Body Positivity VS Body Acceptance

3 days ago

6 min read

Why we are seeing a shift in body image social media trends

"As big of a turning point that the body positive movement was for female beauty standards, this movement has began feeding into the façade of authenticity on social media."

Charlotte Beattie, campaign founder/ author

Written by Charlotte Beattie

Content Guidance: discusses the impact of social media on body image and mental health.

As someone running a body confidence campaign on social media, I have noticed a shift in the field online. When I first started seeing more positive and uplifting body content on socials- I was just so happy that there were people shifting the narrative! However, as the trends have evolved and mindsets are changing- we definitely need to consider the ins and outs of body image influencing and trends. At the end of the day, we are all human and this is an issue that deeply impacts our own perception of self-worth and our own wellbeing.

The problem with authenticity on social media:

As big of a turning point that the body positive movement was for female beauty standards, this movement has began feeding into the façade of authenticity on social media. We see the highlights of strangers lives constantly as we pick up our phone designed for addiction. We tend to scroll when we are bored, procrastinating, alone. This makes the content we consume hit a lot harder in our minds to cause us to compare lifestyles and success. Despite the social realisation of this issue, we have now become so focused on promoting authenticity that we are doing the exact opposite.

Now I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of Judith Butler’s performativity and mediation theory- but I will address this mindset to paint the picture for you. Butler focused on how we as a society, pick up characteristics and curate an act of ourselves to play based off familiarity and popularity around us. This act translates to online spaces rather drastically as anything we share goes through a process of mediation before uploading. Mediation is something we all do whether we realise it or not. Before our actions are received by another, we consider how they will respond, how we want them to respond and how we will achieve this pre-determined outcome. This means that whenever we share content online- whether we are trying to be authentic or not- we have already considered the mind of the viewer and our content is instantly no longer authentic. So you want to record a day in the life and show yourself waking up? But how come you have had to get out of bed, put your camera on and get back into bed in order to start your day? That doesn’t seem very normal?

"Basically what I’m trying to say is we can try as hard as possible to seem authentic on social media- but it is simply impossible."

Charlotte Beattie, Campaign Founder/ Author

Basically what I’m trying to say is we can try as hard as possible to seem authentic on social media- but it is simply impossible. There are always limits to what we upload online and this usually comes from fear of judgement stemming from societal standards and expectations.

But how does the body positivity movement fit into all of this?

"Some days I wake up feeling incredibly confident, like I can take on the world and the next I want to hide away because the bully in my head told me so."

Charlotte Beattie, Campaign Founder/ Author

Body positivity is great but let’s think about its limitations on those days where it simply feels impossible to imagine feeling any positive emotion towards your body. The concept of ‘body positivity’ is making positive feelings towards your body appear to be the norm. Obviously this is coming from a good place because we have been told for so many years that smaller is superior and fat is a bad word. But when you think about it on a deeper level, this movement is encouraging the need to feel positive all the time. As much as we’d love this to be the reality, it just isn’t.

Some days I wake up feeling incredibly confident, like I can take on the world and the next I want to hide away because the bully in my head told me so. This is normal. But body positivity forgets this side of body image and can make us feel worse for not being as confident as those we see online promoting body positivity.

Now, since I have been running this campaign- I have engaged with a lot of other people trying to promote the same things as me. And these people also seem to feel this way as I have noticed a shift in influencers and campaigners discussing these bad body image days. When they talk about this side of living in larger body, they highlight how it’s great to want to love your body but it’s too much pressure to feel the need to everyday. If we are trying so hard to be authentic on social media- then we can’t be promoting body positivity when I’m sure all these creators still struggle some days too.

"I seem to have just torn apart a movement with good intentions, but really I am so glad the body positive movement happened because it was a turning point for where we are now on social media."

Charlotte Beattie, Campaign Founder/ Author

I know a lot of you agree with me on this one as you responded to my #deinfluencingdietculture survey where I asked your thoughts on body positivity. There were a couple mentions of hierarchy even amongst this movement that is trying to promote acceptance of larger bodies. Have you noticed that larger bodies on social media tend to all have an hourglass shape? Or no lumps and bumps? I definitely have. Although it is definitely getting better! There always seems to be a beauty standard presented in all movements addressing women’s bodies specifically.

So I know I seem to have just torn apart a movement with good intentions, but really I am so glad the body positive movement happened because it was a turning point for where we are now on social media. Without it, we would still have one mainstream beauty standard rather than a few more. But what I’m saying is that we need to be going further than this. We are still trying to make body positivity seem authentic and real whilst leaving out so much!

There are a variety of larger bodies and they are all beautiful.
It is okay and normal to have a bad body image day.
It is natural to compare yourself to other people online but this shouldn’t shape your own body image.
As much as the body positive movement is uplifting and shifting the narrative, we need to delve deeper.

So, what’s the alternative?

Since we are referring to social media, I will relate this to the new emerging trend of body acceptance online. Recently, I have been participating in this with my campaign as I think this promotes the message we want to see. Now of course, it is important to remember that despite its roots in opposing the lack of authenticity of body positivity- body acceptance posts will still not be the full picture and have been curated by performance. So if you still find yourself comparing when consuming this content- that is totally okay! After all this is how social media apps like Instagram and TikTok become so addictive because we get hooked into the ‘reality’ of other peoples lives which impacts our own.

For now, however, I think the body acceptance trend is a good step in the right direction because we are beginning to normalise bad body image days and sharing experiences to help us understand the ups and downs of body image and mental health.

Striving to accept your body rather than love it all the time sounds a little easier, right?

If you're currently struggling with your body image and mental health please reach out to these organisations accessible to you: