Food Psych #242: Anti-Racism Resources, and Repost of #113: How to Cultivate Radical Body Love with Sonya Renee Taylor
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#242: Anti-Racism Resources + Repost #113: How to Cultivate Radical Body Love w/ Sonya Renee Taylor
Writer and activist Sonya Renee Taylor joins us to discuss why we need more radical body love in the world, how to deal with weight gain and weight stigma while learning intuitive eating, what mainstream body positivity gets wrong, why understanding oppression and intersecting identities is the key to creating a world that's *truly* body-positive, how to navigate diet culture as a body-acceptance activist, how to begin to untangle internalized oppression, and lots more. (This interview originally aired on July 17, 2017.) Plus, in a new 2020 introduction, Christy offers a list of anti-racism resources for people who are looking to learn more.
Sonya Renee Taylor is the Founder and Radical Executive Officer of The Body is Not An Apology, a digital media and education company committed to radical self-love and body empowerment as the foundational tool for social justice and global transformation. She is the author of The Body Is Not An Apology, Celebrate Your Body, and the forthcoming The Body Is Not An Apology Workbook, available in February 2021.
TBINAA.com reaches over 1 million people each month in 140 countries with their articles and content focused on the intersection of bodies, personal transformation and social justice. Sonya is also an International award winning Performance Poet, Activist, speaker, and transformational leader whose work continues to have global reach. She has appeared across the US, New Zealand, Australia, England, Scotland, Sweden, Germany, Canada and the Netherlands. Sonya and her work has been seen, heard and read on HBO, BET, MTV, TV One, NPR, PBS, CNN, Oxygen Network, The New York Times, New York Magazine, MSNBC.com, Today.com, Huffington Post, Vogue Australia, Shape.com, Ms. Magazine and many more. She has shared stages with such luminaries as Carrie Mae Weems, Theaster Gates, Harry Belafonte, Dr. Cornell West, Hilary Rodham Clinton, the late Amiri Baraka and numerous others. Sonya continues to perform, speak and facilitate workshops globally. Visit her at SonyaReneeTaylor.com or TheBodyIsNotAnApology.com.
We Discuss:
Sonya’s relationship with food growing up, including growing up in the Midwest in an African American family
Diet culture and body expectations
The communal nature of dieting and disordered eating
Body as currency and feminine value
Body image in relation to life circumstances
All-or-nothing behavior
Performance poetry
Body politics
Health at Every Size
The process of paradigm shifts
Shame, body judgment, and finding body peace
The role of community in body autonomy and body acceptance
Intersectional feminism
Being Black in America, internalized racism, white supremacy, and the white beauty ideal
Social justice
Mainstream body positivity and the capitalist co-option of the movement
Radical body love
Unpacking personal bias
Dealing with weight gain and grappling with weight stigma during the intuitive eating process
Awakening to oppression
Living in diet culture and navigating this body-negative world as anti-diet, body acceptance activists
Resources Mentioned
Some of the links below are affiliate links. Affiliates or not, we only recommend products and services that align with our values.
Submit your questions for a chance to have them answered on the podcast!
My book, Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating
FAT!SO? by Marilyn Wann (Bookshop) (Amazon)
Anti-Racism Resources
The Body Is Not An Apology (Bookshop) (Amazon)
So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo (Bookshop) (Amazon)
Ijeoma Oluo’s Food Psych episode, work, Instagram, and Twitter
How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi (Bookshop) (Amazon)
Me and White Supremacy by Layla F. Saad (Bookshop) (Amazon)