Exploring Body Acceptance: Embracing Size Diversity and Body Liberation

I remember in Denver, Texas, and San Diego, when I was in the clutches of my eating disorder, the possibility of body acceptance felt like it was in a galaxy far, far away. When I finally found the right eating disorder therapist in San Diego, California, I first entered her office filled with shame about my body. I felt like a failure. I felt incompetent. I had no hope. Over time, I began learning about fat acceptance, size diversity, and body liberation. At first it confused me, as all I wanted to do was lose weight. I eventually began to understand it, and it was like a new universe had opened up to me. Here’s what I came to understand.

Body Neutrality May Need to Come First

Body neutrality means that you see your body as neither good nor bad. It’s just . . . neutral. Leaning into body neutrality may need to come before body acceptance. When you are in the thick of your eating disorder in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, body acceptance may feel unattainable. I often hated my body when I was struggling, so thinking positively about my body was too much of a stretch. That’s why stepping in the direction of body neutrality felt more doable.

Body Acceptance Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

It’s important to know that body acceptance takes a long time. I’m talking years. Your eating disorder didn’t develop overnight, so it won’t go away overnight. I had to do a lot of work, inside and outside of therapy, to change my relationship with my body. One thing that helped was reading about the fat acceptance movement. It was before social media, so the big thing was blogs. Reading other fat women’s experiences and tips (especially on shopping!) helped me feel less isolated. I learned about anti-fat bias and diet culture. I came to understand that our society has cards stacked against me because of thin privilege. I focused on accessibility issues for fat people like me. It became less about my individual experience and more about social justice.

Size Diversity Is Real

When I was first in recovery, I thought that the term diversity applied to race, culture, ethnicity, age, religion, etc. I didn’t realize that size diversity was a thing. What it means is that representation in all types of media includes size diversity. I began looking critically at tv shows, movies, advertisements, and news programs. I noticed that the media often portrayed fat people as slow, stupid, smelly, unfashionable, and sometimes mean. Such characterizations and stereotypes are insidious and pervasive—you even find them in children’s books! When I began to see a lack of size diversity and a pigeonholing of fat people in the media, I couldn’t ever unsee it. Even now my husband and I shake our heads when we see it, even in our favorite tv shows and movies (I’m talking to you, Marvel—you know what movie I mean).

What is Body Liberation?

Body liberation means looking at our bodies in a larger context. As Sonya Renee Taylor wrote in her book, The Body Is Not an Apology, you have to acknowledge the political and social systems that marginalize the size, shape, color, age, and abilities of all bodies. The goal of body liberation is freedom from such systems that determine that some types of bodies are more attractive, desirable, worthy and healthy than others.

With body liberation, the focus shifts away from individual experience and toward collective and systemic oppression. In my Instagram, I talk about this notion when highlighting the difficulties of fat people navigating the medical system, which is rife with anti-fat bias. It’s even worse for BIPOC individuals, LGBTQ+ folks, and differently abled people. The more categories of marginalization you occupy, the more oppression you face. It’s called intersectionality.

What Taylor pinpointed is that it’s important for all of us to admit that we don’t know everything, especially someone else’s experience. If you are a thin person, and you say that you understand the accessibility issues that fat people face in daily life, it doesn’t leave room for the lived experience of fat individuals. Likewise, if you’re a white fat person and you convey that you really get a Black fat person’s oppression, it actually adds to the oppression.

Really getting body acceptance, size diversity, and body liberation is a process. I always say that as long as I’m breathing, I can grow. I’ll remain on that path and own up to the fact that I don’t and won’t understand everything, and I’ll keep learning.

How to Move Toward Body Acceptance and Embrace Size Diversity and Body Liberation and Binge Eating Recovery in San Diego, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, California, as well as anywhere in the U.S. and internationally!

💜 Work with me, Dr. Marianne Miller, an eating disorder therapist in San Diego. GEt in-person eating disorder treatment in San Diego, and virtual eating disorder therapy in San Diego and throughout California and Texas! Schedule an initial, free, 15-minute consultation today!

💜 Take the first step toward binge eating recovery and body acceptance in DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM*, which combines a comprehensive online binge eating class with a private, hidden Facebook group where you can get support. It’s an online course for high performers who aim to transform their relationships with food. Anyone in the U.S. or internationally can join.

💜 Sign up for the ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD**. It’s a 3-month, 1:1 online binge-eating coaching + an online class for professionals, students, athletes, and all-around high achievers who just want to gain balance and control of food. You can work with me from any state in the U.S., as well as anywhere else internationally.

Catch Dr. Marianne Miller, Eating Disorder Therapist, and Binge Eating Coach on Social Media and on her podcast.

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Disclaimers for Body Image, Binge Eating, and My Virtual Online Binge Eating Program

*DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM is online binge-eating education and private virtual group support via a Facebook Group. The aim of this course is to help people reduce and eliminate any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. DR. MARIANNE-LAND’S BINGE EATING RECOVERY MEMBERSHIP PROGRAM is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment program and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.

**The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is virtual binge eating education and LIVE virtual coaching support. The goal of this program is to help people stop any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment program and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.