A chance encounter with a 30,000-year-old figurine at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History transformed one woman's relationship with her body. The visitor, now 46, had struggled with body image and binge-eating for decades after her mother told her she was 'getting fat' at age 18.
During a visit in October 2021 with her seven-year-old son, she spotted a replica of the Venus of Willendorf, a tiny limestone carving known for its voluptuous features. 'I felt intense joy and immediate relief at this proof that humans come in all shapes and sizes,' she said. The figurine's prominent belly and curves mirrored her own body, helping her reject years of diet culture.
Since that day, she has stopped binge-eating, deleted social media, and embraced activities she previously avoided, such as wearing bikinis and wild swimming. She enrolled in an MA in art education at Oxford Brookes University and is creating a performance art piece inspired by the statue, knitting a nude bodysuit to wear in the museum.
'I'm happily fat,' she said, though she acknowledges diet culture still occasionally affects her. She plans to wear a silver charm of the Venus of Willendorf as a talisman. The experience, she says, 'wiped the slate clean of all I'd been taught, all those painful beliefs.'
