There is a huge problem with the body positivity movement on Instagram
In recent years, social media has emerged as an unlikely — but powerful — force in the quest to shatter impossibly narrow beauty ideals, helping women with bodies of all shapes and sizes to accept themselves as they are. It’s a daunting task, to be sure, given that both traditional media and advertising (and now social media) continue to sell unrelenting and often impossible standards of beauty that we’re somehow expected to measure up to. It’s no wonder why the body positivity movement on Instagram feels like the perfect antidote to decades and decades of print, TV, and other mass media advertising telling us that changing our bodies is the only way we’ll ever achieve happiness.
A powerful group of body-positive Instagrammers are celebrating their bodies exactly as they are, without airbrushing, filters, or strategic enhancements to fit societal ideals of perfection — and they’re doing it by sharing their photos, thoughts, and ideas on the ‘gram, and using body-positive Instagram hashtags to spread their message as far and wide as possible.
It’s a refreshing (and much-needed) change to see bodies on our feeds that are typically ignored in mainstream advertising that remind us that all bodies are beautiful.
More people are joining the body positivity movement on Instagram, reclaiming their bodies, shunning the all-too-common headlines and products marketed toward weight loss or somehow bettering your appearance, and showing their followers that being thin or traditionally beautiful is not a surefire way to inner happiness. As that’s happening, an alarming trend has emerged in its place, and it’s impossible to deny when you see it in your feed.
Searching though hashtags like #bodypositive, #bodypositivity, or #bopo leads to thousands of images of marginalized bodies finally being given the space to express their individual beauty, which is amazing.
But these hashtags also lead to plenty of images of mostly thin, white women using those same hashtags to promote their brand of #fitspo, which is the exact opposite of what the body positivity movement is about.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bes74SUhyU3
But isn’t body positivity supposed to be welcoming and inclusive of all bodies, even culturally accepted ones? Yes, but there’s an important distinction to make.
Body positive activist and mental health advocate Lexie Manion recently explained the difference in an interview with Livestrong. She says, “Body positivity is a movement focused on shining the spotlight onto marginalized bodies — people of color, LGBT, disabled, fat, etc. — because they are not well represented in the media.” Marginalized bodies, including “fat bodies, bodies of color, queer bodies, disabled bodies and bodies that bear the battle scars of diseases,” are the ones spearheading this movement as a way to shine light on those who have been dimmed. Weight loss before-and-after pics, #fitspo transformations, and traditionally thin, able bodies simply aren’t promoting the same ideals.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BdnZSr6BWxr
Gia Narvaez, a transgender body positive Instagram influencer, adds that it “represents a radical movement of individuals who are loving themselves unconditionally, breaking free from oppressive structures that tell us we have to look, eat and be a certain type of way to live a happy and fulfilled life.” So seeing a barrage of images of thin or muscular fitness bloggers or influencers showing off their kale smoothies, latest workout routines, or weight loss before-and-after photos goes against everything that body positive voices are aiming to achieve.
“It’s not like they aren’t allowed to partake in the movement,” Manion explains. “It becomes a problem, however, when it’s 50 photos in a row of more privileged bodies and then one or two photos of more marginalized bodies under a hashtag.”
For women that fall within those parameters, simply acknowledging the difference between body positivity and “self-love” helps for marginalized bodies to claim the spaces they’ve long been shut out of.
But what is the difference between the two? Sophia Carter-Kahn, co-host of the She’s All Fat podcast, explains, saying, “Body positivity to me is facing outward, and self-love is facing inward. Both of these things are intersectional and can mean the same thing,” citing hashtags like #melaninpoppin and #darkgirlsarebeautiful.
Being aware of the full context is key here, noting that using hashtags like #selflove makes all the difference. According to Manion, “Once they realize that body positivity is meant to be a space for marginalized bodies, they don’t want to take up space in the hashtags or have their stories covered by news outlets. Their story has already been told.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BasO9qVnn1m
The ultimate end goal here is to make space for all bodies, but especially the ones that have been forced to hide or sent messages that they’re less important. Representation seriously matters. These brave social media warriors are leading the movement one hashtag at a time, making them the true definition of #bodygoals, no matter what our current cultural ideals might suggest to the contrary.
