Episode 02: Beauty sleep

Warning: this episode contains explicit discussion of sexual violence.

In this episode: Feminist and media scholar and psychotherapist Meredith Jones (author of Skintight: An Anatomy of Cosmetic Surgery and Beautyscapes: Mapping Cosmetic Surgery Tourism) joins the pod to discuss sleeping beauties and beauty sleep! We begin with a discussion of makeover culture, cosmetic surgery, and waking up transformed (3:50), which takes us to two icons of beauty sleep: Snow White and Sleeping Beauty (16:53); we turn next to the way sleeping (or unconscious) bodies are gendered and desired, touching briefly on the recent Pelicot case (21:18) and whiteness in fairy-tales (25:54). Towards the end we talk about how gender and time relate to sleep (34:13) and dreaming (42:41). Don’t miss Meredith and Cressida on being seized by sleep (51:24).

Mentioned in this episode: Thumbnail image is from My Book of Favorite Fairy Tales, edited by Edric Vredenburg, painting by Jennie Harbour. Meredith Jones, Skintight; Lolo Ferrari; all the versions of Sleeping Beauty/Sun, Moon and Talia; necrophiliac aesthetic; dead fashion shoots; Gisèle Pelicot; Silence of the Lambs; the 2025 movie Snow White; an example of murder fashion; Alien; Sam Taylor-Wood (now Taylor-Johnson), David Beckham (‘David’); Demolition Man.

Transcript coming soon…