“I’m struggling with… body image.”

You might be expecting this post to focus on body positivity, body neutrality, and self-love as strategies for combating negative attitudes about your own body. Body image is usually framed as a personal problem, and the strategies recommended to address body image issues are usually individualistic.

However, I don’t take an individualistic approach to body image issues. I believe it is insufficient to ignore the broader political and social influences on how bodies are monitored and judged. It ignores how the way a person judges their own body relates to the biases they hold, which inevitably also impact the way they judge other bodies. 

I often hear people claim that, despite the way they criticize and punish themselves for weight gain, they hold no anti-fat bias toward others. This just isn’t realistic. The way you judge your own body has very real implications for how you contribute to social bias and stigma against people in large bodies. If you are judging yourself against eurocentric and conventional beauty standards, it is important to start addressing that for the good of your whole community. 

Dealing with body image issues is essentially a decolonizing process, and that means you need support to help you on your way–whether from a trusted friend, a group, or a therapist. Reach out to someone for help, and consider the following strategies as potential jumping off points as you begin working on body image issues:

Learning about imperialist, white supremacist roots of anti-fat bias.

The anti-fat bias that has permeated prevalent standards of attractiveness is inextricable from white supremacy. Learning about the historical development of beauty standards alongside imperialism and racial oppression can help you to recognize and challenge bias you have internalized over time.

Decolonizing your ways of thinking can feel like remembering what you once knew, but have forgotten under the pressure of the colonizing forces that are always around you. Allow yourself to remember that any body of any type and size is worthy. 

**Recommended reading: Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

Learning about lack of connection between health and size.

The Health at Every Size (HAES) approach has been around for more than half a century, and emphasizes weight neutrality on the basis that, despite rampant public health disinformation, body fat alone does not have serious health implications. I recommend looking into this approach, as well as taking time to learn about the negative physical and mental health implications of dieting for weight loss.

**Recommended listening: Maintenance Phase podcast

Reframing and refocusing away from what looks good in favor of what feels good.

With anxiety about appearance comes a great deal of unhealthy self-monitoring and internalized body-shaming. As you are working to address body image issues, allow yourself to reflect on the following questions:

What kind of movement is my body happy with? How does my body let me know what it likes?

What kind of meals and nourishment satisfy my body? How can I tell?

How do I feel when my body is well-nourished, well-rested, and sufficiently active?

Externalizing the inner critic. 

Internalizing bias is a process by which we absorb the attitudes and beliefs of others, to our own detriment. Think about the critical voices you have internalized. Where did they come from? Who does your inner critic sound like? A cop? A bully? 

Is the voice actually an anxious over-protector? 

Train yourself to identify and visualize the critic when they speak up. Recognize that they don’t speak for you.

Taking more care with how you speak to others about your body.

No matter how much you are struggling to maintain a good relationship with your body, you can never know how severely the people around you are struggling. Try to be aware that, even if you are speaking only about yourself, mentions of diets, weight, and calorie counts can be triggering to others. 

Additionally, I recommend completely refraining from speaking to others about their bodies, unless you are explicitly invited to. No unsolicited advice or support is worth potentially triggering another person.

Train yourself to be an ally to people in bodies that are more stigmatized than yours. You have a responsibility to them to challenge anti-fat bias in yourself and others at every opportunity.

**Recommended reading: You Just Need to Lose Weight: And 19 Other Myths about Fat People by Aubrey Gordon

Once again, none of this work is easy to do and you ought to have trusted supports behind you as you work on confronting internalized anti-fat bias working against yourself and others. Don’t hesitate to reach out for help, and make dealing with body image one of your mental health goals this year!