The Black Hair Tax: No Breaks for Black Women Who Want to Avoid Breakage
‘Our Bodies Were Projects to be Worked On’: My Experience of Fatphobia and Disordered Eating Growing Up in Weight Loss Groups
The first time I set foot in a Slimming World meeting, I was young enough to be occupied by the toys in the corner of the room laid out for kids dragged along by their parents. It was there, in those meetings, that I first began to absorb the idea that fat was bad; our bodies were projects to be worked on, and if I tried hard enough it was perfectly possible for me to look like a Spice Girl…
‘Trauma Doesn’t Always Have to be Ugly. It Can be Beautiful. Decorative’: Tattoos as a Form of Power and Healing
I found a Black tattoo artist in a Black studio and went on my own to do the single most life-changing act of my late 20s. And oddly enough, what I felt during that first session wasn’t pain (it didn’t hurt that much) or regret (the experience was so affirming; I will never forget listening to old school R&B and feeling tender, careful hands trace lines of ink into the back of my calf). What I did feel was air. For the first time in a long time, I felt myself breathe…