Five Ways to Make Your Home More Body Positive in 2018
Amy Pence-Brown
Ringing in a new year is always a time for reflection upon the last one and a time of looking forward to the new one. While I did away with resolutions a long time ago and opted instead for New Year’s revolutions of the radical and subversive kind, there’s nothing wrong with setting a few goals or making positive changes for the future.
As a body image activist, writer, artist, and fat feminist mother to three young children, I spend a lot of time at home, and making it as comfortable and revolutionary a space as I can is important and conducive to my growth and that of my family.
Here are a few of my favorite suggestions for making your home more body positive:
1) Get rid of that bathroom scale. Give it away to the thrift store or ceremoniously smash it with a hammer. Your gravitational pull on the earth is irrelevant and has no bearing on who you really are.
2) Buy and hang some size-positive art. Surrounding yourself with inspiration and beauty is good for the spirit. There are many artists creating beautiful images of fat folks (Instagram and Etsy are my favorite places to shop).
3) Clean out your closet. Just like the number on the scale is meaningless, so is the number on the tags of your clothing. Keep things that fit well and make you feel fantastic, and donate the rest.
4) Spend some time in your kitchen. Check out a new cookbook by a well-known chef from the library or print off one of those recipes everyone is sharing around Facebook and give it a try. Bake a birthday cake for a friend or learn mise en place. Food should be easy and enjoyable, not stressful or scary.
5) Put something new and rad on your shelves. Treat yourself to Charlotte Cooper’s new book Fat Activism: A Radical Social Movement or buy the DVD of the movie Patti Cake$. Enjoying body positive books and movies are a fun and educational way to move forward on your own body positive journey.
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