9781626569768

notion with me, I did what any Gen Xer on the cusp of Millennial status
would do: I started a Facebook group and used it to house these newly
sourced unapologetic photos from my friends around the country. The
group operated as a geographically unconstrained space where we could
practice loving ourselves, our bodies, and other people’s bodies
unapologetically. I named the page after a poem I had written right around
the time I took that fateful saucy selfie: “The Body Is Not an Apology.”
Quickly it became clear that our brief moments of unapologetic living were
highly contagious acts—like the flu, but much happier!
Being unapologetic created an opening for radical self-love. Each time
we chose to embrace the fullness of ourselves, some layer of the bodyshame
onion got peeled away, evidencing the power of every small
unapologetic act. I have been watching this radical disrobing of shame
change the world, one unapologetic human at a time. And each moment that
I practice living unapologetically I realize my grandma was right: I wasn’t
ever actually sorry. When we truly love ourselves, there is no need to be.
Unapologetic Inquiry #4
What are you ready to stop apologizing for?
The Three Peaces
From the moment the phrase “The body is not an apology” and the idea of
radical self-love fell from my lips, they have echoed as a resounding “Yes!”
to those who have heard them. That YES feeling is likely the reason you are
reading this book right now. On some cellular level, we know our bodies
are not something we should apologize for. After all, they are the only way
we get to experience this ridiculous and radiant life. A part of us is a bit
repelled by the overt espousal of body shame. It is the reason we whisper
and rumor about other folks’ bodies behind their backs. We know our
snickers and taunts are wrong. When we are honest with ourselves, we feel
gross about the way we vulture other humans, picking apart their bodies,
consuming them for the sake of our own fragile sense of self. We feel gross
when we think about all the vicious, cruel comments we’ve heard leveled