Body positivity V. Neutrality

I don’t love my stomach. I have struggled practically all my life with this fact. I recognize I am not plus-sized at all and can not relate to the struggles, prejudice, and systemic bias experienced by overweight people, but I still live with insecurity and feel it creep into my life daily. I still feel a little nervous everytime I try on new jeans and practically dread pool parties. When I was younger, I worked to involve myself in the body positivity movement, but it felt fake. It felt like I was lying to myself. I did not love my stomach, so what was the benefit in telling myself I did? Today, I still do not love my stomach, but I appreciate it. I appreciate that it acts as a safety cushion for my organs and a home for food that fuels me each day. I appreciate that when I was sick it held my feeding tube and today it protects my uterus. I do not love my stomach, and that is okay.

“I love my body. It is seamlessly beautiful.” That is body positivity: the belief that bodies of all sizes, shapes, colors are beautiful, partly because of their imperfections. The body positivity movement is dedicated to debunking historically enforced beliefs that skinny is “better” and challenging our society to show respect and love to all body types. Media and its exposure of skinny culture has led to increased insecurity amongst all generations, and the body positivity movement is here to combat that. 

In 1969, male engineer Bill Fabrey began The National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, which helped aid bias and hatred towards plus-size individuals. Today, this organization continues to focus on ending discrimination and fat shaming and has been recoined as body positivity; an understanding that skinny is not the only way to achieve beautiful. The Body Positivity movement began to take charge in 2012 through social media, and today it works to tell all girls that their imperfections are beautiful. 

While this movement is pure in intent, it is not without flaw. First off, the body positivity movement does not help to eradicate heath bias which is evident in many stories told by plus-size individuals. Many minorities subject to discrimation often find these biases manifesting themselves in healthcare; a place where individuals should feel completely safe becomes a source of fear for people. These disparities are proven; black people are expected to live four years less on average than white people, Latinx experience heightened health risks such as preterm births and increased chances of cardiovascular disease, and 98% fat people experience stigma from loved ones, which may lead to worse health including "obesogenic processes," increased cortisol levels, decreased mental health, and possibly higher mortality overall.”  Many marginalized individuals also experience vast discrimination, which can lead to chronic stress, heart disease, diabetes, and other illnesses etc. A study done by Rice University said doctors typically spend less time with plus-size patients, and 69% of fat people experience medical bias. So, while body positivity may make us rethink parts of our internal biases, in no way does it help fat people battle the real world consequences they face for not fitting our beauty standard. More work must be done than a social media post claiming all bodies are beautiful. 

Speaking of that, we have come to the second issue with the beloved body positivity movement: its limits. The body positivity movement promotes a toxic idea of positivity which criticises and looks down upon not feeling amazing about one's body. Everyone has bad days where they are not feeling their most confident, so why make them feel even worse about it. The body positivity movement places too much focus on appearance,  as if it is of the greatest importance. Body positivity is not working to explode our preconceived notions, but rather light a small match in changing it. It is a good first step and a terrible last one. 

But there is an alternative: a movement—still not perfect—that helps many of these problems while still valuing all bodies. This is the body neutrality movement. The movement that does not focus on loving your body, but appreciating your body and all it can do for you. In this movement, the focus is not what your body looks like to us, but what it can do for us. It focuses on caring about our body even if we do not love it. For example, a body neutral person may say, “I appreciate my arms because they allow me to hug my family” or “I appreciate my stomach fat because it protects my stomach, intestines, liver, and pancreas .” It is practically inevitable that each of us has one thing we do not like about ourselves, it is human. So instead of faking that you are completely obsessed with your biggest insecurity, a more productive claim may be, “I do not love this body part, but I am so grateful it allows me to do X, Y and Z.” Appreciation over love will allow for confidence building and removal of toxic positivity.  This movement does not solve medical bias, and thus can not be the last step to fixing our biases based on physique. But it is a better first step to solving the systematic issues as it recognizes effectively the root of the problem; hating your body or rather, believing you should hate your body. 

Both of these movements have pros and cons. Neither are without fault: both have helped to some extent, and both are better alternatives to toxic diet culture. There is no one answer for the right way to love yourself; the journey to this state of mind is continuous and individualized. So as you continue exploring the beauty your body holds, think deeper than how it looks in a mirror, and appreciate how your body carries you through life. I am not exempt from the continuation of this practice; I must continue to work actively to appreciate a part of my body I feel is less than. But I am on this journey of body neutrality, and it is a rewarding one.