Body Image Word List

BODY IMAGE

Self-perception shaped by culture

WATCH

1. Embrace — Taryn Brumfitt, 2016 · Documentary · A woman’s global journey confronting body shame and the billion-dollar industry that profits from it.

2. Miss Representation — Jennifer Siebel Newsom, 2011 · Documentary · How media distorts body image and strips women of self-worth.

3. Killing Us Softly 4 — Sut Jhally, 2010 · Documentary · Jean Kilbourne’s landmark analysis of advertising and body image.

4. Fattitude — Lindsey Averill & Viridiana Lieberman, 2019 · Documentary · Fat bias in media and culture and its devastating impact on self-image.

5. America the Beautiful — Darryl Roberts, 2007 · Documentary · The beauty industry and its manufactured body image crisis.

6. Dumplin’ — Anne Fletcher, 2018 · Film · A plus-size teen in a beauty pageant refusing to shrink herself.

7. To the Bone — Marti Noxon, 2017 · Film · Anorexia and the distorted body image at its center.

8. Thin — Lauren Greenfield, 2006 · Documentary · Eating disorders and the body image crisis that drives them.

9. Real Women Have Curves — Patricia Cardoso, 2002 · Film · A Latina teen rejecting her family’s and culture’s body expectations.

10. Shrill — Lindy West, 2019– · Series · A fat woman reclaiming her body, her voice, and her right to take up space.

LISTEN

1. Maintenance Phase — Aubrey Gordon & Michael Hobbes · Debunking wellness myths and diet culture with rigor and compassion.

2. Food Psych — Christy Harrison · Intuitive eating and healing from diet culture and disordered body image.

3. Body Kindness — Rebecca Scritchfield · Moving from body shame to body respect through practical tools.

4. The Dare to Lead Podcast — Brené Brown · Vulnerability and shame including body image and self-worth.

5. Beautiful Anonymous — Chris Gethard · Anonymous callers sharing body image struggles; unexpectedly moving.

6. Lizzo: About Damn Time — Lizzo, 2022 · Album · Body positivity as joy and defiance in every track.

7. All About That Bass — Meghan Trainor, 2014 · Song · Body positivity’s pop moment; imperfect but culturally significant.

8. Scars to Your Beautiful — Alessia Cara, 2015 · Song · Body image and the cost of chasing impossible standards.

9. Thick Thighs Save Lives — Various · Body-positive fitness content that rejects the punishing relationship with exercise.

10. Ologies: Body Dysmorphia — Alie Ward · The science of distorted body image explained with care.

READ

1. Hunger — Roxane Gay · A body shaped by trauma; the most honest book about size, image, and self-protection.

2. Shrill — Lindy West · A fat woman finding her voice and refusing to apologize for existing.

3. Anti-Diet — Christy Harrison · The case against diet culture and for body respect.

4. The Beauty Myth — Naomi Wolf · How beauty standards are used to control women; the foundational text.

5. More Than a Body — Lindsay & Lexie Kite · Moving beyond objectification to a functional relationship with your own body.

6. Body of Truth — Harriet Brown · The science and sociology of body image; debunking obesity myths.

7. Brave Girl Eating — Harriet Brown · A family’s experience of a daughter’s anorexia; body image from the inside.

8. Embody — Connie Sobczak · Body image healing through The Body Positive organization’s framework.

9. You Have the Right to Remain Fat — Virgie Tovar · Fat liberation as a civil rights issue.

10. Fearing the Black Body — Sabrina Strings · How anti-fatness in America is rooted in anti-Blackness.