Why body liberation matters
Feeling good in your body ≠ body freedom
There’s been a justifiable pushback against the body positivity movement.
Feeling good in your body is not the same as being free to exist in your body—exactly as it is—and be treated with dignity, respect, and compassion.
From Jessi Kneeland’s Body Neutral to Chrissy King’s The Body Liberation Project, there is a collective cry for moving beyond the limitations of body positivity.
As I’ve been watching the genocide unfold in Gaza, I’ve continually been reminded of how all of our struggles are tied up together.
Capitalism is based on systems of debt; debt arose from human trafficking, as enslaved people and promised brides became reduced to bargaining chips.
Ever since then, the deadly combination of money, power, and ownership have eroded the possibility of communal well-being created through mutual, supportive investment.
I was raised by parents who believed they deserved my “respect” (read: unquestioning obedience) and had full control over my body: what I wore, what I said, where I went, who I spoke to, what I learned, and most importantly, their right to use physical and verbal violence to punish me.
I was told never to call the police, since they’d take us away and I’d be separated from my beloved siblings. The government was out to get the righteous, they said. I was home-schooled and so, so alone.
But I didn’t escape all the messages about the wrongness and badness of my body.
My Puritan, Calvinist ancestors preached intense discipline and self-denial. All human appetites—for food, sex, intimacy, and so on—were various degrees of sinful, punishable by eternal hellfire. Not just your actions, but your thoughts are sins. The very survival instincts gifted by evolution became suspicious and maligned.
And we became isolated.
Ashamed.
We rejected our innermost selves as “born sinners.”
Everyone deserves bodily autonomy, physical safety, and basic human needs like food, shelter, and water.
Dehumanization is the process of dissolving some people’s human rights until the concept of “human” becomes debatable.
It’s the process of judgment, discrimination, and creating inequality.
I am lucky to be in a white body, with American citizenship, and a place to live.
There is nothing I’ve done to deserve a better or worse fate than those who are unjustly dying around the world.
My work with Selfies By Nat cannot be untied from my values of justice, truth, compassion, peace, and collective liberation.
I am an anarchist, dedicated to deconstructing systems of harm; a socialist, dedicated to communal division of resources; an environmentalist, dedicated to restoring our planet’s equilibrium; a decolonizer, dedicated to healing intergenerational trauma and building interdependent societies.
You are so much more than you’ve been allowed to be.
Your existence is so much greater than all the labels and judgments placed on your body and your being.
So yeah… That’s why body liberation matters so damn much.
And as we go into the holidays, rife with body criticism—and harshly followed by the new year’s “fix your body” craze—it’s time to reclaim what’s yours.
Your body.
Claim your body freedom and take a step toward liberation with a Body Connection Private Retreat: an intimate, 8-hour virtual hot date between you + your body. You’ll learn to see yourself in a whole new way… and start 2024 feeling more free than ever before.
Book now or get on a 90-minute intro coaching call to get the support you need this season.
Much love,
Nat
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