Body positivity: Looking beyond weight

In 2019, HBO television show host Bill Maher made this statement: “In August, 53 Americans died from mass shootings. Terrible, right? Do you know how many died from obesity? 40,000. Fat shaming doesn’t need to end, it needs to make a comeback.”

The context and his point? If people could be shamed out of smoking, perhaps fat shaming would make people rethink their lifestyle habits.

Controversial and obviously aimed to get a reaction from the audience, the irony of Maher’s comment was that fat shaming didn’t need a comeback — it simply never left.

Indeed, being overweight comes with its fair share of issues and health risks like hypertension, heart attack, stroke and diabetes, but research shows that where you carry the weight matters too (Google: skinny fat), and obesity has also been linked to genetics.

But however you look at it, shaming is not, in any world or by any standards any kind of medical intervention.

Just ask any plus-sized person about their personal experiences , and you’ll see how damaging when someone as influential as Maher and who is on the far side of the overweight spectrum would sit in judgement and put down standards of how a person should look, live or weigh.

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This kind of intrusive habits are deep-rooted in society — that thinner, fitter people are happier, healthier, and more beautiful. And fitness fads and crash diets proclaim themselves in popular media as the means towards that goal.

The stigma attached with being overweight is the leading cause of eating disorders among people who do not fall into these acceptable standards, says Aarti Olivia Dubey .

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The mental health therapist turned blogger and activist is an outspoken figure of Singapore’s body positivity movement. On her blog Curves Become Her, she speaks openly about weight stigma, intersectional feminism, disability and her queer identity.

This is not to say that men do not suffer fat shaming, but the expectations are different. The pressing issues here are the insistence that weight equates to health and the problematic notions such as beauty being a prerequisite to womanhood, says Dubey.

The idea that a person has to earn their acceptance in society by conforming to standards of skin tone, colour, weight, abilities or sexual preference “is inherently a racist and ableist view on beauty and one of humanity”, she explains.

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“We all have been conditioned to believe that our body is not good enough on its own and that we have to subscribe to beauty standards to be worthy,” adds Rani Dhaschainey, founder of local plus-size label Curve Cult , which she launched with the objective of starting a movement of fat acceptance and body positivity in Singapore. It’s time to unlearn this, she adds.

Both Dubey and Dhaschainey have struggled with stereotypes and culturally-ingrained standards of beauty — fair-skinned, thin bodies are the gateway for a woman to find a suitable partner for herself.

The beginnings of the #BodyPositivity movement

The origins of the body positivity movement go as far back as 60s and grew in tandem with women’s liberation and Black Civil Rights in the United States.

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Despite its roots, fat activism today is pegged as a wellness movement by “white people with more societally acceptable bodies as flag bearers of the movement”, says Dubey, a far cry from its original intended inclusivity.

“Personally, it’s about the liberation of marginalised bodies — black and brown bodies, fat, disabled - understanding why these bodies have been mistreated and misrepresented, working towards more visibility and humanity for them,” she adds.

It is not just far removed from its objective but also become one that applies for all, says Rani. “Terms such as ‘all bodies are good bodies’ are used very loosely to address all bodies not realising that there is a special emphasis on the lack of inclusivity and representation of marginalised bodies in these discussions. This is primarily because most people are unaware of the origins of the movement.”

The modern-day bandwagon

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Do a hashtag search on social media today and #bodypositive and you will get over 14 million hits (and they keep increasing every day).

While this is great, the representation of those who started the movement and who support its true cause is still less. The space has been taken over by reality stars and others who care more about social media standing.

Be that as it may, this filtered and social-media friendly version of the Body Positive Movement with plus size models such as Ashley Graham (@ashleygraham) and also public spokeswoman of vitiligo Chantelle Whitney Brown-Young—aka Winnie Harlow @winnieharlow — redefining societal concepts of beauty.

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Enter: The #bodyconfident influencer

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On the other end of the spectrum is body positivity influencer, Danae Mercer (@danaemercer), who has taken it upon herself to debunk social media’s perception of perfection.

The UAE-based journalist had previously declared that she wanted to normalise cellulite. Mercer who looks like she is no more than a size six now is said to have suffered from an eating disorder and found that when she was at her thinnest she received the most praise.

Will the real #bodypositivity influencer, please stand up?

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Then, there are Nicolette Mason and Gabi Gregg, a queer and person of colour respectively, who have been speaking out about body positivity long before it became a buzzword.

There’s also barre and fitness instructor Lauren Leavell (@laurenleavellfitness), who is all about dismantling exclusive diet culture, Tiffany Ima (@tiffanyima) a body confidence coach and wellness content creator, and Stephanie Yeboah (@stephanieyeboah), a fatphobia activist.

All bold, amazing women of colour making their voices heard.

Yet, while body positive influencers such as Mason and Gregg have 198k and 824k followers respectively, Mercer has 2.1 million. A not-so-pleasant conclusion? Messages about body positivity seem to sell better when packaged by someone who is not actually plus-sized.

Where do we go from here?

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But we cannot ignore the fact that it is in the fore now more than ever, albeit just scraping the surface. It is heartening that those who have been suffering in silence have resources to turn to, safe spaces where they can find people and stories they can relate to — albeit decades late in the making.

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These women are not trying to reinvent the wheel, they just want to live and not be judged.

As Dubey adds, a vast majority who come in to her blog were glad to be able to find a space that represented their own personal journey towards body positivity.

We could argue and fret about the fact that body positivity has been stolen from the hands of the marginalised, but the sadder part is that we are still discussing it from the standpoint of people being comfortable with the body they were born with — the onus is still on those who are marginalised.

More power to those who have risen above these societal shackles.

In an ideal world, this unsolicited discussion about a person’s appearance would never have existed. But we are talking up centuries-old deep-rooted ideologies and infectious cultural diseases.

The hope is that having come this far after so long, we will ultimately reach that state of equality.

This article was first published in The Singapore Women's Weekly.