Food Psych #242: Anti-Racism Resources, and Repost of #113: How to Cultivate Radical Body Love with Sonya Renee Taylor

Photographer: Khali MacIntyre

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

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Anti-Racism Resources

 
Christy HarrisonRacism, anti-racism, Black Lives Matter, Black, BIPOC, diet culture, dieting, disordered eating, body image, feminism, all-or-nothing, poetry, body politics, Health At Every Size, paradigm shift, shame, body judgment, body peace, body autonomy, body acceptance, intersectionality, social justice, body positivity, capitalism, radical, bias, weight stigma, fatphobia, oppression, body liberation, anti-diet, S720