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The Body is Not an Apology, Second Edition: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor
aurora_is_reading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.25
This book talks about fatphobia but the messages Sonya wants to communicate apply to everybody, regardless of body shape. Her words are inspiring and felt like a hug. It made me reflect on my own personal experience and I noticed I need to apply some of the concepts she describes (radical self love, curious enquiry…) more often in my life. I really like she did not put focus on the mere physical aspects of self love, but a more holistic approach that incorporates mind and body.
sam_the_panda's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
swaye's review against another edition
5.0
Profound! Life-altering! Transformative!
This book is a beautiful, compassionate gift to the world. I feel Sonya's wisdom course through my whole being like healing light as I choose to change the way I think about my body and reconnect with the radical self-love I've had within me all along.
This book is a beautiful, compassionate gift to the world. I feel Sonya's wisdom course through my whole being like healing light as I choose to change the way I think about my body and reconnect with the radical self-love I've had within me all along.
mitskacir's review against another edition
2.0
This book really didn't hit me. There were a lot of words in this book that I felt didn't say that much. For such a short book, it was quite repetitive and gave more assurances that I was "divine" and that we were "on a transformative journey together" than actually helping me work through any body dysmorphia or achieve any "radical self-love" (I understand that isn't something that happens from reading a 130 page book and Taylor does articulate that it is a life-long process of work, but this didn't even make me that excited or give me a concrete place to get started). I do appreciate Taylor's inclusive vision of what the "body" is: her book makes you consider how race, age, gender, abilities, etc. are all part of the body, not just the weight or shape of a body. It did make me realize how much of my own body dissatisfaction (past and present) is rooted in racism and ableism, not just fatphobia.
paige71's review against another edition
challenging
hopeful
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
hbrxnnxmxn's review against another edition
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
This book was very thought provoking and a great starting point for radical self love. Sonya Renee Taylor does an excellent job at sharing personal anecdotes, stories from others, academic research, and theoretical examples. Her intersectional approach creates points of reflection not just for our own body positivity, but for the many ways that having bodies and what those bodies look like affect us, our communities, and the world at large. The audiobook was incredibly vibrant and I love that the author narrated. If you are doing audiobook I almost recommend physical book also because there are things I feel I missed or didn’t fully sink in as a result. Regardless, there were many takeaways for me!
youngthespian42's review against another edition
2.0
This book just didn’t hit for me the way I wanted to. The opening had some great framing and did challenge my perception of my body and bodies in general. “You don’t have less value if you’re not healthy” and “different bodies have different achievable levels of health” are really good messages.
When the text moved out of self love and empowerment to oppression and “body terrorism” the book really lost me. I believe in systematic racism and want a world outside of this. Encapsulating history of racial repression, treatment of LGBT+, and the disability community as “body terrorism” felt a little reaching if not offensive. I believe everyone should have the freedom to present and identify how they want but equating chairs not designed for different bodies to Asian Immigration Quotas is pretty out of context. Reminded me of the Right treating mask mandates like it was Nazi Germany.
After the ideology dump the actual “practice” section are pretty bare bones basic tips you will find in most self help books. My work in therapy has done a lot more than this book had offer. I wanted to approach “fat liberation” with an open mind instead of just reacting to social media, but having read this: it ain’t it for me.
When the text moved out of self love and empowerment to oppression and “body terrorism” the book really lost me. I believe in systematic racism and want a world outside of this. Encapsulating history of racial repression, treatment of LGBT+, and the disability community as “body terrorism” felt a little reaching if not offensive. I believe everyone should have the freedom to present and identify how they want but equating chairs not designed for different bodies to Asian Immigration Quotas is pretty out of context. Reminded me of the Right treating mask mandates like it was Nazi Germany.
After the ideology dump the actual “practice” section are pretty bare bones basic tips you will find in most self help books. My work in therapy has done a lot more than this book had offer. I wanted to approach “fat liberation” with an open mind instead of just reacting to social media, but having read this: it ain’t it for me.
frankie_vega's review against another edition
5.0
Lessons learned from this book: to embody and spread radical self love, we must let go of archaic and harmful hierarchies that privilege white, Cis, straight, able bodied people. It takes lots of work to dismantle these hierarchies. The hard work starts with small conversations. Disturbing the status quo will open up space for reimagining a world where all bodies are liberated.
All bodies are meant to be. And all bodies are magical.
This book reminds me to question where my internalized fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, ext. come from and how I can heal these wounds.
All bodies are meant to be. And all bodies are magical.
This book reminds me to question where my internalized fatphobia, homophobia, transphobia, racism, ableism, ext. come from and how I can heal these wounds.