A Facade of Empowerment

Most people have encountered some variation of the phrases “You’re beautiful” or “Love your body” while doom-scrolling on social media. On the surface level, these affirmations are used to combat the widespread self-hatred and body shaming culture that affects approximately 91 percent of women and over a third of all adults in the United States. Such slogans are commonly utilized in the body positivity movement, which initially promoted inclusivity yet has transformed into a movement that encourages an abnormal level of hyperfixation on physical appearances. In the realm of this movement, coexisting with individual flaws is a thing of the past, and self-acceptance has lost its authenticity. 

Originally, this movement aimed to call out the persistent tide of animosity toward individuals of greater weight. The “thinspo” or thin inspiration trend rose to its prime during the mid 2000s, and idealized extremely skinny figures with features including protruding cheekbones and rib cages. These suffocating norms gave way to the body positivity movement, which surfaced in 2012 in opposition to the normalization of eating disorders, instead encouraging body-positive attitudes and diets. Such efforts have escalated the movement to a digital sphere with over 13 million social media posts and influencers gradually taking over.

The core issue of such digitization is how it has placed an irreversibly large emphasis on appearance, thereby detracting focus from individual personalities and skills. University of North Carolina psychology professors Janet Boseovski, Ph.D. and Ashleigh Gallagher, Ph.D. explain that inevitably, “both [thinspo] and body positive Instagram images increase women’s self-objectification.” Further, social media-fueled self-objectification is linked to negative body image, regardless of the intent behind each post. By forcing a positive self-outlook, body-positive social media has left minimal room for acceptance of imperfections. Preaching that everything is beautiful rather than allowing people to accept that parts of them aren’t perfect preserves the emphasis on beauty as an indicator of value. What women really need is to be liberated from all beauty standards, even the inclusive ones. Moreover, influencers have created an impossibly narrow definition of body positivity, which exacerbates the pressure that users feel to be considered a valid part of this movement. 

This has become intertwined with diet culture, which body-positive influencers try to diminish in their work. A prime example of this is the content of Colleen Christensen, a “food freedom” and body-positive influencer with over 24 million likes on TikTok and 456,000 followers on Instagram. She regularly posts skits meant to humorously discourage negative outlooks of dieting. On May 2, 2024, she posted a skit culminating in the lesson that “sometimes we can’t identify the reason” behind our hunger, but that doesn’t make it “less valid”—we deserve to honor it by nourishing ourselves intuitively. This is a crucial and comforting message for those who suppress their hunger out of dietary caution to preserve a certain body figure. However, in a different post, she makes the point that we need to find alternatives to eating if we are simply in the mood for food and “reassess how [we feel]” to avoid overindulging. Though not intentionally contradictory, she has established a thin line between dieting or being self-conscious and following a spontaneous food and body routine. Both seem to have evident flaws. This has become problematic, as it encourages millions of users to follow a hyper-specific lifestyle despite the widely divergent situation each person could face based on their mental and physical health, personal dietary needs, age, and other factors. The generalizations and inherent contradictions within this movement muddle its true intentions.

A prime example of this issue is with medically prescribed diets. Though many influencers encourage eating whatever one wants, intuitive indulging is infeasible for many. This past summer, I followed an insufficient diet and was required to follow meticulous daily meal plans in order to properly recover from my malnourishment. This meant having to eat beyond feeling full and having to unwillingly target or avoid certain foods. Seeing videos promoting instinctual food habits made me feel torn between my physical needs and succumbing to a supposedly ideal way of eating, making it extremely difficult to comply with my diet. Moreover, differences in age alter the ability to follow this social construct. Intuitive eating by the average toddler may result in excessive sugar intake that neglects their diverse nutritional needs, or an adult with high cholesterol eating intuitively may further deteriorate their health as they indulge in fried or oily foods that taste better. Ultimately, generalizing dietary advice through social media is an inefficient method for attempted inclusivity.

Beyond this, comparison kills. Recently, influencers have developed the frequent habit of posting “body checks” under a supposed mission to normalize all sizes and physical features. Advice on dieting, exercise, or bloating typically accompanies these posts, or images of the same body at different times are presented as a side-by-side contrast. For example, many people post images of their body before breakfast and after dinner in attempts to normalize bloating. Such a message is taken to new heights online—over 14 million videos used the #HotGirlsHaveIBS hashtag on TikTok—which describes the regularity of abnormal digestion and bloating as a result of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. However, at a certain point the line between promoting self-acceptance and sheer comparison is blurred. Where one person finds comfort in seeing post-dinner photos, another may feel especially humiliated finding that their body is less ideal than even that picture. Boseovski and Gallagher further: “There is nothing wrong with pride in one’s body, but science indicates that these images usually just make women feel bad about their own bodies.” Moreover, constantly posting and analyzing these photos centers the world of each influencer purely around their own body. 

The caveat to this entire dilemma is that there are those who benefit from this sort of content. Those who struggle with low self-esteem may find some comfort in seeing other people eat freely. Others may find it healing to post about their own journeys with their bodies and lifestyle choices. In these situations, the benefits of the body positivity movement are apparent. However, this movement seems to have become more of a “trend,” and a growing number of influencers see it as an opportunity for self-benefit. The issue arises when there is a lack of authenticity on behalf of those who contribute to the movement. The whole matter becomes even more complicated because a message that may help one person could be detrimental to someone else. When it comes to a topic as sensitive as body images, it is dangerous to make sweeping generalizations. In reality, each person’s relationship with their body is different. Every person’s journey with self-image is unique and individual, and the current mainstream body positivity movement does not seem to do that uniqueness justice. On this front, the consequences of online body positivity are clear: obsession with self-image, avoidance or idealization of insecurities, and deteriorating comparison all perpetuate flawed ideas of self-love. 

Fortunately, body image coach Anne Poirier founded the body neutrality movement in 2015. Simply put, body neutrality mitigates the role of physicality in one’s self-worth and encourages simply existing alongside external imperfections. This means listening to your own body instead of listening to society’s expectations and appreciating what your body can do instead of how it looks. You can begin adopting body neutrality in daily life by wearing what feels best rather than what looks best, reducing the amount of time it takes to get ready, and avoiding excessive staring into the mirror. Reduced emphasis on our bodies and diets alongside better recognition of our internal qualities will create a more attentive society that values various forms of intelligence and strong character over what’s on the outside.