Body positivity is important – it always has been – and now after decades the status quo for “beautiful” is being broken.
The 2000s have been a roller coaster, especially in the world of fashion and beauty. The fashion industry sets the standards for the clothes everyone wears and what is considered beautiful. Beauty is a relative term as beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but what becomes common becomes beautiful to the mind, not the eye.
In the late ’90s and early 2000s, curves were seen as less beautiful, according to Bustle. The society many people grew up in favored women who were tall and slender and men who were lean and muscular. Many people will get surgery to try and make their body appear like this. America is the country with the sixth highest plastic surgery rate in the world as of 2012, with the most common surgeries being liposuction and breast augmentation, according to ABC News.
Later on in the 2000s, curves on women began to be appreciated more, but there was still an expectation to be slender, with a flat stomach and small waist yet a large bust and butt, according to Bustle. Now due to social media and a higher promotion of plus-sized models, real curves are being appreciated, and people are finding it easier to breathe.
Insecurities are not fun; they are terrible. Insecurities are like little monsters that terrorize the mind, telling someone every detail about them that is “flawed” until they believe it and fear it. Every person deserves to be happy, and people find it difficult to be happy when they are not content with their body. They are the one forced to live inside of it, after all.
Thanks to social media sites like Tumblr, people can talk to one another about their insecurities and together promote body positivity.
Everyone can remember a time when they watched a movie, television show or theatre production, or even passed someone on the streets, and thought “I wish I looked like that person” or “I wish I had that feature.” Fortunately, body positivity movements are making people feel more and more comfortable in their own skin.
Such movements include #Fatkini, “The Perfect Body” and “Lose Hate Not Weight.”
The body positivity movements sweeping through social media have one goal: to help people love themselves. You have only one body, and while, yes, you could spend thousands of dollars on cosmetic surgeries, it is much cheaper and healthier to take care of the body you have and love it.
Body positivity is important because everyone wants and deserves to be happy and without being able to love your skin, you will always be, at least a bit, unhappy. Being unhappy will never be OK and neither will hating your body.
