Book and Audiobook Out Now!
““Throughout each page I felt seen, heard, and validated in my experiences as a Black woman who has dealt with body oppression and as an eating disorder provider, who has supported Black women in healing their relationship with our bodies. Jessica’s passion for Black women and call for liberation is evident. ”
In the vein of Thick and The Body Is Not An Apology: an essential look at the ways in which Black women are left out of conversations about “diet culture,” health, and wellness.
Body narratives are as old as the written word; women's bodies have been subjected to the spectrum of praise to policing and shame. Nowhere is this more apparent for Black women. As with other fundamental topics, bodies, health, and wellness all have been deeply influenced by white supremacy—which results in very specific harms done to Black women and femmes. An eating disorder specialist, Jessica Wilson unpacks the ways in which whiteness and capitalism have shaped how we view and treat our bodies, and how the contemporary solutions to this continue to center white thin women and erase others. It's Always Been Ours is a tour-de-force and a revelation that addresses not only where we are, but how we got here—and offers a reclamation for all Black women, centering Black women in their own healing and prioritizing them in the movement for body liberation.
Building on the work of Isabel Wilkerson (Caste), Sabrina Strings (Fearing the Black Body) and Tressie McMillan Cottom (Thick), It's Always Been Ours critiques societal narratives about bodies with wit and levity and shows that there is no Right Way to have a body.
Black joy
We will rewrite the narrative of Blackness that centers and celebrates our joy.
Black Joy is an act of rebellion when everything else in this world aims to deny us of this.
Our joy has always been ours.