What is body culture?
And what it has to do with what you read here.
Welcome, new people! And thanks, paid people, for making Body Type a Substack Bestseller! Check out my full archive. If you’d like to support this lady-run, independent publishing enterprise and read paid subscriber-only posts, consider upgrading for $5/month or $50/year.
I’ve been publishing Body Type for two years this month [slams the air horn sound effect button] and want to redefine the focus of this newsletter and clarify what you, tiny friends I keep in my Substack app, will continue to get from this space.
As
so wisely put it, the whole point of any publication is to make something good for a particular audience.There are a lot of “What in sweet hell was I thinking?” Bad Posts in my draft folder, trust — I once wrote a shockingly overwrought draft that will never see the light of day about why I regretted a haircut — but I’m glad to be making more and more Good Posts over time as I grow as a writer. But who is my particular audience? What do readers expect to find here? Like Emma said, it can take a long time for figure that out. Two years on, I feel I’m closer to a better-defined answer.
When I’m asked what this newsletter’s subject is, I usually say “body image.” While that is indeed is the theme running through most things I write here, it’s starting to feel too narrow and sort of vague. After all, I write about:
The motivations behind dressing sexy. What it means to be a “hot” woman versus a “cute” one. Celebrity “cosmetic transparency.” How to start working out when you don’t want to. What binge eating disorder is like. Authors who write about beauty standards. How people respond to things celebrities say and do regarding their bodies and habits. Why people don’t take men’s eating disorders as seriously. How sometimes it feels like just losing weight is easier than figuring out how to not care about wanting to lose weight. Why I think we need more than just “gentle exercise.”
I don’t just write about “body image.” I write about how society and individuals within it understand and engage with the human body. I write about (and examine/critique/question/attempt to reframe) the values, beliefs, and habits people have about bodies. What I’m really writing about is body culture.
Here on Substack there are writers covering food culture, beauty culture, diet culture, wellness culture, popular culture, and, well, everything culture. While my writing about bodies touches a bit of all of that, I don’t write exclusively about any of those; I write about physical presentation and beauty standards, exercise, weight, bodily expression and identity, clothing and dressing, and food and eating. Body Type is not just about “fitness” or “body positivity/acceptance” or “diet culture” or even “body image.” It is about all of the ways all of those things affect our bodies, minds, and lives.
So:
Body Type is for people who are interested in or preoccupied by their own bodies and body culture at large. It aims to help you be more thoughtful about your body — and feel better in and about it — and to generate more nuanced discussion around these topics, which are often complicated, loaded, and deeply personal.
Dig it?
I hope you continue to engage with and enjoy this work as much as I love producing it.
Many writers send out surveys about their newsletters every so often, to take the temperature about what their readers think and want to see. I don’t want to clutter up your inbox too much, so I’ll pose a few survey questions for ya here. It would really help me to hear from you. Feel free to respond to any/all in a comment or email me: bodytype@substack.com.
Also: I’m still collecting pitches for my first commissioned post in 2024! If you have something you’d like to write about body culture, pitch me! Pitches open until 12/30, will publish in late January/early February, and pay $250. Click this to expand:
Body Type survey Qs:
How did you find this newsletter?
What was your favorite post of mine you read this year (or ever)?
What topics/types of posts would you like to see more of or less of in Body Type?
Does “body culture” as a topic resonate with you? Why or why not?
How do you feel about Q&As with authors, writers, other people besides me?
If you’re not a paid subscriber, what would make you become one?
If I recorded audio transcripts of my Body Type posts (Substack has a function that allows for this!), would you rather listen to those than read?
Thank you, my dear Body Typers.