies. Not femininity as self-expression, not femme as a queer identity and aesthetic, but femininity as apology, as proof, as a tax paid to a culture that has already decided your body requires justification....

In this episode, we're pulling back the curtain on one of wellness culture's most beloved obsessions. We're tracing the protein craze from its roots in 19th century racist nutrition science, through the bodybuilding boom of the 70s and 80s, to the multi-billion dollar supplement industry that depends on your anxiety to function. We're also talking about the flip side: the demonization of carbs, an...

Body hair has been framed as a personal choice for so long that most of us never stop to question it. But the way we groom ourselves isn’t as neutral as it feels. In this episode, we’re unpacking the history, politics, and power structures behind body hair, from early 1900s razor ads to the way hairlessness became tied to cleanliness and morality. We also explore how these expectations show up dif...

If you’ve ever felt disconnected from your body, second-guessed your hunger, ignored your intuition, or felt afraid to listen to yourself, this episode is for you. In this episode, we unpack how diet culture trains us to distrust our bodies, why that distrust can feel even deeper for queer folks, and what “trusting your body” actually looks like in real life (spoiler: it’s not perfect intuition or...

Mainstream beauty standards weren’t created with queer bodies, identities, or lives in mind, yet many of us spend years trying to mold ourselves to fit them anyway. In this episode, we unpack where cis-hetero beauty ideals come from, how they harm queer and trans folks specifically, and why so much of what we’ve been taught to call “beauty” is actually about control, conformity, and survival. This...

Emotional eating has been framed as a failure of willpower for far too long, but what if it’s actually your body trying to communicate, not a behavior that needs to be controlled? In this episode, we unpack why emotional eating isn’t the villain diet culture makes it out to be, how restriction and shame often make it worse, and why food has become one of the only “allowed” coping tools for so many...

In this episode, we explore queer hunger, not just the hunger for food, but the hunger for safety, belonging, desire, pleasure, and the freedom to take up space. We look at how queer folks learn to shrink themselves to survive and how that survival mode impacts our relationship with food, our bodies, our nervous systems, and our sense of worth. Together, we unpack the many forms of silenced hunger...

The holidays can be beautiful… and brutal. Especially if you’re navigating diet culture, complicated family dynamics, identity stress, sensory overwhelm, or a history of being dismissed, criticized, or misunderstood. In this episode, we dive deep into why holiday gatherings feel so hard, and how to protect your peace, your body, and your energy during a season that can bring up a lot. ✨ Tarot pul...

In this episode, we’re breaking down where our food rules really came from, and surprise, it’s not your lack of willpower. Diet culture has roots in racism, colonialism, patriarchy, capitalism, and centuries of body control. When you understand that history, it becomes so much easier to see why these rules feel so ingrained… and why none of it was ever personal. We talk about how thinness became t...

Sometimes, feeding ourselves feels like just another task, something we have to do, not something we want to. In this episode, we’re unpacking why eating can start to feel like a chore, from decision fatigue and mental health struggles to the way diet culture and capitalism disconnect us from our needs. We’ll explore how exhaustion, isolation, and shame show up around food, and how we can gently m...

Fatphobia isn’t just a “body image issue,” it’s a system rooted in control, shame, and exclusion. In this episode, Riah breaks down how fatphobia operates both inside and outside the queer community, how it mirrors other systems of oppression, and how it keeps us disconnected from our bodies and each other. We’ll explore what liberation and fat queer joy actually look like, and how each of us can...

In this episode, we’re unpacking what body neutrality really means, especially through a queer lens. Instead of forcing body love or getting stuck in body hate, we’re exploring the middle ground: seeing your body as something that deserves care and respect, no matter how you feel about it on any given day. We’ll talk about how diet culture makes neutrality nearly impossible, how queer folks can be...

Welcome to the very first episode of Queers Against Diet Culture ! In this kickoff conversation, we dig into why diet culture isn’t just about food or health, it’s a systemic issue that deeply impacts queer communities. We’ll talk about: How diet culture disguises itself as “wellness” How “ideal” bodies are shaped by heteronormativity The ways it connects to capitalism and white supremacy The uniq...

In this intro episode, I’ll share a little about who I am, why I started this podcast, and what you can expect in the episodes ahead. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/queersagainstdietculture/   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581527639476   Interested in being a guest on this podcast? Fill out this form here: https://forms.gle/MMZ4vZSfmm8j4bV5A   Music from #Uppbeat (free...