The Problem with Body Positivity
Clothes are not the only thing going in and out of style-- the bodies that occupy them go in and out of style too. From the Roaring 20s’ coveted slim, “boyish figure” to the currently stylish influencer “hourglass” shape, different body types have fulfilled different decades’ standards for physical beauty. Consequently, body types’ role in the idea of universal physical beauty has served as a catalyst for body image issues among consumers of all media that has perpetuated body “trends.” In retaliation, the movement of body positivity has come to social media to demonstrate the idea that all bodies, regardless of whether they adhere to the current societal body type trend, are beautiful.
At first glance, this movement is a strong one; women with less curves or with more weight on their stomachs can be encouraged to feel just as beautiful in their bodies as women with the “hourglass” figure that currently is in “style.” All women, who collectively occupy a diverse array of body types, can be told that they are beautiful.
As any movement has, though, the body positivity movement has been met with its criticism. The criticism begins with the following question: why does being physically beautiful matter in the first place?
My answer is that it only matters to businesses trying to sell products.
Selling the Standard
Most beauty standards, while attainable by certain people with the applicable combination of genetics, are for the most part difficult to attain. The 20s “ideal body type” of extreme thinness is for the most part difficult to attain, particularly for women, who arebiologically predisposed to have more body fat. Likewise, the current body type trend is the “perfect hourglass,” as seen on Kim Kardashian; however, Kim Kardashian has undergone multiple body surgeries to achieve this body type, demonstrating the difficulty for most women in attaining this body type naturally. The constant difficulty in achieving the body standard and adhering to the “body trend” seems far off from a coincidence; rather, it appears to be a strategy to sell goods and services.
Big, luscious, pink lips are a standard utilized by lip filler companies and lip liner makeup brands. Long eyelashes are considered “feminine’’ and “seductive” by mascara brands and eyelash extension artists. Likewise, a thin waist is the perfect standard to market corsets, liposuction, weight loss smoothies, and detox programs. A thin waist while sporting a big butt and big breasts is deliberately hard to achieve naturally because businesses make the bodily beauty standard hard to achieve without help from products. That way, consumers have no choice but to buy products that help them to achieve the standard.
The issue with body positivity, in turn, is that it doesn’t really stop “selling the standard.” It continues to sell something that doesn’t need to be sold.
Multiple companies and campaigns, including Dove, have leveraged the idea of “body positivity” to continue to sell products to women; this paints body positivity as inauthentic. Instead of focusing on making all women feel beautiful, body positivity becomes a token that companies use to label themselves as the “good guy” and to convince women to consume their products.
Essentially, non-”body positive” companies convince women to buy their products to “become” beautiful. “Body positive” companies convince women to buy their products to “feel beautiful in one’s own skin.”
Body positivity doesn’t make much of a difference if it continues to sell something through the idea that beauty matters enough to spend money on it.
The Solution: Not Caring
Body positivity maintains undue focus on the physical appearance of women rather than repositioning the spotlight to characteristics beyond the surface level; this risks dehumanizing women rather than empowering them.
Rather than focusing on buying products to feel and be beautiful, we need to focus on rejecting the idea that physical beauty is so important. We need to cultivate characteristics that foster intrinsic happiness-- like health, interpersonal relationships, accumulated knowledge and curiosity, and creative pursuits.
A solution that incorporates this shifted focus is body neutrality, which rather than rejecting the idea that certain people are not beautiful, rejects the idea that being beautiful matters at all.
Embracing body neutrality is difficult, especially given the fact that we live in an era of inevitable media consumption and that media consumption will constantly spotlight beauty standards and label them as important. However, embracing it can lead to a more intrinsically rewarding feeling than trying to force oneself to feel or to be physically “beautiful.”
Anyone can begin to embrace body neutrality by exercising to work up a sweat, not to achieve a thin waist. Anyone can begin by making eggs in the morning to make something, not to get enough protein to get a big butt. Anyone can begin by spending money to cultivate hobbies, enrich themselves, and learn more, rather than spending money to grasp for physical beauty.
So let’s begin.
