Is body positivity making you feel bad?

Studies are finding that the pressure to be body-positive can feel as stressful as the pressure to be beautiful by adhering to a narrow standard. The answer? Body neutrality.

A body-positive world was meant to be a healthier one, with less of an emphasis on narrow ideals of beauty, and more of an embrace of all types of beauty instead. But even this movement insists that beauty is essential, and the stress of that message is showing.

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New research is revealing that the pressure to be body-positive can feel as stressful as the pressure to be beautiful by adhering to a narrow standard. A study by psychologists at Clarkson University, published in the journal Body Image in June, found that body-positive messages can leave people feeling more unsure of themselves. Subjects reported that the messages felt more controlling than helpful, partly because they appeared to challenge the autonomy of the individual. Body positivity produced more pressure and less agency than supportive body acceptance messages that minimise ideas of shame and surveillance, the study report stated.

Another term for supportive body acceptance is body neutrality. This is the idea that no body should be scrutinised or commented upon.

Over the years, research has shown that body neutrality is considerably less stressful than body positivity. One study from 2012, led by social psychologist Viren Swami of England’s Anglia Ruskin University and published in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, found that women who watched a lifestyle TV show aimed at promoting body positivity experienced similar dissatisfaction to women who watched a programme about fashion models. Both audiences reported negative body-focused anxiety and body weight dissatisfaction afterwards. A control group watching a nature series had no such reaction.

So love the body you’re in; care for it. Just don’t allow anyone else to call the shots.