Emma Dabiri: ‘That we vilify taking an interest in your body, and taking time with its presentation, is quite peculiar’
Writer and academic Emma Dabiri on learning to reconcile her academic side with a love of fashion and makeup, the capitalism of beauty and why she’s glad social media wasn’t around in her teens
"I’m somebody that does like makeup and clothes and beauty treatments, but that’s just a part of a whole and I still can’t spend too much time looking at my reflection or pictures of myself." Emma Dabiri pictured during London Fashion Week 2024. Photo: Kirstin Sinclair/Getty Images
‘I was talking to a friend the other day who’s also Irish,” says writer, broadcaster and academic Emma Dabiri down the phone from her UK home, “and we were saying how mad it was that in Ireland when I was growing up, the biggest slag was ‘She loves herself’.”
Dabiri laughs, but it’s a laugh that marvels at the casual, crushing cruelty of it. “You might have heard, ‘He loves himself’,” she adds, “but it was more gendered, really.
Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel
Stay up to date with all the latest news
