Ana, such hard relate to this post! A friend of mine in Cambridge was doing her PhD on the history of the construction of the term "natural" in social and medical discourse and it was so eye-opening re. how it's not only a Eurocentric privilege to expound on the merits of 'naturalness' but also a historical one to lament things like pesticides and vaccines and medical treatments like chemo etc now (not that I'm suggesting pesticides don't have their problems). Her point was that now that technology (medical treatments, baby formula, you name it) is ubiquitous, it can be clearly traced from the 1980s or so how it became fashionable to be all back to nature, organic, natural, etc as a whole lifestyle, whereas decades or hundreds of years ago people who were suffering with basic illnesses and inconveniences were not like "no thanks, I'll pass on the technology..."
Emma put me onto your substack btw, and I'm loving it :-D
Dear Alison, thank you for sharing this! I'd love to hear more about your friend's research, sounds fascinating — I feel like I was only scratching the surface, there's so much to unpack there in the idea of “natural”...
PS: I'm so happy you enjoy Moderate Hypocrisy, thank you for the support <3
Also, loved this newsletter and I know I already recommended Trust by Hernan Diaz but what I didn't mention is that at its core it's also a novel about uncovering the true life story of an exceptional woman within the distorted narratives that men had written about her.
Ana, such hard relate to this post! A friend of mine in Cambridge was doing her PhD on the history of the construction of the term "natural" in social and medical discourse and it was so eye-opening re. how it's not only a Eurocentric privilege to expound on the merits of 'naturalness' but also a historical one to lament things like pesticides and vaccines and medical treatments like chemo etc now (not that I'm suggesting pesticides don't have their problems). Her point was that now that technology (medical treatments, baby formula, you name it) is ubiquitous, it can be clearly traced from the 1980s or so how it became fashionable to be all back to nature, organic, natural, etc as a whole lifestyle, whereas decades or hundreds of years ago people who were suffering with basic illnesses and inconveniences were not like "no thanks, I'll pass on the technology..."
Emma put me onto your substack btw, and I'm loving it :-D
Dear Alison, thank you for sharing this! I'd love to hear more about your friend's research, sounds fascinating — I feel like I was only scratching the surface, there's so much to unpack there in the idea of “natural”...
PS: I'm so happy you enjoy Moderate Hypocrisy, thank you for the support <3
Love love love this read. THIS was so refreshing to read and I had a constant big yes in my head to all the points you were making.
"I sighed, took a screenshot, shared it with my friends and ripped it to shreds in the group chat." Guilty as charged.
Also, loved this newsletter and I know I already recommended Trust by Hernan Diaz but what I didn't mention is that at its core it's also a novel about uncovering the true life story of an exceptional woman within the distorted narratives that men had written about her.
Can’t wait to read this one.