Ever needed vindication in liking a Jojo Siwa song? Wanted to feel validated in hating Saltburn? Follow Polyester’s head hags Ione Gamble and Gina Tonic on their journey picking apart the internet’s obsessions - girlhood anyone? - through a pop culture informed feminist lens. The Polyester Podcast has hosted guests like Euphoria’s Chloe Cherry and Priscilla costume designer Stacey Battat, has come to you live from the Tate and the Barbican, and delivers a new episode every Monday taking on t ...
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The Dark Chaos Of The 'It Ends With Us' Press Tour
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Our feeds have been overrun with a new celeb squabble as the press rollout for the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's 'It Ends With Us' goes absolutely tits up. Both TikTok and X users have spent the last week picking apart the behind the scenes drama between producer and star Blake Lively and producer, director and star Justin Baldoni. Is Blake g…
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The Spirituality Girly To Alt Right Pipeline
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How does embracing your divine feminine turn into an interest in eugenics? Are conspiracy theories making hippies move away from liberal spirituality and towards alt right ideals? This week, hosts Ione and Gina are dissecting the history of Goddess feminism, Elon Musks's mission to populate Mars and the similarities between trad wives and flower ch…
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Last week, Polyester suffered a great injustice on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter as right wing journalists piled on our humble hosts for sharing a pitch call out. This week, Ione and Gina dissect the discourse surrounding publishing industry standards, the declining state of the media industry, and the need to be right on soci…
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Is Kamala Brat? How The Politician Memed Herself Into A Presidential Candidate
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The Kamalanomenon is here. You think you just fell out of the coconut tree? This week, hosts Ione and Gina break down how brat summer, among other Kamala memes, morphed from gen z nihilistic irony into millennial girlboss earnestness - and how the memeification of politics affects us all. Support our work and become a Polyester Podcast member <3 Or…
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Underconsumption Core, Recession Pop & Projecting Meaning Onto Poverty
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Does a crap economy spawn better music? And should being frugal be a trend, a lifestyle choice or just a case of bloody getting on with things? This week, hosts Ione and Gina dig into the self narration that has been bred into us by social media and whether, during the worst recession we've weathered as adults, we should be romanticising our shampo…
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Hawk Tuah Girl, Mixed Weight Relationships and The Rise In Dehumanising Women Online
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It seems as though its never been worse to be a woman participating in the discourse. The Hawk Tuah girl has used her blowjob technique to become a star; cashing in on the viral moment with a merch line, a manager and a possible documentary. But while she makes bank, the alt right have commodified her into a figurehead - once again proclaiming any …
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Aura Points, Looksmaxxing And The Warped Morality Of TikTok Trends
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Fell over getting off the bus? Minus one hundred aura points. Discovered a band before your mates? Plus one thousand aura points. The new AP ranking system has taken TikTok by storm as teens rush to reveal the coolest and most harrowing moments in their lives to get engagement, sympathy and much coveted aura. Meanwhile incel rhetoric has once again…
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Why The 2024 General Election Is So Depressing
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We're all desperate to get the tories out, but for the first time in our hosts lives as voters, there's been an inescapable apathy in the air. As it seems certain that Labour will take over as the new British government, is it time to vote independent or spoil the ballot? This week Ione and Gina are getting knee deep in the culture war that's surro…
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The name on everybody's lips is: Charli XCX. The musician's sixth studio album Brat dropped this month and all of a sudden everything is Brat. But while we continue to wonder if every lime green car is planted by charli herself or just pure coincidence, in this week's episode, Ione and Gina are taking on the behemoth Brat marketing rollout. Is this…
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Literary It Girls, BookTok And The Complicated History of Men Watching Women Reading
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This week we've partnered with the Fitzwilliam Museum to take on the internet's renewed interest in all things literary. Inspired by the museum's rehang, where one portion of the Interiors gallery depicts women reading throughout the years, Ione and Gina talk through the oxymoronic literary it girl trend, the insidious nature of BookTok and the his…
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The 'All Eyes On Rafah' Viral Image And How AI Is Turning Us Into Boomers
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The past two weeks have seen a new debate arise in the world of online activism - what is the place of AI in conversations around raising awareness of important political issues? In this episode, Ione and Gina ask whether all is fair in getting All Eyes On Rafah or if we need to be cautious of the intentions behind those creating viral images to be…
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Why Is Everyone 'Neurospicy' Now? On The Individualisation Of Neurodivergence Online
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Is it five signs you may have ADHD or is it five vague symptoms that could be applicable to anyone? In this week's episode, Ione and Gina are diving into the way that TikTok - and the internet in general - has made being neurodivergent a personality trait, a subculture and a community in and of itself. The pair look at the pros and cons of sharing …
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Blockout2024 And How Social Media Gamified Political Issues
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Following the luxury of the Met Gala - and one influencer's mistimed 'Let Them Eat Cake" lip synch - the internet is demanding action from the celebrity class in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. The #BlockOut2024 encourages social media users to block celebrities and cut short their income streams until they voice their opinion on the…
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The day has finally come, the question has been asked and our hosts are ready to tackle the query of a generation: Why is everyone polyamorous now? Taking into account everything from the free love movement to tax breaks for married couples, Ione and Gina get to the bottom of why some people find a bad taste in their mouths in non monogamy discours…
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AI Girlfriends are Here to Turn us into Baby Making Machines
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Recently, Twitter was set ablaze by another creepy move by the incel community: AI generated women to have sex with while pumping into a boxed fleshlight. The viral video, which promises to put an end to declining birth rates, has sparked debates on the morality of combining intimacy with AI; and in this week's episode, Ione and Gina are getting in…
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Baby Reindeer And How Social Media Has Made Sociopaths Of Us All
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It's been less than three weeks since Netflix dropped the true crime, true story drama Baby Reindeer and the discourse surrounding the show feels inescapable. As internet sleuths take it upon themselves to wreak vigilante justice on the real life people the series was based on, those who know Richard Gadd - the writer and star of Baby Reindeer - su…
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Chappell Roan, Jojo Siwa And How Lesbians Took Over Pop Music
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The second weekend of Coachella has confirmed it: Chappell Roan is the lesbian pop star the world has been waiting for. Roan is one of a generation of pop girlies paving the way for sapphic representation in the mainstream - from Jojo Siwa to Renee Rap, we are truly in a queer woman power hour for music. In this week's episode, Ione and Gina break …
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