#thebodyisnotanapology

[pinkfeathergurl]

Don’t Let Society Tell you how to live your life. 🙅‍♀️

Cuz society is obsessed with plans, dreams, and success so much that it creates a negative standard and expectation on how a certain person should behave.

Ask yourself, what do you want, and what are you willing to give up? And whose voice will you listen to – yours, society’s, or your family’s?

Don’t give up! Don’t live your life on others’ expectations. It's your decision, how your life wants to be. 💪♀️

[archive-of-all-ive-ever-loved]

default does not equal good

Hey, guys? Make peace with yellow teeth. I'm so serious right now.

[sistazai]

Just a gentle reminder, @eyeofthesista podcast relaunches tomorrow (Australian time … out here in the future), Sunday 30 April. Shout out to everyone who has already subscribed and is following the podcast. It’s available wherever you love to listen to podcasts. Another massive thank you for flowing with the tempo of this counter-cultural and in divine time process. With that in mind, I’d love to share these anti-capitalist affirmations. I’ll catch you on the podcast in poetry, song, soundscape and chats with guests about the meaning of success and how that ties in with what it means to be “African” in the 21st century. . . PS get your pens, paper, notebooks/journals ready … it’s Storytime! Let’s get curious about our inner worlds. . . . Posted @withregram • @thebodyisnotanapology 🗣❤️‍🔥 Posted @withregram • @another.hidden.society • • ID: A black background with white text that reads “anti-capitalist affirmations:” “i am allowed to spend time creating things, even if they are not beautiful. there is no such thing as a real job. all forms of work are real and valid. there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy. doing nothing is good for my soul. i am not defined by what i produce. my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements. i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is good enough to spend time doing something that i love. i will not let society decide what success looks like. i can decide what a successful life looks like to me.” • • #TBINAA #TheBodyIsNotAnApology https://www.instagram.com/p/Crls6Tvhyrn/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[rainbowdaisy13]

✊🏿HAPPY PRIDE!! ✊🏽From your local Bi Sturdy Gal—50% of all sales this month will go towards a local nonprofit helping to keep people in this community safe, happy, and cared for—proof of donation will be posted end of the month—thanks for your help and YOU ARE A BEAUTIFUL SACRED FLOWER THE WAY YOU ARE RIGHT IN THIS MOMENT DONT LET ANYONE MAKE YOU FEEL OTHERWISE FOR ANY REASON!!! #glimmerandgrim #happypridemonth🌈 #pride2023 #thebodyisnotanapology #fuckhomophobia #fucktransphobia #fuckracism

[lexclarkeproject2]

Section 5: "Fly as Hell"

This section is Sonya Renne Taylor talking about how the “the body is not an apology” movement began. She said it started from a conversation with a friend about why she was having unprotected sex with a person she did not care about that much. To that the friend explained that as a person with cerebral palsy it is hard to come by sexual encounters. This is when Sonya said “the body is not an apology” then she created a poem out of that and urged people to take selfies and use the hashtag #thebodyisnotanapology to liberate folks whose bodies have been under scrutiny from society. Sonya talks about how her main goal for this movement is radical self love and radical empathy. She believes that is the way forward and through oppression. To be unapologetically herself, fat, black, and a woman, she proves that self love is powerful in the way her movement has burst open. This reminds me of my own relationship with my body. In the past I have spent hours judging it or hating it but now through working with radical self love I try to appreciate her and tell her that I love her and I appreciate everything she does for me. 

I have chosen an interview with Sonya where she talks about why self love should be radical and how she embodies that mindset. Something that stuck out to me from this interview is the way she starts the conversation with the fact that most of our thoughts about our bodies aren’t original thoughts. Meaning that there are systems in place that urge us to feel a certain way about our bodies that serve the systems of oppression and to combate that way of thinking is to be radical. I love listening to her spoken poetry. It is so powerful so I think this video is perfect for this section.

[twig-tea]

I am gonna yes and @liyazaki so hard. "Disabled" is intentionally a verb and not an adjective because it acknowledges the way in which our societies and structures are built to actively hold back people who do not fit the assumed norms. So when someone replaces this with "specially/differently abled" they erase the acknowledgement of all of the structures, biases, and barriers that make everything harder for disabled people that disability activists fought hard to get into our language in the first place. Anyone unfamiliar with this framework I urge you to search up identity-first vs person-first language (here's one link to a classic from thebodyisnotanapology to get you started). And when you replace this with, to quote the United Nations, "condescending euphemisms", you conflate difference with disability, and they are not the same thing. Everyone has different ability levels. Disabled people have needs that cannot be met in the available structures by their own ability without specific or tailored support. To hide that behind euphemistic language is invalidating to the experience of not having one's needs met.

And just to back up OP's original point, it is so difficult to accept a new disability, including the label of being disabled. Respect that work and that choice!

I go back and forth on whether I comfortably identify as disabled and that's a me problem so if you see me struggling with pronouns above that's why. It's something I'm working on.

Pls note anyone can identify how they want on this, I'm not going to tell someone who is disabled whether they have to embrace this word. But don't try to (no matter how well meant) take it away from anyone who has.

"specially abled" and "disabled" are absolutely, unequivocally not interchangeable terms. & yeah, it actually is that deep.

I wish my autoimmune disease made me specially abled instead of regularly ill. I'm a pro now at managing constantly-changing treatment regimens, coordinating monthly (if not more) doctor visits & endless bloodwork, but alas- that's not a superpower. it's the day-to-day reality of living with a disability.

I can only speak as a someone who was relatively healthy before I got sick, but the mourning period I went through was brutal. getting diagnosed with an incurable disease brings a metric fuckton of grief with it, requiring a huge perspective shift.

I'm an intensely independent, self-reliant person- sometimes to my own detriment. unsurprisingly, coming to terms with this new reality was no small task.

when I was finally diagnosed, I made a playlist (my go-to coping mechanism). I played one song on a loop because of its namesake line, & it still packs an emotional gut-punch for me: "I needed to lose you to love me."

I was angry at my body for 'failing' me- for having zero control over such an all-important outcome (my health). I had to reconcile myself to the reality that my life was different now. I had to lose my old view of myself to love the new version that needed more sleep, more sick days, more accommodations.

it took me years to get comfortable using the term "disability" to help describe what's now a big part of my lived experience (especially since mine is invisible). it went from being a foreign term I could've never imagined using for myself, to my bridge to self acceptance.

there's nothing romantic about my disease- a quality that "specially abled" imbues for me. do I- & all disabled people- have special abilities, valuable experience & unique skills? you bet your ass we do. one has absolutely nothing to do with the other.

every disabled person has the right to choose/use terms to describe their experience as they see fit. for me? swapping "disabled" for a more 'positive' moniker 1) glosses over (if not entirely erases) the very real, life-altering struggle inherent to having a disability, & 2) muddies the waters, potentially making it even more difficult for disabled people to get the accommodations they need when they need them.

when in doubt? listen to how people describe themselves. honor them by using the same descriptors (unless they tell you otherwise). choose to believe people when they tell you how terms affect them.

forgive yourself if you don't always get it right- who does? mistakes aren't the point- effort is the point. kindness is the point. respect is the point. how we get there is as varied as people, but it starts with the words we use.

[thethoughtsofadyingatheist]

We do not exist to please others regardless of gender

[productiveborg]

Living in a female body, a Black body, an aging body, a fat body, a body with mental illness is to awaken daily to a planet that expects a certain set of apologies to already live on our tongues. There is a level of “not enough” or “too much” sewn into these strands of difference.

The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor

[ladyspeechsankofa]

To the person / Suga Honey Dumpling who got me my new copy of @sonyareneetaylor book @thebodyisnotanapology and my new sunglasses, THANK YOU. Thank You! THANK YOU! This book is life changing and I’m so happy I finally own it. Whoever got me this gift (because it didn’t come with a thank you note) YOU are the real MVP. All my love and thanks, LadySpeech. #GiftGiving #LoveLanguage #LadySpeech #TheBodyIsNotAnApology https://www.instagram.com/p/CW-1oSwl0ij/?utm_medium=tumblr

[getfitblackgirl]

#Repost @thebodyisnotanapology ・・・ Your daily reminder that folks being discarded literally on the side of the road and under bridges and at street intersections, pleading with cardboard signs and living in tent cities (during a global pandemic, no less) and often struggling with untreated trauma, addiction, and severe mental illness — all of that is #BodyTerrorism and a collective abdication of what it means to care for each other on this planet as humans. Another way is possible and was REALITY prior to the white supremacist, settler colonial, cisheteronormative patriarchal takeover of North America and the subsequent capitalist exploitation of land, humans, and non-human animals alike. None of this is normal. Profits should never be our highest aim. #RadicalSelfLove requires a different ethic. We can be different. Posted @withregram • @indigenouscultures #LandBack Via @sema_hernandez . . [image description: photo of a black partition set up on a city street in front of a tree and obscured structure. Written on the partition in white graffiti is the message, “NO ONE WAS HOMELESS ON THIS LAND BEFORE 1492”. The word “1492” is underlined. In the background are tall buildings.] . . #TheBodyIsNotAnApology #TBINAA #SettlerColonialism #IndigenousSovereignty https://www.instagram.com/p/CNERrXIBorN58hNhRsx-AzZfD9LCUM1_X6Z-mo0/?igshid=ppjcn2f7v732

[pinkfeathergurl]

Ways How Women Grow Stronger Together 💪♀️

🌹Always Be There For Each Other

🌹Share Your Knowledge to Rebuild Your Communities

🌹A Simple Appreciation Goes a Long Way

🌹Value Fellow Women’s Time and Resources

🌹Don’t Shy Away from Sharing Constructive Criticism

🌹Share An Honest Approach To Each Other's Lives

🌹Women Grow Stronger Together Where There Is Trust

🌹Listen With an Open Mind

🌹The Most Important one on Our List is to Stay Connected

#femaleempowerment#femaleartist#womensupportingwomen#equality#selfcare#selflove#wellbeing#ladieswhodesign#femaleillustrator#girlssupportgirls#atribeofwomen#creativewomencommunity#feministglobe#iweigh#procreate#womeninspiringwomen#womenofimpact#ageisjustanumber#feministjazzy#thebodyisnotanapology#theguardian

[purseburger]

[malaika-salaam]

Happy #FatFatFridays Y’all! It’s been a while since I consistently did this & I find myself in need of the amplification and reminders that this space holds. Here is to #BodyCelebration Feel FREE. Free of censorship. Free of apologizing for who you are, what you are, how you are, why you are... Free from judgment. Free to wear what you want... Or nothing at all. Free to take up space. Free to exist in your body. Free of shame. Free to BE. #fatfatfridays #fat #fatandfree #fatwomenofcolor #effyourbodystandards #thebodyisnotanapology #radicalselflove #deepercareofself™️ REPOST @thebodyisnotanapology When lovely people like @curvynyome get censored by big tech for simply existing in their bodies, the only answer is to amplify them far and wide 🖤 👸🏾 🖤 From the original post: "Why is my body always being censored!? It’s always Black women with bigger bodies and I am tired, I am out here sharing my art and trying to normalise ALL body types and I keep getting shut down at every turn but don’t worry I’ll keep doing my thing though.⠀ ⠀ Image by @rachelanthiasherlock"⠀ .⠀ .⠀ [image description: photo of Nyome Nicholas-Williams, a plus-size Black woman who is posing nude with her back to the camera in front of a peach-rose drapey backdrop. She has a buzzcut and looks upward and to the right with her eyes closed, her right arm raised gracefully and touching the top of her head. She gifts the viewer with her curvy side rolls as she perches atop a stool or pedestal.]⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #TheBodyIsNotAnApology #TBINAA #RadicalSelfLove https://www.instagram.com/p/CD3nCK8FOMO/?igshid=1fs82r8luir14

[otheunstoppable]

Let it... * Reposted from @sonyareneetaylor Repost from @thebodyisnotanapology In her second to most recent video, @SonyaReneeTaylor gets vulnerable and beautifully, humanly raw about the transformational impact of her community, both those who follow her Instagram page and those here, working to pay off her student loans in cumulative acts of love and care. Sonya reflects on how powerful #MutualAid is as a substitute for the exploitation and indentured servitude of capitalism, and how deeply vital it is that we, in Sonya's words, "make a whole new system where we just take care of each other." THIS is the new world that we are creating. Where what we thought to be impossible is indeed possible, in the best, most revolutionary of ways.⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #TheBodyIsNotAnApology #TBINAA #RadicalSelfLove #SonyaReneeTaylor #BuyBackBlackDebt - - * #AllPower2ThePeople #ThePractice https://www.instagram.com/p/CDtq4x7lTAe/?igshid=f6ti5moeja4u

[honeyistheknife]

I’m holding Sonya Rene Taylor’s book: The Body Is Not An Apology

[dmnsqrl]

Posted @withregram • @thebodyisnotanapology Healing is not linear 🌸 🌿 🌼 Art: @yallaroza⠀ .⠀ .⠀ [image description: photo of two people with their foreheads together in an intimate embrace. The person on the left has lighter brown skin, wavy brown hair, and has their eyes closed. They're wearing silver hoop earrings and a reddish top. The person on the right has darker brown skin, wavy black hair, and is looking tenderly at the person on the left. They are wearing a black choker necklace and blue top. Behind them is a floral pattern of pink, green, and brown. Above the two is written, "YOU ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE HARD DAYS AND HARD FEELINGS. IT DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE FAILING TO HEAL".]⠀ .⠀ .⠀ #TheBodyIsNotAnApology #TBINAA #RadicalSelfLove https://www.instagram.com/p/B_7dJ4PDimnsdhhr45bQ6nQOQDX-RYnSrZrV0Y0/?igshid=g8x6zofiib49