Body Phobia

I was already aware of most of the issues presented in this book, but I liked the way the author expanded upon the issues, giving clear examples of each, and tying them all together as pieces of the whole of the fear society places on bodies. I think reading this book has helped me realize why I view my own body the way I do, and I think that I can now work on changing my views for the better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Broadleaf Books for the ARC!

It’s hard to be a body, but why does matter matter?

Dianna E. Andersons’s "Body Phobia" is a thoughtful and full-bodied primer on the American fear of embodiment, offering a unique look at the ways it is rooted in a legacy of Protestantism.

This is a deeply personal book, and Anderson excels at infusing a moving transparency into their conversation with scholarship. They introduce so many wonderful scholars like Anthea Butler and Sami Schalk, but they mediate every heady concept through the lens of their personal experience. We always see how these issues impact real lives. Dualism means nothing until readers understand how it caused the author’s panic attacks. This approach makes it a perfect book for people who might bristle at the density of queer theory or disability studies.

Without a a doubt, the aforementioned religious focus is the book’s defining quality. I suspect some readers will be a bit befuddled by how often Anderson addresses religion, whereas others will wonder why the book doesn’t center exclusively around it. The references to people like John Piper always feel like an unexpected interruption, but I think that’s appropriate. It highlights the subtle pervasiveness of religious thought in American culture.

When Anderson identifies parallels between criminalization of disability and the way it’s associated with original sin, it feels novel. When they draw attention to the devastating impact of framing weight as a marker of holiness, it’s resonant. When they point out how evangelicals view children as “tools in the broader culture war,” it’s an urgent call to awareness.

These points feel like interruptions precisely because they are such “minor,” seemingly innocuous beliefs; that is why the consequences are so dire.

Anderson’s arguments are compelling, but what’s even more remarkable is the grace and compassion with which they articulate them. They write with wisdom and seem to consciously avoid bitterness, which allows them to make substantial, pointed critiques in a way that could be received by even the most conservative readers.

While most of the book is excellent, the chapters that intersect most directly with Anderson’s own life are easily the strongest. For example, their explorations of transphobia and fatphobia fare better than the chapters on bodyminds under capitalism or racialization. These topics are still addressed thoughtfully and thoroughly, but they struggle ever so slightly with a wandering scope.

Regardless, "Body Phobia" is an exceptional book for readers who are just beginning to consider what it means to be a bodymind in space, and I’m grateful to Dianna Anderson for their work here.

Ah this one. This is an important one.

The deep dive in why we fear (our) bodies and what having a body means is so well done!
The chapters go in very different but interesting directions.
All in all really a great book!

A sharp approach to the history of the body and the social, cultural, economic, political, and religious consequences of a material existence. I look forward to picking up a physical copy.

I loved this book! I used to follow Anderson on Twitter (or they were in the same side of Twitter as me), so I was eager to get an ARC when I saw it on Netgalley. Anderson writes from the experience of being fat, trans, and white in Evangelicalism. The right reader for this book would be other people from the same evangelical or protestant American world.

I have always felt disconnected to my body, and this book explains how that may stem from my white evangelical upbringing.

Anderson argues that American WASP culture separated our body from soul (at least philosophically) and then made us afraid of the body. They outline the different aspects: religion, humanness, fatness, disability, race, LGBT, economics, and death.

This book helped me understand my lived experiences in a new way, and I think that it will be a new reference for me. Definitely worth ordering.

Thank you to Netgalley and Broadleaf for this ARC.