Powerful and Motivational: The Body Is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

The Gist: A powerful book that delves into the oppressive history of modern beauty standards, transforming the meaning of self-love.

Series: Standalone

Release Date: February 9, 2021 (2nd Edition)

Format: eARC

Rating: 3.75-stars

Note: I received The Body Is Not an Apology through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to FSB Association for the opportunity.

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The Body Is Not an Apology is an excellent introductory text about radical self-love. The best part of the book is how the author, Sonya, differentiates body positivity – which often feels ingenuine and edges into toxic positivity – from radical self-love. The book is filled with relevant and world-transforming statistics, and Sonya’s narrative is reinforced through testimonials of her workshop’s participants. The Body Is Not an Apology demonstrates not only the toxicity and oppression that is grounded in our body shame and the world’s beauty industry but also shows how we – the readers – can meaningfully change the relationship we have with our bodies.

The Global BodyShame Profit Complex (BSPC)

Beauty standards throughout the world are informed by racist and heteronormative values. Do you think it’s a coincidence that most wellness, self-care and beauty world centres white women? Think about the variety of light shades foundations come in versus darker shades. Still not convinced? Go read The Body Is Not an Apology! The book has one of the best chapters I’ve read that breaks down body shame and the global BodyShame Profit Complex (BSPC). The BSPC makes (through marketing, popular culture, and health care) its consumers feel less-than, and profits from purchases are used to correct and/or assuage the less-than feeling.

That’s not to say we cannot buy anything from the beauty or fashion industry. Sonya calls her readers to reflect on why we feel compelled to buy a $180 wrinkle-defying serum or a specific outfit. If it’s rooted in the belief that you are less if you don’t have/use these items, you’re not buying them for positive fulfilment. They’re actually a representation of our internalized body shame.

How has body shame fueled your consumerism? What do you buy to “be normal,” “fit in,” or “fix your flaws?”

The Body Is Not an Apology (2nd Edition) by Sonya Renee Taylor

Radical Reflections

One of the best parts of The Body Is Not an Apology is the integrated radical reflections, which prompt Sonya to ask the reader to do what they read in the book. Like the quote above, her queries are probing and ask the reader to engage with what they’re reading. They demonstrate to the reader how subtle and insidious the BSPC is. It can influence anything from our relationships to how we spend our money (and on what). It demonstrates why celebrating difference is not enough; we need to gain a mindset that acknowledges these categories we like placing people in are not representative of anyone – even those who seem to fit them.

Fatphobia

I appreciated how Sonya cited so many pieces of work that challenge heteronormative beauty standards, fatphobia, racism, ableism and capitalism. One concern that always comes up whenever there’s a discussion on fatphobia is health. Many people believe that (1) they have the right to comment on another person’s health and body and (2) being fat means they’re unhealthy. A really great video that explains the fallacy of weight and health in science is discussed in The Body Is Not an Apology. Health at Every Size (HAES) movement (a movement I recommend looking into!) co-created an animated video called “The Dangers of Poodle Science.

Our society is packed with so many beliefs about weight and health that are false because they were created by biased scientists and influenced by a society filled with fatphobic norms. There is so much research out there if you’re really curious about fatphobia.

One such example is the fat tax. Many non-fat people believe that expensive plus-size clothing makes sense because more fabric is being used. For any concerned customer who researches, the increase in fabric does not equate to such a dramatic spike in selling price—the extra fabric costs around 1 USD.

The real cause for the dramatic price difference between a “normal” size range and a plus-sized range is that there are very few clothing options for fat people. This creates a monopoly, where, because of the lack of competition, the clothing business can set the price as high as they want. Because we exist in a fatphobic society, no one calls the clothing businesses out for their unethical and exploitative practices. Don’t you think it’s unethical or exploitative? Think about going into a clothing store and trying on a size 6 shirt that’s $20 – it doesn’t fit. So, you try on the size 8 – it’s a perfect fit! Yet, as you go to the cash register, the price is $22 – $2 more than the size 6. And, when you go to that shirt’s display area, you realize every time the size decreases, its price decreases by $2… and every time the size increases, its price increases by $2. This economic inducement tells consumers that our society economically rewards thinner people and punishes fatter people.

While the example I used above does not literally exist in any mainstream fashion brands (can you imagine the PR mess if they did?), its message exists everywhere: through our TVs, the media we consume, the fashion we digest, and the advice we receive from our friends, family, doctors, and even strangers.

While learning about how enmeshed fatphobia is in our society can be demoralizing, the first step towards transforming our society is recognizing there’s a problem in the first place. Part of that process is reclaiming the word fat, recognizing it’s a descriptor and should not be a metonym for ‘bad,’ ‘lazy,’ or unhealthy, nor should it be an insult.

In Conclusion

I didn’t delve into three aspects of the book: how fatness intersects with queerness and disabilities. I thought Sonya did an amazing job discussing how intersections of such identities – including being a racialized body – can magnify the oppression and discrimination a person experiences. The final aspect I didn’t talk about was how toxic masculinity informs body shame; I found that conversation really interesting, especially as Sonya took the time to interrogate what toxic masculinity means in the radical self-love space.

Why not 4-stars? My detail-oriented tendency was agitated as I read the 2nd edition of The Body Is Not an Apology and realized there were many statistics I would’ve liked to update. And, for the stats that were from 2010 and 2014, I realize the 1st edition was published in 2018, so I would’ve liked an explanation of why she kept these numbers in the book (even a brief footnote explaining it was a study she did in those years, etc.). As you can tell from the quotes I used for my Instagram review of The Body Is Not an Apology, the concept of Body Terrorism was very intriguing; I felt it addressed the significant harm internalized body shame can inflict on a person. However – and this is nit-picky – the definition of terrorism Sonya chose frustrated me. There’s no uniform definition of terrorism – seriously, every country has a unique definition – yet the one she chose didn’t address the one agreed-upon characteristic: political underpinning (which I think is relevant to BSPC, given its white supremacist foundations).

Your Body Is Not an Apology Workbook releases this month (April 2021). It’s an activity and reflection-based guide designed to help you actively put the following pillars into practice:
Pillar 1: Taking Out the Toxic
Pillar 2: Mind matters (how we see our bodies)
Pillar 3: Unapologetic Action (get to know your body)
Pillar 4: Collective Compassion (how we treat ourselves and others)

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