Two of my most revelatory reads of 2018 were The Body is Not an Apology: The Radical Power of Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor and Come As You Are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life by Emily Nagoski. They both helped me see how deeply I’ve internalized the messages that smaller is better and the smaller the better.
I have noticed how much shame I feel when I buy a medium instead of a small. I have noticed how I literally try to contort myself into a smaller shape when I am emotionally or socially uncomfortable. I have noticed that time spent thinking about the size of my body is time I can’t spend on something else. I have noticed how strange this all is on a fundamental level. After all, I have a body. So do you.
Our bodies are made of muscles and bones and blood and nerves and fat. These bodies are physical things. There is an essential heft to them. Our bodies are made to take up space in our world. What a strange thing it is to deny that. What a relief to stop.
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