Body positivity was my saviour. Why I’m becoming disillusioned now.
Those of you who read my earlier blog post around my discovery of body positivity will know it only happened a couple of years ago. By that time body positivity was a huge movement. It was all over social media, books and starting to push into the mainstream.
Even now I am so excited by the idea of it. The idea that I can love and accept my body now, as it is, rather than when it’s at a societally acceptable weight. That I can finally hop off the dieting see-saw and stop all the up/down/up/down with my weight. I can wear bright clothes or tight clothes or sexy clothes without feeling ridiculous or ashamed. I can put on makeup and feel pretty rather than looking at my body and thinking what’s the point? At last I can look in the mirror and actually like what I see rather than wanting to cry.
The Snag…
Even as I embraced the movement wholeheartedly though I started to feel a twinge of disquiet in the back of my mind. This was a place where all bodies were supposed to be celebrated so why weren’t they there? Did their invitations get lost in the post? The fact was when did an audit of my Instagram feed a few absences struck me.
Diversity of Shapes.
The first thing that struck me was I wasn’t seeing many different shapes. If you take a casual glance at the body positivity hashtag of Instagram you can be fooled into thinking there’s variety. There are bodies all the way from a little above curvy to significantly bigger. Look closer!
I noticed what I was seeing the majority of the time was women with the same body shape as models on the catwalk just bigger. Hourglass shapes. I did find some apple or pear-shaped ladies but they were the exceptions. A quick look at people passing as I walk down the street tells me these shapes exist so I don’t understand why representation isn’t more equal.
My take is that because we are conditioned that the model shape is beautiful these bodies are easier to accept. They’re what we have already been taught to like, just bigger. It’s not a huge leap. Out of proportion bodies though (unless the unbalanced part is big breasts!) they are not acceptable. Rounded breasts, small waist and curvy hips is where its at.
Differently-abled people
Next were the people of different levels of ability. I follow a couple of ladies who openly post in wheelchairs or show their stoma bags but again not many. If we’re celebrating everyone where are they?
Is body positivity a women-only club?
There was a lack of men as well as non-binary or transgender people. I don’t know if this is because men are not interested in joining the movement or if they’re being left out? Do we need to reach out more? Make more content talking to men about the need for them to love their bodies? Even if they are fat or short or don’t have muscles and so on.
Diversity of Ethnicities
The last and most glaring was the lack of people of different ethnicities. When I looked at the people I already followed and the ones suggested that I might like to follow it was a whitewash. I have more diversity in my feeds now but it took a conscious effort on my part. Rather than search for body positivity I searched for body positivity Asian, body positivity black, body positivity Hispanic and so on. The question is why Instagram wasn’t suggesting a range of different people to me without me having to look? It could be there is a bias in the Instagram algorithm. Or that the body positivity hashtag is just flooded with white women? Honestly, I think it’s both.
The truth is queer black women founded and pioneered the body positivity movement. By the time I found it though white women were everywhere. It seems like these women literally got kicked out of their own party! This makes me sad and more than a bit angry for them. Large white bodies are celebrated but black ones seem far less frequently and more likely to be deleted by Instagram if they dare show some skin. If body positivity isn’t genuinely going to seek out and embrace and celebrate all bodies then really what is the point of it?
Part 2 Coming Soon!
Thank you for reading! This is part 1 of my concerns about the body positivity movement. Part 2 will be posted on Sunday and discuss the large number of slim women joining the movement. I hope you’ll join me. If you have any comments about this piece please pop them in the comments or contact me here. I’d also love you to subscribe and as well as making sure you never miss a post you’ll receive my resources to ditch diet culture and learn to love yourself.
