Here's something I have been wanting to address for a while: the Health At Every Size movement, the Body-Positivity movement, and the Love the Skin You're In movement. Essentially they are different movements aimed and geared at different goals but with one thing in common: shedding the light on obesity and how it doesn't make any of us less than. We are not less than the girls who have thigh gaps and exaggerated collarbones. We are not less than the gym-rats who spend every free moment on the treadmill or at the Smith machine. We are not less than anyone else because of the number on a scale.
Health At Every Size promotes the idea that every person is capable of being healthy despite their weight. I do not support that belief because we have to acknowledge that weight at any extreme is dangerous. However, I promote the idea that my health isn't your business. I have said this in many, many ways but my favorite is this: if you are not fucking me or financing me, my health status is none of your business. You know who is directly invested in my health? My doctor, my mother (who pays for my health insurance), my boyfriend, and myself. Even when I weighed 405lbs, my weight had shit-all to do with anyone else besides me, my doctor, and my parents since I was underage. That was it. It wasn't the school guidance counselor's business-who got involved because a well-meaning friend observed me skipping lunch three days in a row and was concerned I was becoming anorexic. No. Despite being 405lbs, I was a picky eater and I detest salad. It is slimy. It wasn't a random stranger on the streets business. Now, 200lbs down, it isn't some random stranger on the internet's business.
Body-Positivity I think I have talked about before. This is the concept that all bodies are good bodies and that we are allowed to see value in ourselves no matter how our body looks. This is also the concept that we shouldn't be disparaging toward anyone else because of their body. We should lift each other up, make sure that our fellow people-no matter their size-sees their worth as a person and sees the value of their body. This is also, for me, a self-esteem and eating disorder movement. This is the movement trying to fix the eating disorders and mental hurdles that the modeling industry, media, and diet fad crazed society has pushed onto people for decades. I love the body-positivity movement. I love it that it doesn't just stand for people of immense size but for those that can't gain weight or struggling with being too small. It literally says "big tits, no butt, big tummy? Beautiful. Small tits, concave stomach, booty-licious? Still beautiful. Big butt, Big tits, no tummy? Still beautiful. Small muscles, flabby belly, hairy? Hey, dude, you look amaze-balls." There is literally not a wrong way to exist in the body-positive community except for being a bully.
Love the Skin You're In movement is sooo comparable to body-positivity that I feel like they are one and the same movement. To me, this movement is not just about feeling beautiful or feeling healthy. It's saying that you literally do not have to change a thing about yourself to love yourself. It is saying "you are worthy of love no matter how your body feels and the love you are most worthy of is from your own self. You deserve to love yourself because you exist, you matter, and loving yourself should come first and foremost." I love that. I do. Why? Because to care about your physical health, you have to have good mental health. Poor mental health causes so many physical problems. Its disturbing the amount of people who don't get that you cannot tell someone they need to love themselves and put them down, telling them they need to change the body that they live in everyday. You cannot simultaneously build someone up while tearing them down. That causes mental instability. I think the thing that I love the most about this is that it even says "you have an eating disorder, whether it be anorexia or bulimia or binge eating or food addiction? You are still worthy of loving yourself and healing yourself and beating the odds."
So I guess what I am getting that is this:
You can be healthy at every size, but an extreme underweight or extreme overweight body is at higher risk for health problems. That doesn't mean all tiny people or all morbidly obese people are going to be unhealthy. Because they aren't. And even if they are? None of your business.
You shouldn't put people down. You shouldn't feel bad about your body. You should be aware that you are beautiful as you are and if you want to change how you are, you're still going to be beautiful. Unlike a lot of people who believe in body positivity and HAES and LTSYI, I believe you can love yourself enough to make improvements to your body-whether that means eating more or less, exercising more or less, or simply changing the way you dress to feel more comfortable and confident.
You're worthy of love, you deserve love, and you deserve that love to come from within. It doesn't matter the shape of your body, whether it is tiny, muscular, flabby, fluffy, plus or petite or fit . . .you matter. Period.
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