Food Psych #239: Pandemic Stress and Your Relationship with Food, Plus Desirability Politics and Diet Culture with Dawn Serra

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

Fat-positive sex and relationship coach and fellow podcast host Dawn Serra returns to the podcast to discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting our relationships with food and highlighting existing social injustices, how diet culture robs us of our ability to embody pleasure, desirability politics and its links to diet culture and oppressive beauty standards, navigating romantic relationships while in recovery, and so much more. Plus, Christy answers a listener question about how to tell whether exercise is intuitive or compulsive amid COVID-19 stress. 

Dawn Serra has dedicated her life to unraveling the cultural stories that impact our relationship to our pleasure, our bodies, and our lives. Dawn is considered a leader in the field of sexuality and relationships, with a focus in pleasure for people recovering from eating disorders and those in fat bodies. She is a therapeutic sex & relationship coach, a Certified Body Trust® Provider, speaker, podcaster, facilitator, consultant, and entrepreneur.

Host of the weekly feminist podcast, Sex Gets Real, and creator of the free annual online conference, Explore More Summit, Dawn has interviewed dozens of thought leaders from around the world.

As a white, cis, middle class, queer, fat, survivor, Dawn's work is a fiercely compassionate invitation for each of us to deepen our relationships with our bodies and our pleasure as an antidote to the trauma, disconnection, and isolation so many of us feel. Your pleasure matters. Your body is wise. Dawn's work is all about creating spaces and places for you to explore what that means on your terms. Find her online at DawnSerra.com.

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp online counseling. If you’re looking for convenient and affordable mental-health support, go to betterhelp.com/christy and get your first week free.

This episode is also brought to you by ThredUP, the world’s largest online consignment and thrift store. Sell your old clothes and get new-to-you pieces at up to 90% off retail prices. Visit thredup.com/FOODPSYCH for 30% off your first purchase. Terms apply.

We Discuss:

  • What Dawn has been up to since her first appearance on Food Psych®

  • The importance of physical experience and embodiment, versus being in our heads

  • Embodying pleasure and joy

  • How diet culture, capitalism, and other systems of oppression rob us of our pleasure

  • The COVID-19 pandemic, and how that is highlighting existing social injustices

  • Being creative with food during self-isolation while managing an eating-disorder history

  • Dawn’s current relationship with food and her body compared to her past orthorexic thoughts

  • Systemic analysis, and its role in recovery

  • Desirability politics, and its links to diet culture and oppressive beauty standards

  • Strategies for widening your perspective on which bodies are attractive and desirable

  • Navigating relationships while in recovery, including setting and reinforcing boundaries

  • How to introduce the anti-diet message to your partner

  • Creating a culture of sharing in your romantic relationships

  • The parallels between romantic relationships and our relationships with food

Resources Mentioned

Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.

Listener Question of the Week

How can a person tell whether their physical activity or eating behaviors are intuitive or compulsive? How might stressful situations like the COVID-19 pandemic affect a person with a past or active eating disorder? What are the diagnostic criteria for bulimia? Where can a person who is currently recovering from an eating disorder find support?

Resources Mentioned: