Body Liberation
ROSE LANGE
(she/her)
I’m going to talk today about body shapes, body image, and weight stigma. Talking about bodies and food is tender for many, I understand that. Engage with my words in whatever capacity you feel you can. At the least, I invite you to have an open posture towards learning something new.
Pastor Josh asked me to do this for the Theology of the Body sermon series because how we view our bodies, care for our bodies, and how others view and treat our bodies, is a theological issue. I also add it’s a liberation issue.
I’ve been on a journey of body liberation and self-discovery for over two years now. It all started when I got into a podcast called Food Psych. See, I’ve “wrestled” with food and body weight since I was young. My family has always valued smaller bodies (“for health reasons”), and off-and-on dieting was common in my household. Then I found the world of intuitive eating and Health at Every Size.
I started learning all kinds of counter-cultural research and statistics about health and body size. Like: body size is not as directly linked to health concerns like we once thought--there’s actually a stronger link between weight stigma and health concerns. Mindblowing, right!?
Weight stigma and fatphobia are biases baked right into the core of our society. How do you feel when a larger person sits by you on a plane? How do you feel when you see a larger person eating a messy cheeseburger? How do you feel about your own body when you look in the mirror? What “Yeah, but, Rose, what about…..” thought are you having right now?
That’s weight stigma. That’s fatphobia. Put very simply.
Want another example? A local gym created an advertisement graphic that I saw on Facebook recently. My brain immediately recognized the classic “evolution of man from ape” picture, except instead of “ape-like” humans on the left, it was a slouching man with a gut. He progressed through five phases until he was lean and in a mid-run pose on the far right. The message my brain received? Fat people are stupid, no smarter than an ape, less than, not human, they must evolve.
And as a person living in a larger body, I see stuff like that everyday. All day. And trust me, I receive the message loud and clear. I feel the stigma.
Weight stigma affects us all. Those who live in smaller bodies dread gaining weight. Those who live in bigger bodies experience the brunt of the direct hits, and they engage in weight loss strategies that just don’t work. Oh yeah, that’s another thing I wanted to tell you. 95-98% of attempts to decrease weight fail (meaning the person gains back what they lost and usually then some). Put simply, we have yet to find a safe and effective way to alter body size.. And yet it continues to be prescribed by doctors, by gyms, by friends and family, by the newest diet guru.
And body autonomy exists, too. Everyone can do what they want with their own body (even diet or try to lose weight). But as Christians we don’t believe we live in a vacuum. We live in community. And what we do, what we think, affects everyone. How we fight for God’s justice, or ignore injustice, affects everyone.
The more I pursue body liberation, the closer I feel to God. Because God made me, he made my body, and my body is the size it is. I can see God’s image and God’s creation reflected in it. The less I focus on trying to change my body to fit a societal norm, the more I can focus on accepting my body as God made it and fighting for liberation of all bodies (fat, thin, black, white, abled, disabled, on and on and on).
I love my body as it is. I feed it a beautiful variety of foods from all food groups (yep, even cake). I move it in ways that feel good and challenging, and I also give myself permission to not move it and rest. And I speak. I speak out against weight stigma, I speak out to my clients, I speak out through presentations and articles. Because no one is liberated until we are all liberated.
When you see me, or those who look like me, what do you think? Is there room for me at your table of liberation, at your table of justice, at your table of the Lord? Do you provide room for ALL of me? Because I need a bigger seat than others.
Rose Lange is appalled that her word count got eaten up so quickly in this article because there is so much more she didn’t get to address! Rose is a local therapist in Peoria Illinois specializing in couples, families, and adults. In her free time, you can find her ingesting stories in any form she can get them (TV, movies, books, comics). She lives in West Peoria with her husband Jon and three house rabbits. She’s happy to be a part of Imago and welcomes anyone who wants to chat about this blog post, or wants a list of resources to know more about the topic of body liberation.