The Body-Positive Movement Isn’t Helping Women
Photo Credit: Jim Adair
I know right now people are rejoicing over the inclusion of women of all sizes in fashion campaigns across the nation. There has recently been a push to celebrate women of all sizes as beautiful. Plus size singers and actresses are being supported for their body confidence. Society has gotten us to celebrate the beauty of these women with it. We’ve been duped, ladies and gentlemen.
I can already hear you sharpening your pitchforks and gathering your mob to find me and give me the riotous flogging I deserve, but wait just a moment. Hear me out. If, when I am done, you still thirst for blood, I will understand. You are asking, how can an expansion of society’s definition of a beautiful woman be a bad thing? We are being more inclusive. This is a positive thing, right? It is absolutely crap! This perspective is being pushed as a step forward for women everywhere, a leap toward equality of the sexes, but the truth is, it’s another slap in the face. Finding new ways to reduce women to bodies that are judged for their beauty in no way promotes women as people. We shouldn’t even be having a discussion on which pop singers are ‘Rocking Their Curves’ because they are singers, and their looks actually have no bearing in a conversation about them as artists. Yes, Lizzo and Adele are beautiful. They were beautiful before we decided to include women in double-digit sizes in the ‘allowable beauty range.’ But why are we, as a society, even talking about their size or their looks? No one is ‘proud of Post Malone for being confident in his body.’ I’m not seeing entire blog posts and entertainment articles dedicated to whether Ed Sheeran will be able to shed his extra weight by swimsuit season. That’s because the idea of interviewing a male singer about his diet plan sounds ridiculous. But that is the exact topic that most interviewers bring up for females in any field. I don’t think we should congratulate these talented women for not fitting the typically allowable look for a female, I think we should applaud them for their merit, and that is already a lot to celebrate.
The women’s body-positive beauty moment is just another way women have been told by society that the most important thing is their bodies, that their function is to look pretty in this world. Ladies, we don’t owe this world a pretty face or a nice body! Our job is not to be pretty first and then to be a mom or an artist or a business professional second. Being beautiful is not our function on this planet. Society expanding the beauty standards for women just means that our beauty is still the standard by which we are measured. We can’t allow society loosening our yokes be a distraction that causes us to forget that there shouldn’t be a yoke at all! The question of whether or not a woman is beautiful is only appropriate at a beauty contest. Otherwise, stop bringing it up.
Actually, I won’t be waiting for a mob to come for me, I’m forming my own. And I’m coming for society’s standards on the roles of women. So, no, I won’t be celebrating this new beauty movement. Catch me when we start celebrating women for their accomplishments, you know, like they are actual human beings and not just repositories for male desire.