Heavy by Kiese Laymon with Amy Pence-Brown
Explicit content warning
09/03/20 • 70 min
Amy Pence-Brown is a legend. She has been doing body liberation work for over a decade and I feel so honoured to welcome her to show. As you will hear, she loves books and we decided to chat about a juicy one - Heavy by Kiese Laymon. Join us as we dive deep into Kiese's story. Some of our discussion topics included:
- Amy's story
- How the term body positive has changed the body image game
- How hard things have fuelled Amy's fire
- How books have helped her in her journey and how she is passing that along in the book clubs she runs
- Healthism and how it damages fat acceptance
- Why Heavy is an important work even though it is not body positive
- The intersectionality between race and body image
- Dealing with trauma as a weight loss plan
- The multiple meaning behind the title
- Why white people need to read this book
- Kiese Laymon's relationship with his mother
- Body positivity as a point on the body liberation spectrum
Resources
Amy Pence-Brown is a legend. She has been doing body liberation work for over a decade and I feel so honoured to welcome her to show. As you will hear, she loves books and we decided to chat about a juicy one - Heavy by Kiese Laymon. Join us as we dive deep into Kiese's story. Some of our discussion topics included:
- Amy's story
- How the term body positive has changed the body image game
- How hard things have fuelled Amy's fire
- How books have helped her in her journey and how she is passing that along in the book clubs she runs
- Healthism and how it damages fat acceptance
- Why Heavy is an important work even though it is not body positive
- The intersectionality between race and body image
- Dealing with trauma as a weight loss plan
- The multiple meaning behind the title
- Why white people need to read this book
- Kiese Laymon's relationship with his mother
- Body positivity as a point on the body liberation spectrum
Resources
Previous Episode
Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings with Natasha Ngindi
The hottest book to read right now in body liberation spaces is Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings. There is a reason for that. This book is brilliant. This is the answer if anyone asks for an in-depth discussion of the connection between racism and fat phobia. Strings goes century-by-century explaining how slowly the ideas of race and the thin ideal became one connected idea about what it means to be black. I chatted with Natasha Ngindi about this book and as intense as this book is, our conversation highlighted some of the main ideas. We talked about:
- Natasha’s body acceptance and food freedom journey
- Who is scared of the black body?
- The fallacies of racial science
- The connection between racism and fat phobia
- The role of the protestant church in fat phobia and racism
- The difference in ideas between popular culture and medicine
- Our desire to be loved and how that perpetuates the objectification of women
- The role of magazines and social media in creating a thin ideal
This discussion is so important and I hope our chat helps you to think about how fat phobia is racist. Keep reading everyone!
Links:
Next Episode
Your Better Body Image Checklist - Curate Your Social Media
This is a solo episode where I discuss why curating your social media is so important to changing your perspective about your body.
If you don't have it already, grab the checklist at www.iwishiwereme.com
If you like this episode you’ll love
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