Thanks to NetGalley and Berret-Koehler Publishers for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

When the author began the book with the statement of radicalism, I feared that her narrative would focus on the exclusion of certain groups, but to my great surprise, she addressed the problem of body terrorism without leaving out people who often suffer from discrimination [from activism] (yes, I'm talking about trans exclusionary radical feminists,) and identified the real perpetrators and promoters of body shame: harmful media and capitalism.

That's what I really liked about "The Body Is Not an Apology." This isn't a book that only focuses on self-love and how to change your perspective about body positivism, but also goes beyond that and emphasizes the actual issues that oppress people who don't fit the "default" look that the media has been responsible for giving importance to. It's nice how she doesn't just display the problem but also gives solutions to it, for example limiting our media ingest because advertisers have an erroneous idea of how we, the consumers, look. This causes a lot of racial and gender stereotypes that are harmful to everyone and stops society from progressing.

Even if you feel comfortable with your body, I would recommend you read this book. Radical love is for everyone and self-acceptance is something we all should practice. In the words of Sonya Renee Taylor: "we must build in us what we want to see built in the world."

The Body is Not An Apology: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Thank u @netgalley and @bkpub for this copy!

This book is a step along this little blip called life. In life we are born with radical self love, but over time, it is dissolved by the acid of media messaging, capitalistic motives, and bigotry. We have learned that ego, self-confidence, and self-esteem will help us float on, but Sonya Renee Taylor instead offers us a more expansive option.
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This book is both fundamental and profound. Sonya covers the basics but then pushes us deeper. I am sharing my thoughts on some concepts rather than a review.
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💎I was compelled by Taylor’s word choice of body love as “unapologetic” - I have been indoctrinated with the word “rebellious” in its place - so I was curious about why she used this word, but she never says it explicitly. When I thought about it, I realized “rebel”is about disobedience while “unapologetic” is about normalization. Taylor’s word choice is precise - it’s about erasing our notion that the default template for a good body is healthy, white, able-bodied, straight. It’s about erasing this template at all.
💎 I was pushed to think beyond “you don’t have to be thin to be healthy” into the terrain of “you don’t have to be healthy to be valued, loved, and secure.” Wow.
💎 I also really loved how Sonya Renee Taylor explores the concept of leaving behind pity for others based on their bodies - we feel pity because we think we are better than someone. When we pity someone, we search for redeeming qualities as if it's a compliment. Sonya pushed me to unpack my judgements when I feel pity, and instead to understand that there is no wrong way to have a body.
💎 Finally, I loved Sonya’s explanation of detriment buying vs. best interest buying. She explains that a lot of our spending is based on feelings of inadequacy. We should buy to move towards our best selves instead of away from our fears.

Sonya Renee Taylor is an advocate for a body-shame free society. She’s not just talking about fat, but also any kind of body-shame or “body terrorism” (as she calls it) that is perpetrated in our world. This is a second edition, but it wasn’t clear to me what has changed since the first. There is also an accompanying workbook, so that might be helpful if you want to do more work around this issue.

Taylor wants us to embrace “radical self-love”, which is no easy task given the body-negative messages most of us have taken in over our lifetimes. She talks about our “origin” stories – the first time we remember feeling ashamed of our own bodies for whatever reason. But then also talks about media messages and governmental sanction of discriminations for various reasons. This isn’t just about fat-shaming, but shaming for all kinds of body-related reasons: disability, race, sexual orientation and so on.

She asks us to make peace with our own bodies and the bodies of others, and gives lots of practical advice about how to practice “shame free inquiry” of ourselves and others. This book challenged a lot of my thinking, and made me go “huh” several times, so in that sense I recommend it to everyone. I do feel like it left me wanting more, though, for reasons I can’t put my finger on. It could be that the workbook would give me the additional reflections that I was kind of longing for.

I received the Second Edition of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.

I first considered starting this review with the words "I'm not sure if I'm in the target audience for this book as I'm a White person living in a predominantly White country and predominantly White social circles" but then I realized: that is exactly why I should be reading this book. My social circles in real life might be 100 % White, but online, things are different. And I have some learning to do! I might have battled and fought and partially won learnt racism a decade ago, but as long as I say "partially", there's still learning to do. And another thing — this book isn't solely about race and racism. It's more about the intersection of multiple non-default bodies. I might exist in a fat body, but there's still learnig to do. I might exist as a nonbinary person in a body that others are keen on gendering, and oh boy there is still learning to do.

The book should have more solid scientific information about how exactly body hatred impacts our lives and well-being. I don't know if there are studies about that, though. Thorough long-term studies. I want them.

The book goes through how to start dismantling your learnt hatred of certain kinds of bodies (fat, trans, Black, etc, or any combination of identities/bodies). I found them to be rather useful, but a part of me wanted to read about people who'd fought (and won or were in the middle of fighting) learnt hatred and prejudices. Now, that might be out of the scope of this book, but seriously. It would give so much hope for the future if there was a book that had interviews of people who used to be -phobic but have embarked on the journey of battling that learnt phobia or hatred or prejudices. I know we're out there, and I know some of us aren't afraid of sharing our stories.

All in all, I found the book... well, a part of me wants to say "enjoyable", but facing your shadows and dissociating while reading isn't enjoyable. But sometimes it's necessary. I have therapy coming in three days, I know I'll have something to discuss...

I wanted more, though. More something. I don't know...

This book had its good moments (I especially loved the personal stories). I struggle with body self image, so I was eager to read this book. However, I found some parts quite dull and I struggled to keep my interest. This book is quite short (only a little over 100 pages), so that’s good.