“Your body is your home, your vessel in life. It needs to be respected and loved.”
-Iskra Lawrence
The society has been imposing its ideals of beauty on us for as long as I can remember. We have all grown up seeing a particular skin colour or waist size as being more preferred and desired. We have been made to feel that looking different is just not acceptable. If you don’t fall under the specifications, then you’re simply not beautiful.
Truth be told, even now, when there is a lot more awareness around body-shaming, most of us still have these ideals etched in our minds.
What we need to realise is that beauty is a concept. It doesn’t really depend on physical features. True beauty is the state of being authentic and sincere in a way that extends love to others and most importantly, to yourself.
The main aim of the body positivity movement is to let women and men know that they deserve to have a positive body image, regardless of how society and popular culture view ideal shape, size, and appearance.
Some of the goals of the body-positivity movement are:
- Not accepting how society views the body.
- Encouraging the acceptance of all kinds of bodies.
- Helping people boost their self esteem.
- Addressing unrealistic body standards.
Despite this movement having gathered momentum and acclaiming unanimous applause universally; there are still many young girls who indulge in comparisons between self and other and more often that not, they view themselves in the negative. The conversation that has sparked around body positivity has led to acknowledgement and even celebration of diversity. However, in reality, the relationship each person has with their body is a very personal journey with its own highs and lows that has to be navigated by each on their own. It is when we decide to embark on this journey without any hesitation and believe the destination awaits us, the navigation tends to flow through self love and acceptance.