For years, the idea of body positivity has become a major talking point in the culture. Body positivity has often been seen, though, as a negative in the eyes of quite a lot of people. Oftentimes, body positivity means one thing – staying thin and trying to look like a celebrity. This forces many of us into unhappy situations where we eat food and live a life in which we are not happy within. All to feel ‘positive’ about your body.
Yet, today, many are adopting a much more comfortable frame of mind known as body neutrality. Body positivity can force people to chase a particular ideal, or it can produce the opposite – a total level of positivity in our bodies, regardless of how they look. While that is better than chasing celebrity body ideals, it can lead to accepting bodies that might be unhealthy for our organs and our bodies.
Instead, body neutrality looks to find a more balanced line. It is a line of thinking that we do not have to always be thinking about our bodies, and we do not have to be in a frame of mind where we force ourselves to love our looks all of the time. We can instead focus on the functions of our bodies as opposed to the aesthetics. Even if we sometimes feel like we are not beautiful, we can respect our bodies for the functions it carries out and the benefits it provides.
Acceptance of overindulgence could be the best way to look at your body
This is a space that allows people to be more realistic about their bodies and their looks. Try as they might, many people who adopt body positivity are simply putting on a façade: they can claim to love their look, but in reality, they do not. Body neutrality instead asks people to accept how they look and take it for what it is – warts and all, literally.
It is a great frame of mind to be in for many people, as it can ensure they are mindful of the risks their body is being put under whilst accepting that they are making progress. If someone has spent their life hating their body, telling them to simply transform to the opposite frame of mind is not going to work. Instead, accepting the pros and cons of our current body shape is a much easier way to both agree with and accept what we look like – as well as being able to look at the positives and negatives of how we look.