For the latest passion blog concerning body positivity, I wanted to get a little personal and talk about why this means so much to me and what I’ve gone through with body positivity. I have personally struggled with body image since elementary school. I hit all of my growth spurts before everyone else, hit puberty before everyone else, and got glasses in third grade. My hair was always frizzy and in a ponytail, and my classmates loved to playfully remind me that I was the tallest one in the class. That was elementary school. In middle school, I had braces, short hair and being an early bloomer made me obviously different. In highschool, I was an athlete that did not look all that athletic. I was an average weight, but all of my volleyball teammates were thin and tall. Whenever I was on my off season, I’d notice weight gain and get nervous and anxious to get back to my preseason workouts again and go running in the park near my house. Going into college, the freshman 15 scared me more than anything else in the world.
Spring of my junior year of high school, my high school boyfriend and I split up. I found out he was seeing other girls and was in love with one of his longtime friends. After dating him for the entirety of my highschool career up until then, the news crushed me and my self-esteem hit a hard downward spiral. That summer, I started working out excessively, dieting, weight lifting, and went into fall of my senior year in the best shape of my life (however, at the time I didn’t think I was in good shape at all).
Spring of my senior year of high school, I made a birth control switch to the Depo Provera shot from the traditional pill. I gained 10 lbs in the next 6-9 months, but I worked out and watched my weight. I became increasingly discouraged that my daily workout efforts were making no difference. Yes, I could feel my body getting stronger, but that did not mean anything to me unless I could SEE a difference on my body and the scale. It was this year that I found Iskra Lawrence and fell absolutely in love with her. She was larger than I was, but she was happy with her size and emphasized feeling how strong your body was/is and respecting and loving it for that. Going into the summer, I had my low moments, but for the most part I was happy. I loved the clothes I was wearing, I was happy with what I was doing. I was strong, happy, and healthy.
I went into the fall of my first semester with this same energy. I was happy, good-looking, and confident. Then, a social fiasco happened. I was bullied out of my building, roommate drama, etc. and I lost the people I was closest with for the first half of my first semester. My self-confidence dropped, until I became close with girls in my new building; then, I blossomed again. I was looking forward to next semester and sorority recruitment. Then, sorority recruitment rolls around, and the process of sororities being narrowed down and getting dropped from certain organizations made me feel as though I wasn’t good enough for anyone or any organization. I would come home in tears and call my boyfriend crying and asking “what’s wrong with me?” over and over again. I fell in love with my sorority and I couldn’t be happier where I am now. The girls lift me up, and are more than supportive and honest.
Today, I’ve been struggling a lot and have been trying to go to the gym and find time for myself and some self-care. Role models like Iskra Lawrence and many of the others I have been writing about have inspired me to find the best in myself when that seems like a huge challenge some days. Body positivity and self-love are works in progress and will have ups and downs and good and bad days. These movements and people have been really important to me, and I hope they help anyone else that’s struggling too.
So everything I’ve written about body-positivity seems really great and happy go-lucky, right? Well, some who started the body positivity movement do not necessarily agree.
Although body positivity seems like a perfect thing that is inclusive for everyone, some people feel left out of the movement or feel as though the movement has been warped into something different. This is certainly not the feeling that most people have, but for those who helped create the movement there seems to be discontent with what the movement is now.
The body positivity movement began to celebrate women who were overweight and to celebrate bodies society would consider “fat.” However, mainstream media has turned the body positivity and self-love movement into almost what Iskra Lawrence is doing: loving yourself so much you create a healthy relationship with fitness and food.
Blogger, Stephanie Yeboah is an active speaker in this sad realization that a movement that was meant to celebrate different body sizes turned into a fitness fad. This past November, she tweeted a statement about this stating “Body positivity is/was a movement that was created to celebrate bodies that were seen as outside of what is conventionally attractive. More specifically: fat bodies. Body positivity is NOT about celebrating the diet industry.” She suggests that women adopt the term “fat positivity,” so that there is no sugarcoating who this movement is about and truly for.
Other models such as Ashley Graham have taken the body positivity movement by storm, celebrating their large curves everywhere they go. Ashley was celebrated as being the first plus size model on the cover of Sports Illustrated. This type of inclusion and body positivity is what Stephanie Yeboah would be celebrating.
A large clapback online is that people are asking why encourage and celebrate unhealthy body types? Thus, the body positivity movement has turned into something that most people enjoy and celebrate regardless, but has lost its roots. CalorieBee suggests the problem with the movement is that it lacks inclusivity, and mainly promotes overweight/obese white women. The article I’m mentioning bashes the movement by saying “The body positivity movement gives prestige to those people who, while flawed, are still a certain level of attractive in one way or another.” The article slams the body positivity / fat positivity movement for not including disabled women, women with Downs Syndrome, elderly women, eating disorder survivors, etc.
Despite these critiques of what the body positivity movement is/was, the body positivity movement is what you make of it. If you want to use the movement to celebrate your curves, stretch marks, or rolls, go right ahead. However, I enjoy the fact that the body positivity movement encompasses fitness, health, and anything you want it to be. I disagree with Stephanie Yeboah, that the movement has turned into celebrating the dieting industry; I think doing healthy things because it makes you FEEL good (rather than look good) is the perfect reason. The body positivity was made to celebrate every type of body whether it be thick, thin, big, small, short, and tall.
In accordance with various body positivity and self-love movements in the media, one subtle action has taken the lead as a symbolic action for the movement: throwing away the scale. Throwing away a scale is symbolic for those who have recently ended battles with body dysmorphia and eating disorders, because this means that they are no longer struggling with the number that appears on the scale, and they are more focused on physical health and well-being than being a specific number. Also, throwing away the scale can encourage people to workout without looking a number for a reward, but rather using how their body changes and feels better and healthier as their reward.
Recently, Victoria’s Secret model/angel Bridget Malcolmhas decided to take herself away from the weight/size tracking and focus on being happy and healthy. A different article I had read about her shows her saying that she also threw away her scale in
The Huffington Post wrote an article on a woman who suffered through every diet fad imaginable, diet pills, and some unhealthy ways to lose weight in order to please her obsession with the number on the scale. Towards the end of the article, she discusses how she feels liberated and can focus on other things about her health instead of what is going to make that number go down the fastest. The title of the article is even, “I Threw Away My Scale and I’ve Never Felt Better About My Body.”
Pop artist P!NK posted a selfie (on Instagram, of course) back in April of last year of herself in the mirror while working out. She said “Would you believe I’m 160 pounds and 5’3″? By ‘regular standards’ that makes me obese. I know I’m not at my goal or anywhere near it after Baby 2 but dammit I don’t feel obese. The only thing I’m feeling is myself. Stay off that scale ladies!” She used the hashtag #GIJaneismyWCW, implying that her goal is to be strong, she was certainly not focusing on maintaining a certain weight at all.
A Cosmopolitan employee admits sharing the same experience. She explains that after weeks of working out, she would feel proud of herself, knowing she got a good workout in. Then, as soon as she stepped on the scale, her weight would go up or stay the same. Danielle Tullo says that this discouraged her from going to the gym and she would have the same battle: three weeks spent going to the gym, weigh herself, then the next three weeks not going at all, then weighing herself would encourage her to go workout.
From celebrities to average Jane Doe’s, throwing away the scale is a liberating experience for anyone, male or female. There is more to consider when you think about your body such as body-fat index, overall physical health and fitness, and your mental well-being than a number on a scale. Using a scale on a daily basis can lead to obsessive behaviors about our weight and letting that number on the scale define our self-worth. This behavior is dangerous and could lead to unhealthy dieting, eating disorders, and overexercising.
After talking about different body positivity movements on social media or around campus, I thought I’d discuss the history of the body positivity movement. It all started as a fat acceptance movement and blossomed into body positivity and acceptance for all shapes, sizes, and ethnicities.
The oldest roots of body positivity reach back to the Victorian Dress Reform movement. In this movement, women advocated for the acceptance of women’s bodies and discouraged women using extreme corsets or body mutilation to fit the standard of an extremely petite waste and or hourglass figure. This reform also argued for women to not hide their bodies underneath layers of fabric in overly elaborate dresses. Also, these women argued for their right to wear pants (as silly as that sounds in 2018, advocating to wear pants).
In the 1960s, a movement was born to end fat-shaming. Lew Louderback kick-started the movement by publishing “More People Should Be Fat.” In this essay, he critiqued the way fat people were treated in America. He explained the discrimination that he felt in the workplace and even advocated for “plump” women to appear in magazines. Just two years later, the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance was created. This organization activated for the reeducation of what it means to be overweight and discouraged doctors blindly labeling any patient that is overweight as unhealthy. NAAFA promoted a healthy at every size model where health is not measured by the number on a scale but rather vital signs such as blood pressure, heart rate, cholesterol and other things such as diet and exercise. NAAFA argued that these measurements of general wellness were better indicators for overall health than weight and body mass index.
This movement was a part of the second wave of feminism, as actors in this movement go on to create the organization, The Body Positive. The Body Positive was found in 1996 by Connie Sobczak and Elizabeth Scott. Sobczak lost her sister and struggled with an eating disorder herself in her teen years. The organization has a lengthy mission statement that encompasses professional training and making a better world for women to live in with less standards to follow from the media.
“The Body Positive is a national organization that offers a variety of resources and programming to teach and inspire youth and adults to value their health, unique beauty, and identity so they can use their vital resources of time, energy, and intellect to make positive changes in their own lives and in the world.”
With the internet and media today, body positivity has blossomed from fat acceptance to loving yourself in all shapes and sizes. Hashtags across the internet such as #freethenipple have surfaced to normalize and celebrate the female body. Also, the movement moved overseas. The body positivity has blossomed into the various movements and campaigns I have highlighted in other blog posts such as the everyBODY with Iskra campaign, #aeriereal, and other movements that are now encouraging men of all shapes and sizes to join the body positivity movement on a global scale.
I’ve written a lot about what body positivity movements there are out there for women, girls and those suffering from eating disorders (which is mostly women). However, I haven’t talked about any movements that are specifically for men. The body positivity movement is seriously lacking some male influence, and hasn’t necessarily had any large male advocates. Male voices have risen in the past year, most of the articles I’ve found about this subject are dated February or March of 2017.
In my first blog talking about everyBODY with Iskra, I mentioned briefly that the brand, Aerie, is coming out with #aeriemen. I looked into this movement more to talk about its goals and the models that are on board so far. This campaign has four different models, all of different stature and ethnicity. The #aeriemen campaign has the same motto as its female counterpart, #aeriereal, “the real you is sexy.”
Aerie released this campaign on April 1 2016 and the video released was indeed a joke. However, I really think that what the models were either scripted to say or genuinely say was important progress for men in the body positivity movement. Also, the fake ad does show men in their underwear modelling American Eagle products, and these men are of different shapes and sizes.
I did some research and found an interesting man, Ryan Dziadul, who felt insecure about his size, weight, and inability to find fashion-forward clothes in his size. Dziadul created a clothing line titled @extraextrastyle in order to celebrate physical diversity amongst men, as he was inspired by what the body-positivity movement has done for women.
Body positivity model and activist, Troy Solomon, works hard to change this dynamic so that men are included in the movement as well. He posts Youtube videos that follow his daily life, and he has a segment titled “Boys Doing Girl Things.” With this series, he talks about doing nails, makeup and rates various products deemed “female.” He encourages boys to step outside their comfort zone and try makeup if they want and to try to normalize men/boys using these products. On his Instagram account, Troy poses pictures in all sorts of outfits, casual, professional, goofy, or half nude. Troy posts his pictures with inspiring captions that promote his goal of being a body positivity activist.
Patrick Starr is another youtuber and social media figure that I enjoy that sheds light on body positivity for men. Patrick Starr is a professional makeup artist. He breaks the barrier between boys and makeup/beauty products. Also, on his instagram, Patrick posts about his body and models in various clothing styles showing off his plus size physique. On his instagram, the first thing you’ll see is “MAKEUP IS A ONE SIZE FITS ALL.”
These male-oriented campaigns, although one had bad intentions at first, are making significant headway in the body positivity movement for men. I hope to see more inclusive movements appearing throughout the media in the future, because the body-positivity concern is not female only.
A sorority on campus takes the topics of self-love and body positivity very seriously. Delta Phi Epsilon has multiple philanthropies, one of which being ANAD (National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders). If you follow the link, here is a video about Delta Phi Epsilon and their involvement on a national level. In the video, girls talk about their individual chapter’s involvement with ANAD and how Delta Phi Epsilon’s involvement with ANAD has influenced their decision in choosing Delta Phi Epsilon over other sororities.
While talking to my cousin, who is a senior at Wesley University and a sister of their Beta Nu chapter, she discussed how much Delta Phi Epsilon cares about the diversity of its members and stemming away from the stereotypical “sorority girl” image that is commonly thought of while thinking of Greek Life. With this important pillar in mind, Delta Phi Epsilon supports girls across the nation in their battles against Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders.
Penn State’s Delta Phi Epsilon does a lot for ANAD around campus and participates on the national level as well. On campus, Delta Phi Epsilon holds a fashion show with its sisters and participants to show off cute outfits, raise money for ANAD, and promote self-love and self-confidence.
One big event Delta Phi Epsilon holds is ANAD week. During this week, the sisters come up with events to host and raise money for ANAD. For the five schooldays of ANAD week, Delta Phi Epsilon has small activities at the HUB for anyone to participate in. Their biggest hit of these from last year was Trash Your Insecurities. At this event, individuals wrote on as sticky note an insecurity that plagues them, and threw it away into a trash can.
For monday, Delta Phi Epsilon will host a No Makeup Monday and participants can get their photos taken with a real camera (rather than a phone). This day was just an example of the five-day ANAD week that Delta Phi Epsilon hosts. At the HUB the table will be running from 10am to 4pm all week and the girls will be accepting donations, however some of the activities do require around a $3 fee. The largest event was our All Shapes and Sizes Fashion Show, in which the sisters got to model clothes from Dwellings and Plato’s Closet. During all of these events, Delta Phi Epsilon will be accepting donations which will all go to the ANAD foundation. Other organizations around campus participate and donate in order to make these event successful and raise as much money for ANAD as possible.
While talking about ANAD, I should explain what ANAD does. ANAD works in the areas of support, awareness, advocacy, referral, education, and prevention of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders. It raises money, promotes and teaches body positivity and finds support networks for those suffering with the disorders. For example, ANAD has a program called Grocery Buddies. In this program, people receive someone to help them with the anxiety of grocery shopping and picking out food by planning the trips with them, accompanying them to the store, and overcome any anxiety the grocery store creates. This is just one example of the many services ANAD provides for those it supports.
One of the largest platforms of social media, Youtube. We see Youtube practically everywhere. From Vine compilations to weekly vlogs, Youtube has a video of and for practically anything.
The second Body Positivity movement I’d like to discuss is the one surfacing on Youtube throughout various bloggers. Shane Dawson is a raunchy comedian who makes ten minute long skits about random situations. On his show, he has various characters (he dresses up as and acts for all of them), and some shows have a mother figure talking to him about things such as self-love, self-harm, suicide, and eating disorders (these topics started occurring after his show gained popularity and he opened up to his fans about his personal struggles).
After countless videos concerning these issues, Shane wrote and published a book “I Hate MySelfie.” This book is a collection of eighteen essays; each essay is about one of his most embarrassing life stories that inspired who he is today and how he turned into the Youtube personality that he currently is. These stories recount how he’s overcome issues such as growing in a financially unstable family, morbid obesity, eating disorder, and bullying.
Melanie Murphy is another youtuber who came out with a book about the struggles that she has grown up with. Similar to Shane, she discusses being overweight and bullied. However, she specifically highlights cyberbullying. She also writes about her struggles with acne, breakups, being underweight, and self-image. While doing this she explains the important life lessons she’s learned from overcoming all of those issues.
Her vlogs consist of daily life routines such as makeup, shopping excursions, updates on her wellbeing, and other items. She reviews products honestly and has a very comforting vibe. I watched a few of her videos, my roommate loves Melanie Murphy, and she’s adorable. Right off the bat, you feel like you know her personally. I understand why she has such a large fan base; she was probably inspired to write about her struggles after opening up to her fans slowly (like Shane Dawson).
These two youtubers don’t necessarily cover the same body positivity as Aerie or Iskra Lawrence, but they definitely are positive role models in the self-love movement. They open up about their struggles, discuss how to overcome them, relate to a widespread adolescent audience, and explain how all of those hardships made them the person that they love today. Their widespread fan bases and international platform help their message reach struggling teens around the world. Personally, Shane Dawson helped me through middle school, and I know Melanie has inspired my roommate. I chose these two youtubers because of my personal ties to them; there are countless other youtubers who cover the same issues and each relate to their own audience in a unique way.
Youtube is special in this way, most people can find a vlogger they relate to whether it’s for video games, makeup, comedy, or messages of self-love and inspiration. These two vloggers are truly inspiring, and I encourage all of you to find a vlogger and watch a video or two about self-care and self-love.
In my last post, I talked about a body positivity program (EveryBODY with Iskra), a body positivity campaign (aeriereal and aeriemen), and a role model (Iskra Lawrence). I made the mistake of diving right into the different body positivity movements without discussing why these movements started and why they are important. I did some research on this topic for my paradigm shift essay last semester (which is why I am writing about these various movements for my passion blog), and while doing this project, I found some interesting statistics about body image, social media, and photoshop.
Social media has become an force in our everyday lives that is constantly growing. Most student have more than one social media account and are exposed to the negative effects of social media on multiple fronts. On social media, we’re exposed to advertisements with models who are clearly digitally altered (male or female).
This isn’t a research paper, so I’m going to just throw some statistics out there about how photoshop and social media are negatively impacting the mental and physical health of consumers.
While doing my paradigm shift essay, I focused on the emergence of photoshop and how it is currently slowly diminishing. Viewing these images on a daily basis skews our views of ourselves and others. A study done by Renfrew center in 2014 showed that 50% of people photoshop photos before posting them on social media. This study included your average mom on facebook, but imagine how high this number would be if only teens were surveyed.
According to a report done by Groundswell, 22% of ten year-old boys are unhappy with their body, while 42% of girls aged six to eight want to be thinner. Further, 25% of men and almost half of women in America are dieting at any given time.
1 in 200 women will suffer from anorexia in their lifetime
10 million American women suffer from eating disorders
86% of people with eating disorders report onset of an eating disorder by age 20.
An estimated 10-15% of eating disorder victims are men. However, this number is suspected to be underreported, because men may be ashamed to admit that they have one under the assumption that eating disorders only impact women.
Also, overuse of social media has been linked to mental health issues. Forbes published an article that included research done by The University of Pittsburgh that looked at the link between social media and mental health disorders. The article directly states “more than a quarter of the participants were classified as having “high” indicators of depression. There were significant and linear associations between social media usage and depression whether social media was measured based on total time spent or frequency of visits.”
Because of issues associated with media, these movements are super important in maintaining and bettering the mental health of today and tomorrow’s youth. These people who are creating these seemingly underground movements are trying to spread positive, genuine messages in order to reverse these statistics. Not a lot of people are aware of these statistics or of these movements. I think it is important to understand what we are consuming on a daily basis and understand what it is doing to us. Also, I appreciate these resources that can rejuvenate the self-confidence of adolescents around the world. In summary, these terrible statistics are the reason I decided to blog about these positive movements.
For my first passion blog, I thought I’d kick off the body positivity series with my personal favorite, everyBODY with Iskra. Iskra Lawrence is one of my favorite models and role models.
Iskra has been fighting against photoshop and working with American Eagle on their anti-photoshop and #aeriereal campaign. Any photo published of Iskra is not retouched, photoshopped, or airbrushed. She also publishes videos debunking model poses and secrets to look thinner, or “slim thick” (small waist and thick bottom and upper thighs).
Her everyBODY with Iskra blog has information on how to combat eating disorders, stay fit, banish negativity, and sleep well at night. The purpose of her campaign is to encourage health, fitness, self-love, and overall happiness and positivity. Iskra does all of this while discouraging the use of weight, BMI, and a scale to determine one’s self-worth or health.
everyBODY with Iskra includes healthy recipes, workouts, inspirational videos, weekly meditation, etc. However, the downside of the program is that it isn’t necessarily accessible to everyone. Yes, her youtube and personal blog has some of this content for free, but the program requires a monthly payment. I understand that the program requires some baseline fees because of other parties involved. However, I dislike the idea of Iskra profiting from a program designed to disrupt societal beauty standards and improve the lives of women. Overall, Iskra’s work is entirely too inspirational, influential and positive to discredit for a minor detail that leaves a sour taste in my mouth.
Her TedX Talk defines the relationship we’re supposed to have with ourselves and that it is something that we are rarely taught. She explains the difficulty we have in loving ourselves and that it is the problem of what men and women are taught about beauty and self-love through the media and lack of education on the subject. Iskra mentions, in the video and quite frequently throughout her campaign, that she loves her body and that her body is her home and she recognizes it for how strong it is and how it carries her throughout the life rather than tearing it apart for its flaws.
Her positivity, love for her curves, is truly inspiring. She admits to having rolls, cellulite, and acne. She posts videos of her sweating at the gym, selfies in bad lighting, and posts videos showing how to sit to eliminate the appearance of flaws in photos.
The response to her movement has been overwhelmingly positive. Iskra started the #everyBODYwithiskra hashtag for women and men to post unretouched photos of themselves in order to be a part of the movement and inspire other men and women to do the same. This also coincides with the American Eagle campaign #aeriereal that encourages women to post 100% natural photos in Aerie and American Eagle brand swimsuits and underwear.
Speaking of #aeriereal, there is a movement for the men out there that has me VERY excited. Iskra worked with Aerie to start #aeriemen. The campaign is designed for unretouched male models and will feature male models of different ethnicities, weights, and sizes. The men will be modeling American Eagle underwear and clothes.
Hopefully these links to Iskra’s work will bring some self-love and positivity into your day!
For my passion blog this semester I had the idea to write about body positivity vloggers/bloggers, tips/advice, movements, models, etc. For example, I could write about Iskra Lawrence (a model who does not use photoshop/airbrushing for her videos/images) and her upcoming campaign everyBODY with Iskra which highlights loving yourself and appreciating your body for its natural strength rather than its appearance.
Last semester, I wrote my paradigm shift paper on photoshop, its impact on mental health, and trends concerning photoshop in media. While researching these topics for my paper and Ted Talk, I noticed that a lot of the campaigns I researched spread some positivity into my everyday life. The positive messages that I read on the campaigns’ websites and heard from interviews with models and other celebrities helped me have a more positive image about myself. The best part about this research was that I did not notice that it was positively impacting my everyday thinking until a week or so after the project was over.
In order to keep my classmates’ interest in the passion blog posts, I can include links to interviews and videos explaining campaigns and their impact on people’s self-image worldwide. Also, I can write about people and their efforts to spread body positivity around the globe. For example, my own personal Queen, Iskra Lawrence, visits the UK and USA (although her images may be seen around the world).
My goal for this blog topic is for my classmates to find positive role models and messages that will impact their life and strategies for happiness with oneself that can be helpful in a stressful college setting.
