[Content Warning: discussion of eating disorders and body dysmorphia] If you, like our co-hosts, are also “violently online,” then you have spent a lifetime being exposed to imagery of diet culture and disordered eating. On this week’s episode, Brianna and Kenna are joined by Alex, who shares their experience as a nonbinary person who has recovered from an eating disorder, the connection between dysphoria and dysmorphia, and the importance of implementing body positive education into modern sex ed curriculums. 
 

Below you can find a glossary of jargon-y terms we might’ve said on the show: 

• Binge eating: A type of eating disorder characterized by eating a large mass of food to the point of discomfort and loss of control. 
• Body Dysmorphia: Inaccurate perceptions of one's own body that do not match with reality 
• Body neutrality: The lens that one should accept their body as it is while recognizing that one's value does not come from how they or others see their body.  
• Diet culture: The belief that thinness should be achieved at any cost over an individual's health and wellbeing. It assigns moral significance to weight and demonizes those who exist outside of the acceptable level of thinness.  
• Disordered eating: Specific unhealthy eating behaviors such as restricting, preoccupation with weight, and over exercising, for example. When these behaviors become a distressing and damaging pattern, they can become an eating disorder.  
• Eating disorder: Patterns of abnormal eating behavior which often ignore natural hunger and satisfaction cues that interfere with one's life, health, and lifestyle.l 
• Gender dysphoria: Describes the distress, unhappiness, and anxiety that transgender people may feel about the mismatch between their bodies and their gender identity. 
• Gender non-conforming: A person whose gender expression is perceived as being inconsistent with cultural norms expected for that gender. Not all transgender people are gender non-conforming, and not all gender non-conforming people identify as transgender.  
• Nonbinary: Non-binary is an umbrella term for gender identities that are neither male nor female‍—‌identities that are outside the gender binary.Words that people may use to express their nonbinary gender identity include “agender,” “bigender,” “genderqueer,” “genderfluid,” and “pangender.”
• Top surgery: A surgery, sometimes pursued by trans men and nonbinary people, that removes the breast tissue to create a flatter and more masculine chest. 
• Transgender: A general term used to describe someone whose gender expression/gender identity are different than the sex assigned at birth. Sometimes shortened to trans.  
   

For more information about the resources we talked about in this episode, check out the links below: 

• National Eating Disorder Association: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/ 
• NEDA Hotline: https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/help-support/contact-helpline 
• The Alliance for Eating Disorders Awareness: https://www.allianceforeatingdisorders.com/  

 
Special thanks to:  

• Planned Parenthood Staff: Paola Ferst, Kelsey Hunt-Dolan, and Nan Morgan 
• Audio Editor: Martin Pelaez 
• Music: Rascal Miles with the song “Imagination.” Also check out their new project Tailor-Made at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhJDNtkZTYI  
• Cover Art: Brianna Nelson