In this week’s episode, Dara is set off by a tweet from a female account that first explicitly requests pictures of beautiful men – ‘rides’ is the term of desire used – and then disclaims accusations of objectification. Is objectification of men by women better, or less loaded, than objectification of women by men? Dara isn’t sure…
He reflects on the nature of attraction and thinks back to how he viewed his own body and how that played out in his early romantic relationships. He feels lucky in that he came to a reasonably healthy conclusion and allowed his insecurities to roam in non-physical realms.
On the back of a recent bout of depression, Dara discusses a theory he has about where we locate our victories. He posits it as a counter to capitalist-influenced frames of success and winning that are typically equated with accumulation and material gain. He offers something more akin to a Zen decluttering which draws attention to what we have removed from our lives to allow us easier access to accommodation and acceptance and yes, happiness. In other words, what isn’t present could well be an indicator of where we have won on our journey to the present moment.
Before any of that is touched though, Dara wonders if we shouldn’t talk to each other like babies. And he has time to race down the track on a train of thought about some mysterious soap in his household. Where did it come from? And how on earth did it get in that bottle?