What is one thing every human is born with? A body. No matter your sex, gender, race, or ability, you exist in your body, and it’s unique to you. This is what Body Stories seeks to explore in its concise 15-minute runtime. People with different upbringings, backgrounds, and identities are each given space to talk about the experience of becoming themselves and the ways their identities manifest onto their bodies. From the horse’s mouth, we’re told about how societal expectations and peer pressure work to create discomfort with our physical forms. The storytellers discuss experiences involving mixed-race identity, immigration, religion, gender, weight, pregnancy, and the ways our bodies and body language can communicate who we are and how we move through the world.
Body Stories is difficult to talk about because what’s shared is so personal. You just have to watch it to find out what’s inside beyond its overarching themes. These are stories about growing up, changing, and learning how to exist within bodies that are constantly being interpreted both by ourselves and by the people around us. Although every storyteller’s circumstances are different, there is something deeply recognizable in the experiences being shared, and most viewers will likely find themselves resonating with at least one of the speakers. While patron interest in public libraries won’t be non-existent, it will seem so compared to the use Body Stories will get in academic settings. Gender studies and varied cultural studies classes will find plenty to discuss, but the documentary could also be used in health, sociology, psychology, and medical education classrooms looking at the relationship between identity, society, and the body.
Where sister series Religion Stories ends up feeling a bit reductive in its information, Body Stories seeks to give us a good, hard look at how we feel about our bodies and how that shows up in our society from the perspectives of a variety of people. Helping things along is an interesting blend of straightforward talking-head interviews and flashes of experimental imagery, including masked bodies in swirling paint, and B-roll of participants interacting with the world around them. Some patrons will enjoy these artistic elements and others may find them distracting, but they give the documentary a distinct visual identity while breaking up the more traditional interview format. Because of its depth and accessibility, Body Stories should also appeal to general audiences who may simply be curious about the subject matter. Highly Recommended.
What academic subjects and college courses can use Body Stories?
Body Stories has applications across gender studies, sociology, cultural studies, psychology, health education, medical education, and media studies. Its first-person accounts give students an opportunity to examine how experiences involving race, immigration, religion, gender, sexuality, weight, pregnancy, family, beauty standards, and social expectations shape people’s relationships with their bodies. Health and medical educators could use the documentary to encourage discussion about listening to patients and understanding how identity, culture, and lived experience can affect a person’s relationship with their body, while sociology and gender studies courses can examine how cultural expectations become deeply personal.
What educational resources are available for teaching with Body Stories?
Educators also have access to a free, comprehensive Body Stories Learning Guide designed to turn the film’s themes into a more structured learning experience. The five-module guide includes background information, discussion and reflection questions, activities, additional resources, and prompts covering subjects such as social media, diet culture, beauty standards, family, gender, sexuality, transformation, and self-acceptance. The complete e-course is structured as approximately 2.5 hours of self-paced learning, allowing instructors to expand upon the issues introduced in the documentary and build a larger unit around its themes. For librarians and educators interested in using Body Stories for instruction or discussion programming, the Body Stories Learning Guide is an especially useful companion resource.
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