Today’s episode is free for everyone. Full Plate is made possible by paid subscribers. To receive bonus posts and support the pod, consider upgrading to paid. It really means the world, so, thank you!
Paula Atkinson is a psychotherapist and Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker who has spent decades working with people around trauma, disordered eating, body image, internalized weight stigma, anxiety, grief, and relationships. For ten years, she was also a professor of Weight & Society at George Washington University, where she taught about our culture’s obsession with thinness, the history and politics of body ideals, and the oppression of larger bodies.
Listen for more on:
Paula’s experience growing up in a fat body, developing an eating disorder, and discovering how differently people treated her when her body became smaller
Why Paula thinks of thinness as a cult, and what makes its promises so difficult to walk away from
The relationship between beauty, patriarchy, white supremacy, and the policing of bodies
How attractiveness became tied to women’s survival, and why beauty standards shift alongside social and political power
Thinness as a moral hierarchy, and the promises of purity, superiority, and belonging
GLP-1s, starvation, and the normalization of suppressing our bodies’ most basic needs
Why understanding body hatred as a systemic issue can change the way we approach recovery
The grief of letting go of the promises attached to thinness, even when we know they aren't real
What to do when you know the body hierarchy is b******t but still struggle with your own body (hint: seething feminist rage)
Find more about Paula here. Follow her on Instagram here. And if you’re not following Full Plate on Instagram, make sure to do that here!
Support the show on Substack for bonus episodes, community engagement, and access to "Ask Abbie" at abbieattwoodwellness.substack.com/subscribe
Apply for Abbie’s Group Membership for live sessions every other week and a community of support from healing from diet culture:
https://www.abbieattwoodwellness.com/circle-monthly-group
Social media:
Find the show on Instagram: @fullplate.podcast
Find Abbie on Instagram: @abbieattwoodwellness