Being pregnant is complicated and societal standards for postpartum bodies can breed parent to child resentment. Parents struggling with image issues after giving birth may feel like the child is to blame or the pregnancy “ruined their body” and those who already suffer from eating disorders may risk miscarriage. By Aihs Eztofeid If you’ve never...
Category: Body Positivity In Color
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I Am What They Fear: Healing From Eating Disorders While Fat
I could understand that we share an illness that makes us fear food and desire thinness, but the realities of a fat girl with an eating disorder and a thin girl with an eating disorder are so far apart, it’s like a gorge divides us. This essay contains discussions of disordered eating habits, fat antagonism,...
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Queer Black Muslim Women Are Still Kept Out Of The LGBT+ Community
Our bodies are all read within social and political contexts. But, some of us are never read as anything beyond bodies. By Vanessa Taylor “Thank you for coming,” a white person told me as they eagerly shook my hand. We were at Pride 2016 and I was the only visible Muslim around. Only moments before,...
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BURLESQUE: Using Our Bodies as a Form of Resistance and Joy
In this photo essay for #BodyPositivityInColor, burlesque performer Janna Zinzi (a.k.a. jazabel jade) writes about the transformative power of burlesque, its importance to Black and Brown dancers and body acceptance for non-normative bodies. By Janna Zinzi Burlesque is our legacy as Black and Brown folks. Its roots are in social and political commentary and it...
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The Silent Scream That Is Cosplay
In this essay by TaLynn Kel for #BodyPositivityInColor, she discusses the politics of cosplay, how she navigates it as a fat, Black woman and why it is a liberatory form of self-expression for non-normative bodies. By TaLynn Kel My name is TaLynn Kel and I enjoy being visible. I wasn’t always able to say that....
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BLACK: An Apology to My Skin—Lovechild of the Sun
In this letter for #BodyPositivityInColor Asia Renée apologizes to her skin for not cherishing it—its richness, its history and its significance as part of her identity. She acknowledges how she was raised without having the space to see herself represented as a dark-skinned Black woman and how she is finally embracing her whole self after...
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We Need To Banish White Supremacy From Eating Disorders Treatment
For National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, Gloria Oladipo explores the difficulties of receiving treatment as a Black woman and the ways in which the treatment can and should improve by tackling colonialism and white supremacy. By Gloria Oladipo My experience as a Black woman in eating disorder treatment is a difficult one. At the different...
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DYKES: Our Sexuality Pushes Beyond the Limits of Cisheteronormativity
In their piece for #BodyPositivityInColor, James Factora explores how societal perceptions of lesbianism are often boiled down to a single experience instead of a complex and varied tapestry, and how those perceptions are severely limited by heteronormativity and marred by transphobia. By James Factora I’ve always been visibly, obviously, loudly queer, a perception that has...
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MESSY: Body Positivity Means Telling The Whole Truth And Finally Putting Myself First
In this essay accompanied with concept-collage images, Negesti Kaudo reflects on what body positivity means to her, on whether she is ready to reclaim the word “fat”, and how she used art as a medium to understanding her relationship to and perception of her own body. By Negesti Kaudo Essays about my body...