Body Positivity is a social movement which promotes love and acceptance of all
body types. This movement first sparked in the 1960s with the Fat Rights Movement.
However, it had a very slow beginning, particularly in the media.
When I think about how the media represents female bodies, I often think about the
film Love Actually. Sadly, what stuck with me wasnât the comedic christmas-y
charm, nor the stunning visage of young Hugh Grant, it was instead the treatment of
Martine McCutchen’s character Natalie who is ridiculed for being a âchubby girlâ with
âthighs the size of tree trunks.â This kind of representation wasnât uncommon for
mass media in the 90s and early 2000s. However, in a 2023 interview with Variety,
the writer-director of Love Actually (Richard Curtis) admitted to regretting including
the jokes surrounding McCutchen’s character after seeing his daughterâs upset upon
watching the film. Curtis claimed he realised that he was âbehind the curve.â But what
is this curve? I would argue that that it relates to accelerating positive representation
of diverse bodies in the media.
But has there really been a curve?
Undoubtedly, the acceleration in body positivity is linked with the emergence of
social media, particularly in 2010 with the introduction of Instagram. The people on
our screens were no longer just selectively picked movie stars with an idealised
physique, but instead it was the public in the limelight. Influencers with all kinds of
bodies took centre stage. The recent move away from filters and a move towards
embracing raw beauty has only continued to accelerate the movement. Some larger
companies also aided in the promotion of all body types. For instance, Barbie, who in
2015 introduced original, tall, petite and curvy barbies; extending their range in 2019
to also include dolls reflecting physical disabilities. Mattel proudly states to have 35
skin tones, 97 hairstyles and 9 body types, and they desire to keep expanding.
Therefore, I would argue Curtisâ curve is heavily linked to social media pulling focus
away from movie stars and instead onto everyday people, embracing the beauty in
normality.
However, it is key to add how Curtis uses the word curve. Curve, by definition,
means a line which gradually deviates from being straight for some, or all its length.
That is important as the body positivity movement has not seen straight, linear
progress. For instance, the increasing social media presence has also led to the
movement taking a few steps backwards. This is because social media finds itself
dictated under the tyranny of the idealised body. Social media breeds a comparison
culture, and users can find themself trapped in an echo chamber of unrealistic
beauty propaganda. This leads to increased body dissatisfaction and mental health
consequences. The ability to edit photos has also evolved and has become harder to
identify what is real and what is not. Therefore, this curve is perhaps not as
successful as we would like to think it is.
Clearly, social media is both a positive and a negative catalyst in the body positivity
curve. However, it is not the mastermind behind the tyranny of the idealised body.
We are. Emma McLendon, during an interview about the history of the ideal body,
said that âwe as a culture, as a society, are obsessed with size. Itâs become
connected to our identity as people.â Comparisons are a huge problem within social
media, but we are the people making these comparisons. We create the negative
content on social media. We place emphasis on the physical. We curate the
idealised body. We have dictated the ideal all throughout history.
Yet, what is important to mention is that the idealised body has been an incredibly
malleable construct. Some of the earliest representations of womenâs bodies are
named the âVenus figurinesâ which idealised pear shaped bodies with larger upper
bodies. From the 17th -18th century, the ideal was woman was curvy. The term
âRubenesqueâ was used, meaning plump or rounded. It is also noted that the shape
and construct of the corset have changed over time to match the changing societal
views of a womenâs body. The 1920s saw the glamorisation of the slim, flapper-girl
physique. The 90s saw the rise of the supermodel, and champion of the thinner look.
Whatâs important to take from this, is that so many bodies have been considered
beautiful overtime. Whatâs important to question is why canât they all be appreciated
at the same time? Beauty isnât limited to one size; we can champion more than one
thing at once.
We, the public, limit the curve. Social media is not the only one pulling the strings- in
fact we pull the strings of social media. The curve is very much in progress, and
progress has been made, but to keep that progress going we need to curve our own
idea that the ideal is exclusive and instead consider how it can be inclusive. Body
positivity is not a one size fits all initiative.