A look at how fatness became a cultural stigma in the United States.

You were made for more than a love/hate relationship with your body. It's one thing to know in your head that you were created in the image of God. Yet it's quite another to experience this belief in your body, against the cultural ideals of a woman's worth. And between the two lies a world of frustration, disappointment, and the shame of somehow feeling both too much and never enough in your body. Jess Connolly is a bestselling author, sought-after speaker, and trusted Bible teacher who knows this inner conflict all too well, and this book details her journey--and yours--of setting out to discover how to break free from the broken beliefs we all hold about our bodies that hold us back from our fullest life. The truest thing about you is that you are made and loved by God. And the truest thing about Him is that He cannot make bad things. This book will help you believe it with your whole self, as Jess guides you through an eye-opening, empowering process of: Renaming what the world has labeled as less-than Resting in God's workmanship Experiencing restoration where there has been injury And becoming a change agent in partnering with God to bring revival to a generation of women Far from a superficial issue, self-image is a spiritual issue, because God has named your body good from the beginning. Whether your struggle is with eating and exercise habits, stress or trauma, infertility or injury, this book makes space for you to experience God meeting you in this tender place, and ring His freedom bell over your body in a whole new way.

The Body and Shame: Phenomenology, Feminism, and the Socially Shaped Body investigates the concept of body shame and explores its significance when considering philosophical accounts of embodied subjectivity. Body shame only finds its full articulation in the presence (actual or imagined) of others within a rule and norm governed milieu. As such, it bridges our personal, individual and embodied experience with the social, cultural and political world that contains us. Luna Dolezal argues that understanding body shame can shed light on how the social is embodied, that is, how the body—experienced in its phenomenological primacy by the subject—becomes a social and cultural artifact, shaped by external forces and demands. The Body and Shame introduces leading twentieth-century phenomenological and sociological accounts of embodied subjectivity through the work of Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jean-Paul Sartre, Michel Foucault and Norbert Elias. Dolezal examines the embodied, social and political features of body shame. contending that body shame is both a necessary and constitutive part of embodied subjectivity while simultaneously a potential site of oppression and marginalization. Exploring the cultural politics of shame, the final chapters of this work explore the phenomenology of self-presentation and a feminist analysis of shame and gender, with a critical focus on the practice of cosmetic surgery, a site where the body is literally shaped by shame. The Body and Shame will be of great interest to scholars and students in a wide variety of fields, including philosophy, phenomenology, feminist theory, women’s studies, social theory, cultural studies, psychology, sociology, and medical humanities.

Childhood Abuse, Body Shame, and Addictive Plastic Surgery explores the psychopathology that plastic surgeons can encounter when seemingly excellent surgical candidates develop body dysmorphic disorder postoperatively. By examining how developmental abuse and neglect influence body image, personality, addictions, resilience, and adult health, this highly readable book uncovers the childhood sources of body dysmorphic disorder. Written from the unique perspective of a leading plastic surgeon with extensive experience in this area and featuring many poignant clinical vignettes and groundbreaking trauma research, this heavily referenced text offers a new explanation for body dysmorphic disorder that provides help for therapists and surgeons and hope for patients.

Society constantly pressures us to look a certain way, through entertainment, ads, or social media. There's an urgent need for teens to learn to accept their bodies and gain tools to cope when they experience body shame. This book provides insight into the sources of this pressure, how to confront someone who body shames, and ways to cultivate a positive body image. A Myths and Facts sidebar helps correct misconceptions about whom body shaming affects, and 10 Great Questions to Ask a Counselor shares common queries for specialists who deals with body shaming and the issues that come with it.

When women are told that what is important about us is how we look, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to feel comfortable with our appearance and how we feel about our bodies. We are told, over and over—if we just lost weight, fit into those old jeans, or into a new smaller pair—we will be happier and feel better about ourselves. The truth is, so many women despise their appearance, weight, and shape, that experts who study women’s body image now consider this feeling to be normal. But it does not have to be that way. It is possible for us as women to love ourselves, our bodies, as we are. We need a new story about what it means to be a woman in this world. Based on her original research, Hillary L McBride shares the true stories of young women, and their mothers, and provides unique insights into how our relationships with our bodies are shaped by what we see around us and the specific things we can do to have healthier relationships with our appearance, and all the other parts of ourselves that make us women. In Mothers, Daughters, and Body Image McBride tells her own story of recovery from an eating disorder, and how her struggles led her to dream of a new vision for womanhood—from one without body shame, negative comparisons, or insecurities, to one of freedom, connection, and acceptance.

Physical appearance plays a powerful role in social relationships. Those who feel shame regarding the way they look, and who think others view their appearance negatively, can therefore be vulnerable to impoverished social relationships and a range of psychological difficulties. However, there are a few books which look specifically at the many permutations of body shame and their differing treatments. In this book, researchers and therapists from a wide range of different disciplines and areas explore the role of shame in various physical and psychological disorders, and provide practical advice on management and treatment. Chapters are organised to address issues of conceptualisation, assessment and treatment, on topics such as: * definitional controversies * possible biopsychosocial and evolutionary origins of body shame * effects on adjustment to maturation and aging process * specific forms of disfigurement * the role of body shame in depression, eating disorders and body dysmorphic disorder. Body Shame gives the reader insight into the nature and mechanisms of shame, how it can focus on the body, how it can underlie a variety of psychological difficulties, and how to intervene to help resolve it. This book will be invaluable for practitioners from different disciplines working with people who have problems centred on their physical appearance and/or functions, and clinicians working with various mental health problems.

Winner, 2020 Body and Embodiment Best Publication Award, given by the American Sociological Association Honorable Mention, 2020 Sociology of Sex and Gender Distinguished Book Award, given by the American Sociological Association How the female body has been racialized for over two hundred years There is an obesity epidemic in this country and poor Black women are particularly stigmatized as “diseased” and a burden on the public health care system. This is only the most recent incarnation of the fear of fat Black women, which Sabrina Strings shows took root more than two hundred years ago. Strings weaves together an eye-opening historical narrative ranging from the Renaissance to the current moment, analyzing important works of art, newspaper and magazine articles, and scientific literature and medical journals—where fat bodies were once praised—showing that fat phobia, as it relates to Black women, did not originate with medical findings, but with the Enlightenment era belief that fatness was evidence of “savagery” and racial inferiority. The author argues that the contemporary ideal of slenderness is, at its very core, racialized and racist. Indeed, it was not until the early twentieth century, when racialized attitudes against fatness were already entrenched in the culture, that the medical establishment began its crusade against obesity. An important and original work, Fearing the Black Body argues convincingly that fat phobia isn’t about health at all, but rather a means of using the body to validate race, class, and gender prejudice.

Why is today's diet industry pulling in 70 billion dollars every year, while when people go on a diet, only five percent of them succeed and the rest gain weight or stay the same? Here's why: A heavy, shamed body is a body with an unheard message and a thwarted quest, and until the secrets are unlocked and the wisdom is harvested, that impasse will be unbreachable. In these pages, Bedrick offers seventeen stories of individual women who open the door to their souls: stories of shame and self-love, victimization and empowerment, being small and being big, fear and hope. Stories that are both powerful and intimate. These are the stories from bodies impacted by sexism and racism, rape and harsh parental criticism, and by the deepest hungers for an authentic life. The women in this book were not successful or unsuccessful. They began a process of self-understanding, of dropping the shame that bound them to a self-abusing lens about their bodies. They began a process of learning to express their power, creativity, beauty, and intelligence with themselves, in relationships, and in the world. They became more empowered leaders and social agents. They began embracing their sovereignty, defining themselves as an authority, and living a more authentic path as they unfold their life project in a bolder and more self-loving manner. This book is the culmination of years of study, research, and practice. Since 2001, I've been helping women who seek me out because they're unhappy and they want to change their bodies. In the book, I've gathered the most compelling stories and share them as case studies. These case study chapters are bookended by a richly contextualizing introduction and a conclusion.--Publisher.

Essays examining the role of shame as an American cultural practice and how public shaming enforces conformity and group coherence. On any given day in America’s news cycle, stories and images of disgraced politicians and celebrities solicit our moral indignation, their misdeeds fueling a lucrative economy of shame and scandal. Shame is one of the most coercive, painful, and intriguing of human emotions. Only in recent years has interest in shame extended beyond a focus on the subjective experience of this emotion and its psychological effects. The essays collected here consider the role of shame as cultural practice and examine ways that public shaming practices enforce conformity and group coherence. Addressing abortion, mental illness, suicide, immigration, and body image among other issues, this volume calls attention to the ways shaming practices create and police social boundaries; how shaming speech is endorsed, judged, or challenged by various groups; and the distinct ways that shame is encoded and embodied in a nation that prides itself on individualism, diversity, and exceptionalism. Examining shame through a prism of race, sexuality, ethnicity, and gender, these provocative essays offer a broader understanding of how America’s discourse of shame helps to define its people as citizens, spectators, consumers, and moral actors. “An eclectic anthology, it offers the readers more than one argument and perspective, which makes the volume itself lively and rich.” —Ron Scapp, coeditor of Fashion Statements: On Style, Appearance, and Reality