Afua Hirsch on different cultural views on bodies - body hair, puberty, fertility and aging

Changes with Annie Macmanus

Rounding off this miniseries on Bodies, the incredible journalist, broadcaster and bestselling author Afua Hirsch unpacks Eurocentric beauty standards and discusses unlearning some of the myths around women’s bodies. Why do western cultures think body hair is bad? How do non western cultures treat puberty and aging? Can we change how we view our bodies from our ancestors? Certainly, what we think we know about women's bodies is very narrow.

Afua Hirsch is at the forefront of discussions about race, history, and culture in Britain today. Her book ‘Brit(ish)’ was an award winning Sunday Times bestseller and delves into the uncomfortable truth about race and identity in Britain today. Her latest book is called ‘Decolonising My Body: A Radical Exploration Of Rituals And Beauty’. It was a 2023 political book of the year for Waterstones, described as 'ground-breaking' by Bernardine Evaristo and makes her perfect for discussing Bodies and change.

Originally training as a human rights barrister, since being a journalist, Afua has presented documentaries for the BBC, been a regular contributor to Sky News debate show The Pledge and current affairs programmes including Channel 4 News, Newsnight, Question Time, and CNN. She has also written for multiple prestigious publications including British Vogue where she interviewed Rihanna!

In this incredibly enlightening episode, as well as covering different cultural views on bodies, Afua and Annie discuss Afua’s view of her body as a young black girl and how that has changed, a life altering moment with Oprah and why she personally wanted to unlearn and then relearn everything when it came to understanding her body.

Find out more about Afua Hirsch and order her book ‘Decolonising My Body’ here:

www.afuahirsch.com

www.amazon.co.uk/Decolonising-My-Body-radical-exploration/dp/1529908663

Other books and people mentioned in this episode:

Maisie Hill - Period Power

www.maisiehill.com

Laurence Moniasse

www.moniasse.com/about-me

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Changes is a deaf friendly podcast, transcripts can be accessed here: https://www.anniemacmanus.com/changes

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