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Decolonising My Body

On Ancestry, Tradition and Cultural Reinvention
Brief Description
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... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description
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.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529954197

Publisher: Vintage Publishing

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 February 2026

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Vintage

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 18.0mm

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 210g

Pages: 240

About the Author

Afua Hirsch is a writer, filmmaker, and journalist. She is the author of Brit(ish), the Sunday Times bestseller that explores Britishness, identity and belonging, for which she was awarded the Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction. She co-presented Enslaved, a 6-part series about the transatlantic slave trade with Samuel L Jackson. She is the presenter of the Audible podcast series We Need To Talk About the British Empire, and Africa Rising, an ongoing flagship series about art and culture for the BBC, through her production company Born in Me Productions. She is a longtime columnist for the Guardian and is a professor of journalism at the University of Southern California.

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