Beyond body shaming

For years, Lana Sussman Davis has listened to clients and community members express disdain for their bodies.

A clinical social worker and arts psychotherapist, Lana is the co-founder of The Parents Village and founder of Mind.Body.Connection, where she supports folks to make peace with their bodies.

Lana is also my sister. We sat down in her kitchen to talk about our Jewish community’s attitude to body image.

Tami: Why do you think so many people thought it was okay to comment on our weight gain or loss when we were kids?

Lana: I think with any close tight-knit communities, people feel immediate kinship with other members of that group. So, they might have said something about your body or mine because intuitively, they felt like we were almost an extension of them.

Tami: In my memory, people’s grandparents were some of the worst perpetrators. I think I know where that stemmed from. I’m curious to see if you have the same instinct.  

Lana: Obviously the Holocaust is important to name, because many of us Jews in Australia had grandparents who did experience starvation in World War Two and the camps. We’ve both seen the upsetting photo of our emaciated grandfather after he was liberated from Auschwitz. But there’s another side to that which we don’t often see represented, and that is what happened when the survivors became nourished again. I imagine gaining weight was celebrated – finally they could eat! But don’t forget, there were still societal norms.

Tami: Do you mean like what was happening in the 40s with fashion and ideal body types for women?