Women have long been taught that their bodies are unruly, weak. We’re taught to approach our bodies by shrinking, whittling-and, aided by the traditional beauty industry, constantly fixing ourselves. With a fresh voice in troubled times, Physical Disobedience says stop it -because mistreating our bodies that way is nothing less than an act of submission to gendered inequality. We need to focus on health, fitness, and strength-as we ourselves define it.

Hays Coomer knows that when we strengthen ourselves, we’re making our activism personal, by reclaiming our right to a healthy self-image and bodies that function to the best of their ability. And, yes, at the same time we’re building stamina for the literal work of activism-the marches and the protests, plus the everyday emotional resilience it takes to face the news. Hays Coomer shows us, step by step, how to reframe our idea of fitness, reclaiming it and instead associating being fit with being powerful. And as women, now more than ever, we could use that collective fitness and reclaimed power.