Marianne, I follow a lot of your stuff and I've read your book, but I don't think I understand why the "love your body" rhetoric is problematic. If you have the time and inclination, could you please elaborate?

I definitely can!

There’s a lot of good intention behind the “love your body” rhetoric. It’s very much coming from a place where people want to feel good about themselves and to help other people feel good about themselves, too.

But it homogenizes bodily experience and feeling - basically it dictates the One True Way people are “supposed” to feel about their bodies. And that skeeves me. Because there are lots of reasons people have complicated relationships with their bodies - from trans identity to disability to body dysmorphia in general and so on.

I don’t think the goal of fat acceptance is for everyone to be super double rainbow in love with their bodies - I think the goal is for EVERY body to be treated with dignity and respect. And, yeah, that CAN go hand in hand with loving your body, but it doesn’t have to. Whether I love my body or not, my doctor better provide me with competent medical care that goes beyond “you’re fat”, you know?

“Love your body” also often accompanies the idea that we are required to love the way we look. That perpetuates the idea that, really, we are still reduced to our aesthetics.

Our bodies are so much. And our relationships are so complex. I hate to see those relationships forcibly reduced and dictated to us.