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The grumblings of women, upset with the status quo about body image, has grown louder and louder throughout the last two years. I often find myself wondering if 2016 will truly be the year that we mainstream “average” bodies. Even that sentiment makes little sense. How do you mainstream what is most common? How have we, the people, allowed the media to so extremely distort our view of “attractive bodies” to the point of it being unattainable?
I recall the early rumbling of change during 2011 and 2012 when plus size bloggers like Gabifresh and The Curvy Fashionista told readers that is was indeed okay to be both plus size and fashionable. I recall reading their blogs as if it was some dirty little secret of mine. I was shocked at the notion that I indeed, deserved nice clothes and even lingerie. I would scroll through their blogs, completely enthralled.
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Fast forward to today and these same bloggers have become both designers and advocates in their own right. Secure in their self-definition, they have been instrumental in bringing the conversation into the mainstream and in getting certain brands to expand their trendy clothes to plus sizes as well.
I never dreamed that a handful of bloggers could really start a movement. In my mind, plus size bloggers were on the outer fringes of acceptability. However, they have. Body positivity has come to not only expand fashion offerings for plus size women, it is serving to promote body acceptance and self-love for all women.
The movement seeks to stop us from shaming ourselves and each other. That is why I encourage “size-typical” women to get behind the movement. The body positivity movement is going to change the unhealthy way we see ourselves and our sisters, and it will allow us to break the cycle of body negativity in the next generation of women. Could we lower the incidences of eating disorders by teaching girls to love themselves?