Life Uncut

Welcome to Offcuts where we chat about whatever piqued our interest this week in a light, fun little package to send you off on your weekend!
Britt is starting her weekend with a fresh shot of nutrients that came directly from Laura!
We chat:
A 7 year situationship seems to sum up modern dating life
The AI chatbots are bitching about humans
How important is height?
You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Keeshia Pettit
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford and Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beauty standards are a set of rules and guidelines that we’ve spoken about hundreds of times before. We live in a time where it feels hard to keep up with them. We’ve discussed how pretty privilege can quite literally make you more successful in your career, the halo effect and how people with more symmetrical faces are viewed as more trustworthy. But, today we are taking a deep dive into how much social media and AI have changed the way that we view ourselves and if they’re to blame for the impossible beauty ideals that we are expected to live up to!
Today we’re joined by someone who has spent years studying the way beauty culture shapes us, pressures us, and sometimes totally warps how we see ourselves.
Carly, or Carlz J Söda, is a photographer and a researcher and her thesis looks into how social media, AI, and beauty standards collide and what that collision is doing to our sense of self.
We speak about:
How we all seem to anticipate criticism that we might get for the way we look, and change ourselves before anyone else has the opportunity to criticise us
The concept of ‘digital lateral surveillance’ - a theory of how we police each other
How facetune and photoshop have affected us psychologically
Are we to blame for AI’s ‘beauty ideals?’
The cost of ‘beauty’
The Kardashians being victims of the beauty standards that they themselves perpetuate
How the selfie camera distorts what you look like
You can find more from Carlz at her instagram and her website

You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Keeshia Pettit
Produced by Keeshia Pettit
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers,
Britt is brimming with salmon…sperm. Welcome to your Wednesday!
We’ve been nominated for an AACTA and Britt’s planned outfit is giving Chapel Roan at the Grammy’s but sheer on the other end.
Britt’s received a particularly strange gift from Ben and she wasn’t sure whether she should be offended or be grateful for it’s practicality.
Laura’s daughter Marlie Mae has been so brave and decided to busk on the busy streets of Noosa. She’s been very successful and it’s left Laura wondering if it was a good or a terrible parenting decision.
Kanye, now Ye, West has taken out an ad in the Wall Street Journal apologising for antisemetic and racist behaviour. But is it a marketing tactic?
We unpack the apology that Ye took out last week and whether the timing is just a bit too convenient for us to think that it’s sincere when he has a new album coming out next month. We also chat about the complexities of conversations like this when it comes to discussing psychiatric illness and being accountable for immense harm and fuelling hate.
You can read the whole statement here
You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Keeshia Pettit
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford & Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back to ask uncut where we unpack your deepest dilemmas and offer our most passionate, ‘lived in’ (technically unqualified) advice. We’ve got dilemmas of our own and it involves needing to shave our faces… Someone from our facebook group (that you can join here Facebook Discussion Group) is participating in top tier girl code and gamer boy better look out!
Vibes for the week:
Laura - UK Traitors Season 4
Keeshia - Mad Mabel by Sally Hepworth
Then we jump into your questions!
I’M A SW BUT DON’T HAVE SEX WITH PARTNER OF 10 YEARS
I’ve been with my boyfriend for 10 years and we essentially don’t have sex — but he constantly guilts me about it. For context, I’m a sex worker and he spent many years seeing sex workers before we met. We’ve always had an open relationship, and I’m okay with not having sex together given the rest of our relationship is amazing. The issue is that I don’t enjoy sex with him — there’s no seduction, no initiation, and it often feels rushed, painful, and disconnected. I’ve tried explaining that effort and communication matter, but he becomes defensive and turns it into “you sleep with your clients but not me.” Even my clients put more care into my experience than he does (I don’t tell him this). We avoid talking about it because he gets immature and blames me. How do I handle the guilt and resentment, and is this something that can actually be fixed — or am I ignoring a bigger problem?
IS IT CHEATING IF THEY’RE TEXTING BOTS?
Is it considered cheating if your significant other is on apps (e.g telegram) and is messaging “bots” ? A friend of mine has been in a relationship for around 10 months and recently found out her boyfriend had been sending messages to these bots. The messages are on the flirtier side - the bots send through an image of a woman (mostly AI) with minimal clothing and her boyfriend would reply with “” or “looking good” etc. These bots also comment on his appearance, saying he’s hot and sexy etc. She has said that it is cheating and she wants to break up with him as he is seeking sexual validation and attention from these bots. Would love your take on this!
PARTNERS COMING TO GIRLS CATCH UPS?
I am currently on parental leave. Twice this week I have made plans to meet different friends for walks and coffees with their bubbas, and when I arrived, their partners were there as they are on paternity leave! I really love their partners and it’s great to spend time with them too, but I find it strange that in both cases neither decided to give a heads up. Isn’t this just good manners to give a heads up if someone else is joining? But since it happened twice with two different people I'm just thinking maybe I'm overreacting?
JOKES ABOUT HARRY STYLE BEING MY HALL PASS AND BF IS UPSET
I love my boyfriend of four years. He is caring, kind and makes me feel so safe. Recently as you would have heard, Harry Styles is releasing new music. I was very excited about this (as a long time one direction and Harry fan!) and suggested to my boyfriend that we try to get tickets to his upcoming tour! He immediately got upset and said he would never go to a Harry style concert with me again. We went a couple of years ago when Harry was last touring. And apparently he was uncomfortable with how excited I got during the concert and from a joke I made about Harry being my hall pass, and saying how much I love him. I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, but he feels like I was seriously inferring that I want to cheat on him. I think it’s quite common to joke about celebrity crushes and I would have no issue with home saying the same about dua lipa, for example. I don’t even remember this conversation, because I don’t think I said anything serious. I told him that I must have been making a joke about my celebrity hall pass, and that obviously I don’t actually wish to cheat on him with Harry Styles. It really bothers me that he has been bothered about this for years and never once brought it up with me until now. It’s also hurtful to me that he actually believes that I would want to cheat on him, if given the chance. We’re now not talking, and I think the whole argument is completely ridiculous. Help! What should I do?
IS IT SELFISH TO NOT SHARE MY BABYSITTER DEETS TO FRIENDS?
I am in a big circle of expat friends all with kids all with no family around (aka family who also double up as babysitters on occasion lol). Myself and my partner have recently started to organise some nights out again now that the kids are a little older- 4 and 2. Like I said we've no immediate family here and only 1 lady in our daycare offers babysitting- which my friend already uses and we tend to do things together within our expat circle. Anyway I found a lovely girl offering babysitting on Facebook, organised a meet up to do a vibe check, checked her credentials and we had some mutual friends from home which I contacted and she checked out. She is great and my kids loved her. She has babysat for us twice in the last 5 months and it's such a relief to know we have someone that we can rely on!.. which leads me to my question.. a friend has asked for my babysitter's details. Am I the ahole for not wanting to share them
You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Laura Byrne & Keeshia Pettit
Produced by Keeshia Pettit
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey Lifers!
Welcome to our first episode of off cuts! This is where we chat about whatever piqued our interest this week in a light, fun little package to send you off on your weekend!
We chat:
Is your feed filled with post baby 'bounce back' content?
Would you sign away your whole persona for a billion dollars?
Are you protecting your peace, or are you just euthanising your personality?
“No Bare Bums.” Lose the G Strings ladies!
Skyscraper Man and whether parents should take on high risk activities

You can watch us on Youtube
Find us on Instagram
Join us on tiktok
Or join the Facebook Discussion Group
Hosted by Britt Hockley & Laura Byrne
Produced by Keeshia Pettit
Video Produced by Vanessa Beckford and Lachy Pugsley
Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! Xx
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.