The chaos and overwhelm you are feeling in this first month of 2025 is by design. The fear, if not panic, that strikes you every time you see a new news story is intended to break you down. Your worry about all the what-ifs has been strategically created so you stay distracted and disheartened.

Being a sociology nerd at heart, I found myself at my desk last week making a list of all the ways systems of oppression are being intentionally woven into our US culture (on top of the systems of oppression that already existed). It didn’t take much time to draw some distinct conclusions about what is happening right now.

One of the first things I noticed is that, for women, we have been here before. We are all probably aware of larger and more obvious historical systems of oppression that we have endured - not being allowed to vote, have a credit card, take out a mortgage, run in marathons, work in certain environments, have bodily autonomy, etc.

Beyond all that, one of the most insidious long-term systems of oppression that women have (and continue to endure) is diet culture. When I started drawing connections between the decades of brainwashing and indoctrination we have endured around our bodies and the intentional chaos we are enduring now as women and as other people carrying marginalized identities, I felt like I unlocked the puzzle.

Systems of oppression have some key characteristics:

Institutional legitimacy and normalization - they embed themselves in laws, cultural practices, and social institutions, making them appear normal or natural rather than constructed.
Control of resources and opportunities - the dominant group restricts access to things like education, jobs, housing, healthcare, and other essential resources to maintain power over the oppressed.
Internalized oppression - oppressed groups begin to internalize and believe the negative messages they are hearing about themselves. This causes them to retreat or turn on each other.
Divide and conquer tactics - marginalized groups are pitted against each other, preventing unified resistance. This can include creating hierarchies within oppressed populations.
Punishment of resistance - there are severe consequences for those who challenge the system (violence, legal penalties, social ostracism, or economic retaliation).
Control of information and narratives - education, media, and historical narratives are controlled and contrived in a distorted way that shapes how people understand themselves and society, often erasing or skewing the experiences of marginalized groups.

All of these elements are present right now. This is why you feel so unnerved. This is why you feel like your power is slipping away by the day. All of these elements have also been present for decades as women have been conditioned to hold our bodies in disdain. So, none of this is new.

Rest assured, taking away aspects of your power does not make you powerless. The system is designed to make you feign powerlessness. You are NOT powerless. In this episode, I help you unravel what is happening so you can make informed decisions to keep moving forward in your day-to-day life.

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