Plus Size Body Positivity Influencers Are Getting It Wrong (Some of Them)

Tish [00:00:00]:

Plus size body positivity influencers are everywhere, but not all of them are getting it right. Today, I'm calling out 3 problems with what they're doing. So I wanna preface this by saying not all plus size body positivity influencers are doing these things. Alright. Let's dive right in. Number 1 is other body positive influencer roasting other influencers for making the decision to lose weight. Like what the actual hell, why would anyone go after someone else for making a decision to lose weight? Clearly that person is making a decision that they feel is best for themselves and their body. My belief is body autonomy, meaning each and every one of us knows our body the best and we get to make the decisions that we feel are best for our bodies.

Tish [00:01:06]:

Now, having said that, I also do kind of understand why there are influencers in the body positivity community that think if you're a body positive influencer, you shouldn't be losing weight. And the reason that they feel this is because some of these influencers have massive amounts of following. Like, I'm talking like millions of followers. And for a lot of people that are recovering from eating disorders or healing their relationship with food, it can be really triggering for them to see somebody that they have followed for a really long time who has been against dieting and to all of a sudden see them make the decision to lose weight. So I do understand from that perspective, yes, it can be triggering for someone As someone who is trying to heal my relationship with food and, you know, work on recovering from my binging and purging eating disorder, I I look at this as I'm an adult. If I don't like something that someone is doing, I simply hit the unfollow button. Now maybe that's a unpopular opinion, and I'm sure I would probably be roasted by many of these other body positive influencers that are choosing to go after the other ones that are, you know, choosing to lose weight. Okay.

Tish [00:02:46]:

So now having said all that, there was an incident with a plus size body positive influencer who has 1,000,000. I mean, not like 1,000,000. We're talking millions of followers, and she has been since I believe it started back in 2020. She was being open and honest about her health journey, about her, you know, wanting to lose weight, because of some of the horrible, you know, comments that she was getting and just being attacked for this. She took a step back and decided to, you know, not talk about that part of her life. In 2022, she came back and she said that she was ready to start, you know, talking about this and addressing this. So she started posting about her weight loss journey. And in 6 months, she lost £50, which, kudos, that's, you know, that's huge.

Tish [00:03:48]:

That's, like, significant. I don't want to minimize the fact that, you know, she lost that weight. However, the problem was she was not being honest about how she was doing this. Her followers were led to believe that this was being done, that this was all done simply by a change in diet and exercise. Well, there were some other, like, influencers that did some digging and they found some dirt about this body positive influencer. And it so happened that she was partnering with a pharmaceutical company known for weight loss, well, for drugs to help people with diabetes like Ozempic. However, those drugs are consistently being used for people who want to lose weight. So she was partnering with this company and was taking a weight loss drug, but she never disclosed that information to her community until eventually these other influencers started to call her out about it.

Tish [00:05:03]:

And not only was I not only do I believe that this was irresponsible because it was, you know, she was letting her all these followers believe that this was all because of changing her diet and exercising when it was not. So I think that was really response irresponsible to let people believe that. But the other problem with this is the fact that if you are being sponsored and posting content, you are supposed to disclose that information. And she was not disclo disclosing that information. So I have a huge problem with this. But having said that, again, I do believe that if a plus size body positive influencer decides to lose weight, more power to them. That is their choice. Number 2 of the problems that I see within the body positivity community is toxic positivity.

Tish [00:06:08]:

And what I mean by this is the messaging to other plus size women that we always have to love our bodies and we always have to have this body acceptance and, you know, body confidence. And I feel that this is a problem and I am a body positive advocate. Pack. I am the body positive fairy godmother. And this is a problem for me because, yes, I do believe that it is really important to accept our body. And a lot of my messaging is all about accepting the body that you are in today and that, you know, you are perfect just the way you are. But the reason that this toxic positivity, I see it as a problem is because those women that, you know, they can't find the body acceptance. They can't feel comfortable in their skin all the time.

Tish [00:07:08]:

They, they just they can't accept their body. It leads them to feel like they are a failure, like they are doing something wrong. And that is definitely not part of the messaging that I wanna put out there. So I actually have been struggling with this a little bit because, like I said, as a body positive advocate and the body positive fairy godmother, body positivity is a huge part of my messaging. But what I'm leaning more towards now is body neutrality. And the more I've had conversation with when conversations with women about body neutrality and the more research I have done about it and articles that I have read and things like that, I feel that body neutrality can actually be a better place for a plus size woman to land in than trying to be body positive. Okay. So the 3rd problem that I see within the body positivity community is telling smaller women that body positivity is not for them.

Tish [00:08:17]:

Now this is this is a little challenging because if we go back to when the body positivity movement was started and how it has its roots in the fat acceptance movement, If we base body positivity on all of that and why it was started and how it was started, then no. Body positivity is not for thin women. Body positivity has become such a buzz phrase. With so many people using the hashtag body positivity as well as others, like all bodies are good, love your body, BOPO. Those are just a few that I can think of off of the top of my head. It's created a huge problem. So the marginalized bodies are once again being marginal marginalized. And that's a problem because it's happening in the movement that they started.

Tish [00:09:22]:

So sometimes as a body positive advocate, it's really hard to be in the body positive community. Back in 2018, when I first found this community and the movement, I it was such a life changing thing for me. It was such a positive thing, and I'm so thankful for finding this community. And I still do love this community, but sometimes it's really challenging when I see these things happening. But I have such unpopular opinions compared to some of the really big body positive influencers. And I'm sure they would come after me if they heard me say, yes, you can be body positive and want to lose weight. But that's okay because that's my opinion and that's what I believe. They would probably also come after me if I said that, you know, I don't agree with some of the, you know, the messaging messaging that I see about we always have to love our bodies and we always have to have this body confidence because I don't agree with that.

Tish [00:10:33]:

So there was a time that I did agree I had to be positive and in love with my body every single day. And that's just not reality.