Body image refers to experience that encompasses one's body-related self-perceptions and self-attitudes, including thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and behaviors.

Bodily autonomy is about the right to make decisions over your life and future. You have the right to choose what to eat, how to care for yourself, whether to have sex, etc. It is the belief that no one has the right to violate the rights, autonomy or bodily integrity of anyone else.

Fatphobia is defined as a fear of fatness. It is a form of bigotry and discrimination that says that people of higher weight are inferior physically, intellectually, morally, and health-wise.

This can often manifest as fat-shaming, weight stigma, or viewing individuals who exist in larger bodies as lazy, unmotivated, or disgusting. It also leads to poor health & medical care as medical systems still hold “thinness” as a framework for “health,” even though modern evidence shows that thinness does not equate to health. We also know that essential medical services are often denied to individuals in larger bodies because of fatphobia that infiltrates society and our medical systems.

Revitalize Wellness Counseling understands how fatphobia can and does play a role in mental health.

Purity culture resulted from the purity movement that started in the late 1990s with the goal to protect young women using a biblical view of purity. Linda Kay Kline indicated, “The specifics vary by religion and culture, but gender- and sexual-control upon which purity culture stands is global, cross-religious, and cross-cultural.” While it is important to note that not all experiences in purity culture have been negative, it has been a common theme in religious trauma recovery.

Purity culture often focuses on female bodies, dictating how they need to dress and appear, often including body weight. Purity culture places strict gender expectations. For example, men are expected to be strong, “masculine” leaders of the household, church, and society, and women are expected to support them—to be pretty, “feminine,” sweet, supportive wives and mothers.

Revitalize Wellness Counseling works with clients who are seeking to recover from negative impacts of purity culture, including (but not limited to) identifying how it may have played a role in body image perceptions.