What You Need to Know About Body Neutrality
You might have heard of “Body Neutrality” recently. What is it, and how is it different from Body Positivity?
Well, before we can talk about Body Neutrality, let’s refresh on what Body Positivity is. The Body Positive movement had its origins back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when the civil rights movement encouraged people to fight for the rights of all types of marginalized populations, including those in larger bodies. This eventually evolved into the body positivity movement that we know today, which has gained traction quickly in the last decade with the rise of social media.[1]
Today, the Body Positive movement calls for loving the skin you’re in. As a result, more and more people, especially women, are speaking up about society’s unrealistic standards of weight and beauty. Big-name retailers are starting to feature more size diversity; even Victoria’s Secret, which has been slow to adapt to society’s changing beauty standards, is finally ending its “Angels” show and working to be more size-inclusive.[2]
More recently, however, Body Neutrality has been part of the conversation. So how does this differ from Body Positivity? Let’s clear things up…
Body neutrality promotes body acceptance and respect rather than body love. It presents itself as a more realistic way of thinking about ourselves and our bodies, and acknowledges that loving our bodies is no easy task (this is a great depiction to show the difference). It removes some of the toxic positivity that has become a part of the body positive movement - the pressure to always have high self-esteem and feel good about ourselves. Instead, body neutrality is a middle ground between self-criticism and self-love, which can feel more attainable to most people.
Importantly though, the body neutral movement tells us that we should still treat our bodies with care and respect, even if we don’t love our bodies. This means that we should still nourish ourselves, drink water, find joyful movement, get enough sleep, and manage our stress, whether or not we feel “positive” about our bodies. Remember, your body is your home for your entire life - so you have to learn to respect it![3]
Body neutrality aims to take all focus of any kind off of our bodies’ appearances, so that we can redirect our energy towards other (more important) things. Psychologist Alison Stone explains this well: “When we spend less time thinking about our bodies, it affords us room to focus on other things… Obsessing, silently judging ourselves, and self-criticism takes up a lot of mental energy. Most importantly, these types of thoughts prevent us from enjoying experiences and being fully present in our lives.”[4] Sure, in a perfect world, we’d all be content with our bodies, and wouldn’t have thoughts that would use up our mental energy. But trying to keep up the guise of being positive can be exhausting, and allowing yourself to simply feel neutral about your body allows you the freedom of thinking about other things.
Body neutrality reorients the conversation towards marginalized groups. Critics of body positivity have felt that as that movement has gained popularity, the focus has moved away from people of color, those with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ folks and back towards a more “conventional” ideal of beauty. While everyone deserves to feel comfortable in their bodies, many activists - including Lizzo - have called out the movement for becoming a trend that just celebrates more typical bodies. Body neutrality, on the other hand, puts marginalized populations back at the center of the movement. For those with disabilities or chronic disease, it can be an especially helpful mental framework: rather than feel discouraged by the pressure to love their bodies, they can work towards respect and care for their bodies.[5]
What’s the bottom line? Body neutrality can be a much more realistic, attainable framework for thinking about our relationships to our bodies than body positivity, while still promoting care and respect for ourselves; therefore this is the framework that we practice at Tory Stroker Nutrition. Still have more questions? Reach out to book your discovery call today.
Additional Resources
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/z2w7dp3
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/16/business/victorias-secret-collective-megan-rapinoe.html
[3] https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2021/04/22/lizzo-criticized-body-positivity-what-body-neutrality/7317015002/
[4] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-body-neutrality_n_5b61d8f9e4b0de86f49d31b4
[5] https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jul/23/the-rise-of-the-body-neutrality-movement-if-youre-fat-you-dont-have-to-hate-yourself