I received a free copy of The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
I started this blog, Redstreak Girl, in 2013 because I felt that I couldn’t always relate to fashion media and other beauty blogs. I felt unrepresented and that someone like me, a fat Native American woman, was invisible. [I use the term fat to describe myself and realize that some people don’t use this word to self-describe themselves.] My blog is a bit unconventional, but I aim to create a space so that others similar to me may feel visible in a place where our voices and bodies are often not recognized or given a platform.
So, it was exciting to read Virgie Tovar’s newest book, The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color. I’m happy knowing a book like this exists. The Self-Love Revolution is a radical guide for girls and young women of color to recognize and be affirmed that their bodies, “big or small, disabled or able-bodied, queer or straight, and wherever they reside on the gender spectrum” are powerful, and deserve respect and kindness from ourselves and others.
Growing up, particularly as a teen and young adult, I struggled with feeling body shame and believing that aspects of my body were bad and needed to change. My skin was too brown, especially my knees and elbows, my hair was too thick to style, and that I was big. I was led to believe that I should be ashamed about the way my body just existed. Despite being generally aware about assimilation and oppressive policies towards Indigenous people in the United States, it took many years for me to make the connection on how assimilation impacted perceptions about Native bodies. In The Self-Love Revolution, Tovar speaks to these issues, sharing personal stories to question and challenge the status quo of beauty standards and body image. This is the book I needed as a young fat brown girl.
Book Breakdown
In The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color there are three main parts: Our Crazy World, Thoughts on Common Body Confusion, and Be You, Not What Someone Else Thinks You Should Be.
In the first section, Tovar describes how beauty standards and racism affects how we think about our body, how fatphobia hurts our body image, and how food is not sinful. Words, I wish I had heard much earlier in my life, which makes this book ideal for teen and young adults although really people of all ages would benefit from.
In the second section, Tovar poses common body confusions, like why does my family talk about my body, and why isn’t confidence enough. These conversations are followed with advice and things to say and do such as tips for developing self-love and what to say to trolls, people who use abusive words and behaviors to hurt another’s self-esteem.
In the third section, Tovar shares with us tools that can help us progress through one’s radical body positivity journey and that listening to our bodies is the most powerful thing we can do. In these chapters Tovar shares tips on how to setup our own boundaries (learning to say no is one of these), and to reframe our relationship with food to one that is positive.
There is so much more to this book than the highlights I’ve mentioned. Virgie Tovar wrote The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color as a guide for teens and younger adults and there are journaling prompts throughout the book. I personally believe people of all ages would benefit from reading this book just keep in mind the target demographic and as such this book is a primer not an academic book or research article. Lastly, I think an important social justice aspect to consider is that while we can all individually benefit from radical body positivity, the self-love revolution happens when we all together as a society accept and practice radical body positivity. It starts with each of us.
-Nicky
About the Author
Virgie Tovar, MA, is one of the nation’s leading experts and lecturers on fat discrimination and body image. Tovar edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, 2012) and is the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press, 2018). She is a contributor for ForbesWomen and Bedsider, and in 2018 she was named one of the top 50 most influential feminists by Bitch Magazine. Tovar has been featured by the New York Times, Tech Insider, MTV, Al Jazeera, and Yahoo Health.
Enter to win your own copy of The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color!
Giveaway Details:
- Prizes: One of 30 copies of The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color ($10.50-$17.00 ARV)
- Dates: April 14 – May 11, 2020
- Notification: Winners will be randomly selected and notified by CLEVER by May 12
- Terms & Conditions: The official Terms & Conditions are included in the widget; here is the high-level eligibility criteria:
- Age 18+
- US residents only
- Only one winner per household
