"I like the body positive movement, but I don't like that they don't care about their health."
"I like the body positive movement, but these people shouldn't remain content."
"I like the body positive movement, but I don't like promoting obesity."
It seems like these days, any comments about the body positive movement are followed by a "but." It is almost like they are saying, "I like the idea of you not hating yourself for your body, but honestly, you probably should."
The body positive movement is a movement toward self-love. It is people of all body types saying that no matter what their body looks like, they are going to love it. And from personal experience, sometimes that #BodyPosi hashtag on a photo is done in a wave of confidence, and sometimes it is a "fake it 'til you make it" mechanism. Either way, this movement is about people choosing to love themselves despite what others say about their size. You have to wonder: How is that contentious?
Oh, but it is. Because everyone on the Internet apparently becomes a doctor or a registered dietician overnight when a fat person decides they don't want to hate themselves. Because somehow, promoting loving yourself has been confused with promoting obesity.
It doesn't matter the state of their health. It doesn't matter if they have a weight-gaining disorder, if they're working hard to lose weight or they never exercise. It doesn't matter because health isn't the issue. It is like the naysayers see a photo of a curvy girl loving herself and read, "Hello, I am overweight. I love being overweight. You should also be overweight and eat really bad and never exercise because being overweight is awesome!"
The "concern" for overweight women's health is, quite frankly, a load of shit scapegoat to try and find a kinder way to disapprove of her body. It may be socially unacceptable to comment "you're fat", but somehow saying "you're going to lose 10 years off of your life" is okay because it is coming from a place of concern. Unless you are not only a medical professional, but their medical professional who knows their entire medical history, it is not your place to comment on their weight on a photo of them... A photo that is just promoting confidence, no less.
The body positive movement is not focused on health. It is literally just focused on pushing people to love their bodies despite how big or small they are. Their health isn't your concern, but further, it isn't the movement's concern, either. All #BodyPosi aims to do is encourage people to not hate their bodies because of the way they look.
Next time you go to comment on a woman's body and fake concern about her health, follow this handy and helpful flowchart.
Promoting confidence, promoting self-love and promoting body positivity is not the same thing as promoting obesity. Quit with your half-assed health concerns and negativity and just let people love themselves.