The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love

by Sonya Renee Taylor

But even as I fought to make myself smaller, my self would fight back. The diets would not stick, the laughter would not quiet, the opinions would not hide, the anger would not die. Every attempt I made to be less of myself would fail, and I would come back bigger than ever—in every way.

Living in a female body, a Black body, an aging body, a fat body, a body with mental illness is to

awaken daily to a planet that expects a certain set of apologies to already live on our tongues.

For so many of us, sorry has become how we translate the word body.