The Body Liberation Project - by Chrissy King (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

When Chrissy King first joined a gym, she had one goal in mind: to "get skinny." In pursuit of this goal, she fell into the all-too-common cycle of "not enough-ness"; no matter what she achieved, there was always something she felt she needed to change about her body, her appearance, herself. This made her realize the most liberating truth of all: She was not the problem. Diet and fitness industries rooted in white supremacy were the problem; Eurocentric and carefully manufactured beauty standards were the problem; discourses telling her that her happiness was directly tied to her physical appearance were the problem. So she created an actionable method to redefine the relationship we have with our bodies, thereby achieving a sense of self-worth that is completely separate from how we look.

The Body Liberation Project is about finding actual freedom in our bodies by discovering strength and aspects of fitness, movement, and eating that work for YOU. It's about realizing that the goal is not to look at our bodies and love everything we see; it's to understand that at our essence we are so much more than our bodies. But it's also about recognizing the harsh realities that prohibit people in marginalized bodies from being able to do so. Society constantly bombards those who fall outside Eurocentric standards of beauty (think Black, fat, trans, etc.) with the message that they are less attractive, and part of the journey toward body liberation is examining your own privilege, acknowledging the harm you may be causing others, and mourning your old ideas about what a body "should" look like.

Recognizing that none of us are free until all of us are, Chrissy King shares the wisdom, the tools, and the inspiration to motivate readers to find body liberation and, even more important, to pass it on.

Review Quotes

"Dedicated to empowering individuals to stop shrinking and to start taking up space, King's new book is empowering us to seek body liberation over assimilation." --Essence

"Chrissy King is here to remind us (gently, lovingly!) that diet culture is rooted in white supremacy and that the key to freedom is not "body positivity" but "body liberation." Her perspective on Twitter and Instagram is a breath of fresh air and her new book, called The Body Liberation Project: How Understanding Racism and Diet Culture Helps Cultivate Joy and Build Collective Freedom, is sure to be a balm." --Romper

"[King] redefines how we can love our existing bodies in positive ways." --Ebony

"If you're ready to free yourself from the impossible standards, pick up a copy of King's book, which traces the history of fat discrimination and how it intersects with other forms of oppression. King also explains the issues with the body positivity movement and how we can truly be liberated from all the appearance-related pressures." --Katie Couric Media

"thought-provoking" --Washington Informer

"...an exciting, genre-redefining narrative mix of memoir, inspiration, and specific exercises and prompts, weaving in urgent, timely messages about social and racial justice and how they intersect with the fitness and wellness community." --Essence, "8 Black Women Influencers Who Promote Body Positivity on Social Media"

"The Body Liberation Project is for anyone tired of diet culture and being obsessed with getting skinny. Part memoir, part activities and prompts, Chrissy King's new book is a guide to how to love yourself more. " --Men's Health

"King's story is a classic example of how anti-fatness and diet culture infiltrates so many people's lives, leading us to believe that we can (and should) manipulate our bodies to "perfection" when all this fruitless pursuit does is leave us trapped. In her new book, The Body Liberation Project, King proposes an alternative way of living: Burn it all down and you can be free. We're extremely on board with that--and we're thrilled to announce The Body Liberation Project as our April SELF Well-Read Book Club pick." --SELF

"The white-dominated wellness and body positivity industry is well overdue this conversation! Chrissy King writes with a clear intersectional lens about the harmful dynamics that impact so many people who don't fit within the narrow margins of dominant culture. As someone who began her own journey with body liberation only a few short years ago, I wish I'd had this book as a young woman. It would have helped me understand all the ways I was being gaslit, lied to, and manipulated into hating my precious physical being. Reading it now validates my experiences, helping me to more deeply understand the systemic oppressive factors at play. The Body Liberation Project ultimately teaches us the practice of self-love and community love. It teaches us to hold space within our bodies for the nuance, for the possibilities, and for the joy." --Layla F. Saad, New York Times bestselling author of Me and White Supremacy

"The Body Liberation Project Is a book that not only will I carry around with me everywhere, but I will buy for everyone I know and love. That's a promise. This exquisite gem of a book is powerfully and beautifully written. I learned so much throughout this book that I went back and read it a second time. I cannot express in words its healing powers so you're going to have to read it for yourself. And then thank me. Or rather, thank Chrissy King, as we all should be doing. This is the book that we have been waiting for and it has arrived right on time. And now, I will go back and read it a third time and then again. May we continue to not only learn, but to unlearn. Thank you, Chrissy King." --Jen Pastiloff, bestselling author of On Being Human

"Chrissy King's book is refreshing and timely! It unfolds the narrative of the way that racism and diet culture impact marginalized communities, and serves as a mirror and bridge to feeling more at peace with ourselves and liberated within our bodies." --Alishia McCullough, author and founder of BlackEmbodied Counseling and Consulting

"How can we learn to love and accept our bodies in a society that tells us everything about them is wrong? The Body Liberation Project is the course that we all need for intersectionality on diet culture, racism, and what body positivity should be. Chrissy King intertwines her experiences of her own body liberation journey with thoughtful prompts in order to get the reader thinking about their own relationship to their body. In a world that is constantly telling us to change and that we should look a certain way, liberating ourselves from that narrative is the most radical thing we can do." --Shana Minei Spence, MS, RDN, CDN of The Nutrition Tea LLC

About the Author