Made in God’s Image:
A Focus on Black Women’s Body Image, Exercise, Faith and Relationship with Health.
By Chinyere Erondu
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avigating the tender dynamic between body image, physical and mental exercise, and health within black women, Rachel L. Boutte, from Virginia Commonwealth University, explored this subject through her study, “Black Women and Body Image: Implications of the Racialized Body Aesthetic.” The results of her research found that “not only do Black women suffer from body image dissatisfaction but because of gendered racism, body dissatisfaction is central to understanding Black women’s physical and emotional wellbeing”

As based on Psalm 139:14 that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, the exploration of our physical and emotional wellbeing through our body image and relationship to faith and health are intrinsic.

On Body Image:
In Sonya Renee Taylor’s book, The Body is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, she states that:

“Living in a society structured to profit from our self-hate creates a dynamic in which we are so terrified of being ourselves that we adopt terror-based ways of being in our bodies. All this is fueled by a system that makes large quantities of money off our shame and bias”.

Taylor continues, “we humans are masters of distraction, using makeup, weight loss, and a finely curated self-image to avoid being present to our fears, even as they build blockades around our most potent desires” (p. 47).

Transitioning from the dynamic of self-hate and distractions to radical self-love, Taylor invites readers and practitioners to shift gears and lean into the pronouncement of our goodness. Going against our bodies’ constant rejections and disapproval, Scripture, meditative practices, and full-body engagement exercises create a necessary space to explore and practice this physical and emotional well-being.

Women practices lamenting exercises
Woman practices remembrance exercises
Woman practices restoration exercises
On Faith and Exercise:
Dea Jenkins, CEO of Dea Studios—a center on art, race, and faith—created the critical workbook, A Kinesthetic Journey through the Psalms. She pairs theory and praxis of healing, body-image, God-talk, and communal restoration through Scripture and body-image practices. “Through simple movements and gestures, we can begin to connect with the Psalms and to embody what each express.” In the kinesthetic journey, the participants can easily engage in the three core sections of “Lament, Remembrance, and Restoration,” each containing five body movement poses.

Beautifully, in the process of embodying goodness, reading the Psalms provides space to grieve the complex trauma of body-image conflict, remember that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and move forward into the internal and communal restoration of our bodies.

“Made in God’s image” reminds us that we are well-equipped to continue our self-love, faith, and health journey.

Chinyere Erondu is a Master’s student at the Carter School for Peace & Conflict Resolution and Andrews University Theological Seminary. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Global Affairs-International Development from George Mason University.
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