What Body Positivity Actually Means
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Health and Wellness

Body Positivity Can Be Pretty Controversial, But It Comes Down To One Basic Understanding

If you asked three people what they thought body positivity was, chances are high you'd get three different answers.

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Body Positivity Can Be Pretty Controversial, But It Comes Down To One Basic Understanding
Katherine Bellew

I have spoken countless times about the importance of loving your body. Naturally, this is because I am one of many women who now live in a "body-positive" culture. Being body positive is an all-inclusive journey that is comprised of self-love and respect, though I find this journey to be rather challenging, as the perceptions surrounding the female body and the ways that it "should" look and be treated continue to vary. For decades on end, there has been a special sort of attention paid to how the body develops based on societal trends. Certain generations upheld the idea that being as thin as possible was what would allow a woman to achieve the "ideal" body type, whereas others encouraged women to gain weight in order to become more attractive.

Today, women are in the midst of a spectrum that places an incredibly heavy emphasis on loving your body and regarding it with positivity. Yet the idea of what "positivity" means has a very loose definition.

To some, encouraging self-love and body positivity means feeding your body not out of hunger, but out of stress, boredom or emotion – and one is assumed to find solace in the results it may bring.

Body positivity may be inclusive of simply feeding your body while neglecting to sustain it with proper nutrients that will energize and stimulate it. To others, body positivity is a whirlwind of intermittent fasting and detox teas, as well as regimented dieting and exercise trends. Restriction and deprivation are used as a means to please the mind and the scale, but may easily harm the body in the process. No matter how body "positive" we as a society of women try to be, judgment will always arise – our only choice is whether or not we are vocal about said judgments. Fat shaming still exists, and competition thrives in the forefront of society. Social media enables our ability to compare ourselves to other women not only based on our intelligence or personalities, but on how our bodies differ from theirs.

It poses the ideas of how we can look better, how we can become sexier, and how we can stand out from the crowd.

After browsing through endless articles on how women can work to achieve their goals of developing healthier relationships with their bodies, I could not help but notice the few articles making their way to the front pages that offer suggestions of how women can achieve their "ideal" body type – and let me tell you, I am not here for it. Part of me was disgusted by it. I do not believe that we should be putting other women down because they have anxieties surrounding going to the gym. More importantly, I most certainly do not believe that we should be encouraging women to skip meals and fast out of desperation to detox when there are far healthier alternatives to resetting the body. This toxic culture is something that has only been masked in recent times, though it is clear that the mindset may never disappear entirely, and it pains me to see it making a reappearance today. In all honesty, I find it rather hypocritical that wine and face masks have become such staples of self-love and care, but exuding confidence in one's own skin does not always seem to fit this mold.

So, what exactly does it mean to be body positive? Though dictionary definitions do exist, I believe it is a question that can only be answered by the individual. I will say that brands and marketing have made strides by flooding social media with body positive campaigns over the past few years, though what we tend to forget is that this idea means something different to every woman. Yes, there is the general consensus that we should love our bodies exactly as they are, but the ways in which we choose to engage in these types of love differ greatly. A woman who may love her body may simply appreciate her physical appearance on the outside, though it comes as a result of neglecting the inside altogether. A woman who may hate her body may simply dislike it because it differs from what the "ideal" body type looks like, though she feeds it the proper nutrients.

I hope to serve as a reminder that it is acceptable to love yourself exactly as you are.

You do not need to change to fit a standard or ideal that is oftentimes unattainable. This is a reminder that, as women, it is our responsibility to lift each other up, not tear each other down. This does not apply solely to ideas surrounding body positivity, but to all aspects of life. If we can take the time to support one another in our endeavors, acknowledge and appreciate our differences and encourage healthful choices that are inclusive of both the body and mind, maybe we will continue to see more positive changes. If we stay consistent in challenging the negative ideas surrounding unrealistic standards of beauty, maybe there will be a time when we will be able to collectively define what it means to be body positive.

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