Self-image
Out Of The Borders
Body positivity-real change or empty slogan?
by Anna Maria Żukowska
Body positivity is a slogan that has been present in culture for some time. When we
look at posts tagged with #bodypositive on Instagram, we’ll see photos of women and men whose bodies most often differ from the norms adopted in the world of the media. So we see folds of fat, cellulite, stretch marks after pregnancy and many other features that we usually try to hide from the eyes of others. It may seem like a big breakthrough and a significant change for the better - and to a large extent it is. However, does this movement not lose some basic assumptions with its entry into the mainstream?
In 1990, the writer and journalist Naomi Wolf
gins, which can only be achieved by increasing published a famous book entitled “The Beau- austerities. ty Myth”. It draws attention to the fact that although women may play more and more social Body-positive movement arose in response to roles compared to the past, this does not mean such tendencies. Instead of retouched bodies, that they gain more and more freedom - control she tries to show what she calls “real” bodies and limitations only change the form, and their - obese bodies with scars, discoloration and new incarnation is much more difficult to grasp. other “defects” that are not represented in the The woman is no longer trapped in the house, mass media. We also see people with disabilibut a prisoner of the necessity to be slim, well- ties and transgender people, who are often tagroomed and attractive. The beauty industry boo for the media. Supporters of body positivis thriving, and more and more intensive pho- ity try to spread the knowledge about rational to retouching makes impossible demands on self-care - a healthy diet that meets the body’s beauty. An obsession with a perfect body be- needs, cosmetics free of harmful chemicals or forms of exercise that do not overload. Thus, they refute the allegations, inter alia, about normalizing problems such as obesity - each time they emphasize that it is not about an uncritical approach, but about proper care for one’s own body and a reasonable approach to the changing cultural standards every decade.
Courtesy of Isle of Paradise
Isn’t this the approach we need as an antidote to the still strong Photoshop and plastic surgery culture? Yes, as long as it stays true to its foundations. The entry of body positivi-
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