Recently, while reading articles on body positivity I started seeing the word ‘neutrality’ come up more often than ‘positivity. I instantly thought I missed a new trend and found out the phrase has been recently used. So what exactly are these writers talking about when they use ‘body neutrality’ vs ‘body positivity’?
The picture above demonstrates the bridge being body neutrality, and the person on either side of the bridge is the way they think about their body. Being able to choose to go on the bridge (and stay) leads you to focus and accept your body for what your body is. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with continuing to say ‘body positivity’ because we definitely need to acknowledge ourselves and others to love our bodies, but sometimes this is difficult. That is why this bridge stands as the body neutrality, you don’t have to choose to be negative with your body or always be positivity with your body either. The bridge allows you to become friends with your body and understand it.
Personally, finding this new term has made me feel a lot less critical of myself (body). I am someone who has issues loving my body all the time and having the term ‘body neutrality’ really helps me understand how to look at myself. I’m a bit curvier than most women and I’ve come to accep the fact that my hips aren’t going anywhere because of my Latin genes. This term has also helped me with making food decisions. I do not go about thinking that I shouldn’t eat pancakes becauses of carbs, but I question myself instead, “Is this what my body wants right now?”
If you’re still not completely grasping onto the new term, I’ve taken out quotes from two awesome articles that have opened my eyes to the phrase: What If Body Doesn’t Work? How About Body Neutrality?
“Body neutrality is meeting a friend for dinner and, upon their telling you that you look great, assuming they mean your aura, your glow — not necessarily your physical appearance. It’s going to the Cheesecake Factory and perusing their “Skinnylicious” (ugh, I hate that name) menu just because you want more options to choose from. It’s ordering S’mores cheesecake because it strikes you as sounding amazing. It’s only eating half of it because that’s when you get full. It’s taking it home for later, in case you need a midnight snack.”
“Body neutrality is freedom from the obsession with our bodies entirely.”
“Body neutrality is body acceptance, a stop on the train to body love. You can get off here or stay on for the ride toward the final destination. The point is, once you’re here, you’ll never look back and long for the place that you left.”
People want to replace body positivity with something more relatable:
“While Body positivity preaches unwavering self-love, body neutrality is almost indifference. It is the acknowledgement that your body exists in its current state and your reaction to that is more factual than it is emotional.”
The article on Revelist where I took the quote from above also has the different take on the phrase, which is as follows:
“From this point of view, the implication is that body neutrality is dissociative, not indifferent. It admittedly blurs the lines — after all, how can you ignore something you live with every second of every day?”
What do you think, would you get onboard with this phrase? There’s a lot of new articles coming out online, make sure to keep your eye out to continue to learn about body neutrality. Also, make sure to check out the links I’ve shared in this post, it’s a good way to start learning more about body neutrality.