Episode 129 -- Looksmaxxing

Sandra Lee Bartky's 'Femininity and Domination' analyzes how cultural norms and practices produce women's subordination by shaping bodily comportment and self-regard. Drawing on phenomenology and feminist theory, Bartky argues that routines of grooming, dieting, and body modification function as forms of disciplined labor that estrange women from their bodily experience. The book links everyday practices to broader structures of domination, showing how aesthetic demands reinforce gendered power relations. Bartky explores the internalization of the assessing gaze and how it becomes a technology of self-surveillance and control. Her work remains influential for understanding the intersection of beauty culture, self-objectification, and gendered oppression.

Adrian Daub's Project 1933: Fascism Then and Now examines the historical emergence of fascism and traces its resonances and transformations in contemporary politics. Drawing on cultural, intellectual, and political history, the book analyzes how fascist ideas took shape in the early 20th century and how their themes persist or reappear today. Daub situates cultural artifacts, political movements, and philosophical currents in dialogue to show continuities and ruptures across time. The book aims to offer both scholarly analysis and accessible narrative to help readers understand fascism's historical roots and modern permutations. It serves as a timely intervention connecting past events to present-day political anxieties.