Decolonising My Body
Author: Hirsch, Afua
ISBN: 9781529954197
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK
Year first published: 26 May 2026
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback / softback
The Sunday Times-bestselling broadcaster takes us on a global exploration of ancestral beauty practices, revealing how mainstream Eurocentric beauty standards evolved and how minoritised groups can transcend them by reclaiming their cultural roots.
Our bodies tell our story.
Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality.
Decolonising My Body charts her year-long journey of radical unlearning. Bringing together global scholarship, on-the-ground reportage, personal anecdotes and interviews with beauty experts, practitioners and service users, Hirsch reassesses notions of body image beyond those of the colonial, patriarchal gaze. Taking us from puberty to end-of-life, she shows us that the ways in which we adorn and present ourselves have spiritual implications and shape the possibilities we see for ourselves in the world.
ISBN: 9781529954197
Publisher: RANDOM HOUSE UK
Year first published: 26 May 2026
Pages: 240
Format: Paperback / softback
The Sunday Times-bestselling broadcaster takes us on a global exploration of ancestral beauty practices, revealing how mainstream Eurocentric beauty standards evolved and how minoritised groups can transcend them by reclaiming their cultural roots.
Our bodies tell our story.
Upon turning forty, Afua Hirsch had an encounter that forever altered her preconceived notions of ancestry and body image, making her question everything from body-modification rituals such as tattoos and piercings to the foundations of sexuality.
Decolonising My Body charts her year-long journey of radical unlearning. Bringing together global scholarship, on-the-ground reportage, personal anecdotes and interviews with beauty experts, practitioners and service users, Hirsch reassesses notions of body image beyond those of the colonial, patriarchal gaze. Taking us from puberty to end-of-life, she shows us that the ways in which we adorn and present ourselves have spiritual implications and shape the possibilities we see for ourselves in the world.
