Ways We Get Body Positivity All Wrong

Source: Delmaine Donson / Getty

“The body positivity movement.” The word “positivity” is built right into the phrase, and yet, many social media posts and media surrounding body positivity seem rather negative. Sadly, research has found that as many as 80 percent of women are not happy with their appearance , and 50 percent of Americans are displeased with their current weight. That’s a lot of people who feel a lot of negativity about their bodies. And that’s no small deal, seeing as we take our bodies everywhere with us. You could say your body is one location you cannot escape, so it’s tragic to feel you wish you could “escape” it. The body positivity movement is meant to help us alleviate negative feelings about our bodies, wherever we are in our journeys. It’s about positive thinking and sending out positive messages, but it sometimes feels like being positive about bodies means being negative about some bodies.

The body positivity movement has also, unfortunately, normalized and even encouraged literally unhealthy behaviors. It’s an incredibly complicated and sensitive subject, and as a reaction to some certainly outdated and negative messages, it’s possible we’ve overcorrected by swinging to the other extreme. But extremes are never sustainable, and rarely healthy. Here are ways we get body positivity wrong.

Source: Hiraman / Getty

Emphasizing body over mind

Sometimes you’ll see women post very honest photos of themselves from a time in their lives when they were severely underweight as a result of an eating disorder . Next to it, they’ll post an image of their current selves, and they’ll detail the journey they went through with the eating disorder, and what they had to overcome to release that control over their weight, and be happy to be the weight they are today. These are powerful and inspiring posts. But then, the comments can miss the mark – and I’m guilty of having done this myself. People will comment “You look great today!” or “You look better today!” What would the right comment be? “You look happy today.” The emphasis can often be on just the appearance and not the mindset behind it. The mindset, for someone who has overcome such issues, is not only the most important part, but also, praising their appearance today re-emphasizes that it’s their looks that matter most.