Satisfaction Factor
Satisfaction Factor
#94 - Beyond Mainstream Body Positivity
What if the body positivity movement you know today is actually working against its original goals? In this episode, we're talking about how the body positivity movement, initially focused on fat liberation and dismantling oppressive systems, has been hijacked by mainstream culture. Learn how today's body positivity often centers on privileged bodies, sidelining those it was meant to uplift, including fat, disabled, and BIPOC individuals.
We're talking about:
- how mainstream body positivity can uphold & sometimes even strengthen the oppressive narratives of diet culture
- the harsh realities faced by people in larger bodies when it comes to accessible clothing & public spaces
- the economic & social justice implications of these exclusions
- how the lack of inclusivity in fashion & essential public spaces not only impacts personal aesthetics but also creates significant barriers in employment & daily life
- weight bias in the medical field & beyond, and how weight stigma leads to inferior healthcare & delayed treatments.
- how anti-fat bias seeps into employment, education, and even the judicial system, with shocking statistics about wage disparities & job discrimination.
This episode is a powerful call to move beyond superficial body positivity towards true body liberation and fat positivity, advocating for systemic change and inclusivity.
Referenced in this episode
"From New York to Instagram: The History of the Body Positivity Movement"
"Body Positivity Doesn't Mean What You Think It Does"
Ragen Chastain - Templates to Ask for Accommodation
Stay in touch with the pod on IG @satisfactionfactorpod!
And here's where you can continue to find us:
Sadie Simpson: www.sadiesimpson.com or IG @sadiemsimpson
Naomi Katz: www.happyshapes.co or IG @happyshapesnaomi
Welcome to Satisfaction Factor, the podcast where we explore how ditching diet culture makes our whole lives more satisfying. Welcome back to Satisfaction Factor. I'm Naomi Katz, an intuitive eating and body image coach. I'm Sadie Simpson, a group fitness instructor and personal trainer. So this week we've got another great topic that we think you're really going to enjoy.
Naomi Katz:But before we dive in, just a quick reminder about the satisfaction space, our online podcast community. We know it can be hard to find anti-diet community that's aligned with your values, especially if you're the first in your family or friend group to make moves towards ditching diet culture, and that's why we created the Satisfaction Space. If you've ever found yourself listening to the podcast and wanting to add something to the conversation or ask a question, this space was created for you. The Satisfaction Space is an online membership community that includes a private community of folks who share similar values and interests that you can talk to and connect with outside of Facebook. Bonus content during the podcast, off weeks, monthly live virtual hangouts with us and a community feed where you can post your comments or questions and get feedback from us, as well as your fellow community members. Membership to the Satisfaction Space is just $10 a month and can be canceled at any time and you can enroll at thesatisfactionspacemnco and that link always lives in our show notes.
Sadie Simpson:If you want to support the show but don't want to commit to a monthly membership. We also have merch. We recently added four new designs inspired by our Joyful Movement Athlete conversation a few episodes ago, so we've got a handful of designs on TeePublic that can be printed as stickers, t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, tote bags and whatever else you like. T-shirts and sweatshirts come in sizes up to 5X and you can check that out at the link in our show notes.
Naomi Katz:So we've talked before on the pod about how body positivity is a great entry point into more expansive ideas about body respect, body liberation, fat positivity and fat liberation, and we all need entry points, right, right, so like no shade to entry points here. But today we're going to talk about some specific reasons why body positivity is not really the whole picture and not really the answer that we often think it's going to be when we first start down this road. Yeah, so I have used this analogy when we've talked about this on the pod before about public transportation, right, where, like once you're through the door, like once you've gotten on the bus or the train, you need to move past the door, past the entryway, and move further into the bus or the train so that you're not blocking the way for others. Right, and this episode is going to be about why that's so important and why not moving past that entry point, even in body positivity, really does kind of hinder access for others.
Sadie Simpson:I love a good public transportation analogy yeah.
Naomi Katz:And I just I love that this like continues to work. It does Okay. So obviously, like, let's lay a little bit of groundwork here. So first let's talk about body positivity, like quote unquote body positivity. So the body positivity movement actually began in the 1960s as an extension of the civil rights movement and it was created by and for people in marginalized bodies. So it was based in fat liberation and it very much included work around dismantling capitalism, the patriarchy, heteronormativity and white supremacy. It didn't just include those conversations, it was rooted in those concepts and it was created by and for the people most impacted by those things. We are going to link to two really great articles about the history of body positivity and fat liberation in the show notes. So if you're interested in like a little bit more of a deep dive about the details of how that came about, I highly recommend checking out the show notes and checking out those articles. They're really, they're really great.
Naomi Katz:Unfortunately, today's mainstream body positivity is not any of those things. Body positivity is not any of those things. So like when we see quote unquote body positivity in social media and often even in articles and you know, when we see influencers talking about it, when we see the hashtag for it. That's not the body positivity that they're talking about. That's not the body positivity that they're talking about. Today's mainstream body positivity is really more of like a social media and marketing tool that has their bodies to show fat rolls or, you know, stretch marks or things like that for social media clout and traction or it's you know being. It's the same thing. It's centering all those same people by corporations who are using it to make money. Just plain and simple, it absolutely excludes actual fat folks. So, like the mainstream body positivity movement these days kind of tops out at small fat at best. Sometimes it doesn't even get to small fat. We just get like that quote unquote midsize, and a lot of times it also includes a lot of messaging around like as long as you're healthy or love your body for what it can do, and stuff like that which we've talked about.
Naomi Katz:You know the ableism inherent in Love your Body for what it Can Do, and it just generally kind of excludes disabled folks, people of color, lgbtqia plus folks and really the most marginalized of us and, as a result, kind of just continues to uphold the same privileged beauty standards that it says it's working against, and so it kind of has become this like echo chamber for people who already hold a lot of privilege, already hold a lot of privilege, and you know it's a place for those people to just make themselves feel good through a lot of toxic positivity and like spiritual bypassing. There's a lot of, you know, we don't really talk about. You know the actual experiences of oppression and things like that. There's just a lot of just love yourself and you're enough, and you know things like that that are just meant to kind of like gloss over the actual systemic issues that people sometimes might be facing.
Naomi Katz:The other thing is that it focuses a ton on like self-love and very individual messaging Like you change your mindset instead of a discussion or any activism around the actual oppressive systems that diet culture is upholding and so, like basically mainstream body positivity is just has become just an offshoot of diet culture at this point and the problem is that, like you know, this is a really good way to kind of recognize that diet culture isn't just a product of, like the weight loss and fitness industries. Right, it's an offshoot of all the oppressive systems like anti-fatness, white supremacy, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, capitalism, ableism, healthism, colonialism, like all the isms. Diet culture thrives at the intersection of those systems, and so so, if we're going to fight against it, we have to really acknowledge that complexity which right.
Sadie Simpson:Well, and this like one of the first episodes that we ever recorded was diet culture is about more than just diets or something like pretty close to that title. And that I mean, obviously, some of our older episodes. When people are first finding us, they're going to be probably the most listened to, but I feel like that's like one of the most highly listened to. And then one there's been multiple instances where I've talked to people I know in real life that have, like specifically brought up that episode and the idea that diet culture is more than just dieting and just diets and just weight loss and that sort of thing. Like that's a big eye opener for a lot of people. Like it was a big eye opener for me when this first became a concept that I was aware of. So it's a it's a big deal and it's something that is not often talked about in the mainstream.
Naomi Katz:Like I know, in the social media accounts I follow nowadays, like I hear this a lot more, but like in the beginnings I did not know a lot about this hear this a lot more but, like, in the beginnings I did not know a lot about this Most definitely Like we keep talking about it because as people enter this world, it's important for them to hear this and learn it so they can move past to that entry point. Like and yeah, and like. I think it's really important to define diet culture in this way in this episode, especially because it really lends it, it really makes it so that we can see how the quote unquote body positivity in the mainstream. Actually, because it's still upholding all of the systems it's not so much body positive as it is diet culture. No matter how much they talk about self-love, right, and you know again, like just that constant focus on the individual and like. And when we say the individual, what we're talking about is body image right, like how we personally feel about our bodies and like that's important, like healing our body image is essential and it's powerful. But it's also just the start.
Naomi Katz:Again, it's that like entry right. Like we also have to be like if we actually want to dismantle diet culture, like, if we actually want to exit diet culture, then we also have to address the weight stigma, the structural anti-fat bias that exists on a broader scale, and that means unpacking this stuff on multiple fronts. So like, yes, we have to unpack it within ourselves, also in our relationships and also in the institutions that we interact with. And so just telling people to like love themselves and that you know they're beautiful at any size and all of that stuff, like that's great, like I want people to feel good about themselves, but it doesn't do. It doesn't really do what we need it to do to separate it from diet culture. I mean all of this to say basically that the issue with body positivity is we all have bad body image days, but we don't all experience systemic exclusion from society.
Sadie Simpson:Yes.
Naomi Katz:Right, and if we're, if we're topping out at small fat, cisgender, able-bodied, then we're really contributing to that systemic exclusion and so like body positivity ends up just being kind of another form of diet culture, if that's where we stop, if it's if that's where we stop. So what we wanted to do today was talk about like four systemic issues that body positivity in the mainstream really fails to acknowledge or address, so that we can do some of that, moving past the entry point and getting a little like a broader understanding of why this is a systemic issue, not a love yourself issue.
Sadie Simpson:I love this. I'm glad you had this idea for this topic because I feel like if I would have had sort of a framework like this, going into my experience with this as like a smaller, able-bodied white woman, like it would have been.
Naomi Katz:I don't know it's.
Sadie Simpson:I like having a framework and I think this is gonna be a really helpful episode for a lot of folks totally, and we know you love a framework. I do. I love a framework.
Naomi Katz:I think, honestly, I think everyone like I'd be lying if I said I didn't also love the framework.
Naomi Katz:So, um, okay, so the first thing and I think we're, and I'd be lying if I said I didn't also love the framework. So okay, so the first thing and I think we're, and we're starting with this one because I think it's the one that is just, I feel like, most wrapped up in mainstream body positivity, and that is a the systemic issue that we're going to talk about is the lack of access to clothing, right, so mainstream body positivity does nothing to increase access to clothing for people in larger bodies and, worse, it often results in companies that claim to be quote unquote inclusive and sometimes even get praised for being inclusive, without actually including the folks who need it most.
Sadie Simpson:Like the old Navy fiasco of two years ago or whatever it was.
Naomi Katz:Yes, exactly. So, yeah, we're talking about places that have never carried extended sizing deciding that they're going to start carrying extended sizing, but, like, when, when they're it's not selling out after six months, pulling the plug on it because, oh, people aren't responding to it and it's like no, it's just that you haven't served this population in like the entirety of your existence. You need people, need time to realize that you're an option. It's also, you know, carrying things online but not in stores, but the thing that always really gets me is all of the places that are like we're so inclusive but only go up to a 3X. Yeah, like that's not as inclusive as you think it is folks.
Sadie Simpson:There is a very large percentage of our population that would be at least three X or above, like that's. That's excluding, I don't know the stats. Like a lot of a big percentage of people.
Naomi Katz:Absolutely Like I. You know I am a small fat person. So, again, like just in the realm of fat identity, like you know, just in the realm of consistently being in plus sizes and there are a lot of stores where I wear a 2X, so like if there's only one size above that in your store, a lot of people are being excluded from being able to shop and yet you claim inclusivity. There's also all of the shops that are like oh, we're super inclusive, we go up to a size whatever, but all the models on their pages are in small bodies, wearing straight sizes. And it's like, okay, like I'm glad you carry these things, but why would I buy anything that I can't see?
Naomi Katz:On a person who is plus size, things fit differently. Like it's just lot of ways it allows these companies to capitalize on something that they're actually standing in the way of. Interestingly, I was doing some research for a webinar a while back and one of the things that I came across that kind of blew my mind is that, like, only about 20% of the apparel market is geared towards plus size women, even though 70% of us women are at least a size 16. Oh my God.
Sadie Simpson:That is wild. Like you're missing a huge market of people that would be willing to buy a product if it existed for them. Like I feel like that's a financial somebody's missing out financially, if nothing else. Like if they want to be capitalists and they want to make money.
Naomi Katz:Like they're missing out on money here truly like it's actually even just a bad like, never mind the social justice aspects of it, like, nevermind the humanitarian aspects of it, it is a bad business practice, yeah, and then you know, the thing is that Even when you do find inclusive and plus size, like accessible clothing, a lot of times it's more expensive. A lot of times it's online only, which, like think about how many times you've maybe needed to pick up something at the last minute for an event God forbid you're traveling and the airline loses your luggage. Um, god forbid you're traveling and the airline loses your luggage. Like you know any number of things well, when stores only carry your size online, it means you can't walk into a store and buy something at the last minute. Um, it's, you know, among other issues with that, but like that's, that's kind of a big deal, yeah, and and the other thing is that, like, this isn't just a matter of aesthetics, like it's not just a matter of like, oh, I can't wear the clothes that I want.
Naomi Katz:Clothing impacts things like employment, right, like can you dress appropriately for the job you're applying for, and stuff like that. And the thing is that and we're going to talk about this a little later fat folks already face discrimination, not to mention other marginalized identities. These people already face discrimination in the workplace and then not being able to access clothing adds a layer to that, makes it even harder for them to overcome that discrimination in the workplace. So this isn't just about like, oh, I don't have enough choices for what I want to wear. It's like, oh, I can't get a job because I can't find work. Wear in my size.
Sadie Simpson:Yeah.
Naomi Katz:Yeah, the next systemic thing is lack of access to public spaces. So mainstream body positivity does nothing to address the ways that larger bodied folks are structurally excluded from public spaces like airplanes, amusement park rides, theaters, waiting rooms, hair salons, restaurants, restaurants, like all of that stuff. Um, I actually again I found an interesting statistic that in the past decade airline seats have narrowed from 18.5 inches to 17 inches what right is that to try to cram more seats in? The airplane.
Sadie Simpson:For sure, it's kind of a dumb question, but I'm like okay absolutely that's what it is.
Naomi Katz:Um, airline bathrooms have gone from 33 to 34 inches wide to just 26 inches wide. It's a really big change, right and like. The thing is like, yeah, that's super uncomfortable. It also often requires people to purchase an expensive second seat and it, because everybody's so cramped together, tends to result in, like ridicule and anger from other passengers, and there's even been instances of like folks in larger bodies actually being removed from a plane, which you know can be inconvenient, but it can also have dire consequences. There was a situation in 2012 where a woman literally died because she was, I believe the situation was that she was on her way for medical treatment but like was removed from the plane, having to do with being in a larger body, but like it was a whole thing.
Naomi Katz:Like this, again, we're not just talking about minor inconvenience or discomfort here. We're talking about like big, like these things. These are a big deal, um and you know that's just the the start of it, obviously like the lack of chairs in waiting rooms for people, um, not being able to go to restaurants, not being able to go to theaters, not being able to go to restaurants, not being able to go to theaters, not being able to go to hair salons, like I don't know why hair salons always have chairs with arms, for one thing, and they're so small. They are small. I actually just this week or maybe last week. So Reagan Chastain has that weight and healthcare newsletter on Substack, which is amazing, highly recommend. I know we've talked about it on the pod before, it's the greatest. And she actually just sent out an email last week that had templates for emails to medical providers, talking about, you know, chairs and waiting rooms, blood pressure cuffs, like things like that. We'll link to that newsletter in the show notes also, because part of this is learning to advocate for these things when we see that there's a lack.
Naomi Katz:Okay, the third issue is lack of access to compassionate and competent healthcare. Speaking of, you know, mainstream body positivity does nothing to address the ways that the healthcare system stigmatizes and denies ethical, evidence-based care to folks in larger bodies, which is a literal life and death problem and in a lot of ways, again, mainstream body positivity kind of makes it worse by saying things like as long as you're healthy and love your body for what it can do, without any acknowledgement of the obstacles to health, the ableism of that. You know, things like that.
Naomi Katz:I think it's really important, as we start talking about this topic, to note that historically, the rhetoric around fatness and health didn't come about until well after the bias against fatness was established through racial rhetoric. You know, the scope of this episode is not about the difference between weight and health, but it is really important to recognize that as a society, we decided fat was bad and then we sought to prove that medically, not the other way around, right and so again, the as long as you're healthy rhetoric doesn't really hold water in terms of like how we stigmatize fatness and, of course, the result of that stigma is weight-centric medical care, which means that folks in larger bodies are often unable to access evidence-based care. They're often stigmatized because of their body size. Actually have Aubrey Gordon has talked about being prescribed statins just because the doctor assumed, since she was fat, she was going to need them. Like a sensor for cholesterol, even though her cholesterol was fine, and that like it's. Like it's not the worst thing somebody could be prescribed, but it does have side effects. Like it's not good.
Sadie Simpson:It is not necessary Like if you don't have a condition that needs that.
Naomi Katz:Yeah, and also somebody who doesn't have high cholesterol. Like taking statins. It is bad for your health. Like you should not be taking statins if you don't have high cholesterol. Like you should not be taking statins if you don't have high cholesterol. And then the flip side of that is that fat folks are often denied treatment or diagnosis for ailments that they do have.
Naomi Katz:So when Regan Chastain was on the pod, she talked about having strep throat and going to the doctor and being told to lose weight and like having to fight with this doctor just to get antibiotics for her strep throat, which under no circumstances was going to be solved by her by weight loss. And of course, like that's a relatively mild situation. There have been a lot of other situations where people have been diagnosed so late that it's actually resulted in death, mm-hmm and so like it's literally a life and death issue. And you know, research has shown that primary care providers are generally prone to spend less time with patients in larger bodies. They're more likely to rate those encounters as a waste of time. They're more likely to rate those encounters as a waste of time. And even if the treatment isn't that bad like even if you're not getting misdiagnosed or whatever, every doctor's visit is still full of comments about weight, worst case scenarios about their health, pressure to change body size and so much of that is rooted in the use of the racist BMI.
Naomi Katz:I have told this story before, I think, when I talked about the to this medical facility that all over the place had these flyers up that were like we stand against racism. But then I went in and got this totally inappropriate medical recommendation based solely on my BMI, and it was and I really wanted to be like don't really understand what you're doing here, Do you?
Sadie Simpson:And they don't. That's the thing.
Naomi Katz:They don't, and that's the problem. But yeah, you know, medical weight bias means that people are getting inferior medical treatment, and it also causes people to delay seeing a doctor because of the stigma and the poor treatment they receive, and both of those things mean that folks in larger bodies experience worse medical outcomes than folks in smaller bodies, and that's so important to acknowledge because it explains like there is a statistical correlation between fatness and negative health outcomes not causation, though and this poor medical care and this delaying of medical care explains a big part of why that correlation might exist, and we are never controlling for that when we're when we're talking about that correlation.
Sadie Simpson:Right.
Naomi Katz:And of course, there's like an intersectionality conversation to have there too, because there's also evidence that women, gender non-conforming folks, people of color, are also often dismissed or stigmatized in medical settings, and so all of these things can just compound that experience of weight stigma. And you know, telling people that their body is fine as long as they're healthy ignores all of this stuff and, if anything, almost worsens it, because it's like, again, you can't love your body out of weight stigma. And putting the condition of you're only allowed to love your body if you're healthy is makes that inaccessible for huge portions of the population. Okay, and then the last thing is that there's systemic discrimination against folks in larger bodies, in hiring, housing, schooling and the legal system yep, yep, yep, yep. And mainstream body positivity ignores all of those things. Yes, and so this is a an Aubrey Gordon quote.
Naomi Katz:In 48 of the 50 us States, it is perfectly legal to deny someone housing employment, a table at a restaurant or a room in a hotel just because they're fat. Wow, right. Which is mind blowing, like, notably, very recently, new York city passed a law banning size-based discrimination, which is great. Massachusetts, if anybody, if any of our listeners are in Massachusetts, I believe there is a similar bill in the in state legislature right now, so contact your reps about that, but we have got a long way to go, obviously, um, but but yeah, I mean there are. There are very distinct um and studied instances of discrimination in all of these fields. So, like in hiring and wages, there was an informal study in 2017 of over 500 hiring managers that tested attitudes toward potential employees based on size by showing photos. 21% of the people tested described the fattest women in the photos as lazy and unprofessional, more than any of the other photos they were shown. Only 18% said she had leadership potential and only 15% said they would even consider hiring her oh my gosh Based purely on a photo.
Sadie Simpson:That's messed up.
Naomi Katz:In a 2015 study, people were shown digital resumes with photos of non-fat people and then digitally altered photos of those same people as fat, and in that study, fat job candidates were deemed significantly less competent than non-fat candidates. Job candidates were deemed significantly less competent than non-fat candidates Again reminder that in this study, they were literally talking about the same people. It's just that in one set, the photo had been digitally altered to make them look fat and, interestingly, in this one, even fat participants showed a bias against fat candidates, which really clearly shows how we internalize these stigmas. Yet another reason why just telling people to love their bodies is not actually going to help us unpack these systemic issues. In a 2010 study in the US, they showed that heavy women earned $9,000 less than average weight counterparts.
Naomi Katz:Very heavy women earned $19,000 less, oh my God.
Sadie Simpson:And then on the flip side very thin women earned $22,000 more than average weight counterparts.
Naomi Katz:That is such crap, Yep. And again like think about that in the context of and fat folks need to pay more for their clothes and things like that, Right.
Sadie Simpson:Double airplane seats like double airplane seats extra stuff Exactly Yep, um.
Naomi Katz:And then, lastly, in Englandland, women who are just one stone, which is 14 pounds over their bmi mandated weight, earn 1500 pounds less than a thinner woman, 14 pounds over your quote, unquote bmi, my ended weight, mandated weight, is like nothing. No, it's like one dress size.
Sadie Simpson:Yes.
Naomi Katz:Yeah, oh my gosh. And again, bmi hugely problematic, racist, all the things. Discrimination in school and education also a thing. So, according to a 2018 meta analysis, fat people are less likely to go to college, regardless of their competence. Fat women are less likely to have their college tuition paid for by their parents, which, in the time of student loan debt, is like a really big deal. Fat students are less likely to get letters of recommendation from their teachers likely to get letters of recommendation from their teachers, and fat students are shown to receive significantly lower grades in school, despite showing no statistically significant differences in intelligence or test scores. Oh my gosh. And by test scores obviously they're talking about like standardized test scores, not like their tests in school, because that would be their grades, yeah, like their weekly spelling test or whatever Right.
Naomi Katz:Yeah, all of these things important again, how that translates to hiring, how that translates to income, like all of that stuff, and there's a lot. I'm sure you know there's reasons for this, but the anti-fat bias is a big part of it and all. And we have to keep in mind intersectionality in all of these things too. Right, because we also see discrimination in hiring and schooling with, you know, people of color, with, you know, gender non-conforming folks, with LGBTQIA plus individuals, like all of that stuff, and so so, like, it's important to remember that this stuff compounds, um, within the judicial system, like which I feel like was one that kind of I I don't know like maybe it shouldn't have surprised. It shouldn't have surprised me, especially because of what we know about the roots of diet culture in white supremacy and stuff like that and the way that shows up in the judicial system, but still, this stuff really surprised me. Um, and so there's a 2013 study showed that men were more likely to find a fat woman guilty of the same crime. So, interestingly, women judged both defendants the same whether they were, whether the female was thin or fat, and there was no difference by anybody based on weight. If the defendants were male instead of female.
Naomi Katz:Okay, stat victims of sexual assault are also often thought to be either lying or that they should be quote, flattered. Oh no, yep, this, notably. This was a sentiment that was like, explicitly expressed by a quebec judge in 2017 oh my gosh. And, of course, all the time in comment sections online, which is like oh, whatever it's comment sections online except those are the people who would make up a jury yep, so that matters. And then in like a very extreme case, fatness was even used as a defense by the nypd against the murder of eric garner in 2014. So er Eric Garner, a Black man, was killed on video when an NYPD officer choked him to death, and in the 2019 administrative hearings to determine if the officer would keep his job, the defense team argued that the officer should not be held accountable because Garner was fat. They said said quote he died from being morbidly obese he was a ticking time bomb that resisted arrest.
Naomi Katz:If he was put in a bear hug, it would have been the same outcome oh my god, that is the worst horrible, absolutely horrible.
Naomi Katz:Um, and it's like, it's literally, it's saying the the quiet part out loud. There too, like it's, it's, there's not. They're not even pretending that it's anything other than anti-fatness. There and again, it's such a a clear illustration of how the anti-fatness intersects with other marginalization too, like white supremacy. So, yeah, like.
Naomi Katz:Ultimately, these are really big systemic issues that aren't going to be solved by us loving our bodies, no matter what mainstream body positivity tells us right and like and again. Ultimately, that's what body positivity misses. We can't body image our way out of discrimination or social exclusion. And listen, if you are new to the idea of body positivity and listening to this, this information is not meant to shame you. It's not meant to make you feel like you're doing anything wrong. Like we said in the beginning, we all need entry points. We love an entry point. So welcome, right, welcome to body positivity.
Naomi Katz:Now here's your invitation to move further into the movement, into the practice, into the understanding around these issues.
Naomi Katz:This is an invitation to learn more about body liberation, about fat positivity, about fat liberation, and also to notice when body positivity is being used as a way to sell us things that very much do not move the dial on any of these bigger issues and, for that matter, sometimes set that dial back If you are interested in getting some support for deepening your own anti-diet practice and including a systemic lens in your work, because this stuff is hard.
Naomi Katz:It is like none of us have learned this stuff on our own. In fact, if you subscribe to the Satisfaction Space, you will hear in our bonus episode next week how each of us came into this work and found our way past the entry point. But I do want to remind you that I have spots open for one-on-one intuitive eating and anti-diet coaching. I am a big believer in having conversations around these topics and breaking down the systemic parts of diet culture as a part of our work together, and I support a lot of my clients as they learn to advocate for themselves and for others in situations where they're experiencing marginalization. So you can get all of the information about coaching and submit your application at happyshapesco slash coaching and we will put that link in the show note as well.
Sadie Simpson:Awesome. Okay, Naomi, what's satisfying for you right now?
Naomi Katz:So currently what is satisfying for me is that Ben is starting to get into some of my favorite little like pop culture, like obsessions, so that we can share them together. He just started reading a court of thorns and roses oh snap and we have watched, um, the first several episodes of supernatural together.
Naomi Katz:Okay, and I am like ecstatic about it. It's like it's just it's fun, like I'm super excited to like to to talk to him about it. Like Every time he reads, I'm like what did you read? Today I'm also rereading the book so that I can have it fresh to talk to him about it, but it also just makes me feel so loved. It's an awesome thing that he's doing to share these things with me, and so, yeah, that's my, that's my thing for today. What is satisfying you right now?
Sadie Simpson:So my satisfying thing comes from something that is not satisfying.
Sadie Simpson:I guess this is like turning lemons into lemonade and whatever you know, making lemonade out of lemons and whatever you know making making lemonade out of lemons.
Sadie Simpson:Um, at where I teach water aerobics at the ymca, they are working on the like hvac system and including included in that is the dehumidification system and if you've ever been inside of an indoor pool, it is like so hot and so humid and and this is like when the systems are working correctly, and so for the last couple of weeks it's like the dehumidification like has not worked.
Sadie Simpson:It is so freaking hot in the pool and so typically I teach from the pool deck. But since it's been so hot I've been getting in the water to teach my water aerobics classes and it's so fun like I it has been so long since like occasionally I'll try to go take other people's like water aerobics classes and it's so fun Like it has been so long since like occasionally I'll try to go take other people's like water aerobics classes and things, but I don't really get a chance to do it very often and to actually get in the water is very satisfying and enjoyable to do exercise in the water Like I totally forget how pleasant it is to do that. So if you're listening and you need a fun and satisfying form of exercise. I highly recommend water aerobics inside the water, not on the pool deck. It's, it's very fabulous.
Naomi Katz:That sounds awesome. That is a great example of making lemonade out of lemons. When you first started that story I was like, oh my God, that sounds horrible. But then you were like I got in the water and I was like, ooh, I was that meme of that girl who's like Ooh, and I was like oh I know that meme, and that's exactly what it is. Amazing.
Sadie Simpson:Awesome. Well, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to let us know about it. Leave us a positive rating and review on Apple podcasts or Spotify, and you can also come find us on Instagram. We are at satisfaction factor pod and we love hearing from folks over there.
Naomi Katz:That's it for us this week. We'll catch you next time.