Body positivity has been all the rage recently. Skinny is out, and we are now embracing curves, bulges, cellulite, and everything else that make a body human. We have come to understand that thin doesn’t always mean fit, and weight is not always the marker for one’s health. We know that no two people have or should have the same body, and the standards of beauty that we are bombarded with are, more often than not, photoshopped. We stand up against body shaming bravely, and our tolerance for it is on a rapid decline. After years of unhealthy messages about the body, this wave of body positivity is much needed. But, it has a dark side.
At the foundation of body positivity, is the belief that we must learn to accept our bodies, and those of others, as they are. We must understand that each body is unique, and stop trying to ape an arbitrarily constructed definition of what looks good. Acceptance – this is the key word here. Stop hating your body, and the way it folds when you sit. The extra two inches doesn’t define who you are. Your cheekbones not sitting high enough doesn’t make you less pretty. So on, and so forth. The strong message here is that everyone is beautiful.
But, being body positive is more than embracing your body as is. It is also about taking care of your body. Unconditional acceptance gives implicit permission to let go, and embrace our body as is. However, the problem here is that we neglect the fact that the body, made of muscles, blood and veins, needs care and maintenance. Cultivating the discipline to take care of one’s body is tough, and some of us use body positivity as an excuse to not put in the work. Let’s get this clear: being body positive, and being lazy are not the same thing.
The fact is that our bodies need to be exercised, just like our minds. We take showers every day, cut our nails on a regular basis, brush our teeth, in order to stay hygienic and ward off diseases. The body needs similar attention and cleaning, if you will. We need to make it move, shed the extra kilos, not in order to look a certain way, but to stay healthy, and propel our bodies to reach their full potential. In essence, that is what body positivity is.
The real reason we shun skinny, as the ideal body, is not because it feeds into patriarchal standards of beauty, or because it is impossible to achieve, but because it is unhealthy. The same goes for a sedentary lifestyle in the name of honouring one’s body. Yes, know your limitations, but do the best you can within those bounds.
