Please, can we stop talking about losing weight for the end of lockdown?
+ fears about restaurants reopening, exploring vegan meats, and an introduction to FoodTok
Nice Pear: a weekly(ish) feminist foodletter | Issue #023 | 28 February 2021
Hello!
I am once again reminding readers that I call this newsletter’s schedule weekly(ish) for a reason (and that reason is depression. February has been h a r d, you guys)
This week, the UK’s Prime Minister announced a ‘roadmap’ to getting out of this pandemic and reactions were… divided.
Some think the measures are too strict, that we should all be allowed out to mingle and do whatever we want (and pass the virus on to whoever we want) like, yesterday.
Others (myself included) don’t believe for a minute that the roadmap can safely be accurate.
Of course, I want to spend time with my family, of course, I want to go for dinner with friends, of course, I want to go to a crowded bar, of course, I want to go on holiday, of course, I want to rummage through shops.
But I can't bear to get my hopes up (again) only to have them dashed (again). We’ve been in various states of lockdown for almost a year now and, until we’re all vaccinated, I don’t see how those things can be done safely.
Which is part of why the current discourse about getting in shape/ getting a summer body/ getting beach-ready by 21 June is so mindblowing to me.
We've all been through a hellish year. Over 120,000 of us haven't made it through in the UK alone. We're still in it, and so many of us are still grieving, we're still struggling, and the pressure to look good or be a certain size in the next few months is overwhelming.
If exercise and healthy eating are getting you through this, then you do you. But most of us don’t need the extra stress of feeling pressured to look a certain way in a bikini by June.
I’ve written before about the extra toll this pandemic has taken on women, and about the extra pressure women face to look a certain way or be a certain size.
For some, a discussion of weight and looks might be a throwaway comment, but for many of us, it’s just another way to beat ourselves up in a time when so many of us are already being (or at least feeling) harshly judged, for the ways we’ve reacted and coped during this stressful year.
👇 Scroll on down for Things to Read 👇
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Photo by Piotr Arnoldes from Pexels
Things to read this week
On ProPublica: How opening restaurants could be the perfect recipe for a superspreading event
This nuanced deconstruction of ‘the lunchbox moment’ experienced by many second-generation immigrants
In vegan food 🌱
A look at the financial backers of the faux-meat industry in Baffler
Food & Wine released a pretty comprehensive package on plant-based meat.
Senior Editor Margaret Eby’s thoughts on what the plant-based meat boom means to us lifelong veggies is possibly my favourite piece
As someone who cannot take their eyes away from TikTok recently, this essay on the joys of FoodTok resonated
And finally, this piece on ‘forbidden food’ is just an interesting internet-culture read
Where to find me this week
Nothing new published this week.
In February I sent six pitches, got 3 rejections, and no commissions - yet!
As always, you can find me @ZoePickburn on Twiter, Insta, and other social media.
Thanks!
Zoe
Freelance writer & journo | Food blogger & newsletterer (she/her)
Say hello@zoepickburn.com with stories, commissions & foodie chit chat
If you enjoy Nice Pear & want to support it (or any of the other content I create online) you can always become a paying subscriber, buy me a virtual cuppa, or throw some change in the tip jar.