Book Review: The Body Liberation Project by Chrissy King

We recently held our first team book club at LK Nutrition! For our first round, we picked The Body Liberation Project by Chrissy King. Below is a guest post from LK Nutrition intern, Sofia Muller Pereira, who was kind enough to summarize the major themes of the book and share some of our collective reflections below. Her post is followed by several of our team's favorite quotes from the book.

Chrissy King speaks the quiet part out loud in her book The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom. The book outlines King’s experiences as a black woman growing up in a mostly white town; her experiences with racism and fatphobia from a young age; and her journey through disordered eating, entering the fitness world, and finding peace within herself in the Body Liberation movement.

King presents Body Liberation as an alternative to Body Neutrality or Body Positivity; she coins the term and describes it as the act of demanding justices for all bodies, not just your own. As someone who has struggled with relating to the Body Positivity movement, it was refreshing to be reminded that, although self-love is worthwhile - and extremely important - it does not address the realities of living in a discriminatory society, and no amount of self-love saves people from the consequences of living in a marginalized body. Body Liberation is about recognizing the challenges of those who simply do not feel safe in their own bodies, and fighting for collective freedom.

“We need to understand that white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and racism are the reasons we struggle with our bodies and face discrimination in the world, and that they are systemic problems, ones that require collective dismantling.”

The book is not only a masterclass in understanding the links between racism and fatphobia, but also provides very real examples of how one can challenge diet culture and decolonize their way of thinking in their everyday lives. It is easy to feel uncomfortable during some parts of the book, as King pokes at ways in which our privilege goes about unchecked, but as she continuously reminds us: the work of dismantling a racist system does not come without personal sacrifice. The book is meant to be uncomfortable, it is meant to be provocative, it is meant to make you angry!

The goal, according to King, is not to no longer have negative thoughts about our bodies, but to understand such thoughts stem from wanting access to the privilege awarded to those living in smaller bodies. King challenges us to sit with these feelings, and be compassionate with ourselves, and reminds us that, in a discriminatory society, loving oneself is not only an act of rebellion, but one of survival.

Our Team's Favorite Quotes:

When we throw around the phrase 'more than your body' without acknowledging the social and political implications of our bodies -- what living in certain bodies actually means for people's ability to feel safe and secure in their skin - we disregard the way people experience the world.

I believe I deserve to be in every room that I'm in and that opportunities come to me because I'm ready for them.

Body liberation goes beyond body positivity, body neutrality, body acceptance, self-love and any of the other phrases we have adapted to talk about fostering a healthy relationship with our bodies. The goal of liberation is that we can reclaim all the time, energy, and emotion we have put into yearning for the "perfect" bodies and find actual freedom. 

The thing about fatphobia is that it's so similar to white supremacy that unlearning it is a lifelong journey.

A celebration of our deepest humanity, and our fight for it must include a deeper examination of how we relate to oppressive systems while centering our joy, peace, and pleasure.

In a society in which certain bodies are deemed more beautiful, more worthy of dignity and respect, and, honestly, more valuable, I would argue that body positivity shouldn't just be about loving your body. It should be demanding justice for all bodies, especially the most marginalized. 

When you think about the impact that racism has on health, it's imperative that BIPOC have access to wellness to combat the negative impact that racism has on both our physical and mental health; but what good is wellness if we enter those spaces and are also subjected to anti-Blackness and racism?

Letting go also makes space for letting in.

Diet culture has really disconnected us from the benefits of exercise that have nothing to do with weight loss. 

Regardless of intent, we perpetuate diet culture and fatphobia when we compliment someone on their smaller body.

I can tell you from personal experience that the times I feel most called to fat loss or dieting is when other things in my world feel out of control.

We need to understand that white supremacy, anti-Blackness, and racism are the reasons we struggle with our bodies and face discrimination in the world, and that they are systemic problems, ones that require collective dismantling. 

We can spend our energy focusing on shrinking and obsessing about our bodies or we can use our energy on creating magic and change the world.