False Body Positivity

The concept of “body positivity” would probably be no stranger to all of us, especially with the rise of the body positivity movement online. In recent years, many magazines have stopped using heavily-photoshopped images of models, while various brands have incorporated different body types into their marketing — all in an attempt to bring across the message that people deserve to feel positive about their appearance regardless of societal standards. It’s been widely realized that this helps improve self-esteem and mental health.

Yet in some cases, an intention to promote self-acceptance may lead to toxic or false body positivity, which may turn out to be yet another form of negative pressure.

How may body positivity be toxic?

Consider the following statements. How would you feel if someone said these to you?

“I love your outfit! You’re so confident for wearing this.”

This is perhaps a more obvious example of false body positivity. Although the speaker likely intends to uplift with such a statement, there is an implication that if the speaker had the body of the person they were addressing, they would be too ashamed to dress like them. Not only does this unconsciously put down the person on the other end of the statement, but it also implies that only people who are attractive enough can wear certain clothes.

“You’re beautiful the way you are, you don’t need to lose/gain weight!”

This statement merely expands the scope of one’s definition of attractiveness rather than rejecting the idea that weight is tied to attractiveness and that attractiveness is tied to one’s worth or value. To take it a step further, why, indeed, should our physical appearance be at the centre of our self-perception anyway?

“Fat/skinny people can be healthy and don’t need to lose/gain weight. That is a sign they don’t love themselves.”

This is often used as an interjection to people who claim that overweight or underweight individuals are not attractive and worthy of respect. While saying that they can be healthy is not wrong per se, it still begs the question of why health should be tied to a person’s worth at all. Moreover, disapproving of a person’s desire to gain or lose weight, regardless of what their motives are, is a dismissal of their own desires and the negative experiences they may have gone through because of their bodies. Forced acceptance is not true acceptance.

What does this have to do with empathy?

There were most likely good intentions behind false body positivity: a desire to empathise with those who have been discriminated against or judged because of their physical appearance, and the want to promote self-love and/or assurance. However, this can also come across as a rather self-centred act. People may have had bad experiences with their bodies; wanting to change how they look is fine as it is. Further, realistically speaking, it is never easy for anyone to feel positive about their physical experience 24/7. It is hence important to acknowledge that self-acceptance is a long process and may manifest differently for everyone.

Needless to say, this post just encompasses a few of the many examples of bodily “imperfections” that may be commented on. We hope that this can serve as a starting point for everyone to reconsider how they view others’ bodies!

The author of this article, Florence Lo, is a student of The University of Hong Kong.