The short answer, yes. The nature of the body positive movement is rooted in good, with the idea that all bodies are lovable and should be accepted.
Oftentimes though what can happen is when we’re in a negative spot say, not feeling so awesome about our bodies, these positive messages make us feel worse. It’s in essence, feeling bad for feeling bad.
Plus, we’ve already been bombarded by the entirety of the beauty industry with all kinds of messages. Use this cream for clear skin, and this shapewear to smooth out your curves, and the list goes on. We hear these messages, and we attempt to work through the messaging to distill down what we need and what we don’t. This type of messaging is meant to sell us products. Marketing teams across the globe are working constantly to tell us what we need in order to fix all the problems that they think we have.
Do we want shapewear? How is our skin? Does it actually have any issues or is this messaging making it seem that way? Also, can we adjust our diet a little to help with clearer skin if that’s an issue? Do you actually love and want to show off our curves? And what if we don’t have those problems? What if we stood up to the messaging? This would affect everything AND we wouldn’t have to strive to feel better and feel guilty for not being more body positive. It’s just like the Gail Dines quote:
“If tomorrow, women woke up and decided they really liked their bodies, just think how many industries would go out of business.” —Gail Dines, professor of sociology and women’s studies at Wheelock College in Boston.
You get to choose how you feel each day. Wake up and hand-pick what that is. Don’t let an industry that makes money off of your feeling bad, decide for you.
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Kristen Donia is a freelance writer living in a tiny house she built in sunny Southern Oregon. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Education and has dedicated her life to studying and writing about empathy, vulnerability and enriching the human experience.