You Don't Owe Anyone Your Fitness or Your Health.

I don't believe anyone else owes me their fitness or their health.

Perhaps an unpopular opinion, considering my profession, but I believe you have every right to do whatever the fuck you want with your body, and no matter your choices, you're still worthy of love and respect.

Your worth is not tied to how hard you hustle and how much you shrink, whether that's in the gym or otherwise.

And I believe that thinking otherwise is an inherently capitalist, colonialist, white supremacist idea.

This was brought to my attention by a number of people, but succinctly and powerfully captured by @thefatsextherapist in their workshop I attended Thursday night (if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of their workshops, GO.).

Many values we uphold today are colonial values. For a powerful example from Sonalee, we generally look down upon womxn who have the audacity (heavy sarcasm) to explore facets of their sexuality in public.

We teach womxn that we should be denying ourselves pleasure, from food to sex and everything in between, which is an inherently Christian value. It's not just our lands that have been colonized, friends, but our minds as well.

Unlearning this is an ongoing process, and I mess it up all the time.

But autonomy is a core value of mine, and I wholeheartedly believe that you should be allowed to show up exactly as you are, exactly how you want to, and explore whatever you feel like exploring with your life and your body, guilt- and shame-free.

Anything else isn't liberation; it's diet culture and white supremacy.

If you'd like to learn more about your internalized biases, about liberation theory, about how to make our culture a safer place for everyone, and/or about the systemic oppression facing all of us (and how this actually affects you, because, even if you think it doesn't, I assure you it does), @imdrtee is running another live version of his Foundations of Social Justice course.

This course has changed my approach to this work entirely, and I'd love for you to join me.

To learn more and get signed up, click here (from the menu at the top right, select, "courses" ➡️ "Foundations").