There are certain narratives most of us accept without questioning them. As summer arrives in the northern hemisphere, we’re bombarded with images of the perfect ‘summer body’ ads from gyms luring us in with the promise of a ‘beach body’, diet culture telling us we need to lose weight. We may never bat an eyelid at this kind of messaging.
Yet this focus on weight and appearance is only a recent human phenomenon, founded in colonialist ideology and now-debunked racial sciences. That’s why our Diversity Dictionary theme for August explored body image - to empower us all to shift our understanding and perhaps even our relationships with our own bodies and appearance.
FATPHOBIA
While the Collins Dictionary defines fatphobia as: “An irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against obesity or people with obesity”, there is more to it than that.
On Instagram, @fiercefatfemme’s definition speaks to the systemic nature of fatphobia: “A layered social system that works to continuously oppress fat people – especially fat people with marginalised intersectional identities including race, gender, disability, and so forth.”
@fiercefatfemme outlines the four forms of fatphobia:
Ideological: a myth that fatness is inherently bad and tied to a lack of control and moral failure.
Institutional: Fatphobia is present in medical treatment, classrooms, workplace, laws and legislation, punishment systems, language, etc. Examples include desks not fitting students, being denied treatment and lack of clothing size options.
Interpersonal: Fat jokes, critiquing your smaller body in front of fat people, saying something is ‘flattering’, suggesting diet advice, complimenting weightloss.
Intrapersonal: Where the oppressed group begins to oppress themselves. Internalised fatphobia looks like wanting to decipher yourself as a ‘good’ fat person, believing you’re only worthy if you’re actively smaller, equating body size to health, believing you don’t deserve equitable healthcare or opportunities.
Fatphobia is embedded in white supremacy. Faulty race science created the stereotype of “the big Black woman,” and associated fatness with being African “Thinness became a form of American exceptionalism.” (Source: Sabrina Strings quoted in Yes Magazine)
Thinness was a sign that white people were supposedly more disciplined than the Africans who were brought to North America through the slave trade. This grim history exemplifies how fatphobia was used to bolster racist propaganda. (Source: Shira Feder for Yes Magazine)
BODY POSITIVITY
Body positivity is a social movement that advocates for the acceptance of all bodies regardless of physical ability, size, gender, race, or appearance. It also aims to help people understand how popular media messages contribute to the relationship that people have with their bodies, including how they feel about food, exercise, clothing, health, identity, and self-care.
Body positivity has its roots in the fat acceptance movement of the late 1960s. Fat acceptance focuses on ending the culture of fat-shaming and discrimination against people based upon their size or body weight. (Source: Very Well)
The development of digital technology and social media has led to body positivity becoming popularised since 2008. Platforms like tumblr and Facebook groups allowed for spaces away from the mainstream where “larger-sized Black women and women of colour could talk about the ways in which our identities prevented us from being treated with respect, and it called into play the different intersections that we existed in and why these intersections are seen as negative within society.” (Source: Stephanie Yeboah in Refinery 29)
However, the rise of influencer culture and commodification of the body positivity movement means that the message has been watered down. Rather than promoting radical acceptance of marginalised bodies and elevating those rarely heard voices, influencers are promoting general self-love – and, ultimately, themselves. (Source: Refinery 29)
“Body positivity has lost all its activism and political steam and has now become a trend, a hashtag, a marketing tool.” (Source: Amena Azeez in Vice)
While social media has the power to reach more people all over the world, we all have the responsibility to go beyond the hashtag and corporate co-opting, to seek out and learn from marginalised voices who are often silenced in the process of popularisation.
BODY NEUTRALITY
Body neutrality is a social movement that promotes acceptance of one’s body as it is, encouraging people to recognise their body’s abilities and non-physical characteristics over appearance.
This movement aims to decentralise the body as an object by challenging the myth that the way you look drives your worth. It also creates room to step back from body conversations in general. (Source: Healthline)
Whether lockdown restrictions are lifting, tightening, or in limbo wherever you are, chances are you’ve heard at least one person mention ‘lockdown weight’ that they need to shift. This kind of narrative erases the mental and emotional stress that comes with existing during a global pandemic, it negates what our bodies have been through and puts unnecessary emphasis on appearance, underpinned by the pressures of visual culture to look a certain way. Body neutrality offers a counter-narrative to this, with a focus instead on what the body can do, without judgement on whether that’s good or bad. It simply is.
The term body neutrality is believed to have been coined in 2010 by a treatment programme at the Women’s Centre for Binge and Emotional Eating in Vermont, USA. The idea behind body neutrality is to help us steer away from self-hate without the pressure of having to love our body. Instead, it’s about working towards a place where we respect our bodies, but don’t give too much energy to positive or negative thoughts about it. (Source: Happiful Magazine)
Body neutrality could be helpful for someone in recovery from an eating disorder or just looking to be more connected to their body. Going from ‘I do not like my body’ to ‘I love my body’ can be a stretch for a lot of people. Body neutrality offers a space to observe without judgement and forced positivity. (Source: Lauren Leavell quoted in Byrdie)
BMI (BODY MASS INDEX)
Body mass index (BMI) is a metric that estimates body fat, based on height and weight, and is commonly used to classify overweight and obesity in adults.
The measurement index was invented by Adolphe Quetelet nearly 200 years ago, as a way to quantify the characteristics of what Quetelet called ‘l'homme moyen’ (the average man) who, to him, represented the social ideal, based on a largely white and Anglo-Saxon population. (Source: Refinery 29)
It is not a stretch to detect the white supremacist undertones of such a form of measurement.
In 1972 physiologist Ancel Keys labelled the index BMI and hailed it as a good indicator of relative obesity, even though his studies were only run on Anglo-Saxon populations and critiqued at the time as incomplete. Despite the centring of whiteness in this modern study, BMI is still now globally accepted as a measure of obesity and health around the world.
Yet it makes no allowance for the relative proportions of bone, muscle and fat in the body. This means a person with strong bones, good muscle tone and low fat will have a high BMI. Athletes and fit, health-conscious movie stars who work out a lot tend to find themselves classified as overweight or even obese. (Source: NPR)
When we reveal the history and original purpose of BMI and apply critical thinking, its limitations as a universal measure of health can easily be seen. Despite that, it is still often the first thing a physician will check in most Western healthcare systems.
If an individual’s BMI is too high, they are likely to be refused surgery or other treatment, and even told to lose weight even if they are perfectly healthy.
This is a kind of institutional gaslighting and can lead to further health problems, both physical and mental, disproportionately affecting those who are already marginalised in society, including women, Black and people of colour, trans people and many others.
Our mission at The Other Box is to make space for difference. Diversity Dictionary is where we explore meanings and histories of the language of diversity, beyond a dictionary definition, so we can all build a deeper awareness and critical understanding of perspectives that may be different to our own.
On all our social channels, we share weekly words and their definitions, with a different theme each month. These terms are a taster and have been taken from our Diversity Dictionary™ course in our TOB for Teams™ programme. If you'd like to learn more, check out our courses page and fill in the contact form.
Is there a theme you’d like to see covered in Diversity Dictionary? Let us know! Our work is co-created by our community to work towards creating a world that is more inclusive and safe for everyone.
Words by Roshni Goyate
Header image by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash