one reason why learning body respect is so powerful–and so discouraged by the mechanism of social control that is diet culture–is that when we learn to honor our bodies’ rights, needs, and wisdom, we become much more aware and less tolerant of violations in other areas of life.
when we are attuned to our body’s need for rest, we are much more aware of the violence of even the 40 hour work week (ofc work is far more violent in many parts of the world)
when we carve out our own permission to accept our body’s natural weight set point, demands that we shrink our personality, our voice, or our emotions in order not to cause social offense feel like much less acceptable constrictions
when we learn to value our natural hair and skin, and give up harmful rituals like chemical straightening or lightening (or the beliefs that underlie them), other ways in which we are required to harm ourselves–from a coerced gender presentation to living with the consequences of environmental racism–come into clearer focus as specifically targeted violence
when we have compassion for our bodies and their vulnerability, we are more sensitive to mistreatment in personal relationships
the systems which make us sick and self-hating are political projects, enacted in ways which can be analyzed, understood, and changed. this movement is inward and outward, with the former supporting the latter (and vice versa). when our healing is rooted in wisdom and compassion and self respect, we inevitably turn those values outward, take them up against the structures which would strip them from us.
