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Body positivity

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The sculpture of two women in bronze, Jag tänker på mig själv - Växjö ( 'I am thinking of myself - Växjö') by Marianne Lindberg De Geer, 2005, outside of the art museum of Växjö, Sweden.[1][2] It depicts one thin woman and one fat woman and demonstrates society's infatuation with outward appearances. The sculpture has been a source of controversy in town, with both statues being vandalized and repaired during 2006.[3]
This photograph shows Yolanda, an epoxy resin statue created by Miriam Lenk. The artist says that Yolanda is "An icon for female self-confidence... Yolanda occupies the available space and does not care about any objections."[4]

Body positivity is a movement focused on the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of size, shape, skin tone, gender, and physical abilities, while challenging present-day beauty standards as an undesirable social construct.[5] Proponents focus on the appreciation of the functionality and health of the body, instead of its appearance.[6]

Viewpoints

Body-positive activists believe that size, like race, gender, sexuality, and physical capability, is one of the many ways that our bodies are placed in a power and desirability hierarchy.[7][8][better source needed][jargon] The movement aims to challenge beauty standards, build positive body image, and improve self-confidence.[9][10] A central belief advocated is that beauty is a construct of society and that this construct should not determine one's confidence or self-worth.[11] Individuals are encouraged to love themselves to the fullest while accepting their physical traits.[10]

Body positivity has roots in the fat acceptance movement as well as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.[12] Body positivity differs from fat acceptance in that it is all encompassing and inclusive of all body types, whereas fat acceptance only advocates for individuals considered to be obese or overweight.[13] The movement argues that neither fat-shaming nor skinny-shaming is acceptable, and that all body types can and should be celebrated.[14][15]

Although body positivity is perceived as the celebration of one's physical appearance as it is, women are highly motivated to advocate the normalization of body hair, bodily fluids, menstruation, and to challenge preconceived ideas regarding a woman's appearance.[9]

History

Victorian Dress Reform

As part of the first wave of feminism from the 1850s-1890s, the Victorian Dress Reform Movement aimed to put an end to the trend of women having to modify their bodies through use of corsets and tightlacing in order to fit the societal standard of tiny waistlines.[16][17] A minority of women participated in this tradition of conformity, but often ended up facing ridicule whether or not they were successful at shrinking their waistline. The practice of tight-lacing proved to have many negative health risks, and was also extremely uncomfortable for women who partook. Women were mocked for their egotism if they were not able to shrink their waistline, and they were criticized for too small a waistline if they were successful. This instilled a feeling of defeat in women during these times, as nothing they did seemed to satisfy their male counterparts. As part of the Victorian Dress Reform Movement, women also fought for their right to dress in pants.[16][17] Acceptance of all body types – regardless of waist measurements – was the major theme of the Victorian Dress Reform Movement, and this was the first movement of its kind.[16][17]

First wave

In 1967, New York radio host Steve Post held a "fat-in" in Central Park. He described the purpose of the event "was to protest discrimination against the fat."[18] Five Months after the "fat-in", Lew Louderback composed an essay entitled "More People Should be Fat!" as a result of him witnessing the discrimination his wife experienced as a result of her size.[18] The piece initiated a new movement with goals of correcting fat-shaming, and the belief that being fat is always indicative of being unhealthy.[19] The essay shed light on the discrimination fat people experience in America, and the culture surrounding fat-shaming. Louderback's contribution inspired the creation of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (NAAFA) in 1969 by Bill Fabrey, with the mission of ending discrimination based on body weight.[20] The NAAFA was also dedicated to changing the dialogue surrounding obesity and health, and spread awareness of the distinction between being fat and being unhealthily obese.[19] Health at Every Size (HAES) is an initiative that resulted from the creation of NAAFA, and set forth the concept that health is better determined by medical testing (e.g. heart rate and blood pressure) rather than empirical observation of one's weight.[19]

Second wave (1990s)

The second wave of body positivity prioritized providing people of all sizes a place where they could comfortably come together and exercise. There were programs being made specifically for overweight people, such as Making Waves. Home exercise programs like Genia Pauli Haddon and Linda DeMarco's home exercise video series Yoga For Round Bodies were also made for those who were not comfortable joining a wellness community.[18]

Third wave (2000s)

Since the upcoming social media platforms in 2012, there has been a heightened presence of the movement. The movement challenged the unrealistic standards of feminine beauty like smooth skin, body size, and avoidance of any imperfections.[10] Model and feminist Tess Holliday founded '@EffYourBeautyStandards', which brought an outpour of support to the body positive movement. After founding the movement, the size-26 Holliday was signed to Milk Management, a large model agency in Europe, as their first model over size 20.[9] Instagram has been utilized as an advertising platform for the movement since. Pioneers connect with brands and advertisers to promote the movement.[10] In 2016, Mattel released a new line of Barbie dolls under the name Fashionistas with three different body shapes, seven skin colors, twenty-two eye colors and twenty-four hairstyles to be more inclusive.[21] Body artists have also helped promote and spread education about body postivity in the United States and United Kingdom, producing a number of notable outdoor nude painting displays for plus sized men and women.[22]

Psychology

The body positivity movement aims to change societal and individual perceptions of weight, size, and appearance to be more accepting of all bodies regardless of their diverse characteristics.[23] An individual's perception of their body can greatly influence their mental health and overall well-being, particularly in teenagers.[24] Poor body image, also known as body dissatisfaction, has been linked to a range of physical and mental health problems including anorexia, bulimia, depression, body image disturbance, and body dysmorphic disorder.[25] Partakers are encouraged to view self-acceptance and self-love as traits that dignify the person.[26]

The movement advocates against determining self-worth based on physical appearance or perceptions of one's own beauty.[27] In the field of psychology, this is referred to as appearance-contingent self-worth, and can be highly detrimental to an individual's mental health.[28] The degree to which one feels proud of their physical appearance is referred to as appearance self-esteem. People who fall under the appearance-contingent self-worth umbrella put great effort into looking their best so that they feel their best. This is can be beneficial when an individual feels that they look good, but is extremely negative and anxiety-inducing when they do not.[citation needed]

Inclusion

The body positivity movement focuses largely on women, recognizing that societal beauty standards are more prevalent to women than they are to men.[29][30] Men do, however often face similar societal pressures as women to fit a mold of a certain prototype of the "ideal" masculine man. Qualities that fit that mold are height, rectus abdominis muscle or "six pack abs", a broad upper body, muscular arms, shoulders, pectoral muscles, etc.[31] Men may face anxieties similar to women, and feel pressure to maintain or shape their bodies a certain way to fit the mold, and can certainly struggle with body image.[29] Men and boys struggle with body dysmorphia and eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa as well, though this is often less publicized.[32] Women tend to particularly struggle with eating disorders due to the constant societal pressure to diet in order to stay trim.[30] Body positivity remains largely concerned and discussed with regard to female populations, but applies to people of all genders, ages, ethnicities, sexual preferences, religions, and sexes.[33]

Brand influence and social media

Due to social media the notion "every- Body is beautiful' came into being. The movement for body positivity has played a role in influencing marketing campaigns for major corporations. In 2004, Dove launched their "Real Beauty." campaign,[34] which commercials and advertisements depicted women of varying body types and skin tones in a manner that portrayed acceptance and positivity towards their bodies. On their website, Dove presents its Dove Self-Esteem Project as a mission for "helping young people reach their full potential by delivering quality body confidence and self-esteem education".[35] The company also partners with and raises money for eating disorder organizations.[36]

In 2017, the American women's underwear company Aerie launched a campaign called "AerieReal", in which the company promised to not retouch or photoshop their models, encouraging body positivity and body-acceptance despite features such as cellulite, stretch marks, or fat rolls.[37] Aerie has begun featuring body positive influencers in their photo shoots and advertising campaigns, as well as plus sized models. To accommodate the last, the brand has launched a plus size clothing line.[9]

In 2019, Decathlon joined the efforts of other companies with their #LeggingsForEverybody campaign, stating their mission as "to boost body confidence and support you in your fitness journey".[38]

Recently, paradigms on social media have been changing from pushing feminine beauty ideals to challenging those ideals through image related empowerment and inspiration.[39] Several influencers such as AerieReal model Iskra Lawrence have been preaching body positivity, creating hashtags such as #IWokeUpLikeThis, #EffYourBeautyStandards, #HonorMyCurves, #CelebrateMySize, #GoldenConfidence, and #ImNoModelEither.[40]

Social media plays a pivotal role in the body positivity movement, in part by providing education and exposure on different body types. Instagram and Facebook are some social platforms that, as of 2019, have body positive policies that cause advertisements for cosmetic surgery, weight loss supplements, and detox products, to be hidden from underaged demographics.[41] In addition to promoting positive body image, these policies aim to curb the advertisement of supplements unregulated by the FDA.[42] Social media platforms such as Instagram are frequently used to post body positivity content and fuel related discussion.

Although studies about social media and body image are still in their early stages, there seems to be a correlation between social media use and body image concerns. Body image tends to be positively or negatively affected by the content to which people are exposed on social media. The action of people uploading pictures of themselves appears to effectuate a negative body image.[43][44][additional citation(s) needed]

Criticism

See also: Fat acceptance § Criticism

The body positivity movement has been criticized for encouraging lifestyle habits that negatively affect one's health. A central complaint is that excessive approval of overweight and obese individuals could dissuade them from desiring to improve their health, leading to lifestyle disease. Among health professionals, agreement with the movement is very low. A 2012 study found that among a sample of 1,130 trainee dietitians, nutritionist, nurses and medical doctors, only 1.4% had "positive or neutral attitudes" regarding excess body fat.[45] According to internist Aditi G Jha, M.D., “central obesity is the number one factor associated with diabetes, hypertension, and infertility, in their respective orders.” The body positivity movement is sometimes discussed as a "denial of science".[46]

The movement has also faced criticism from feminists. Gender scholar Amber E. Kinser wrote that posting an unedited photo of your body to a social media website, which is an example of an action associated with the movement, does little to prevent women's worth from being directly correlated to their physical appearance.[47]

With the majority of the body positivity movement recently occurring on Instagram, a recent study found that 40 percent of body positivity posts were centered around appearance.[48] With Instagram being a photo-sharing social media site, the effort to place the focus less on appearance has been criticized to be contradictory.[49]

Additional criticism is that the movement puts too much emphasis on the role of the individual to improve their own body image, and not enough attention on identifying and eliminating the cultural forces, messages, beliefs, and advertising campaigns accountable for causing wide-spread body dissatisfaction.[50]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Bronskvinnorna". www.vaxjo.se.
  2. ^ "Obesity over time". OpenLearn.
  3. ^ Roxvall, Anna (30 November 2006). "Skulpturer rör upp känslor i Växjö". Svenska Dagbladet (in Swedish). ISSN 1101-2412. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  4. ^ "Yolanda Art Print". Saatchi Art. Retrieved 2019-08-12.
  5. ^ Leboeuf, Céline (2019). "What Is Body Positivity? The Path from Shame to Pride". Philosophical Topics. 47 (2): 113–128. ISSN 0276-2080.
  6. ^ Sastre, Alexandra (2014-11-02). "Towards a Radical Body Positive". Feminist Media Studies. 14 (6): 929–943. doi:10.1080/14680777.2014.883420. ISSN 1468-0777.
  7. ^ Rice, Carla (March 2007). "Becoming "the fat girl": Acquisition of an unfit identity". Women's Studies International Forum. 30 (2): 158–174. doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2007.01.001. hdl:10214/17871. ISSN 0277-5395.
  8. ^ Alptraum, Lux (11 June 2017). "A Short History of 'Body Positivity'". Fusion. Retrieved 2019-02-23.
  9. ^ a b c d Cwynar-Horta, Jessiza (August 2016). "Documenting femininity: Body positivity and female empowerment on Instagram" (PDF). Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  10. ^ a b c d Cwynar-Horta, Jessica (2016-12-31). "The Commodification of the Body Positive Movement on Instagram". Stream: Inspiring Critical Thought. 8 (2): 36–56. doi:10.21810/strm.v8i2.203. ISSN 1916-5897.
  11. ^ Dalessandro, Alysse (19 June 2016). "15 Influencers Define Body Positivity".
  12. ^ Alptraum, Lux (11 June 2017). "A Short History of 'Body Positivity'". Fusion.
  13. ^ Ospina, Marie Southard (7 July 2016). "11 Influencers Discuss the Differences Between Body Positivity and Fat Acceptance". Bustle.
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  18. ^ a b c Cooper, Charlotte. "What's Fat Activism?" (PDF). University of Limerick. Retrieved 4 March 2019.
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  24. ^ Siegel, Judith M.; Yancey, Antronette K.; Aneshensel, Carol S.; Schuler, Roberleigh (August 1999). "Body image, perceived pubertal timing, and adolescent mental health". Journal of Adolescent Health. 25 (2): 155–165. doi:10.1016/s1054-139x(98)00160-8. ISSN 1054-139X. PMID 10447043.
  25. ^ Dittmar, Helga (2009). "How do "Body Perfect" Ideals in the Media have a Negative Impact on Body Image and Behaviors? Factors and Processes Related to Self and Identity" (PDF). Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology. 28 (1). University of Sussex, U.K: Guilford Publications Inc.: 1–8. doi:10.1521/jscp.2009.28.1.1. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
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  30. ^ a b Hsu, L.K.George (1989-01-01). "The gender gap in eating disorders: Why are the eating disorders more common among women?". Clinical Psychology Review. 9 (3): 393–407. doi:10.1016/0272-7358(89)90063-9. ISSN 0272-7358.
  31. ^ Lee Yang, Eugene (March 19, 2015). "Men's Standards of Beauty Around the World". Buzzfeed.
  32. ^ Striegal-Moore, Ruth (July 1, 2010). "Gender Difference in the Prevalence of Eating Disorder Symptoms". International Journal of Eating Disorders. 42 (5): 471–474. doi:10.1002/eat.20625. PMC 2696560. PMID 19107833.
  33. ^ Schuster, Sarah (March 1, 2018). "7 Badass Men Making it OK for Guys to be Body Positive". The Mighty.
  34. ^ "Dove Campaigns". Dove US. Retrieved 2020-07-02.
  35. ^ "Our Mission". Dove.
  36. ^ Johnston, Taylor, Josée, Judith (2008). "Feminist Consumerism, and Fat Activists: A Comparative Study of Grassroots Activism and the Dove Real Beauty Campaign". Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 33 (4): 941–946. doi:10.1086/528849. JSTOR 10.1086/528849. S2CID 146611955.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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  38. ^ "Decathlon | Sports Shoes, Sports Gear & Sports Equipment". www.decathlon.co.uk. Retrieved 2020-07-25.
  39. ^ CULTURAL DYNAMICS IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD. CRC Press/Balkema. November 17, 2017. pp. 297–299. ISBN 978-1-315-22534-0. Retrieved 6 March 2019.
  40. ^ Dallessandro, Alyssa (April 30, 2015). "11 Empowering Body Positive Hashtags That Inspire Us to Love Our Bodies and Everyone Else's Too". Bustle.
  41. ^ Brown, Dalvin. “Instagram Is Cracking down on Questionable Weight-Loss Ads and Cosmetic Surgery.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 19 Sept. 2019, www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2019/09/19/instagram-cracks-down-weigh-loss-ads-miraculous-claims/2373277001/
  42. ^ Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. “What You Need to Know about Dietary Supplements.” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, FDA, www.fda.gov/food/buy-store-serve-safe-food/what-you-need-know-about-dietary-supplements#:~:text=FDA%20is%20not%20authorized%20to,BEFORE%20they%20go%20to%20market
  43. ^ Lazuka, Rebecca F.; Wick, Madeline R.; Keel, Pamela K.; Harriger, Jennifer A. (September 2020). "Are We There Yet? Progress in Depicting Diverse Images of Beauty in Instagram's Body Positivity Movement". Body Image. 34: 85–93. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2020.05.001. ISSN 1740-1445. PMID 32534269.
  44. ^ Oakes, Kelly. "The complicated truth about social media and body image". www.bbc.com.
  45. ^ Swift, J. A.; Hanlon, S.; El‐Redy, L.; Puhl, R. M.; Glazebrook, C. (2013). "Weight bias among UK trainee dietitians, doctors, nurses and nutritionists". Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 26 (4): 395–402. doi:10.1111/jhn.12019. ISSN 1365-277X. PMID 23171227.
  46. ^ "Is the Body-Positivity Movement Going Too Far?". Greatist. 2018-01-25. Retrieved 2020-12-19.
  47. ^ Darwin, Helana (2018-01-28). "Omnivorous Masculinity" (Document). doi:10.31219/osf.io/5bg2j. {{cite document}}: Cite document requires |publisher= (help); Unknown parameter |url= ignored (help)
  48. ^ Cohen, Rachel; Irwin, Lauren; Newton-John, Toby; Slater, Amy (2019-06-01). "#bodypositivity: A content analysis of body positive accounts on Instagram". Body Image. 29: 47–57. doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.02.007. hdl:10453/131322. ISSN 1740-1445. PMID 30831334.
  49. ^ Cohen, Rachel; Newton-John, Toby; Slater, Amy (2020-03-19). "The case for body positivity on social media: Perspectives on current advances and future directions". Journal of Health Psychology: 1359105320912450. doi:10.1177/1359105320912450. ISSN 1359-1053. PMID 32191132.
  50. ^ Wiseman, Eva (12 January 2020). "'Body positivity' has had its day. Let's find peace with ourselves". The Guardian.
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