Physical Disobedience

Women have long been taught that their bodies are unruly, weak. We're taught to approach our bodies by shrinking, whittling-and, aided by the traditional beauty industry, constantly " fixing" ourselves. With a fresh voice in troubled times, Physical Disobedience says " stop it"-because mistreating our bodies that way is nothing less than an act of submission to gendered inequality. We need to focus on health, fitness, and strength-as we ourselves define it. Hays Coomer knows that when we strengthen ourselves, we're making our activism personal, by reclaiming our right to a healthy self-image and bodies that function to the best of their ability. And, yes, at the same time we're building stamina for the literal work of activism-the marches and the protests, plus the everyday emotional resilience it takes to face the news. Hays Coomer shows us, step by step, how to reframe our idea of " fitness," reclaiming it and instead associating being fit with being powerful. And as women, now more than ever, we could use that collective fitness and reclaimed power.