Fitness influencers vs "body positivity" and why both movements are trash
It seems that in 2022 we live weird times. The messages regarding our bodies are quiet contradictory. On the one hand, we have trends like the so called "body positivity" movement, which encourages people to "embrace" their current physical appearance and state, regardless of how unhealthy, unattractive, or repulsive it seems from a universal standpoint (more on this below). And on the other, you have fitness influencers (both male and female), especially over social media such as Instagram, posting photos of their bodies in order to get "likes" and other forms of attention. Oftentimes these influencers use PEDs but won't tell the public, and may even outright deny that they use PEDs.
Both trends represent an extreme and I'm gonna try to break down my thoughts on why both extremes are toxic. This is written for both men and women, as I feel both genders are affected negatively by these phenomena, though as a man my experience is more with the male side of body image, quite obviously. After breaking down the things that are, in my view, wrong with both trends, I'll try and offer some perspective for what I think might be a healthier approach to health, fitness, and body image. I write this from the pov of two genders because when it comes to the human body, gender is directly correlated to sex (perhaps culturally this is different, but that is another topic). I don't mean any disrespect to trans people who may not identify as male or female. Just a disclaimer.
First of all, let's start with the influencers.
There is plenty wrong with the way many people, espeically teens and twenty somethings, look up to these up to these influencers as representing an ideal. Like I said influencers often use PEDs, which in itself might be fine if they openly admitted to this. But usually they don't, and will often nevertheless share their workouts and/or diets to "inspire" or "motivate" their followers, who in turn don't understand that workouts and diets that work for steroid users often do not produce results for natural lifters or athletes because of the way in which PEDs affect your body.
Another problem is that having an external ideal (such as Instagram models or bodybuilders) of one's body that one wants to live up to is usually unrealistic for reasons other than the one mentioned about PEDs/steroids. Different people have different body types, for example, bone placement and muscle impantation. A woman with naturally wider hips and a wider waist might not be able to live up to the ideal of wide hips and slim waist. Similarly, a man who has a large neck in proprtion to the bone structure of his shoulder width will have a hard time appearing as broad shouldered as a man who has a somewhat slimmer neck. Also, muscle implantations vary from person to another. For example, some people have long biceps, and some have short biceps, because the place where the muscle is implanted in the arm varies from where person to another.
On the flip side of things, there is the "body positivity" movement. This movement seems to have started as a reaction to the fact many fashion models in commercials or fashion shows were very thin, usually unealthily so (though interestingly, there is a little known fact about models which is that they need to be thinner than the person wearing the clothes in order to appear the same: a camera has a "flattening" effect on the image, which means that the model needs to be thinner in reality than they appear on the image - that is of course assuming that thinness is a desireable trait in itself). I don't need to remind my readers how this pressure to appear thin creates many problems for people, especially eating disorders. There was pressure on fashion designers and advertisers to use "curvy" women (and the trend seems to be extending to male models currently) to represent brands and clothing, and while this in itself is healthy in my view, the body positivity movement has since then turned into an acceptance of obesity (an "acceptance" which often includes a rejection of physical exercise) regardless of the consequences on one's health. Further, people are encouraged to no longer work on their appearance, something which can very healthy, provided one has realistic expectations, doesn't overpressure themselves, and doesn't feel/isn't pressured to take PEDs. And this goes further than obesity, people are encouraged by this movement to not take care of their appearance, develop triats that are repulsive from a universal point of view then left to "otherise" those who don't understand why others feel repulsed by them physically. There are, in my view, universal traits of beauty, certain forms which should not be ignored if you want to appear physically attractive. Yes, the specific applications vary with culture and fashion, and different individuals have particularities when it comes to what they find attractive or repulsive. Nevertheless, a total ignorance of universal forms of beauty and how the human eye/mind connection relates to certain physical shapes for example (the heart initially being an imitation of female buttocks and still to this day evokes sensuality, and not just becuase it is used as a "love" symbol). While obviously people are free to do what they want and it isn't my intent to "police" the way others present themselves, looking repulsive and then blaming others for considering you as such "because our culture is stacked against me" is willfully stupid.
On a personal note, I personally find curvy/thick women more attractive than thin ones. I've dated some pretty "thick" women and while I do find this attractive, I also realize there is a health concern to being obese. So the beauty criteria isn't the only one that needs to be considered.
So with that being said, what would be a healthier attitude to have towards one's body? I think a healthy balance lies somewhere in between the two extremes, and I'm not dogmatic about where exactly the best balancing point is. I suppose it's best to work on oneself progressively towards having a desireable body all the while not pressuring oneself or shaming others (the journey should be fun!) I don't really have any structured philosphy when it comes to my body, but I would like to give some tips that worked for me, at least.
- Learn what your body type is. If your goal is bodybuilding, learn about your proportions and about what type of physique is possible for you to develop. Don't just pick an Instagram or Youtube star and try to look exactly like them, because chances are you never will. You may even get as lean or jacked as they are but will still look different because your proprtions are different. Unfortunately, you often don't know what is possible until you actually try it so it may be a mix of trial and error in trying to find to balance between the ideal and the real when it comes to your body.
-Consider your health. It's not just about looking good at any price, competition is usually toxic unless you are competing in a fitness contest (where it also seems unhealthy to me but at least the parameters, conditions, and expectations are clear so perhaps that allows people to know what they're getting into as opposed to clashing with another youtuber over ego reasons). I would say that health is more imprortant than winning competitions for most people, and it's totally possible to be healthy and look good.
-Ignore the doomers. Some folks will try to insist that it's impossible to attain a good looking physique no matter what unless you take PEDs. Bullshit. Some sources, like nattyornot dot com (website) will consider that basically everyone is on PEDs. They also use doubtful statistics and make bullshit correlations between the numbers they use to "prove" their points. Just a heads up. This type of mentality is toxic though because it doscourages people from doing the work and better understanding their bodies in favor of a lazy "steroids" explanation to everything. You usually do not know if someone is on steroids in alot of cases, anyway, so it is usually pointless to speculate on. This also connects to people saying their genetics are bad, because that is another doomer/nihilist approach. Very few people have truly bad genetics and it's simply more likely you are doing something wrong with your workout/diet etc.
As a challenge to yourself - and especially if you are doing bodybuilding or strength training - try and see how far you can go without PEDs. Try to reach what is called "the natural limit". I have never reached such a limit myself, far from it. Taking something like this and making it into a personal challenge can be a fun way to look at this problem. See how much muslce and/or strength you can build naturally.
Don't use bodyweight to gauge your progress! Bodyweight fluctuates by several pounds for unrelated reasons, even throughout a single day. Better to have a more objective metric, such as measurements, strength on your basic compound lifts, or running capacity.
That's all, and thanks for reading.
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Originally Posted by timber
