The body positivity movement is an incredible campaign to help people all around the world feel that their body is beautiful too. The movement has achieved some incredible things for so many people, but at the same time, it has its issues. Body positivity can feel disingenuous for plenty of people, who simply don’t connect with the movement’s message when every social media outlet and magazine in the world is reinforcing the same stereotypical ideal of what beauty is.
Without greater representation of different kinds of people on a much larger scale (and not just one token “different” person), most individuals continue to feel disconnected from beauty as a concept. Furthermore, some argue that the body positivity movement implies an inherent connection between people’s sense of self-worth and how they feel about their body.
Jameela Jamil, of The Good Place fame, instigated the “I Weigh” movement in March of this year to counteract this idea, encouraging her followers to send in photos of themselves and what they “weighed” — not in kilos, but in life experiences. The hundreds of responses included people whose “weights” were comprised of family members, happy marriages, battles with eating disorders, depression, and a sense of gratitude for the fact that there was a way for them to express that they were worthy of love and respect as human beings, whether or not they felt beautiful. The fact of the matter is people are ugly. They’re grumpy, and dirty, and some of them hate the way they look. But at the end of the day they’re people, and whatever they or anyone else thinks of their body isn’t going to change that.