How Big Beauty monopolizes, corrupts us all
In conversation with Val Monroe, former beauty director of O: The Oprah Magazine
vol. 5 episode 37
Greetings,
This episode of the docu-mental podcast is the first of at least three upcoming co-productions with my other Substack, News from the Ensouled Universe.
It’s a conversation with Val Monroe, a veteran of the women’s magazine industry, including over 15 years as the beauty director at O: The Oprah Magazine.
We zero in on how the Big Beauty industry has monopolized the way beauty is defined, making women feel ashamed of themselves, and thus subjugating us all. Val also has a suggestion for how to throw off the chains of this kind of suppression.
Two years ago, I announced that docu-mental would become part of the Ensouled Universe, as I intended to combine this and my other substack, News from the Ensouled Universe, but my life blew up and I couldn’t sustain my vision.
So, let’s try again. We’ll take baby steps.
I haven’t decided if I will indeed fully integrate the two publications, and if so, how, but for the next few episodes at least, I hope that you enjoy being challenged to lean more on your own powers of observation than to accept at face value that the standards we’ve all been conditioned to accept as good and normal are true.
Coming soon:
If you’re new to News of the Ensouled Universe, the guests I have on deck might be outside your usual frame of reference, but I hope you enjoy being exposed to fresh perspectives such as those from:
CASSANDRA TYNDALL
Coming up later this summer, I have on deck a conversation with Australian astrologer and columnist, Cassandra Tyndall.
Earlier this year when Pluto first ingressed into Aquarius, Cass released a startling video about her view that this heralds not a warm and fuzzy “power to the people” era in history, but one where we will see the return of Feudalism. It is a powerful rumination, and I aim to dive with Cass even deeper into this interpretation of coming mundane events.
You can read Cass’s work in print and online at Well Being Australia, where she is a regular columnist on a wide range of astrological topics, and where she writes the weekly horoscopes.
T. SUSAN CHANG
Also to come is a disscussion with the astoundingly polymathic T. Susan Chang, whose approach to her many disciplines, which range from policymaking to sewing Tarot-themed comforters, to teaching creative writing, to cooking, and more, is derived in part from her Classics training at Harvard University.
Although Susie’s voice might be familiar to many in this audience as a food commentator and cookbook reviewer at NPR, we’ll primarily be discussing her expertise in archetypal mythology as made practical for every day living through her latest book, The Living Tarot.
My hope is that our discussion will give you ideas for how to reframe our quotidien existence, with all its trials as well as triumphs, as an endless psychodrama where we encounter ourselves by way of encountering the Gods.
Off the Charts: A Stellar Newscast!
A regular feature of News from the Ensouled Universe is the Off the Charts weekly newscast, where two former corporate media journalists bring you the news through the lense of astrology. Whether its antitrust, Trump, or Barbie, no topic is off limits as we predict what the headlines will be before they’re even written.
Here are the most recent three episodes:
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And lastly, thanks for those of you who checked in as I took two weeks off. I hadn’t initially planned to, but it was a good thing and now I am back and happy about it!
Peace,
Whitney