What does body positive mean and can this movement teach you to love your body? History of origin, principles and public opinion.
Bodypositive is a movement, the main concept of which is the acceptance of one's appearance and physical condition, as well as the external data of other people. Living with yourself and the world around you in harmony.
What does body positive mean?
This movement is quite popular in the world, in Russia it is also developing at a rapid pace. The level of tolerance is doing its job, and information technologies are spreading a new direction at a viral speed.
The main message of the movement is that the appearance of each person is beautiful, and a person should love himself as he is. First of all, the direction helped many women to realize themselves in life. This applies not only to those people who do not fit the established standards of beauty, but also to people with disabilities who have lost a limb in an accident or have some other body features, persons who cannot change in any way.
It's not just girls who are in body positivity. There are more and more male followers of the movement, since many feel insecure due to the discrepancy between male external data and the standards of glossy magazines and Hollywood films.
Today, the promotion of a beautiful body has become so obvious that most people, especially women, perceive their body as something ugly and alien. The cult of the body has become very powerful all over the world through advertising, cinema, and the beauty industry is all built on it. As a result of the appearance of body positivism, women with a non-standard "not generally accepted" appearance began to actively campaign against women who look after themselves.
But in this movement there are a number of points that cause bewilderment among the public. For example, such a thing as "freeleading", which calls for a normal perception of menstrual blood and the refusal to use hygiene products. The activists of this movement went further and began to flaunt it. Only a small part of the public understood this type of agitation, but many people condemned it, since menstrual blood is considered the same discharge as any other: mucus, dandruff, etc. And a very reasonable question arises: why flaunt it? Everyone already knows about it.
Followers of body positivity explain any of their actions by the fact that society is so accustomed to polished beauty that people who do not fit the standards are simply not perceived or even considered ugly. Therefore, they try to draw the attention of society to the problems of a person who has features that are not accepted by society: fullness, a powerful physique, disabilities, incurable diseases, etc.
The history of body positive
Body positive ideas have their roots in the feminist movement of the 1960s. The direction for the acceptance of completeness has become well-known. Free America became the country of origin of feminism.
It is not surprising that body positive received an impetus for development under the star-striped flag. It happened in 1996. Connie Sobchak and Elizabeth Scott formed an organization called The body positive to support women who did not fit social standards. Initially, this was primarily due to the weight and waist volume. Later, this philosophy began to include height, skin color and other aspects of appearance.
Moreover, since the movement arose on the wave of feminism, it led to the fact that asexual tendencies began to develop in society. Of course, this is also explained by the fact that women went to social networks and began to take such photos that they need. But this, as some experts point out, was a negative trend towards a decrease in the general level of eroticism and the number of sexy photographs.
Feminist sentiments began to influence fashion as well. More conservatism began to prevail in the modeling business. Back in the 19th and 20th centuries, many women felt more free, began to get on bicycles, actively experiment with parts of their wardrobes: pantaloons, cycling suits and varieties of dresses, and the abandonment of corsets appeared.
Now the clothes are begged according to the principle “I wear what I want and what is comfortable”. Photographers working in the field of erotic photography share their experience that it has become much more difficult to persuade young models to participate in erotic photo sessions. Whereas at the turn of the 2000s, the stars themselves understood the "need" for such photographs to generate intense interest in society. So, despite its short history, body positivity already has a great impact on the society of many countries, on the modeling business, television and social networks.
Body positivism has a very strong connection with the struggle of women for their rights, with the improvement of the quality of life of people with disabilities, the elderly and is beginning to spread to sexual minorities. The slogan of the direction is “Love yourself as you are”. This is an excellent appeal, closely tied to the rise of tolerant sentiments in society.
But one question haunts society: you can love yourself the way you are, but why openly show it all off? Only time will be able to answer it, and, as the experience of previous generations shows, society will simply get used to the fact that the world develops in this way.
In Russia, body positive was officially developed in 2013. However, it is spreading at a slow pace, since Russian society is patriarchal in nature. It is also connected with the lifestyle of people who eat mainly at home: a woman cooks, a man gets resources for food and, in general, the number of obese people, in comparison with other countries, is not so large. Moreover, in folk traditions, women with magnificent figures have always been considered the norm for Russia, so fewer people pay attention to this philosophy. And only with the advent of Western culture, with the norms of 90 * 60 * 90, women and men in Russia began to change their preferences and views.
In Russia, Western philosophy is superimposed on a certain way of thinking. Some supporters of this philosophy are still unhappy with their bodies. They try to monitor their appearance and health, refusing beauty procedures and at the same time paying attention to a healthy lifestyle: changing their diet, starting to play sports. This is due to the fact that a healthy lifestyle and the concept of beauty are also “genetically contained in the DNA” of a Russian person, and the ideas of body positivism are superimposed on these images. It looks like this: "love your body as it is, but pay attention to it, trying to be healthy and attractive."
Nevertheless, this movement exists in Russia and it is developing.
There are 2 areas that are different from each other in relation to "normal beauty"
- acceptance of the body of any person as beautiful and worthy of love;
- elimination of norms and divisions into categories of beauty.
There is a hope that common sense and the golden mean will win in the end.
Basic principles of body positive
The most important principle of the movement is acceptance of oneself and allowing other people to be themselves, not striving for ideals imposed by the media and the fashion industry. It is important not to go beyond reason in accepting other people's choices.
The basic principles of body positive are as follows
- Take your body. Concept: "My body is my business."
- Accept other people for who they are.
- Do not compare yourself to others - you are unique / unique in yourself.
- See and embrace the beauty within you.
- The most important thing is comfort. Do not force yourself and your body for the sake of beauty norms.
- Doing whatever you want with your body is one of the radical principles.
In addition, the body positivism movement has acquired additional moods. Body positivity has become radical and intolerant of those women who choose fashion, cosmetics, a well-groomed and athletic body as their way of life. That is, calling for the acceptance of their bodies, representatives and body-positive activists began to sharply reject and even condemn other women. And this is contrary to the basic principles of the movement.
Men also began to share the principles of direction. Male body positivity allowed many representatives of the stronger sex to accept themselves and live a more harmonious and confident life.
Public opinion about body positivity
In fact, the concept of this movement, although it is becoming more and more popular, is not familiar to everyone, in addition, many still cannot understand the psychology of body positivity, although they actively express their opinion on this matter.
Bodypositive teaches a person to choose what to do and what to strive for. It does not impose stereotypical patterns of behavior: you have to follow a diet, you have to go in for sports, you have to, you have to, you have to … Nobody says what you need to do. It is worth learning to recognize your desires and programs imposed by external factors.
Here are a number of positive aspects of the movement
- A person has the right to a happy, dignified life. It doesn't matter how much he / she weighs, what physical characteristics he / she has. Tolerance is tolerance for everything. And if we have a person with disabilities or just a complete person, this does not make him worse or better. He / she should not be discriminated against, harassed because he / she does not look like a cover model. This is especially true for women.
- The body was given to a person in order to live in this world. What many representatives of body positivism learn to do and do - they just live, enjoy life and the world around them. These are people with a strong character, their own opinion and attitude.
- Body positivity informs women and men about what is happening to their bodies and why it is happening.
- The movement helps many to find themselves, get rid of complexes, find like-minded people and even relatives.
Negative reasoning and opinions about body positivity
- Many people are against the fact that representatives of the movement go beyond the boundaries: unwashed hair and unclean teeth, dirty clothes and all kind of unkempt, flabby and lethargic body - a completely unkempt person. This is about extremes: accepting yourself as you are is one thing, and not taking care of yourself and your health, not caring for and being simply an unpleasant-looking person is quite another!
- Due to body positivity, many representatives of the movement justify themselves: laziness, uncleanliness. There are features of the body with which nothing can be done, but there is a banal spinelessness and unwillingness to deal with oneself. People do not like to admit to themselves and others what they are, so in the movement they look for excuses and support. In fact, there are not many people who truly accept all their "flaws".
- People with "non-standard" appearance try to "remake" the opinion of others in the first place. When the main work lies in the internal personal relationship to your appearance. There are incredibly many examples of how a chubby woman attracts the attention of men due to the fact that her sexuality and femininity comes from her inner perception and sense of herself. At the same time, she is absolutely not an activist of any movements, including body positive.
- Due to the fact that people are prone to self-deception, they often simply do not see that they need medical attention. This attitude leads to even greater health problems.
- Radical representatives of body positivity literally verbally attack women and condemn them for their grooming, physical attractiveness, and athletic physique.
- Sometimes body positivity actions are extremely unpleasant in general. Photos and videos are unpleasant. Other people are trying to instill the fact that it is normal to look at it and see it. “You needn't turn your nose up. Love me for who I am. " How to look, whom to love and with whom to have sex is absolutely every person's business. If few men "sink" into plump men, this does not make someone bad in particular, but simply puts the interests and priorities of each person in their places.
- Separately, it is worth talking about the lack of tolerance among a number of representatives of the movement. As some psychologists, famous personalities and people with their own opinions say: if you love yourself, love, just don't force others to love yourself, impose your point of view on someone and blame girls who are not part of the body positive movement for all mortal sins.
Famous personalities of body positivism
Body positivity is more common among girls than among men. But, nevertheless, they also need an example to follow. And, as always, famous people who actively promote this movement or voice words of love and acceptance of their body become such an example:
- Nelly Furtado … The once popular pop singer disappeared from the stage for a while, and then appeared in curvaceous forms after pregnancy. The point, apparently, is not only this, but also that Nelly abandoned fitness classes and began to eat more with her children. In any case, we love her first of all for her creativity, and not for the size of her hips.
- Drew Barrymore … Always an obese star of Hollywood films, she let her pounds go to the will of fate and became noticeably fuller. However, because of this, we did not love her films less.
- Rihanna … In general, she is one of those who constantly lose weight and gain it again. And she feels good about it. The singer herself said that she even buys some models of clothes in different sizes.
- Adele … This is the singer who has already appeared in the starry sky, being curvaceous. I was never shy and did not hide it. The superstar has always stated that she loves to eat and that creativity and music are more important to her than how she looks.
- Jennifer Lopez … An actress and singer who has always been curvy. And, in a way, she was one of the first to treat her body in a body-positive way and did not hide it, inspiring and soothing hundreds of thousands of her fans and followers.
- Kate Winslet … Probably, many remember the actress from the movie "Titanic", what she was. Now Kate has changed significantly. However, at the level of her talent, the increase in weight and the change in her external data did not affect in any way, and she still plays her roles in films with talent.
- Ashley Graham … Plus-size model. It is rightfully considered one of the symbols of body positive.
- Serena Williams … The American tennis player has always been very impressive in size. She recently became a mother, but she never hid her external data and, in particular, because of her physical capabilities, she was able to achieve so much in tennis.
- Beyonce … The pop music icon has spoken many times about how he loves his body. Did her external data prevent her from becoming popular all over the world?
- Tess Halliday … The most impressive plus-size model in the world. This girl starred for the cover of Vogue magazine. Not only "skinny girls" are capable of this!
- Arcadio Adi Del Valais … One of the most popular men. She runs her own Instagram page and performs at fashion shows.
As you can see, many stars refer to body positivity indirectly, without directly declaring their support for this movement. However, their example inspires hundreds of thousands of women, and men too, to accept and love themselves.
There are also body positive celebrities in Russia:
- Angelina Rusanova - plus-size model. She has over 30 thousand followers on Instagram, and this number is growing.
- Ekaterina Sigitova - a famous psychotherapist and a woman who, since childhood, had such a disease as ichthyosis.
- Tatiana Koptilova - went through overcoming a difficult situation and now maintains a blog on Instagram about body positivity, feminism and self-acceptance as the kind of person nature made you: without hesitation and not paying attention to the ridicule of many narrow-minded people.
- Daria Bessmertnaya - was always distinguished by its large size, she had to endure a lot of ridicule and bullying in her childhood. Now she, through her own experience, tells people how to live in harmony with themselves.
- Anastasia Volochkova - another celebrity in the body-positive movement, who from a fragile ballerina has turned into a woman of large forms and, it seems, is not at all shy about it.
What is body positive - watch the video:
Taking into account all the pros and cons of body positive, I would like to say: love and accept yourself as you are. Strive for a healthy and balanced lifestyle. Ignore other people and their opinions. The main thing is how happy and comfortable you live. In any case, beauty always comes from within. Be yourself!
