Cultivating self love and care / what I’ve learned from Black feminists and social justice
Happy Valentine’s Day! Amid all the hubbub about romantic love, I want to talk about one of the most important, yet neglected loves of our lives: self love.
People have been talking about self love and self care a lot lately, and much like the growing popularity of progressive movements like feminism, it’s been a mixed bag. On one hand, loving and caring for ourselves is so, so important and these discussions have brought issues of mental health to the forefront. On the other hand, I’ve seen “self love” misused as a marketing ploy to get consumers to “treat yourself,” often completely missing the radical and political roots of self love and care.
I want to take a closer, more critical look at the concepts of self love and self care, and how we can incorporate loving and caring practices into our own lives.
