Representation Matters: Limitations of the Reclaiming Beauty Wisdom Deck

This past weekend was the 5th anniversary of the Reclaiming Beauty Journal and Wisdom Deck book release party. November 7th marks a day I reflect on the growth of what I consider to be my second child.

In this unusual year of reckoning and reflection, I have been contemplating the limitations of the images in the deck. I have received feedback over the past 5 years that there is not enough size, ethnicity, ability, and gender expression diversity in the images. I name and acknowledge that this lack of diversity is a limitation of the deck. I also want to take accountability for any harm that may have been caused to people of diverse shapes, ethnicities and abilities who have not seen themselves reflected in this work.

Representation matters.

Thank you for continuing to teach me.

I embody privileged identities as a white, cisgender, middle class, middle-sized, able-bodied woman with access to education. I created the Reclaiming Beauty Journal and Wisdom Deck as a healing response to going through a divorce and very much from the perspective of my own identities. I was on a personal journey of learning to challenge internalized self-objectification and embody the worthiness and enoughness of my true Self.

My hope was to share some wisdom from my own journey with others experiencing similar challenges. I wrote with the intention to invite reflection on one’s personal journey, not positioning myself as an expert, but rather as a guide inviting others into the process.

To comprehensively challenge the oppression of the beauty industry and move us all towards reclamation of our innate worth, the deck needed to have a greater diversity of images. I realize the impact of this lack of representation caused harm, and for this misstep, I apologize.

Thank you for continuing to teach me.

I am beginning to see my blind spots and will do better. I am engaging in continued education in anti-racism and anti-oppression work. I have begun by gathering in spaces with other white women reading the book White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, and taking part in a consultation group about Trauma and Oppression in the Therapeutic Relationship. I am making anti-oppression work a priority in my continuing education.

As I continue to share the Reclaiming Beauty Journal and Wisdom Deck with my community, I now focus on beauty as a social justice issue that invites us to expand our definition of worth from the current cultural definition to one that embraces a more soulful definition and challenges internalized self-objectification, prejudice and oppression. I address weightism, sizeism, racism, abelism, classism, sexism and gender identity and sexuality discrimination.

I also focus on embodiment as a process of learning to inhabit ourselves from the inside out rather than from reflecting on it from the outside. I teach developing an understanding of our nervous system and building interoceptive skills to give us tools to develop a more capable relationship with our body and ourselves.

Finally, I continue to share imagery as a tool to support us in challenging ways we have been inaccurately mirrored by caregivers, loved ones, or society, and allow us to reclaim a clearer seeing of ourselves.

Thank you for continuing to teach me.

I would like to highlight and support the following imagery and wisdom decks. These decks can be utilized in similar ways as the Reclaiming Beauty Wisdom deck. Each offering includes more diversity in their images. More of you will see your beauty reflected.

Imagery Decks with Diversity

• Dear Sister (not jut cister) Card Deck

  Offers diverse representation and prompts from activist Desiree Adaway

• Dear Sister (not just cister) Volume 2

• Love Yourself, Self-Love Deck for Black Women

• Soul Cards

• Soulful Woman Guidance Cards

• The Wisdom Keepers: 64 Faces of Awakening

  Offers all genders and lots of diversity, created by the lovely Rosy Aronson, PhD

• Wisdom of Trees Oracle: Inspirational Cards for Wisdom and Guidance by Jane Struthers

  Offers no body images rather the beauty of trees

Other Body Liberation card deck resources without body imagery:

• Body Trust Card Deck

  Offering from Hilary Kinavey, MS, LPC and Dana Sturtevant, MS, RD, the inspiring forces behind Be Nourished

• Body Positivity Deck

  Offering from eating disorder specialists Judith Matz and Amy Pershing

Books that address the comprehensive picture

• Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating by Christy Harrison

• The Body is Not An Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor

• Body Respect: What Conventional Health Books Get Wrong, Leave Out, and Just Plain Fail to Understand About Weight by Lindo Bacon and Lucy Aphramor

• Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fatphobia by Sabrina Strings

• Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation by Hilary Kinavey and Dana Sturtevant

• Skill in Action; Radicalizing Your Yoga to Create a Just World by Michelle Johnson

Are you aware of other great resources?

Please share with me and I will add them to this list.

As always, I am open to feedback as I do my own personal weight stigma, oppression and anti-racism work.

Thank you for continuing to teach me.

I honor the beauty in all of us.