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 published a famous book entitled “The Beauty Myth”. It draws attention to the fact that although women may play more and more social roles compared to the past, this does not mean that they gain more and more freedom - control and limitations only change the form, and their new incarnation is much more difficult to grasp. The woman is no longer trapped in the house, but a prisoner of the necessity to be slim, wellgroomed and attractive. The beauty industry is thriving, and more and more intensive photo retouching makes impossible demands on beauty. An obsession with a perfect body begins, which can only be achieved by increasing austerities.

Image courtesy of The Lingerie Journal

Body-positive movement arose in response to such tendencies. Instead of retouched bodies, she tries to show what she calls “real” bodies - obese bodies with scars, discoloration and other “defects” that are not represented in the mass media. We also see people with disabilities and transgender people, who are often taboo for the media. Supporters of body positivity try to spread the knowledge about rational self-care - a healthy diet that meets the body’s 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.

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- ty into the mainstream is a big change in the right direction, but there are distortions of the positive message. This applies, among others, to advertising campaigns - advertisers are moving on the slippery ground here, because body positivity goes against the belief that the consumer needs certain products in order to be able to have a healthy and happy body. Over the years, the Dove brand has done quite well, with campaigns involving non-professional female models being one of the first high-profile commercials of its kind. With time, however, the brand had more failures, which included, among others, whitening a black model in the advertisement or designing packaging resembling female bodies, which has brought them back to the role of merchandise.

Not only big concerns are facing similar charges. Another example is the book by British celebrity Louise Thompson. The reality show star included advice on slimming diets and body sculpting exercises, and included pictures of herself - a woman with a figure that perfectly fits conventional standards. There would be nothing wrong with that, if not for the fact that the book was planned to be titled “Body Positive”. Internet users did not hide their disappointment with the fact that the author used the slogan related to the rejection of rigorous treatment of her own body to promote the opposite approach. The book eventually came out under the title “Live Well With Louise: Fitness & Food to Feel Strong & Happy.”

Courtesy of Isle of Paradise

It’s also easy to fall into the trap of apparent positivity. Of course, we have the best intentions when we say stretch marks are beautiful or call them tiger stripes. However, it is worth considering whether this approach really makes us feel better, or are we trying to evaluate our body from the outside again, instead of trying to go inside and try to feel good in it?

What do all these allegations have in common? Inability to refrain from seeing from the outside. The goal of the body positive movement is to free the body from treating it as an object of constant evaluation and to reject the paradigm in which it determines the value of a person. As you can see, it is not easy - we are all stuck in numerous mental mechanisms that we still have to unlearn. Most importantly, however, we started.