Being Body Neutral
Body neutrality is a way to engage with our bodies.
The goal of body neutrality is to dial down the enormous significance that’s being given to physical attractiveness in our society. In fact, the significance of women’s beauty is what causes us to do all kinds of crazy things to look “better”. We wear make-up and spend a stupid amount of money on anti-ageing cream. And we cut up our body with esthetic surgeries and yes, dieting. Moreover, we effectively starve ourselves in order to be beautiful.
In fact, this is important to understand… if we didn’t buy/engage in the importance of our beauty to our place into this world, we wouldn’t diet or think we need to change the size/ shape/ look of our bodies.
Body neutrality goes beyond body-positivity. That is to say it’s not just about pushing back onto the beauty ideals of our times. Body Positivity challenges the beauty standards by putting forward diverse body types, size…
Being Body Neutral, on the other hand, pushes back on all aspects of society that continue to promote beauty as essential, consequential and the ultimate accomplishment, and a person’s appearance as indicative of their worth.
BN says “How I feel about myself has nothing to do with my appearance.”
BP says: “I feel good about myself, because I know I’m beautiful at any size”.
Can you see the difference?
What you’ll learn listening to this episode:
- The 4 components of body image
- The Body Image Scale
- Why you shouldn’t aim to be body positive
- The feminist approach to body image
- Body neutrality in real life
Mentioned on the show:
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