Sundry updates:
You can pre-order my first book, The Forever Project, in many places now! It will be sent to you within the first few days of January 2027. Pre-orders are insanely helpful and important for writers; I won’t bore you about why, but if you think you’d like to read this book, pre-order it instead of waiting for it to come out:
I will be speaking with the inimitable Alicia Kennedy (her newsletter is now here, but she’s still hanging around Substack) about her new book On Eating: The Making and Unmaking of My Appetites on Monday, April 13, at 5 p.m. EST. You’ll get an email when we start, and I’ll publish it as a post to watch later if you can’t make it. Alicia is the person I trust to have compelling insights and opinions on the world of food. I talked to her back in 2022, can’t wait to do it again.
I’ve done a few of these roundups sporadically (here’s one from like a year ago), but I’d like to get back to it regularly. The Bulletin is a selection of articles that will clue you in on what’s happening in the world of body culture lately: the ecosystem of news, beliefs, discourse, and conversations people are having around weight, fitness, body image, general wellness, and anything related to the human body.
I’m considering doing these in video format. I like the idea of a “news clip show” style, I’m practicing my on-camera skills (for when HBO picks up my book The Forever Project as a limited series, obviously), and for better or worse, people on the almighty Platforms tend to like videos. But I’m curious what you think: Would you potentially be interested in listening to/watching to such a roundup, with my commentary, verus reading? (I’d still post links to everything beneath the video.)
How Fashion Learned to Confuse Taste with Tits, by Holly Wilson
Interesting comment on this one: “I worked for a fashion designer at some point, and once heard him say about a model: ‘She has a flat bum, and big boobs. Models should have pert bums, and flat boobs. It makes the clothes hang better.’ There you have it in a nutshell. From a fashion industry perspective, you should be a sentient clothes hanger. Any curves, sensuality or personality distract from the garments. Don't you dare be anything but an object of capitalism.”
There’s a new weight-loss pill called Foundayo
Not to be a drama queen, but I genuinely think this is about to change everything. Foundayo is a dumb name, though. Just makes me think of mayonnaise. Coincidence?
Is a new weight-loss drug making people fall out of love?
Short answer: No. So much about GLP-1s is complex, specific to the individual, and too early to fully understand. I can just picture the TikToks about this now, though, panicking about how GLP-1s make you aromantic or whatever. Please be careful out there.
The rise of GLP-1 wedding weight loss
This, like…isn’t news. Brides have been doing the “shedding for the wedding” stuff forever; GLP-1s are just the newest way to do the same thing. I’m curious, though, if you or anyone you know is doing such a thing. How much weight are women trying to lose, or losing, ahead of their weddings on these drugs?
There’s only one reason to cold plunge
Everyone’s talking about it for recovery … but “research suggests that heat alone is a better exercise-recovery tool than ice or cold water.” Makes sense; cold water “constricts your blood flow and makes muscles and connective tissue less elastic.” The real reason to do it?: “Perhaps the most consistent reported benefit of cold-water exposure is its effect on mood and mental health. People do it because, for some reason, it makes them feel better.” I always do it as the last stop on my Korean spa experience:
‘I think we’ve all just forgotten about what real boobs look like’
Lana Condor appeared at an event with her large breasts out and proud, and some people flipped out because it’s apparently a problem when your boobs are out and proud but not perfectly perky and spherical. This situation is ridiculous but I think does go to show that a lot of people truly have no clue what real body parts look like IRL. They should go to a naked spa!!! (I will also say, as a big boob-haver myself, this looks uncomfortable to me; I want support and I don’t want an accidental nip-flash. But to each their own.)
Parents are missing the signs of body image struggles in teen boys
“While body image struggles in girls are widely recognized, Dr. Natterson points out that boys are experiencing similar pressures, just without the same visibility. “If you look at the eating disorders and disordered eating data, 50 percent of the kids who struggle with body image are boys,” she says. “It is real. It is a real struggle for them.”
Drew Barrymore talked about her “C-section belly” and people felt seen
This just seems like a nice and meaningful moment for everybody.
Trying to conceive? Welcome to the worry-filled world of ‘trimester zero’
My husband and I tried to conceive for a while, learned it almost certainly wasn’t going to happen without probably multiple rounds of IVF to the tune of many thousands of dollars even with insurance because I have low ovarian reserve, and then we decided we didn’t want kids enough to pursue it (we were always fence-sitters who felt we’d be OK either way). Someday I’ll write about all this. I remember the “trying to conceive” period and how much it sucked. Somehow I managed to avoid all the people online who are shilling what amounts to “fertility-maxxing” advice and products.
As millions lose weight on GLP-1s, they’re starting to turn to retailers to refresh their wardrobes
It’s interesting to me that Stitch Fix is seeing “the most noticeable impact” here — because people need help from stylists to find clothes that work for their rapidly changing bodies. Given that customers keep and pay for the items they like and send back the rest, I think this could be a relatively less wasteful consumer habit then buying new, trash-island clothes every time you go down a size or two until you’re “done” losing weight (been there).
The mom whose out-of-state abortion allowed her to have a healthy pregnancy
Reproductive freedom is a body culture matter, of course. Here’s another story from NPR about what’s happening as abortion clinics close nationwide.
Noah Kahan details “complicated” struggled with body dysmorphia
I admit I don’t know who this guy is. I appreciate when men talk about this sort of thing, though, and apparently his struggles with body image will be a “key theme in his upcoming Netflix documentary Out of Body,” which I will now be watching.
The hair-loss drug rewriting the rules of masculinity
Finasteride is “remarkable effective.” Men: What do you think? Are you on it? would you take it? Remember what I said about r/bald:
Hyrox and Wodify have partnered
Just mentioning this because HYROX has become one of the fastest-growing competitive fitness movements in the world, and anytime I’ve brought it up to people who aren’t already sort of “gym people,” they don’t know about it. I’m curious what its ascendance says about where we are with fitness attitudes — are people past the gentle, soft-life-ish fitness that seemed to take hold post-COVID? Are we back in the CrossFit-ish circa 2013 era? Idk, just have my eye on it (Hyrox is also having a cruise this year. Can you imagine? I emailed them to ask if they’re going to have media and if so, can I come … TBD.)
Here are two nice “older, fit ladies” stories:
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