I Am More Than My Body: The Body Neutral Journey

by Bethany C. Meyers

“We cannot create neutrality just for ourselves without creating full neutrality and full freedom for everyone,” Ally explains. “It is not an accepting space or world until it accepts everyone. If you’re simply body neutral toward yourself, you absolutely could have other biases that show up and that could be stigmatizing someone else. There are many fundamental issues with accessibility for people of my size. For example, when I go to a restaurant, I have to pre-research what it looks like outside. Do they have chairs that are accessible for me? There are many conversations around how we make this a space which is not only a space for me, but also for people who are more marginalized than me. People who are in a fatter body than me, who are a different race than me, and have different abilities to me. If you aren’t engaging and challenging those issues then you aren’t truly engaging with neutrality either.”