How positive is your body positivity?
By: Fox Hampton
Tags: Body Positivity, Body Positive, Fat, Body Politics

People only accept body positivity in one form and that is fat people acknowledging and accepting we are ugly. We can trot our selfies out under a hashtag and endlessly gas ourselves up but at the end of the day if we dare ask for more than a sliver of acceptance we are met with a violent push back. Even within the body positivity movement white/cis/het/abled bodied folx have and continue weaponize radical self love against marginalized people. Regulating us to only being worthy of self love, not love from others especially from less/non marginalized people.

Physically disabled folx are only seen as inspiration fodder for able bodied folx to build our body positive movement off of. Physically disabled folx are expected to practice loud and continuous self love to “inspire” able bodied folx. The body positivity movement also rarely mentions the demonization of people with deformities; ignoring the struggle of loving your body when every facet of society says your body is a symbol of evil. Teen Vogue has an incredible article that goes more in depth about how the media perpetuates these ideas. The body positivity movement is supposed to be based in breaking what the media defines as beauty and yet refuses to acknowledge let alone center those with deformities and physical disabilities. Leaving them to do the emotional labor of maintaining their own body positivity while educating able bodied people. Advocates for an accessible body positivity movement do so in a way that erases disabled people of color while many Black folx also erase disabled Black folx by opting for a “race first” approach to body positivity.

Physically disabled people, especially those with intersecting marganalizations, are also erased quite completely from most conversations about body positivity.

Moreover militant Black self love is highly gendered, accepting only hyper masculinity and hyper femininity. Non binary and non cis passing Black trans people are erased from the narrative especially and entirely if they are disabled. We are not allowed to love ourselves as more than a cog in the machine of Black resistance. Race first body positivity leaves no room for discussion of how body positivity is often sold to Black femmes as a way to reduce trolls by homogenizing into whiteness. Black femmes are expected only to love ourselves and receive love if we are in some way upholding white supremacist eurocentric beauty standards; colorism, natural hair hierarchy and ableism running rampant within the movement.

Body positivity, like anything, falls prey to ableism, white supremacy and transphobia. To make sure the movement is accessible those of us with privilege must be analytical of not just our actions and how we casually erase marginalized people but how much emotional labor we expect of those people

Body positivity, much like self care, was created to push back against the homogenizing dehumanization of the cishetero white supremacist patriarchy; also like self care, it has been take out of its original context of radical acceptance and declawed. Fat people who still meet certain European beauty standards are lauded for trotting selfies out under hashtags, for wearing crop tops and for not shrinking themselves. No homage is ever paid to the fat Black, queer, trans and or disabled people who worked and continue to work tirelessly for a silver of recognition, love and care, as proven by Rebel Wilson stating she was the first plus sized woman to star in a RomCom completely ignoring Queen Latifah and Mo’Nique.

The erasure of fat Black women just stop with fat white women or even white woman in general, Black men, especially Black cishet men, only praise and accept fatness that still upholds eurocentric beauty standards: a fat ass, thick thighs, big titties, fat stomach, no stretch marks. Militant Black love as weapon against white supremacy has been rooted in heterosexuality, the gender binary, colorism, ableism, and femmephobia. Black body positivity refusing to acknowledge these blights quickly descends into telling Black people who are seen as undesirable to homogenize into the eurocentric beauty standards.

At least 22 trans women were murdered in 2018; most of them were Black and a considerable number of them were killed by partners and acquaintances. Dark skin women are being chased off Twitter because of hateful trolls filling their notifications calling them gorillas, roaches, and inferior to lighter skin women. Black non-binary people aren’t even mentioned but when we are it is a flippant manner of forced political correctness. Black disabled people and disabled people as a whole are seen as asexual and inspiration fodder for temporarily able bodied folx. Race first rhetoric is not the only reason disabled people are erased from body positivity conversations.

People with mobility devices and or deformities, especially those that have multiple marginalized identities, are never prioritized in conversations about body positivity, left to maintain their own positivity with no support and while having to do the emotional labor of educating temporarily able bodied people. The body positivity movement in general rarely mentions the demonization of people with deformities; ignoring the struggle of loving ones body when every facet of society says one’s body is a symbol of evil and sin. Teen Vogue has an incredible article that goes more in depth about how the media perpetuates these ideas.

The body positivity movement is supposed to be a radical break from eurocentric beauty standards the media sets and yet rushes to uphold the erasure and silencing of disabled folx.

The body positivity movement has been awash with these issues since it’s conception with most people choosing to turn away from what is now the militant march of acceptance for fat cis able bodied white bodies. Those of us that are multiply oppressed have long refused the “trickle down” theory that if the most privileged of a group receive a seat at the table the rest of us will. Many Black, queer, trans and disabled people have evolved past simple positivity to radical acceptance. Are bodies are worthy of public love, care, tenderness, respect, orgasms, and safety without the expectation that we are actively working to change our bodies.