The complexity of societal standards and appearance

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Society's conflicting messages about the importance of looks can lead to confusion, as children are told that looks don't matter but observe evidence that suggests otherwise. The speaker highlights the inherent beauty contest that everyone is involuntarily a part of, and recounts experiences of facing judgment and commentary based on appearance in their professional life, questioning the relevance of looks to their job.

Welcome to the Wintering Sessions with Katherine May.

This week Katherine chats to Angela Barnes, podcaster, comedian and regular panel guest on Mock The Week (and much more!).

Angela Barnes has zero tolerance for anyone reassuring her that she's pretty - it talks over her lived experience, and does nothing to change her self-perception. Here, she discusses living with Persistent Depressive Disorder, which has made her whole life feel like the drizzly English climate, but which has also made her more able than most to endure the hard-knocks life of a stand-up comedian.

A very cheerful chat which always zeroes in on the important points with lazer focus, picking up on where Angela is in the greater pandemic situation, working with her PDD, building daily frameworks, having a comedy tribe which normalizes certain behaviours and actions, fear of rejection, CBT, entitlement, TV, the perils and - well, perils of social media, and the notion of beauty on a grand scale.

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We Are History podcast

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The Wintering Sessions

Katherine's writing class