The Women’s Podcast: ‘I was probably six when I was put on a diet’

“I remember being on the front step of my house in Dublin and my friends had sweets, but I knew that I shouldn’t have any. That’s my first memory of knowing that my body was a problem and that I needed to change to be better.”

On the latest episode of The Women’s Podcast, 2FM broadcaster and author Louise McSharry talks about being put on a diet after a visit to the doctor when she was just six years old and what impact that had on how she viewed her body from then on.

Irish Times journalist Dominique McMullan recalls being told by her friend’s mother as a 10-year-old, that she shouldn’t “be wearing a crop top like the other  girls,” while being rewarded for unhealthy weight loss a decade later.

“When I was about 26 I lost a lot of weight really, really fast. Within six months I lost two stone because I literally stopped eating... I was being so incredibly unhealthy but I was rewarded so much for that. Everybody around me, all they said was, ‘oh my god, you look amazing!’”

‘I’m the oldest transgender person in Co Galway’

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‘Women writers have to take humiliation very well’

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Politeness is a higher virtue but it’s hard in the face of rudeness

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They are joined by Róisín Ingle for a wide-ranging discussion about bodies, their relationship with their own and the problem with the idea of ‘shedding for the wedding’.

To listen to the full conversation go to iTunes, Soundcloud, irishtimes.com/podcasts, or your preferred podcast app