Body Neutral; A Revolutionary Guide to Overcoming Body Image Issues by Jessi Kneeland was just what I freaking needed to read this year. A book that belongs in EVERY shelf and in every library. I will be purchasing a physical copy to notate.

This is an amazing guide to learning to live with your body. Bodies carry so much trauma and our relationships with them are SO so so complicated. The body positivity movement has not worked for me and I loved Jessi's take on the alternative method. From body checking and self-objectification to validation, humiliation, shame, and so much more, this book strips away the socially constructed rules that govern our valuing of bodies and provides highly individualized pathways into body neutrality that anyone can add to their lives.

As someone who has struggled with an eating disorder for most of my life, I have come to accept that body neutrality is the word we are all looking for when we mean body positivity. Jessi Kneeland's book, Body Neutral, opened my eyes to tings beyond my own experience. I enjoyed (well, enjoyed is maybe not the right word) learning about their experiences as a person of color and in a fatter body than mine. I appreciated this book and believe it would be a good contender for a non fiction collection pertaining to body image/dysmorphia.

The concept of body neutrality gives people with body image issues a different way to understand themselves and move into a healthier understanding of themselves and their self-worth. Kneeland offers a powerful explanation for why "body positivity" as we understand it now isn't enough to help people grow past internalized sexist, racist, and fatphobic beauty ideals -- and how taking a neutral approach to our bodies helps us uncover deeper emotional needs and fears. They present four avatars, or general models, for understanding the different ways body image issues affect people, and they break down many of the self-critical statements expressed by those avatars to reveal the underlying emotional wounds and/or internalized beliefs.

There is A LOT to unpack in this book, but Kneeland offers a nonjudgmental and inclusive space for readers to begin the work of delving into their own body image issues. The author gives credit to many BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ authors and activists who have laid the groundwork for their own journey, and they point out that unpacking the messages so many have internalized about beauty standards will quite likely also lead to unpacking bigger issues such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.

This was an incredibly helpful and supportive read for me on a personal level, too, and gave me new insight into some of my own body image issues as well as strategies for addressing those issues. It's a book I'm sure I will come back to, and I know others will find it helpful as well.

Thank you, Penguin Random House and NetGalley, for providing an eARC of this book. Opinions expressed here are solely my own.