There is a very thin line between body positivity and toxic positivity. With the increase of this trending topic across social media, we must ask ourselves about when the body positivity movement start to cause more harm than good.
The Movement
The body positivity movement started with the Fat Rights Movement in 1969, created by marginalized people to help other marginalized people feel liberated in their own bodies. Now, the body positivity movement is infested by small-bodied influencers that will purposely contort their bodies in a way that will prove that they have fat rolls to make it seem like they are “relatable” to their audience. Earlier this year, American artist Lizzo took to social media to criticize the body positivity movement, stating that although all bodies are being celebrated, “fat people are still getting the short end of this stick.”
Another issue is that certain ideas that are emphasized like the need to “overcome your insecurities” and “learn to love the body you are in” suggest to the person watching that they need to have certain insecurities about their bodies first in order to get rid of them or overcome them later. It completely overlooks the fact that some people just want to feel neutral about the body that they are in and not feel as though they are an image of body positivity representation just for being okay with who they are.
Lastly, these types of trends have led to certain social media users to cross boundaries and to project the idea of body positivity onto anything they see online. Audiences forget that just because someone who is larger than the “average” body type is posting pictures or videos online, it does not mean that they are acting upon the entire body positivity movement. Further, it certainly does not give someone the right to comment about their figure under their posts.
As a result of these issues, more people have been calling out the body positivity movement for the harmful implications it can cause and have chosen the body-neutrality route as an alternative.
What is “body neutrality” and how can people benefit from it?
Body neutrality started in 2010 and is considered as an alternative to “body positivity” that focuses more on what your body can do and how it functions instead of how it looks.
The reason people may find it preferable to practice body neutrality is because it relieves the pressure of having to be happy with the way your body looks all the time and focus more on appreciating what it can do for you.
It completely removes the notion that a the worth and value of a person is purely determined by their physical appearance and focuses more on learning how to feel good on the inside.
Instead, a person is directing their energy towards creating a meaningful mind-body connection and asking themselves, “what is my body telling me right now?” This can mean anything from realizing that they have not drank enough water or eaten properly in the day and so on. This can have a much larger positive impact in lifting self-worth than constantly having to think of how their bodies look all the time.
Sometimes the best form of body positivity is not to speak about it at all. Imagine if the entire world decided to stop focusing its attention on peoples’ physical qualities, then nobody would care at all.