The body positivity movement focuses on the acceptance of all bodies, regardless of physical attributes like size, shape, and skin tone. The movement also aims to challenge present-day beauty standards and considers these ideals to be undesirable social constructs. Size is viewed to be a way in which power dynamics are established, with thin people at the top of the hierarchy due to their perceived attractiveness and fat people at the bottom due to their perceived unattractiveness. Rather than conforming to this hierarchy, those who are a part of the body positivity movement promote self-love and self-confidence despite size and other physical attributes that have long caused people to feel ashamed of the way they look. The body positivity movement has developed out of the fat acceptance movement and is inclusive of more body types rather than just individuals who are obese or overweight (Body Positivity 2022).
Social media has been a major avenue for those who believe in body positivity since it helps with providing exposure and education on various body types and allows for greater representation of such than on traditional media platforms. The body positive side of social media can mainly be found through hashtags such as #EffYourBeautyStandards and #CelebrateMySize, since the more mainstream parts of social media still usually depict traditional beauty standards (Body Positivity 2022). With the rise of the body positivity movement, there has been a stark decline in transformation-based reality shows focused on weight-loss and cosmetic surgery since they are thought to create the idea that fat is bad and that people have to look a certain way in order to be physically attractive. Many brands have made marketing campaigns that align with the body positivity movement and depict women of various body types and skin tones and also make efforts not to retouch or photoshop images and videos. Some examples of this are Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ Campaign and Aerie’s ‘AerieReal’ campaign.
Some people criticize the body positivity movement for encouraging bad lifestyle choices and for supporting those who are overweight and obese (Body Positivity 2022). Another major movement that came about after the body positivity movement was one of body neutrality, which asserts that there is no need to be so focused on one’s body and that instead people should focus on what your body can do for you. It promotes accepting your body as is and being neutral towards your body rather than feeling positive or negative towards it (Fuller 2021).