Six Top Eating Disorder Books/Essays by Black Authors
Looking for eating disorder help in San Diego and elsewhere? Writings on eating disorders can really help eating disorder recovery. I’ve listed six books/essays by Black authors that are encouraging and inspiring. It’s important to amplify Black voices, as well as honor the contributions of Black writers on eating disorders and body image. These works are powerful and enlightening. Definitely important to add to your reading list!
Books & Essays Related to Eating Disorders That Are Good Resources from Black Authors
Please consider buying books from Black-owned bookstores and show your support for the Black community.
The Body is Not an Apology
Book #1: The Body is Not an Apology by Sonya Renee Taylor. Coming from a social justice perspective, author advocates radical self-love and acceptance of your body. She discusses how acknowledging body shame in society and identifying who benefits from body hatred can help us on our path to self-acceptance. Reading it will really help you understand how powerful self-love can be. There’s also a workbook coming out in early 2021.
Fearing the Black Body
Book #2: Fearing the Black Body by Sabrina Strings, Ph.D. Dr. Springs is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Irvine. In her book, Dr. Strings addresses how the fear of obesity in the U.S., especially in the medical system, stigmatizes Black women, especially poor black women. It sends the message that they burden public health care. She also explores the 200 year-long history of the fear of fat black women, beginning with the Renaissance to the present times. She pinpoints how the idealized slender body is racist. Dr. Springs pinpoints how fat phobia isn’t about health—it’s about oppression, as well as a way to validate racial prejudice.
Not All Black Girs Know How to Eat
Book #3: Not All Black Girls Know How to Eat by Stephanie Covington Armstrong. In this memoir, Armstrong details her struggle with bulimia and the challenges as a Black women with a condition often depicted (and treated) as a White woman’s disorder. She writes about how food scarcity, childhood sexual trauma, and a bad breakup contributed to her developing an eating disorder. Armstrong explores how much she was suffering physically, spiritually, and emotionally. At the same time, there was a lot of shame around seeking support from an eating disorder coach, especially given that treatment programs were populated by White women.
The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls
Book #4/Essay #1: The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls** by Anissa Gray. This book is actually a novel in which Gray borrowed from her own life experiences of growing up in a predominantly White town and grappling with bulimia, typically considered a “White girl problem.”
On Shondra Rhimes’ website, Shondaland, Gray penned an essay entitled, “It’s Time to Correct The Narrative Surrounding Black Girls and Eating Disorders.” I encourage you to read both the essay and the novel. Gray depicts both her and her characters’ struggles with eating disorders as well as with the sense of invisibility because of the stigma that Black girls and women don’t have eating disorders, which researchers have found to be untrue. She asks herself in her essay, “And how am I seen now? How do I see myself? I am a black woman recovering from an eating disorder. Unicorns aren’t real, but I am.”
When Black Girls Hear That “Our Bodies Are All Wrong”
Essay #2: “When Black Girls Hear That ‘Our Bodies Are All Wrong’” is a powerful New York Times op-ed by Mikki Kendall. Kendall shares how she had an eating disorder in high school, “and nobody noticed.” She explains how society sends the message that Black girls’ curves are warning signs for obesity so that people often congratulate them for restricting food and managing their weight. In reality, it may be an indication of a mental health issue. Kendall also explores the challenges of having a body that didn’t fit the “white-centric, unreasonable standards of beauty.” She explains how tough it is to receive the message that her body was all wrong, and how it can lead to an unhealthy desire to change it.
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Marianne 😊
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