Let's talk about body positivity for a few minutes, ok? I'm sure you've seen it before. Hoards of people posting about how they love their bodies no matter what. It's great because it allows people to see all different types of body shapes that often aren't praised by the media. All of this is great. Loving yourself and your body is such an important part of mental health and this movement does such a great job at having a positive look at mental health. Being happy with who you are is key. But let's step back and look objectively at the overarching themes of this movement in the media.
First, this is not a movement for just plus size women. In fact, this is not a movement limited to women at all. Body positivity and weight related issues have long been painted by the larger media as being a woman's problem, and I'm not ok with that and neither should you. This movement is for everyone. It's irrational to assume that only women struggle with the way they look and it undermines the way that men look at themselves. If you look at it as a movement belonging to women, then it seems like women themselves are the only ones who should have to worry about their weight and their appearance, while men shouldn't. The whole concept is bizarre. I'm not saying that advocates of this movement are supporting this concept, in fact, many of them speak out about this same issue. It is instead the media that forces more attention to women's weights compared to the men's. When was the last time you entered the grocery store during the summer and didn't see pictures of female celebrities getting blasted for not having the "perfect bikini body?" Guess what? That perfect bikini body doesn't exist and never will!
Like I said before, this is not a movement for plus size women only. It's a movement for all body shapes and sizes. How many people have heard the phrase, "Real men love curves" or the phrase "wow, she really needs to put some meat on her bones." Guess what guys, you're basically body shaming thin people. Everyone can face body shaming. So many people believe that this movement is a movement for plus size women only but that's far from the truth. It's a movement for everybody. News flash, it possible for everyone (yes, including skinny, athletic, plus size, etc.) to be unhappy with their bodies; therefore, we should encourage everyone to love their bodies instead of putting different sizes down just to prove our points. Like I said before, many body positivity advocates advocate for this, but the media portrays a much different side of body positivity.
The problem doesn't just end there. The media portrays a very certain type of body shape: the hourglass figure. While modeling agencies have hired more diverse sizes, the body shape is still the same. Basically the media is showing that if you're not an hourglass shape, you don't fit into the what the media terms as "pretty" (which is also a convoluted term itself.) How many people are actually the perfect hourglass shape? Not only do we need size diversity but we need body shape diversity, as well. It's almost impossible to feel good about yourself when the rest of the world is basically telling you that you shouldn't be shaped the way that you are, and that is a screwed up concept. The media's portrayal of minority groups in this movement is also lacking. Like many other things, many of the body positivity campaigns put on by the media are whitewashed. How is this supposed to make minority groups feel better about their own bodies? We need all groups of people represented in this movement. We shouldn't make minority groups feel further ostracized from the body positivity movement.
Like with many other things, the media does a poor job at encompassing the true underlying meaning of this movement, which is sad. This movement of body positivity should be something we all support. We should all want each other to feel happy with the way we look. We should all support a movement which has such a positive outlook on mental health. It's great that more diverse sizes are being represented in the media, that's the first step; however, there is so much left to do. We have to ask ourselves, though, will the media ever be a true representation of real life or a continued representation of a made up life?
