In Too Deep

TikTok popularised post-feminist archetypes, from chronic lyme disease havers, to the Salem witch trial nostalgists, and the high value man attracters… what do they all have in common? An obsession with the concept of feminine energy. In this episode we discuss the quite conservative TikTok trends related to finding your inner feminine essence, how and why they came about and the way in which they attempt to undo centuries of feminist progress. Grab your tarot cards and beef tallow, we’re going to heal our inner feminine 🧘‍♀️

Follow me ~

IG: ⁠instagram.com/intoodeepod⁠

TikTok: ⁠tiktok.com/@intoodeepod⁠

Resources ~

Christie SG, (2025) “Among the Post-Feminists: From revolutionaries to realists” The Point Mag

de Beauvoir S, (1949) “ The Second Sex” Librairie Gallimard

Jung J, (2022) “I have a problem with TikTok feminism” On Dit Magazine

Kjellgren A, (2023) “The myth of Woman: Simone de Beauvoir and the anthropological discourse on myth” History of European Ideas

Matsen F, (2022) “#WitchTok; An Examination of Female Empowerment And An Emphasis On The Creation of the ‘Witchy Aesthetic’” State University of New York

For more about 2010s feminism, listen to my episode “Everyone Get More Woke Now! (Internet Culture and Social Justice Warriors)”

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro & What is Post-Feminism?

16:54 Archetype #1: The Fragile, Diseased Woman

27:32 Archetype #2: The Witch Trial Nostalgist

36:34 Archetype #3: The Female Dating Strategist

48:43 Takeaways Re: TikTok Feminism

Somewhat of a filler episode this week discussing how dangerous working in customer service roles has become for young people, especially women. With violent customers increasing after the pandemic and sexual harassment becoming pervasive in the industry, is it even safe for teenagers to be working these jobs anymore? Also telling some personal anecdotes from my experience and some submitted by listeners too!

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Resources ~

Long K, (2025) “Burnout in the Australian Retail Industry: Addressing Physical and Psychosocial Risks for 2025” Australian Retailers Association

Trioli V, (2024) “Decades ago, I learned the perks and pitfalls of paid work. So what do today's young Australians want from employment?” ABC

BBC (2024) “UK shop workers ‘targets’ as abuse and attacks soar”

Motorola Solutions (2024) “The state of retail worker safety in Australia and New Zealand”

National Retail Association (2020) “Abuse is Forcing Workers Out of Retail”

The University of Sydney (2024) “Sexual harassment rife in retail work”

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro

12:14 Increase in Violence

19:11 Retail Taking Advantage of Teenage Employees

27:28 Retail Stories from Listeners!

This episode is a radical and intersectional feminist analysis of BDSM and how violent sex has been completely normalised by the omnipresence of pornography. I’ve been describing this as my magnum opus because it’s funny but ALSO because unfortunately, there is a huge lack of discussions about the naturalisation of patriarchy-informed sex! I’ll be using a mix of research-based, theoretical, and anecdotal evidence to back up my claims. I hope you learn something new and, like me, can emancipate yourself from patriarchal sex. Reading list below denoted by 🚩!

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Resources ~

Abrams M, et al. (2022) ‘Childhood abuse and sadomasochism: New insights’ Sexologies

Baillie R, (2012) ‘Children accessing porn younger: study’ ABC News

Bows H & Herring J, (2022) ’Rough Sex and the Criminal Law: Global Perspectives’ Emerald Publishing 🚩

Davis C, (2024) ‘Do you not like sex or do you just not like patriarchal sex?’ Matriarchal Blessing, Substack

Deckha M, (2007) ‘Pain, Pleasure, and Consenting Women: Exploring Feminist Responses to S/M and Its Legal Regulation in Canada through Jelineks the Piano Teacher’ Harvard Journal of Law & Gender

Farley M, (1993) ‘Ten Lies About Sadomasochism’ Sinister Wisdom 🚩

Gathings M & Parrotta K, (2013) ‘The Use of Gendered Narratives in the Courtroom: Constructing an Identity Worthy of Leniency’ Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

Han BC, (2012) ‘The Agony of Eros’ MIT Press

Hanna C, (2001) ‘Sex is not a sport: Consent and violence in criminal law’ Boston College Law review

Hooks B, (2004) ‘The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity, and Love’ Washington Square Press 🚩 (if man)

Lorde A, (1985) ‘I Am Your Sister: Collected and Unpublished Writings’ Oxford University Press 🚩

MacKinnon C, (1989) ‘Sexuality, Pornography, and Method: “Pleasure under Patriarchy” The University of Chicago Press

Murphy M, (2014) ‘bell hooks Will Save Us All From the Long Slow Death That is Popular Feminism’ Feminist Current

Perry L, (2022) ‘The Case Against the Sexual Revolution’ Polity

Snape A, (2020) ‘The BDSM Community Is Worried About Changes to the Domestic Abuse Bill’ Vice

Srinivasan A, (2021) ‘The Right to Sex’ Farrar, Straus and Giroux 🚩

Stansfield R & Williams K, (2021) ‘Coercive control between intimate partners: An application to nonfatal strangulation’ Journal of Interpersonal Violence

Sasha S. Graham @sistaseperatist TikTok ‘The New Sexual Harassment Trend’

Posts from r/antikink and r/pornismisogyny

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro & Acknowledgements

11:32 Historical Feminist Context

20:24 Porn = Bad

30:03 Early Introductions to BDSM

43:22 BDSM = Bad

1:03:30 Consent is Not Enough

1:15:12 Quickfire Proving Pro-BDSM Arguments Wrong

1:26:13 What would a truly liberated and radical expression of sex look like?

Recently, I saw an article about marijuana use in men leading to an increased risk of spontaneous abortion, so I wanted to look more into the type and frequency of birth defects caused by men. In this episode we’ll be discussing the gendered basis of infertility, the assumption that the woman is always the “defective” one, and looking into a case study in Pakistan to understand how badly this can affect women worldwide. I also neededdd to talk about the hypocrisy with blaming women for waiting too long to have kids, when paternal age can actually be just as damaging. Hope you’ll learn something new!

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Resources ~

Auteri S, (2018) “People Always Assume Infertility Is the Woman’s Fault” Vice

Fang Y, et. al (2020) “Effect of paternal age on offspring birth defects: a systematic review and meta-analysis” Aging (Albany NY)

Harlow AF, et. al (2021) “Male Preconception Marijuana Use and Spontaneous Abortion: A Prospective Cohort Study” Epidemiology

Mothuk A, (2023) “The perils of putting off fatherhood: why it poses risks to children’s physical and mental health” The Guardian

Mumtaz Z, et. al (2013) “Understanding the impact of gendered roles on the experiences of infertility amongst men and women in Punjab” Reproductive Health

Skiadas C, (2022) “Did You Know? Infertility Affects Men and Women Equally” Penn Medicine, Lancaster General Health

Vignozzi L, (2024) “Why couple infertility is historically a female-driven problem?” Andrology

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro

3:14 Marijuana Use & Spontaneous Abortion

8:38 On Couple Infertility Always Being the Woman's "Defect"

26:31 Pakistan Case Study

35:31 Paternal Age as a Risk Factor

In this week’s ep we’re talking about male-directed films about women. What inspired this mainly was my month long depressive spiral after I saw Poor Things last year. I’ll also be discussing some other somewhat recent releases: Anora, Nosferatu, and The Worst Person in the World, their marketing as supposed ‘feminist’ films and the actual varying degrees of misogyny present throughout. No male directors on set, please!

(I realise I kept pronouncing ‘Joachim’ like ‘Joaquim’… ignore)

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Resources ~

Bastien AJ, (2024) “Is Poor Things the Best We Can Do For Female Sexuality Onscreen?” Vulture

Lanier A, (2025) “The Women Are the Problem: The Enduring Mistake of ‘Nosferatu’ and Misogyny” Pajiba

Lawrence R, (2024) “The Vampire & Queerness in 19th Century Gothic Literature” Blog post

Siddiqi A, (2022) “Memento Millennial” Substack essay

Squire S, (2022) “The Worst Person in the World—commentary on sexism, love and being lost in beautiful film” Socialist Worker

Urzaiz BG, (2022) “The Worst Person in the World – The problematic cliché of the zany female thirtysomething” El Pais

The Punk Theory, (2025) “Book vs. Movie: Poor Things” Blog post

Yeh SSC, (2015) “The Beast Within: Gothic Vampirisim in the 19th Century” McGill University

Chapters ~

00:00 Intro

5:04 Anora

10:04 The Worst Person In The World

26:10 Nosferatu

43:17 Poor Things

Hiiii welcome to the first bonus episode. I'm talking about the books I read in Jan. Feedback on doing video episodes appreciated 😁🤞

(sorry about the audio quality on this one!)

~ Jan Books ~

00:00 Upstream by Mary Oliver

10:04 The Kites by Romain Gary

15:26 Females by Andrea Long Chu

23:49 The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol J. Adams

27:41 Madonna In A Fur Coat by Sabahattin Ali

Victoria and I have been deep in the internet fandom trenches for a decade, so, we're talking about being raised by the internet and how it was actually beneficial for our knowledge of the world. We discuss our very early introduction to internet culture, leading into 2010s Tumblr feminism and social justice warriors and how we think the push of alt right ideas re-emerged online (blame PewDiePie).

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/intoodeepod

Resources ~

Ewans H, (2019) “The Strange Decade in Online Feminism” Vice

Hannell B, (2024) “How Tumblr raised a generation of feminists” The Conversation

Herbst A, (2018) “How the Term “Social Justice Warrior’ Became an Insult” Foundation for Economic Education

Massanari AL & Chess S, (2018) “Attack of the 50-foot social justice warrior: the discursive construction of SJW memes as the monstrous feminine” Feminist Media Studies

michi @pinkbinz Tik Tok “pewdiepie and the meme-ification of hate”

kayla @kaylalane Substack “a brief history of misogyny in fandom culture”

I hate marriage - the vote that won on last week’s poll for this week’s episode! In this episode, I’ll be discussing marriage abolitionism under the teachings of Clementine Ford in her book “I Don’t”. This is one of my favourite books ever and was revolutionary in introducing me to feminist theory and giving me an understanding of how the patriarchy permeates every aspect of our lives. I hope I can convince you to not get married with this episode, but if not, give her book a read and our combined efforts might be enough…

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Resources ~

Ford C, (2023) “I Don’t: The Case Against Marriage”

Hull KE, et al. (2010) “The Changing Landscape of Love and Marriage” Contexts (Berkeley Calif)

Tyler M, (2015) “Saying “I Don’t”: Moving beyond marriage”, pp 181-199 Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism

s/o to Paris Mwendwa Substack essays too

Unfortunately, MAFS is back on Australian TV. Though I’ve personally never watched it, a certain groom has been permeating my TikTok fyp. In this episode we talk about the sheer volume of relationship-based reality TV shows and the impact they can have on real life relationships. I’ve also noticed a trend of reality shows profiting off of women’s suffering and the negative effects these shows can have on the women consuming them. I hope you learn something new!

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

References ~

ACMA Report: Viewer response to reality television in Australia (2021)

Birdsall N & Keay S, (2018) “Love Island and other reality TV shows are helping to normalise domestic abuse” The Conversation

Boateng J, (2023) “The Perception of Intimacy: Are Dating Reality TV Shows Affecting Relationships?” Canadian Journal of Family and Youth

Campbell TC, (2024) “Why Are Reality Dating Shows Pushing Marriage as the Prize?” Medium

Cholakova M, (2023) “Dating Shows Have Killed My Perception of Love” The Link Newspaper

Hall R, (2021) “Women on reality TV shows get far more abuse online than men – study” The Guardian

Razavi A, (2023) “Let’s talk about it: Women’s portrayal in reality TV” Redwood Bark

Thomas J, (2021) “Reality TV’s Obsession with Female Suffering” FEM Magazine

Erika & I met when we both tried to buy tickets to the Singaporean BTS concert in 2018. So, in this episode we talk about Korean history and the current political climate as a barrier to so-called “western” feminism. We also touch on the uniqueness of South Korean beauty standards promoted particularly by K-Pop and the associated dangers for women in the industry. We hope you’ll learn something new!

Follow me ~

IG: instagram.com/intoodeepod

TikTok: tiktok.com/@intoodeepod

Reources ~

Azizah N & Dwiyanti A, (2021) “South Korea in Reconstructing Masculinity as Brand Image of the State’s Economic Diplomacy” Sociology & Technology

De Souza N, (2020) “The Nth Room case and modern slavery in the digital space” The Lowey Institute

Handley E, (2024) “What are the South Korean origins of the feminist 4B movement rising in the United States?” ABC

Jones L, (2021) “Crafted for the Male Gaze: Gender Discrimination in the K-Pop Industry” Journal of International Women’s Studies

Jung KJ, (2024) “’Gender Wars’ and populist politics in South Korea” Women’s Studies International Forum

Kim KA, (1997) “Nationalism: An Advocate of, or a Barrier to, Feminism in South Korea” Women’s Studies International Forum

Lee SH, (2024) “Anti-Gender Politics, Economic Insecurity, and Right-Wing Populism: The Rise of Modern Sexism among Young Men in South Korea” Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society

Mackenzie J & Choi LH, (2024) “Inside the deepfake porn crisis engulfing Korean schools” BBC