As somebody who has been affiliated with the body positivity movement for the past five years, there is one thing that I can say with the utmost confidence: sometimes body positivity is really hard work.

Call it the intrinsic nature of fighting an uphill battle, but when we spend our time and energy pushing against all the voices saying that our bodies are ‘wrong’ in some way (too fat, too tall, too spotty, too pale, too hairy, etc etc until the end of time), every now and then we get a little bit tired. I have to admit, sometimes when I’ve had a bad day and yet another ignorant person has written on Facebook about Fat (oh, excuse me, sorry, ‘overweight’) vs Health as though the two are mutually exclusive, I have been all too tempted to throw in the proverbial white towel and say ‘I give up’.

But then I think about all of the great things that body positivity has accomplished, and I snatch my white towel right back up and stow it in a cupboard.

Whether we think about body positivity in terms of our personal feelings towards our own bodies, or in terms of society’s feelings towards a more diverse range of bodies in general, there is no doubt that the body positivity movement has done a lot of good, particularly within the last five or ten years.

Today I would like to look at ten of what I believe to be the biggest and most significant ways in which body positivity has and continues to make our world a better place.

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1. We are learning that we are more than our bodies: All anyone needs to do is consider the staggering amount of music, poetry, literature, theatre, and other forms of art that focus on bodies to see how obsessed we are with them. While the human body is a fascinating thing, this obsession has given us a skewed perspective and led many of us to believe that our bodies are the most, if not the only, important thing about us. Body positivity showed us that there is so much more to any and all of us than just our body. Our thoughts, our feelings, our actions, and our souls (if we believe in such things) are all part of us as well, and when we are able to accept our bodies, we are able to focus on these other equally incredible parts of ourselves.

2. We are learning to love our bodies: Our body-obsessed world also likes to assert that there are only some bodies that are acceptable, and chances are that your body does not fit within the guidelines. Body positivity is, by its very definition, about viewing our bodies as something that is not only perfectly acceptable, but entirely wonderful. In a world where the overriding mentality is that we should be ashamed of our bodies (particularly if our bodies are fat, or scarred, or in some other way ‘abnormal’), this is an overwhelmingly powerful message.

3. We are learning to love other people’s bodies: Although I do not agree entirely with the old adage of ‘they are just teasing you because they are jealous’, I do think there is something to be learned from it. When we are critical of our own bodies, we invite ourselves to also be critical of other people’s bodies. Because body positivity teaches us to stop criticizing and to see the beauty in our own bodies, it naturally follows that we will see the beauty in other people’s bodies as well.

4. We are discovering what our bodies are capable of: Part of body positivity is getting to know your body. Everyone’s body is different (which is, in itself, one of the best things about our bodies!), and as such we all move, touch, feel, and otherwise experience life in our bodies differently. I for one love how much my body can stretch, and dance, and feel pleasure. I love how it reacts to happiness and how it naturally folds when I sit down. Body positivity enables me to notice these quirks and appreciate them for their uniqueness.

5. We want to treat our bodies well: When we do not love something, we do not tend to care about it, and this is as true for bodies as it is for anything else. The unloved body is all too often under- or overfed, over-exercised, under-exerted, and otherwise not treated as a worthy part of us. But when body positivity comes in and teaches us to love our bodies, we start to want to treat them like something we love. We want to take care of it, give it good fuel and the right amounts of it, rest it when it needs rest, and keep it strong.

6. We are becoming more aware of the world around us: Body positivity is a radical movement that ties into other current societal movements and ideas (fat acceptance, elements of feminism, other social injustice based on differences in appearance or identity). As more people embrace body positivity, they also take more notice of the surrounding world and the ways in which it needs to be made better and fairer.

7. We are demanding to be noticed: Many of us with bodies that mainstream society declares ‘wrong’ are taught to hide our bodies. We cover them in modest clothes, we avoid situations where our bodies might be exposed (the beach, gym classes), and we apologize for having the audacity to exist in a world that is determined to loathe us. But as we develop more positive attitudes towards our bodies, we also come to understand that our bodies deserve as much attention as everybody else’s. We stop apologizing, we come out of hiding, and we tell the world that we are here to stay.

8. We are becoming sceptical of what the media tells us: When we embrace body positivity, we also come to accept some things that we probably knew all along but didn’t want to believe (eg. diets don’t work; being thinner will not make you happier). As the media continues to push these false claims we no longer believe towards us, we might start to question what other false claims are being fed to us. In particular, we might start to wonder if other marginalised groups of people are being grossly misrepresented.

9. We are gaining more access to the world: As well as deserving to be noticed, body positivity also teaches us that we deserve to live in a world that is as accessible to us as it is to everybody else. As this fact becomes known by more people, there is a greater demand for our needs to be met. We are now starting to see clothing stores stocking more diverse sizing options, universities, movie theatres, and other places with lined seating providing alternative seating, and even things like providing seatbelt extenders on aeroplanes.

10. We are becoming more visible: As body positivity becomes a bigger presence on the world stage, mainstream society has finally started to stand up and take notice. We are now seeing a more diverse range of bodies in modelling, in TV, movies, and other popular media, and in dolls and other childhood toys, to name a few examples.

There is no doubt that body positivity still has a long way to go and many more people to influence. But when the chips are down and I wonder if there is much point to all of my fighting, I can remind myself with these points that my actions and the actions of others in body positivity movements has already made an overwhelmingly positive difference.

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Are you ready to join the body positivity movement, but not sure of how to start?  If so, check out our upcoming 10 Tools To Radical Self Love Webinar.

[Feature Image: An individual wearing a denim shirt, red lipstick and long dark hair stand outdoors with a large smile while looking ahead. Pexels.com]