Hello and welcome back to the podcast. I’m so excited to share today’s episode with you. It is a big one, and it was such an honor for me to record. I speak with
, author of the bestselling book, On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to be Good. Elise is also the host of the Pulling the Thread Podcast, and prior to her podcast she was chief content officer of Goop.
I love Elise’s work because she’s such a thorough researcher and very intellectually minded, and at the same time, she explores the deep questions of why we’re here on a more metaphysical level. Today we’re talking about the Gluttony chapter of her book, and how it relates to the patriarchal system we live in. Elise starts by describing the origins of that system, which has come to define our worldview whether we realize it or not. While it’s started as a hierarchical dominance-based external system, it’s become an internal system that we all perpetuate, often unconsciously.
We explore how the system specifically plays into our relationship with food and our bodies. Elise describes how the “sin” of gluttony isn’t about extreme over-indulgence but rather about our moralizing of food. It’s a policing of what we eat and how our bodies look in order to conform and express our goodness. While we’re deeply influenced by powers outside of us (think diet culture) we also perpetuate the system internally. We police ourselves in an effort to be “good,” and to feel like we have control. However, this need for control disconnects us from real pleasure and from our true selves.
We talk about how to get out of this giant web of patriarchal conditioning to gain sovereignty for ourselves. The answer, as Elise explains, has to start on the inside. Only when we resolve the issues internally within ourselves can we begin to resolve the bigger societal issues we face.
I think you’re going to learn so much from this episode and begin to see how you can reclaim your own power and pleasure this holiday season.
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Happy Thanksgiving, my friends. I’m deeply grateful for each and every one of you. Wishing you a wonderful week, and remember to nourish yourself with intention and love.
xo, Nicki
@nickisizemore | more recipes | cookbooks | classes
Resources and links mentioned in this episode:
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On Our Best Behavior: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Price Women Pay to be Good, by Elise Loehnen
The Patriarchs: The Origins of Inequality, by Angela Saini
The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, by David Graeber and David Wengrow
The Wisdom of Your Body, by Hillary L. McBride, PhD
Unbroken Brain: A Revolutionary New Way of Understanding Addiction, by Maia Szalavitz
The History of the Patriarchy and the Fallacy of Gluttony