IT'S ALWAYS BEEN OURS

In the vein of Thick and The Body Is Not An Apology, this an essential, revelatory 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 counters the common idea that eating disorders are about control and thinness, and provide evidence that eating disorders are often about Black women's survival and safety in a culture that does not care about their wellbeing. From a new perspective on diet culture, to how its perceived antidotes (Health at Every Size, Intuitive Eating) actually perpetuate harm to Black women, Wilson explores her own learning and unlearning about nutrition and health, for a critical, insightful, sharp, and compassionate assessment of how we eat food and view our bodies in society.

Building on the work of Isabel Wilkerson (Caste), Sabrina Strings (Fearing the Black Body) and Tressie McMillan Cottom (Thick), It's Always Been Ours unpacks how whiteness has made it so difficult for Black women to trust the story their body tells or be able to interpret those stories. It 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.

Jessica Wilson is a Registered Dietitian and Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and a Consultant/Activist centering the voices and experiences of those most marginalized in the eating disorder field. In her work she invites practitioners, programs, activists, and allies to create environments that are more inclusive and less harmful for all. Because marginalized identities are often not represented in research, data collection, and case studies, current treatment modalities, frameworks and models often do not appropriately support many individuals, especially those most impacted by society's messages about bodies and food.
Jessica's work as a dietitian involved being an active and transformative member of the Association for Size Diversity and Health from 2012-2016, where she advocated for a new set of Health at Every Size principles that included a social justice lens and which were released in 2016. She has presented at eating disorder conferences including the Renfrew conference, spoken on panels for the International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals, including one panel with Sabrina Strings, and has given webinars including one for Alsana, an eating disorder treatment center.
She co-created the viral movement and hashtag #amplifymelanatedvoices and this, along with her interview on the Dietitians Unplugged Podcast in 2020, opened up a national conversation about the impacts of whiteness in the eating disorder field and conversations about body liberation. Her Instagram account has 135,000 followers and has been profiled in the New York Times, Buzzfeed, Insider magazine, and others. Her podcast, My Black Body, reaches thousands of listeners across six continents. Jessica has written about nutrition for the Washington Post. She lives in Davis, California.