Mission
The Body Is Not An Apology is an international movement committed to cultivating global radical self-love and bodily empowerment. We believe that discrimination, social inequality, and injustice are manifestations of our inability to make peace with the body, our own and others. Through information dissemination, personal and social transformation projects, and community building, The Body Is Not An Apology fosters global, radical, unapologetic self-love, which translates to radical human love and action in service toward a more just, equitable, and compassionate world.
Vision
We believe in the possibility of sustainable social change, community, and personal health and wellness. We know such change must be built on a foundation of deep radical self-love. We are an intersectional, global, difference-celebrating movement that knows our age, race, size, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, class, and every other human attribute are assets toward unapologetic radical self-love and living. We know that each time we heal our shame, love our bodies, value ourselves, and step into our power, we give someone else permission to do the same!
History: A Note from Sonya Renee Taylor
In this picture I am 230lbs. In this picture, I have stretch marks and an unfortunate decision in the shape of a melting Hershey’s kiss on my left thigh. I am smiling, like a woman who knows you’re watching and likes it. For this one camera flash, I am unashamed, unapologetic.
This quote was a February 9, 2011 Facebook status I made after posting a profile picture of myself in the above saucy black corset. I was clear that my big, Black, queer body was not supposed to be seen or sexy, but I posted it anyway. This terribly frightening act was birthed from the outlandishly simple idea that no human being should be ashamed of being in a human body.
Less than 24 hours after posting that picture, a movement was born. People across the country began posting their own pictures and stories. Folks began sharing photos of empowered, perfectly imperfect bodies, shaped by differences in age, race, size, gender, dis/ability, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, class, and other attributes. They were willing to exist unapologetically for just that moment.
Since that profile picture in February of 2011, The Body Is Not An Apology has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of people who have joined our movement of unapologetic self-love and body empowerment. Refusing to be held hostage by the body terrorism of the media and of the forces of social inequality, Unapologetic Posse members as far away as New Zealand, Thailand, India, and more have committed to dismantling personal shame and developing a new relationship with their bodies and spirits that is absent of apology.
The Body Is Not An Apology was created to remind us that we do not need to wait to feel beautiful, powerful, or worthy tomorrow. We can choose to act in honor of our bodies today, no matter the form they currently take. All lasting, healthy growth is born of love. Your body needs you to love it today, just as it is, however it is, unapologetically.
Sonya Renee Taylor