Why do we need to center Black Plus Size Feminine Magic?
EMBODIED / EM-BAWDY’D
A sensual movement masterclass designed to uplift and edify Black, Plus Size Feminine Magic and our friends.
Click your city to reserve your seat today! Please note for ease and preparation each city registration will close three weeks prior to class date.
Los Angeles, CA - Saturday, October 12, 2024, 1:00-4:00 PM
Atlanta, GA - Saturday, November 16, 2024, 1:00-4:00 PM
I’ve been having some beautiful conversations with other practitioners lately around the necessity of this specific exploration with @themessymovementlab curriculum.
As a Black, Plus-Size, Queer, Femme I have spent the last fifteen years creating movement spaces to support women and femmes reconnecting back to the body as a vital part of our aliveness. I have helped thousands of people reclaim their relationship to their body, to the erotic, to intimacy through movement and it has not only been healing for each of the students but also healing for myself as well.
I didn’t grow up in spaces that celebrated my body as it was. Training pre-pro and professionally in dance and theatre, my body, my weight, my size was constantly weaponized as a mark against me. It took years of relearning my relationship with my body to undo some of those narratives. Intentionally stepping into the space of fat positivity through the messy movement practice saved my life and saved my perception of myself. It gave me a level of self-regard that has become unshakable. It has challenged me to rewrite the stories that I tell myself about my body, my worth and my desirability. Shifting my perception of my body has made me fall even more in love with all of me day by day and moment by moment. And I want this for other plus size baddies (+ our friends)
There’s so much fat phobia to navigate culturally. This whole “Big Back” “Big Backs” “Unbig my Back” that has seemingly become a personal identity for some content creators is demoralizing and exhausting. What could have been left as a tasteless one time joke has become a cultural phenomenon. To the point where even plus size people are adopting this as a content strategy and tool for viewership. It breaks my heart to see the ways in which people have taken this on. I think about Charlemagne’s and Jess Hilarious ugly comments about Reesa Tresa. I think about South Park’s recent Obesity episode running Lizzo through the mud. I think about the ways in which we are still longing for variety in plus size characters being the center of the love story and not at the expense of their weight. I wonder when we will get there, when we will see a cultural shift and how the young women and femmes coming up behind us will see themselves reflected in mass media.
In my meditation practice around creating this space and coming back to touring, it felt important to create a space that centered us. A place where we can pour into each other, hype each other up and reflect the beauty and divinity to one another. I also want our friends and allies in liberation and justice against anti-blackness, fatphobia, transphobia and queer phobia to be able to ndulge in this celebration with us. As we find healing, restoration, peace and connection so shall the overflow of this healing spread to those around us.
I want you all to join me for this experience. Check out the cities below where we are venturing. If you have questions please email us support@themessymovementlab.com we are happy to support you in your journey to class.
It’s time to get… EM-BAWDY’d
See you on the dance floor,
Rashida Webb-Miller (she/temptress)
Author and CEO of The Messy Movement Lab®
