Is there a line between body positivity and being unhealthy?

An extensive exploration of body positivity and a questioning on whether our society is disguising obesity and unhealthy habits with a positive outlook.

Words by Emily Redman Owen Adamson

Illustration by Nicole Honeywell

In 2015, Common Sense Media found that 80% of 10-year-old girls have been on a diet. That’s 8/10 girls who are so unsatisfied with the way that they look, they feel they need to restrict what they eat in order to change their appearance. Restricting calories in many cases causes fully grown adults to become agitated, sleepy and unable to concentrate, so it’s not difficult to predict the effects on an undeveloped child. The question on my mind after reading this statistic is: why? Why are the majority of 10-year-old girls so affected by the way they look that they want to sacrifice sharing pizza with their friends at sleepovers, eating popcorn in the cinema and sneaking downstairs late at night to grab a ‘midnight snack’?

One reason for this is directly linked to the eating habits and diet culture adopted by parents. A study reported in the Huffington Post revealed that two-thirds of Brits are on a diet ‘most of the time’. Maybe primary socialisation (when kids learn about the basic stuff - usually in the family) doesn’t just entail children picking up language and the importance of right and wrong, but also the restriction of calories as a result of imitating the people they see as role models. This is supported by the fact that many studies have found children as young as five pick up their mother’s restricted eating patterns. Does this mean that parents are to blame for their children’s self-confidence issues? Factors such as media consumption are arguably more influential than parental habits, however, they should be more aware of what they say in front of their highly impressionable offspring; their words and actions have a more lasting effect than they may think.

To answer my initial question, it would be naive of me to ignore the effects of the media on young people. The work on social media’s effects on children isn’t comprehensive, so we can only estimate the real causes, however, a study reported in Common Sense Media found that young people who regularly use Facebook were far more likely to have a ‘drive for thinness’ than light or non-users. It seems clear that there is a correlation between advertising campaigns featuring thin and highly edited pictures of models and body confidence. This motivation to be skinny doesn’t stop at adolescence, with only 28% of men and 26% of females ‘extremely satisfied’ with their image released through The Body Image Journal reported by Cosmopolitan.

The desire to be thinner can be a persistent and brutal journey to self-hatred, all because we’re trying to achieve what can often be an unobtainable image. Body positive role models such as Iskra Lawrence, Ashley Graham and (for the men) Arcadio del Valle are so important because they spread the message that beauty doesn’t just have one size, or look, or diet and nor does health (but that’s a whole different debate). The message of body positivity is so important because it teaches not just young girls, but men and women who’ve been told for most of their lives that they must look a certain way to feel worthy, that their soul-purpose in life shouldn’t be to lose weight. I hope that the rise in the movement one day horrifies people that Esquire found 54% of women would rather be hit by a truck than be fat (WTF). For me, the most important role of body positivity is to show that there are so many more important things in life than the number on the scales. You can be kind, generous, intelligent, caring, sensitive, creative and be overweight. So, is fat really the worst thing we can be?

Words by Emily Redman

Sitting down and flicking through Instagram, it can be hard not to want to start chugging raw eggs and drinking sink-water flavoured detox teas. It’s a depressing thing to look at, all these athletes and models, especially when you’re sat in your Simpsons’ donut slippers and you’ve just eaten seven pieces of bacon. There are people on there, who frankly, look fantastic; and it’s pretty easy to get lost thinking that this is the norm. But stand up, go to your window and see what the next ten people to walk by look like. It’s inevitable that at least eight of them will look more haggard and generally more miserable than you.

It’s easy to get fixated on idolising celebrities and personalities from social media these days. Our phones are practically an extension of our arms and the constant barrage of images we subject ourselves to exacerbates a culture of comparison that is growing amongst people both young and old. It’s a trend that can have positive and negative consequences, depending on your outlook. This is why body positivity is, by and large, a good cause.

However, as with any social ideology with its roots in a good place, some of the branches have decided to go a little off-track. A good example of this is Tess Holliday, the “plus-sized” model who recently came under fire for posting a nude image of herself, and featuring as a cover girl for Cosmopolitan magazine. People accused her of negatively affecting young minds and promoting a body image which is extremely unhealthy. She responded by saying it was “your minds that need to change” and “#effyourbeautystandards”.

Unfortunately, she is completely wrong. Anyone with a grasp on reality will grant you that human bodies naturally occur in a variety of sizes and shapes. There are a multitude of plus sized models who truly fit the bill, going against the traditional and equally worrying image of the ultra-skinny catwalker. But there is a limit to this campaign. It is not meant to be used as a tool to justify an extremely unhealthy lifestyle and shape. Holliday is not a “curvy woman”, (a term which is equally offensive, as if to suggest you have

to be curvaceous to be womanly) she is verging on morbidly obese. This isn’t about insulting someone over their weight, nor is it about making all women fit a stereotypical social idea. It’s about regulating your body to a reasonable standard to keep yourself in good health.

It’s been said numerous times that many of the people with similar figures to Holliday (both male and female) are healthy. This is usually followed by a pointless comment war, with one side being rude and the other claiming that in fact, she is peak condition, and that “you don’t have her blood tests, you don’t know!”. You DO NOT need to have her blood tests to know she is unhealthy. The body of medical evidence that shows being obese as a leading cause of cancer and an unholy amount of other diseases is vast. Seriously, it stopped being about body positivity some time ago, and became a simple battle between the delusional and the medically informed.

We need to stop justifying bad health with words like “powerful” and “empowered”. Those are relevant terms for many situations, often ones that should be given greater support, but saying that being morbidly obese is a form of empowerment is utterly ridiculous. This is when people will begin to say, “if you don’t find her attractive, just leave her alone”. The problem is it isn’t about attractiveness, it’s about a person who is in the public spotlight, influencing young people who are already grappling with mental and physical problems. Tess Holliday may have come to terms with it, but that is an appalling statement to make. She has come to terms with what, willingly misguiding children into believing being that overweight is a good or healthy thing to shoot for?

Words by Owen Adamson