Sidewalk Talk - Body-shame, Hunger and Redemption: Beyond Sexism and Diet Culture with David Bedrick

Dec 07 2022 43 mins

David Bedrick is a psychological activist - an ally to the unheard and marginalized voices inside individuals and the culture at large.

Join Traci as she discusses body image, body-shame and diet culture with David, which is also the subject of David’s book: You can’t judge a Body by its Cover: 17 Women’s Stories of Hunger, Body Shame, and Redemption.

Episode Timeline

[00:09] Intro
[0:58] Meet David
[2:39] How David (a white man from New York) came to write a book about women’s bodies
[9:33] How David’s longing to be witnessed led to him become a witness to others
[13:42] Psychological Activism
[14:48] What’s cooking?
[29:40] The inner paradox of diet culture
[38:12] How you can find David
[41:43] David’s message to the Sidewalk Talk volunteers
[43:06] Closing
[43:32] Outro

Resources Mentioned

You can’t judge a Body by its Cover: 17 Women’s Stories of Hunger, Body Shame, and Redemption (David’s book)

Standout Quotes

“The idea of having a witness to somebody else's suffering my own and other people's bodies and difficulties became a very important thing to me.” (David)
“So my fascination or hunger to learn from other people was really important to me.” (David)
“The word that's just coming into the foreground is this deep longing that you had to be witnessed, that you've now been transmuted into as the witnesser.” (Traci)
“What happens if I'm not seen or I'm looked at as a problem and not as a source of brilliance or beauty or creativity?” (David)
“Are you trying to make everyone a sliced piece of really boring American cheese where we're all plasticy wrapped up in that cellophane wrapper so that we're convenient and we go back to work and we're not a pain in the ass?” (Traci)
“And what I hear you advocating for is the beauty, the wisdom, the complexity, the nuance, the multigenerational story that a soul holds, and the fixed idea of psychology sometimes doesn't do a very good job of gestating.” (Traci)
“Research says 98% of women have violent voices in their head every day about their bodies. And it's not minor violent. Not like that doesn't look good on you. I'm not talking about that. I would repeat them, but then we'd have to slow down and hear them because they're so gross.” (David)
“Oh, my god. So what if what if all of us women are going on diets and choosing to fail the diets because it's the actual way that we're trying to rise up against patriarchy to say fuck you to the diet.” (Traci)

Connect:

Find | Sidewalk Talk

At sidewalk-talk.org

On Instagram: @sidewalktalkorg

On Twitter: @sidewalktalkorg

Find | Traci Ruble

At Traciruble.com

On Instagram: @TraciRubleMFT

On Twitter: @TraciRubleMFT

On Facebook: @TraciRubleMFT

Find | David Bedrick

At www.davidbedrick.com