Advocates of the body positivity movement see "outside" good reasons to encourage us to love our bodies without ifs and buts, completely.
Every part, every limitation, development and disease,
every weight, everything that separates us from the "majority society" or from the dictates of the beauty industry, from "beauty ideals", limits and excludes us.
Whoever succeeds in this, incessantly loving and benevolent deal with themselves:
Chapeau!
It can be observed that for many people this enormous demand to love themselves unconditionally creates pressure, hopelessness, and even self-hatred.
Loving parts or characteristics of one's own body that one has rather rejected or not even noticed: from the double chin to the belly to the back of the knee to the
right or left shoulder blade?
Perhaps I am ashamed of a part of my body, and then ashamed of being ashamed and dissatisfied? What does this turn into?
A negative body positivity spiral?
The demand for self-love and body positivity can be "a form of so-called toxic positivity that denies reality, obsessively (re)interprets everything as positive, leaves no room for authenticity and supposedly "unlovable" emotions such as sadness, fear, dissatisfaction, shame, anger, and desire to change."/1.
I think it is important to enable us to be aware of our bodies,
to know it is much more than a shell and "projection surface".
Would we even have the idea to demand from ourselves to love every part of our body in a society that is NOT overly focused on appearance, calling for optimization?
We would not get this idea!
Don't we better look at it,
what our body can do?
Run, swim, bend, stretch.
Taste, hear, smell, touch.
Breathe, digest, heal wounds, fight off infections, think, feel ...
We need neither body shaming
nor dictated self-love!
Do we need "body indifference"?
No, we don't care about our bodies either. We don't hate it, nor do we neglect it, but we don't love it obsessively either.
We have arrived at
"Body Neutrality."
With this, we give ourselves the chance to become aware of our body,
to develop body awareness.
Perceiving, accepting ourselves with the characteristics perceived as good and less good.
I also want to be able to change my body.
I don't have to find everything perfect,
not everything about me has to be great. My body can become such a friend.
I can love it too, but I do NOT HAVE to!
"Body Neutrality" I also feel is a natural reaction to self optimization of any degree!
1 Goodman,W: Toxic Positivity. Keeping it Real in a World Obsessed with Being Happy. Tarcher Perigee: Penguin Random House 2022. where.
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