What Is Body Positivity?

Body positivity refers to the assertion that all people deserve to have a positive body image, regardless of how society and popular culture view ideal shape, size, and appearance.The body positivity movement has gained some serious steam over the past decade. According to a recent report
 by the American Psychological Association, American women's (and men's) dissatisfaction with the skin they're in began to decline in the early 2000s, following an unfortunate peak in the 1990s. 

Some of the goals of the body positivity movement include:

• challenging how society views the body
• promoting the acceptance of all bodies
• helping people build confidence and acceptance of their own bodies
• addressing unrealistic body standards

Body positivity is not just about challenging how society views people based upon their physical size and shape, however. It also recognizes that judgments are often made based on race, gender, sexuality, and disability. 

Body positivity also aims to help people understand how popular media messages contribute to the relationship that people have with their bodies, including how they feel about food, exercise, clothing, health, identity, and self-care. By better understanding the effect that such influences have, the hope is that people can develop a healthier and more realistic relationship with their bodies.

Brief History

Body positivity has its roots in the fat acceptance movement of the late 1960s. Fat acceptance focuses on ending the culture of fat-shaming and discrimination against people based upon their size or body weight. The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance was first established in 1969 and continues to work to change how people talk about weight.

The term "body positive" emerged in 1996 when a psychotherapist and an individual who had been through treatment for an eating disorder founded the website thebodypositive.org. The site offers resources and educational materials designed to help people feel good about their bodies by taking the focus off of losing weight through unhealthy diet and exercise efforts.

The body positivity movement in its current form began to emerge around 2012, initially focusing on challenging unrealistic feminine beauty standards. As the movement grew in popularity, the original focus on acceptance of weight began to shift toward a message that “all bodies are beautiful.” 

While body positivity has become increasingly popular, people continue to be confused about exactly what it means. Part of the reason why body positivity is so misunderstood is due to the fact that there are so many different definitions for what the movement means.

 Depending on who you ask, body positivity can mean:

•  Appreciating your body in spite of flaws
• Feeling confident about your body
• Loving yourself
• Accepting your body’s shape and size

Body positivity also means enjoying the body you have and not beating yourself up over changes that happen naturally due to aging, pregnancy, or lifestyle choices.

Instagram played a pivotal role in the rise of the body positivity movement. In recent years, a number of magazines and companies have incorporated efforts to be more body positive in their publications and marketing efforts. Some magazines have stopped airbrushing models, while companies including Dove and Aerie have developed marketing campaigns incorporating body positivity messages.

What are some issues you see with the body positivity movement — or body positivity — in general?

Kaila Prins: Sometimes body positivity can come off as more of a candy-coated movement to help us all 'feel beautiful' and love ourselves all the time, which I think is really tough to ask of a person.

Shame masked as pride, or its pursuit, is not body positivity. Many popular weight loss and fitness companies run so-called "body positive" campaigns whose surface message is: you should feel good about being in your body. But the subtext is, you can't feel good in your body as it is — loving yourself and being body positive is about "creating a body you love" instead of starting from a place of love and acceptance and not needing to change your body. The idea behind their messaging is that you should be able to love yourself, and since you can't do it the way you look now, we can give you a body that you CAN love. 

Essentially, as soon as "body positivity" becomes a marketing tool, it stops being about body positivity but about brand and share of voice. 

Mallorie Dunn: Some people misappropriate body positivity when they leave out of its definition people who are disabled, people who are very large in size, people of color, gender queer people, or people who may seem too small to take part in it. Whenever you're erasing one group you're missing the point. Many large retailers, for instance, promote a very narrow image of body positivity as a bunch of light-skinned women who are "small plus" and shaped like an hourglass — this is often referred to "acceptable fat."

Reasons for Body Positivity

One of the major goals of body positivity is to address some of the ways that body image influences mental health and well-being. Having a healthy body image plays a role in how people feel about their appearance and even how they judge their self-worth. Research suggests that having a negative body image is associated with an increased risk for some mental conditions including depression and eating disorders.

One study found that even brief exposure to media messages portraying an "ideal physique" was linked to increased body image concerns and increased eating disorder symptoms. 

Body image refers to a person's subjective perception of their own body—which may be different from how their body actually appears. Feelings, thoughts, and behaviors related to body image can have a major impact on your mental health and how you treat yourself.

The formation of body image starts early in life. Unfortunately, even young children may suffer from body dissatisfaction. A report published by Common Sense Media found that more than 50% of girls and nearly 33% of boys between the ages of 6 and 8 felt that their ideal body weight was less than their current weight. Results also revealed that 25% of kids had tried some type of dieting behavior by the age of seven.

Problems that can emerge as a result of poor body image include:

• Depression: Women experience depression at much higher rates than men do, and some researchers believe that body dissatisfaction may play an important role in explaining this gender difference in depression rates.3
• Low self-esteem: Research has found that body dissatisfaction is associated with poor self-esteem in adolescents regardless of their gender, age, weight, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. 
• Eating disorders: Research also indicates that body dissatisfaction is linked to disordered eating, particularly among adolescent girls.

Research has consistently shown that exposure to depictions of the "thin ideal" are associated with both behavioral and emotional symptoms related to disordered eating. It is not just exposure to these images that pose a danger; it is the development of beliefs that beauty, success, and esteem are determined by thinness. Studies have also found that when people internalize these ideas, they are more likely to experience body dissatisfaction and engage in unnecessary dieting.



Body positivity strives to address these issues by helping people recognize the influences that contribute to poor body image. The hope is that people will then be able to adjust their body expectations and feel more positive and accepting of their own bodies. Such acceptance may then help combat the toll that poor body image has on mental and physical health.

Criticisms

While the body positivity message is intended to help people feel better about themselves, it isn’t without its problems and critics. 

For example, one problem is the idea that body positivity implies that people should do whatever they think they need to do in order to feel positive about how they look. Unfortunately, the popular messages that people are bombarded with include the idea that thinner, fitter people are happier, healthier, and more beautiful. This idealization of thinness can then contribute to people engaging in unhealthy actions—including excessive exercise or extreme diets—under the guise of feeling "body positive."

Another criticism of body positivity is that it can be non-inclusive. Depictions of body positivity messages tend to exclude people of color as well as those who are disabled, LGBTQ, and non-binary.

The body images often portrayed in body-positive messages often still conform to a specific beauty ideal; many people simply don’t feel included in body positivity. 

Actress Jameela Jamil, who stars on the tv series The Good Place, is often described as one of the faces of the body positivity movement, which she suggests is miscategorization. In an Instagram post, Jamil explained that body positivity is essential for people who are "not believed by doctors, who are abused in the street, and who can't find clothing in their size." 

However, she also recognizes that the movement isn't right for everyone and that many people feel shut out of the body positivity conversation. 

Instead, Jamil suggests that she advocates for body liberation or even body neutrality. This approach involves taking your body out of the center of your self-image. She has the privilege of taking such a stance, she notes, because she is not persecuted because of her size. Other people, those who the body positivity movement is specifically aimed at, simply do not have that luxury.

Another criticism of the body positivity trend is that it makes the appearance of the body one of the most important elements of a person’s self-perception. It neglects all of the other elements of a person’s identity that are more important than how a person looks. In this aspect, Jamil’s stance, suggesting that people should stop making the body the determinant of self-worth and self-perception, might be a healthier, more inclusive approach.

What You Can Do

Body positivity is designed to foster acceptance and love of your body, but it can be a struggle that adds another element of pressure and impossible standards to live up to. The body positivity message is that you should change how you feel about your body, but can also be just one more demand. 

Simply telling people to accept themselves and be resilient in the face of the bombardment of images promoting the thin ideal can be damaging. Telling people to ignore the dominant beauty ideal isn’t realistic. It can create more pressure for a person who is already feeling anxious, negative, and devalued. Popular culture tells people that they are flawed—but then demands that they have a positive attitude about it. Not feeling positive about your body can then lead to shame and guilt.