This book was produced as part of the “Body Shining” Erasmus plus project, which aims to offer youth workers and young people from different cultural/social backgrounds to raise awareness about the act of body shaming, enabling them to recognize, identify and prevent body shaming.

The book is based on stories – “incidents” – narrated by young people and our joint analysis of these incidents. It is divided into five chapters reflecting the different topics discussed in depth by the partners during the workshops held. 

In the first chapter, MOH analyses body
and fat shame, while Elan in the second chapter discusses the political body. Thanks to the
contribution of Atypical, we face the topic of disabling bodies and the impact of the attitude.
In the fourth chapter, Animus explain the hate speech phenomenon and the ways it reflects
on the body. Finally, in the last chapter, Smouth talks about the body in the performing arts.

During the workshops held in Bari, Belfast, Larissa, Paris and Sofia, the youngsters had the chance to:

• explore their own values;
• gain awareness of men, young with disabilities, migrants, LGBT, and young’s body shaming;
• gain the capacity to recognize when aesthetics/cultural differences trigger misunderstanding, tensions or conflict;
• be empowered through their increasing ability to do research, explore their own perceptions and find out more about other people’s attitudes and beliefs;
• become aware of the interpretations, assumptions, and preconceptions they form about others.

This book is useful for youth workers because it can serve to gain vocabulary used by young people; gain a better capacity to discuss concepts of body shaming and self-esteem and acquire the capacity to connect concepts and discussions to everyday professional challenges.

Finally, this book can be transferred to more formal education settings such as schools where teachers can also benefit from the book for raising awareness about body shaming and preventing it.