Taking Up Space: Why Fuelling Your Body Is a Quiet Rebellion

For as long as we can remember, women have been told to shrink.

Shrink our bodies.

Shrink our voices.

Shrink our presence.

The message hasn't disappeared — it's just changed outfits over the years.

From the no-fat, no-fun diets of the 80s, to the heroin-chic thinness of the 90s, to today’s “clean eating” and “wellness” culture that still quietly preaches one thing:

Be smaller. Take up less space.

We were praised for eating less, for “being good,” for squeezing into smaller jeans.

We learned to equate hunger with discipline, and fullness with failure.

But here’s the truth — women weren’t put on this earth to be small, quiet, or easy to manage.

The history of shrinking ourselves

This obsession with smallness didn’t come from nowhere.

For generations, women’s power has been chipped away under the guise of beauty standards.

Corsets that literally stopped us breathing.

Low-fat diets that starved our hormones.

“Bikini body” headlines that made us believe our worth was seasonal.

And every single message had one thing in common:

Control.

When women are hungry, tired, and constantly worrying about how we look, we’re too distracted to realise how powerful we actually are.

The shift: fuelling, not restricting

Fuelling your body is rebellion.

Not because it’s loud or radical — but because it goes against everything we were taught.

When you eat enough to support your training, your hormones, your energy — you’re saying:

“I deserve to feel strong, capable, and well-fed.”

You’re refusing to make yourself smaller to fit someone else’s comfort zone.

You’re choosing nourishment over deprivation.

You’re choosing power over pleasing.

Taking up space is feminist

Taking up space — in your body, in your energy, in your voice — is one of the most feminist things you can do.

It’s quiet.

It’s grounded.

It’s deeply self-respecting.

Every time you lift, fuel, and rest — you’re unlearning generations of messaging that told you to shrink.

And that’s what makes it powerful.

You don’t owe the world a smaller version of yourself.

Feed your body.

Build your strength.

Take up space.

That’s not losing control — that’s reclaiming it.