the rising movement of self-love and body positivity
the rising movement of self-love and body positivity
Be yourself, but always your better self.
- Karl G.Maeser
self love |n|
Having a high regard for your own well-being and happiness.
I am 100 percent certain, that somewhere, sometime, in all of our lives, we have heard the phrase, “love yourself.” It is plastered over self-love posters, social media platforms, and all types of clothing available. People are advocating for us to accept ourselves for who we are, as everyone is unique in their own way.
However, along with the growth of self-love, and body positivity, it is becoming more and more difficult to simply dislike parts of our bodies, our faces, and our personalities. As a student, I am constantly being told to simply love myself for what I am right now, to stop being insecure, and to become confident. Why do society and media blame us for being unconfident, doubtful, and insecure when we express disapproval of ourselves? When we want to change, to exercise, to eat healthier, in order to grow into a body that is healthy and fit, why are people instead downgrading our value, saying that we do not respect bodies of all sizes? Today, I want to explore the growing movement of “self-love” across the internet and society, and how it grew from a positive, encouraging movement to a toxic one. I will discuss this topic from three main perspectives;
1) The origin and growth of the self-love movement
2) The problem it holds
3) How we can truly practice healthy self-love and body positivity.
the origin and growth of the self-love movement
Though self-love and body positivity are terms that have been widely used across history, therapy, and classrooms, the movement I want to talk about specifically refers to what people are promoting across social media platforms. The current self-love and body positivity movement originated as a way to rebel against the after-affects of unrealistic beauty standards. As mentioned in my blog post on beauty standards, beauty standards are set by celebrities and social media figures - people who have undeniable resources (photo editing, surgery..) that can make the standard they set so high, but most cannot achieve them. Even if they do, they will use unhealthy methods such as over-exercising, dieting, and plastic surgery, often having extreme effects on one’s physical and mental health.
But as social media has grown, as people have learned to speak out, we are rebelling against these standards. People across social media are trying to combat these beauty standards, they believe that everyone is beautiful, and everyone is perfect just the way they are. DIverse women, men, and teenagers are all coming to gether, to show that everyone is beautiful. They are trying to promote positivity and accept every type of body, skin, and face there is. It doesn’t matter if we are obese, or if we have imperfect skin - we should simply be ourselves, and love ourselves for what we are, right now. You don’t need to change anything about your body to become the person society wants you to be. Though the self-love movement is evidence of tremendous growth and mindset in our current society, it has one major problem - they ignore the truth, and focus too much on the good.
These women are all amazingly beautiful, but are they overly positivly promoting something unhealthy? sources: tiktok and youtube
the problems this movement holds
Cyber abuse and haters online are no doubt the cause of many mental issues in teenagers and young adults. It is nearly impossible to post something online without other people commenting on the way you look, speak, or behave inside the post. People will always make judgments, and these judgments are not kind. I believe that these occurrences are the reason behind such positivity online. People are afraid, to tell the truth, or comment on what they actually think because that will online lead to more accusations and hate. Using kind and encouraging comments is a great way to bond and support others on social media, but in the self-love movement, it has evolved into something more, something fake, something toxic. People are advocating for us to stop trying to fit into what society has deemed as beautiful, and to remain just the way we are - even if it is unhealthy for us. We do not acknowledge that some weights and lifestyles are simply not healthy. This movement has evolved in which those who have the perfect “white” skin, or hourglass body is instead being told off as “fake,” as another advocator of the unrealistic beauty standards set by society.
If we are constantly being told to practice self-love and body positivity by others, but we simply don’t feel healthy, and cannot feel confident in the way we look, then how can we still love ourselves? This type of self-love and body positivity movement is toxic. It is promoting a type of lifestyle and mindset that does not give us a chance to human beings to grow and improve fundamentally. Yes, we should accept bodies of all sizes, and people with different body shapes, skin colors, and hair. But we should not be telling others that it is okay to stop improving, to be content with staying who we are now, to stop trying to become a better person of ourselves just because society tells us “we should love ourselves for who we are.”
how we can truly practice healthy self-love and body positivity
Beauty standards are incredibly unfair, and no one in this world should feel as if we need to fit the mold society believes to be beautiful. We are our own definition of beauty, but this beauty should be healthy. It should be a continuous, evolving beautiful process of growth. More and more words, videos, and posts are constantly being added to this body-positivity movement, but perhaps we should promote something else - the true meaning of self-love: we love ourselves enough to care about our health, our happiness, our beauty so that we will ourselves to become even better.
We shouldn’t stay content, and try to blindly accept ourselves for who we are, instead, we grow, and try to become a better version of ourselves not because we don’t have self-love, but because we love ourselves enough to want to go further better places.