The way we perceive our bodies can change how we feel about them. If we look at our bodies in a positive manner, we might be happy and accept the different aspects of our body. If we view our body from a negative perspective, however, it can lead to us resenting and disapproving of our natural bodies. The media does not help our society in viewing our bodies in a positive perspective as it promotes an “ideal” body everyone should have. Billboards, commercials, ads, magazines, and other forms of media promote the “perfect” body shape that everyone should strive for in order to be viewed as beautiful.

Although it may not seem harmful, by media pushing these standards onto us it can cause serious physical and mental health effects. Women and men begin to take extreme measures in order to slim down or fit into the narrow box of beauty promoted through media. Our brains also start to degrade our bodies with horrible words and base our worth on our exterior appearance. Communities have noticed this unhealthy trend and have started to promote body positivity. Body positivity is described as accepting your body that might be neglected as perfect by media standards. While some believe body positivity does not work, appreciating and not basing your worth on your body reduces eating disorders and advocates for body acceptance of all body types.

To start off, encouraging body positivity can help reduce the number of people who suffer from eating disorders. As mentioned before, media pushes society to fit in a beauty standard that many cannot achieve. Not being able to fit into this standard can drive some to physically hurt their bodies in order to feel beautiful in our civilization. Some people may even contract eating disorders to morph their body into one they accept.  According to the National Eating Disorder Association, “while there is no single cause of eating disorders, research indicates that body dissatisfaction is the best-known contributor to the development of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa”. Anorexia nervosa is starving of your body until your body starts losing weight. Bulimia nervosa is causing involuntary vomiting in order to release some food consumed before. Both eating disorders can cause health defects such as tooth decay, decrease in thyroid hormones, fainting, bloating, constipation, kidney failure, and many other health effects (NEDA). These eating disorders can even cause the host to die if the conditions are severe. A negative body image caused by media has caused many individuals to suffer from these or other eating disorders. A positive body image that the body positivity movement shows women and men instead of a negative one can help prevent the forming of eating disorders. Women and men who have suffered from eating disorders have agreed that body positivity could have helped them if they had been exposed to it before contracting their eating disorders.

To give an example, I have personally dealt with eating disorders that could’ve been prevented if I had been exposed to the acceptance of my body. I dealt with anorexia nervosa for a couple of months in order to “improve” my body shape. Instead of this harmful practice aiding me, it made me feel less valuable and worthless. It took some time to recover from the eating disorder and I am still trying to change my detrimental thoughts of being too fat or too curvy from swarming my mind. Now that I have been exposed to the body positivity movement, I feel like it has helped me a bit to love myself. When I see multiple models or promoters in various shapes and sizes sharing their different stories of struggle to love their bodies, I feel like I am not alone in my battle against myself doubt. I truly believe if I had been exposed to these women in the body positivity movement, I wouldn’t have put myself through my excruciating eating disorder.   

In addition to reducing eating disorders, body positivity helps join different communities in accepting all body types. There is a common misconception that body positivity does not advocate for all body types. Some have stated that body positivity only promotes the acceptance of Caucasian women with an hourglass figure. Although some have agreed with this stereotype, there have been women who are part of the body positivity movement that endorses the recognition of different cultural body types. According to“Nalgona Pride: Body Positivity in the Latinx Community”, “ NPP (Nalgona Pride Positivity) arose out of the need for an intentional space, one that allows people of color to heal, feel empowered, and take down what Lucas calls the “white thin cis-hetero industrial complex”’. The Nalgona Pride Positivity is a movement that uses the Spanish word “Nalgona” (fat butt) typically used to degrade Latina women into a positive term. These women felt like they were not getting the representation of their natural bodies that they deserved to have. The women who organized the NPP used body positivity to include Latina body types to be accepted. Now more Latina women are joining the NPP and promoting the acceptance of Latina bodies that are more fuller and curvier than other body types.

Similar to the NPP, women with disabilities have used body positivity to promote the acknowledgment of their bodies. Women who have undergone some physical changes on their bodies have not received enough attention in media. They are often put back as nonexistent or unnatural to be beautiful. After many years of disapproving disabilities as natural and part of the beauty standard, women with disabilities have spoken out in accepting their bodies. In an interview with Cacsmy Brutus, she explains “for a long time, I wanted to hide [my leg amputation] away, as something I was ashamed of”.   Brutus did not know how to handle the new body she was given once the operation was done. She did not believe her body would be accepted by society and instead hid it away, However, Brutus started to accept her new body and started to promote it through modeling. Brutus has now joined the body positivity movement in order to let others know that women and men with disabilities such as the one she has are also beautiful. With more people joining the body positivity movement and promoting the acceptance of disabilities, others who may have a disability in the future will not have to hide away their bodies.

Overall, body positivity has helped change the impossible body standards media forces onto us. The movement has helped others recognize their bodies are beautiful in every single way. Body positivity has helped reduce the eating disorders that plague and harm our communities. Body positivity has also allowed different people with different body types to promote them as natural and to show society they should accept them. By joining the movement, we can eliminate the immoral beauty standards we follow.   

Works Cited

GONZALES, XATHERIN. “Nalgona Pride: Body Positivity in the Latinx Community.” Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture, no. 72, Fall 2016, p. 4. EBSCOhost.

“Breaking Down Stereotypes with Body Positivity.” Evening Standard, 4 Oct. 2018, p. 7. EBSCOhost.

“Body Image & Eating Disorders”. National Eating Disorder Association. Accessed 21 May 2019. 

 “Health Consequences”. National Eating Disorder Association. Accessed 20 May 2019.