The Invisible Corset by Lauren Geertsen
LLBC Rating: 4/10
Genre: Self-acceptance, Body Image
BOOK SYNOPSIS
Body Connection Coach, Lauren Geertsen, explains why it is so difficult for us to love our bodies- no matter how many times we tell ourselves that we accept ourself as we are. Through her research, personal experience, and journaling exercises, she encourages us to break free of society's "corset" that has been holding women back. At least, that is what she tried to do.
Through discussion of The Invisible Corset in our meeting and on the forum, we could all agree on one theme that persisted throughout the book. The author seemed more interested in proving herself and her opinions right rather than helping the reader overcome the societal pressures of beauty culture and their personal struggles with body acceptance. As a group, we all wished that the book had been a more focused account of her personal journey through acceptance rather than a commentary on how we enable beauty culture because we like to do our makeup.
It is clear in some aspects that her views and opinions on beauty culture come from a place of incredible privilege. Simply telling women to wear their hair natural and go without makeup to work is not an option for some because it WILL effect their job and how they are viewed in the workplace (which shouldn't be the case but we won't get into that right now). Many of her examples are obviously from the white, cisgendered point of view, showing that Geertsen did not consider the cultures or experiences of all women when creating this book.
As for the exercises, some of them seemed to do more harm than good. The first exercise is a 7 minute, stream of consciousness letter to your body, where she writes the beginning and end for you, and you fill in the body with all of the reasons that you are "afraid" of your body. In theory, this might be good practice, but the members that actually did this exercise stated that they began writing things that they did not like about themselves. I mean, who wants to intentionally bring themselves down?? Some of these things that were listed, members didn't even know and could have gone without, and most of these things had nothing to do with their body and more with how they had been reacting to situations while is a state of stress or fatigue. When talking about this exercise, we realized that if the reader did not feel confident in themselves, it could have had a very negative effect on them.
However, in the LLBC, we always try to take something good away from our reading, and this is no exception. As we look back at annotations, we still found some positives by pulling statements out of context and reflecting on these questions ourselves. For example, "Women in touch with the wisdom of our bodies are the single greatest threat to societal systems of domination, oppression, and control" (pg. 20).
In the end, if we were asked for a title that discussed women in society and how to break free of these standards, we would likely tell you to read Pretty Bitches (read the review here) over The Invisible Corset any day.
THE FIRST MEETING
As the theme this month New Year, New You, we wanted to choose a book that will help us start the year off right. We found The Invisible Corset and felt it would be perfect to help all of us start off 2022 on the right foot.
"New Year, New Me" is not meant for us to completely change who we are in 2022, but rather for us take things we learned about ourselves in 2021 and make the changes we think would be healthiest for our bodies, minds, and relationships with ourselves and others.
We began by reflecting on the past year and talking about our goals for the year to come. 2022 is the year Water Tiger in the Chinese Zodiac. Our presidents Quin and Mary researched the topic, taking information from Levitt's Taoist Astrology: A Handbook of the Authentic Chinese Tradition. With the Tiger's power, daring, and penchant for doing everything on a grand scale and the influence a year of the water element has on emotions and its own natural power, 2022 will be a year of strong and powerful emotion. This means it could be the year to take a risk! From changing career paths to following your dreams, learning a new skill, or going back to school, now could be the time! But beware that these risks may be hindered by the emotional of indecisiveness and fear. However, with the stregnth of the Tiger, you can power through!
For our in-person members, we wanted to give everyone a chance to choose a book that they have been wanting to read but haven't been able to. We took some time to go around and let everyone tell the club about the book they had chosen to read. A few of us decided to read The Invisible Corset with our Book Club in a Box members because we wanted to chat with them on the forum!
It was at this time that we did a group writing exercise. Along with our box members, we wrote down a list of things we wanted to leave behind in 2021 on a piece of tissue paper. Together, we safely burned our lists to let go of them and leave space for the things we want do and accomplish in the coming year. We then wrote our goals for 2022 on another piece. These pieces are being kept for reflection at the end of the year.
Lastly, we brainstormed writing pieces for the month. Because we allow our members to choose their own books for January, we left the writing piece up to them as well! Rather than a structured writing prompt, we wanted our members to run wild with their ideas without the boundaries of a prompt. We realize that, sometimes, writing for the book club is all the writing practice our members have each month. This month, we wanted to give them the chance to work on a piece they have been wanting to write.
OUTING
To celebrate ourselves and the New Year, we had a big sleepover with any members that could join us. We had tons of snacks, popcorn, and a charcuterie board along side a signiture cocktail for the night! Throughout the evening we watched movies, listened to music, and played so fun trivia games in our personalized robes which were a surprise gift from our copresidents!
We had such a blast and connot wait until we are able to plan larger outings that could include our subscription box members!
THE FINAL MEETING
We began our final meeting by going around and telling each other about the book we had chosen to read for January. There was a variety of genres from Manga to Romance to Fantasy to Mythology, and a few genres inbetween. Everyone gave an overview of the plot, their favorite part, their least favorite part, lessons they took away, and an overall rating. Listening to everyone talk about their January pick definitely had us adding some new titles to the TBR list, as well as one or two that we should probably avoid.
After everyone discussed their personal pick, those who read The Invisible Corset took the floor to do the same. It was not a surprise that the discussion started out quite critical given the manner in which Geersten goes about trying to prove her argument. Rather than feeling uplifted about who we are, we felt slightly attacked in a way. We felt as though we were being preached at about how we are the problem and are enabling beauty culture by not making radical changes to our lives. Throughout the book, it seemed that she was trying to make us feel bad about putting time into our appearance (she even calls makeup deception on page 37) because doing so must mean that we are taking that time to satisfy others rather than ourselves.
As a group, we agreed that when we get ready for the day, we are doing the things that make us feel good about ourselves. We walk out of the bathroom every morning with confidence which allows us to tackle the day because of how we feel, not how we think others perceive us.
Maybe we went into this read without a clear understanding of what the book was trying to do, and that was what lefy us with some disappointment. However, after reading The Invisible Corset, we are still not sure what the purpose of the book is and who would benefit from it. Even if Geersten had good intentions while writing this book, much of that was missing while reading through it.
Even so, we feel that some of her quotes are quite inspiring when pulled out of context and can make for some good discussion. This is the reason we gave the book a 4/10 rather than anything lower. The Invisible Corset made for a good and important conversation in this meeting as well as on the forum, and that is what the LLBC is here to do.
We finished off the final January meeting with some creative writing presentations. It was so fun to see what everyone came up with when no writing prompt is presented. We had some brand new pieces as well as an older prompt that had been edited and expanded on! Keep an eye out for the January writing feature that will be posted soon!
We want to give a huge THANK YOU to everyone who joined us for the January 2022 installment of the LLBC and helped us kick off the year. We cannot wait to see what this year holds and hope that you all continue to join us on this journey!
February orders are closed, but you can join us on the forum throughout the month by picking up your own copy of Amanda Gorman's newest book of poetry, Call Us What We Carry.
March boxes are currently on sale, and we have some openings in our subscription option as well! Make sure to grab your Book Club in a Box before they sell out! In March, we will be reading The Last Reunion by Kayte Nunn. In June 2021, we read another novel by Nunn and absolutely loved it, so we have high hopes in bringing her back for March. We hope you decide to join us!
Remember to follow us on Instagram and TikTok to keep up with us daily and be involved! You can also subscribe to our email list to be notified when we new products go on sale as well as when we post new updates to the blog! Thanks for a great January, and we will see you next month!
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