interview | charli howard

In ‘Flesh’, Charli Howard writes with a disarming level of honesty about the realities of growing up in a world that constantly scrutinises, sexualises, and defines women through their bodies. Moving between memoir and cultural reflection, the book captures how moments of scrutiny, sexualisation, and shame quietly accumulate — settling into the body, informing not just how it is seen, but how it is felt from within. Howard writes candidly about the early awareness of being looked at, measured, and compared; about the blurred lines between attention and objectification; and about the ways these experiences can manifest in everything from disordered eating to the pursuit of validation in relationships. In ‘Flesh’, the body becomes both subject and site; something acted upon, but also something that holds memory, tension, and, ultimately, the possibility of understanding. There is a wider resonance to her story. In interrogating her own experiences, Howard taps into something collective: the quiet normalisation of the male gaze, the persistence of beauty standards that promise safety but rarely deliver it, and the ways women are taught — subtly and overtly — to locate their worth in how they are perceived. And yet, threaded through the book is a shift:... Read more » The post interview | charli howard appeared first on Schön! Magazine.