You know those books that sit on your shelf, staring at you because you know you need to read it because it’s important, but you know it’s gonna be a bit uncomfortable? Welp, that’s Breaking Free From Body Shame: Dare To Reclaim What God Has Named Good by Jess Connolly.
Jess shares stories from her life that led to her thinking her body was bad and how she overcame it. This woman has STORIES, y’all. The things people have had the audacity to say to her is unreal. We’ve all had those kind of moments where someone says something about our bodies, including moments in the church. Jess is a pastor’s wife but she does not give the church a pass on how it’s shamed women’s bodies, including her own.
There is a lot to unpack in this book, and it took me a while to get through the whole thing for that reason. Jess avoids triggering words and stories to avoid harming readers, but it’s still a book you’ll want to sit with and think about. There’s a lot of processing and work that can come from the pages.
If you didn’t catch it from the subtitle, this is a faith-based book. Jess is a pastor, so you can expect lots of faith language. That’s probably my main issue. Christianese can make a book feel exclusive to one particular group, despite the message being needed outside of the church. I know Jess is a pastor and that’s just how she talks. I know this is targeted at Christian women. However, as a reader, I think it would’ve been better with some simplification and use of more common phrases just for the sake of it being something worth passing on to non-Christians.
Jess makes a lot of solid points in this, which are worth having a conversation about with your friends. I’d recommend reading this with a group of your gal pals and meeting to discuss it. There’s power in sharing your own story with those close to you. When I first started this, it went along well with what my book club was reading at the time and really added to the conversation. I think there’s a lot of freedom buried on these pages for those who are willing to get uncomfortable and think about what God really says about our bodies.
Literary HypeWoman 