You must have encountered countless instances when you stand in front of the mirror and detest what stares back at you. This lack of body positivity can be bad for your mental health and confidence. Read on to know more.
How many times have we looked up to the celebrities and Instagram influencers in awe for the beautiful bodies they own and how flawless they look? It’s all fine till we just admire them. What’s not fine is mindlessly comparing ourselves with them. We must appreciate the beauty but forgetting the concept of uniqueness isn’t something to be promoted. Just like we enjoy different seasons, love the drizzle of rain while we enjoy the beautiful sunsets in a desert; wait for the warm cup of coffee in Winters while we relish the ice-cream under the scorching sun; we must learn to appreciate individuality among our bodies and personalities as well.
Society's mythical illusion of the perfect body is enough to push someone on the verge of self-hate, low self-esteem and depression, concluding into suicide in the worst cases. Such negativity degrades society on a much-integrated level. Just like a hero always saves the damsel in distress, the society needed a hero in the form of body positivity, to safeguard it from sinking into the arms of oppression and judgement. Such villains!!! Let’s dive into what role our hero plays in the movie called life.
The Conception of Body Positivity:
Body positivity finds its roots from the fat acceptance movement started in the late 1960s, which aimed at normalising heavy bodies and preventing fat shaming. Judgement and discrimination didn’t stop there. It extended to everyone who didn’t fit into the definition of perfect body, shape, colour or features. This was affecting the well-being and mental health of victims of this ill-treatment. This made it necessary for the movement to evolve into something more comprehensive, hence the concept of body positivity was introduced.
The term "body positive" was specifically coined in 1996 when a psychotherapist who had been treated for her eating disorder, found the website thebodypositive.org. Since then, the movement gained popularity to help people accept themselves, propagating the motto, ‘everyBODY is beautiful'.
What Is Body Positivity?
Body Positivity aimed at achieving a positive body image. It means accepting yourself, the way you are while you feel GOOD and POSITIVE about it. When you are body positive, various notions of perfection don’t affect the way you feel about your personality. You know that you are precious and enough in terms of your body and your appearance, satisfied with what you’ve been bestowed upon.
Body positivity actively quashes the deep-rooted beliefs about beauty standards and challenges their validity in promoting superficial image. It advocates against the unrealistic and unusual body benchmarks set by society. Body positivity promotes inner beauty, allowing the person to love themselves regardless of their body weight, their complexion, gender or even specific features for that matter. Although its definition isn’t fixed but more or less, they stand for the same causes aforementioned.
Importance of Body Positivity:
Studies show that approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape, resulting in eating disorders. Unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the ‘perfect’ body type. 58% of college-aged girls feel pressured to be a certain weight. In a survey, more than 40% of women and about 20% of men agreed they would consider cosmetic surgery in the future. The statistics remain relatively constant across gender, age, marital status, and race.
This shows how much we need body positivity to remove the cobwebs of doubts about not being enough the way we are. It’s imperative we enlighten the person that going through unnatural means to fit into the idiotic moulds of society is wasteful if it hurts or harms you. There can be people who are better than you and a few crave to be who you are but none of them is YOU. Embrace your power. Wear confidence as your ornament that flaunts your amazing body, the way it is.
Promoting and Maintaining Body Positivity:
Society is full of hypocrites. They’ll call you curvy when you’re heavy and mock a thin girl as she lacks them. They’ll call you dark-complexioned and regard those with white skins as albino. The list goes on forever. To achieve body positivity, make sure you:
- Stop listening to other people's judgements and snide remarks
- Stop comparing yourself to models and celebrities
- Appreciate your body and it's needs. Accept that perfect body is an illusion
- Compliment yourself and others
- Take inspiration from people who support positive body image
Just like success, beauty should be considered a subjective concept as well. It should mean differently for different people. Beauty shouldn’t be constrained by the trivial perspective of community.
Conclusion:
Being a victim of body-shaming, it’s instrumental for anyone who knows how bad it feels for being judged for something over which you have no control; to come forward and uplift all those who share our pain and help this world become a better place for everyone. The biggest crime we can commit is taking away someone’s hope and confidence, exactly what society did to the 'imperfect' people who are beautifully created by nature but brutally criticized by the humans who neither live in peace nor let others live.
It’s on us to teach them that our soul and nature overpowers every physical beauty. We should love ourselves, our bodies and our colour. Spreading the message of body positivity can help us create a positive environment where someone can breathe with ease, a small opening full of sunlight in the dark forest of negativity. If we can’t be happy in our bodies, there’s no other place or person that could bring us that. We get one life, one body and one chance to achieve our dreams. Let’s grab the opportunity and feel gratified for whatever we have got. The world is a beautiful place; we just need to breathe, love, laugh, and live.
Written By - Saakshi Priyadarshini
Edited By - Sravanthi Cheerladinne
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