"Body positivity"

...in fact I think the depression stems from her knowing deep down that her analysis hasn't gone far enough and what she's doing is a load of bollox. It's all very neoliberal too, selling a load of tat through ads.

There's an Instagram influencer called 'bodyposipanda' who's been annoying the shit out of me lately. Her feed is full of photos of her in her underwear. That's fine I guess, you could say it's showing larger women to be beautiful, although does it really do anything but objectify larger women under the guise of 'diversity'? Interspersed there are inspirational quotes that basically give the reader permission to be as lazy, unproductive, anti-social, unsuccessful etc as they wish and frames this as self acceptance. She also often posts on trans issues, one memorable quote being along the lines of 'if a trans person is threatened it's the job of cis women to step in and protect them', seemingly not seeing how sexist it is to expect women to take on other people's emotional labor for them. I agree with her on the evils of diet culture and I think for many they would see the very reasonable objections to this and think it mean to be critical of the rest. Total self acceptance isn't necessarily a good thing though, if it means making excuses for not making any effort. I'm not focussing on weight here, she talks about other subjects, although to be honest I don't think celebrating obesity and overeating as this influencer does is something to be celebrated at all. Overeating stems from psychological distress, getting to the route of that is surely better than celebrating binge eating. Healthy bodies of all ages, shapes and sizes and showing what they can do would be a better approach rather than lounging around in her bra and pants with a cupcake. She often also posts a 'reality Vs Instagram' stories where she reveals that actually, even though she was smiling in that photo of herself in her knickers, she was actually feeling really depressed. Inspirational...

The sad thing is human bodies are amazing. Wonders of evolution. There is no other species with out fine manual dexterity for example. No other species that can throw as accurately as us for another.

I wish we heard more about the natural wonder that is the human body and what it can do.

Some good points made.
I'd like to add that it fails for me, because unlike feminist analysis, it does nothing to analyse or address why women hate their bodies in the first place.
So to me its just another completely predictable aspect of neoloberalism which pushes responsibility back to the individual, and therefore useless.

I think people need to learn to love themselves and have confidence regardless of how they look and how many people find them attractive.

Body positivity seems to be about gaining others approval and convincing others and themselves that they are attractive, desirable and sex objects.

We should be pushing for self love (perhaps phrased differently 😂) and part of loving yourself is caring for the body that you have - not eating yourself into an early grave and a life of pain, illness and discomfort.

I think I agree. Whether it’s a negative or positive focus on the body - there’s just too much focus on it. On the way it looks anyway. I think positivity should be more of a celebration of what our bodies can do rather than what they look like e.g. sports achievement, giving birth, overcoming illnesses... I think that would be a great shift in body focus.

Yes it's mentioned a bit on this thread, I was perplexed by the use of the term.

Janice Turner V Munroe Bergdorf NSPCC www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3731177-janice-turner-v-munroe-bergdorf-nspcc

its occurring to me that women can be a bit rounder and wear pretty much what they want as long as with make up, the men can do and wear anything, including makeup, but generally also channel sexist stereotypes (I'm thinking of Sam Smith.)

And of course you can have a shed load of plastic surgery and hormones etc and this is also body positivity.

It's like the sex positive movement which afaik is basically porn hub with "consent" but obviously you're more cool the more pornhub you are, so basically coerced consent.

"You don't have to be pretty to be sexy..... you just have to please men."

I’ve never heard anyone say “Men can be handsome and sexy in all shapes and sizes.”

Ever.

I also resent the way it centres women's value in beauty and sexuality. There seem to be a lot of parallels with sex positivity. Hardly revolutionary.

That's a lightbulb moment for me - especially with the links between "body positivity" and a cultish celebration of morbid obesity which is almost as dangerous as being "pro ana": the focus is still on looks - "let's redefine beauty so that it encompasses being 'curvy' too." It encapsulates what's been making me uneasy about this movement. It's still about the external male gaze in a very unhealthy way.

Rather than stopping and celebrating what the body can do, can accomplish, for the woman whose body it is, from the mundane to the insanely athletic, from the fine motor skills of arts and crafts to the strength of running an ultramarathon (if that's your bag).

I'm sceptical of it too. I mentioned on the Jameela thread that I've heard her speak of "body neutrality", I much prefer that as a concept. Taking the focus off of appearance completely.