what is body neutrality?
what does body neutrality mean?
Body neutrality is a concept that became popularized in part as a reaction to the "Body Positive" movement. The body positivity movement began as part of fat-acceptance and fat-liberation efforts with the empowering idea that "all bodies are good bodies". As time went on, body positivity became used more frequently in a mainstream context that promoted a version of wellness represented by a slender, able, young, white body.
As a result, popular body justice activists like Virgie Tovar and Jessamyn Stanley began discussing the commodification of body positivity and its lack of intersectionality and began using the language of body neutrality to create ways for folks to relate to their bodies without pressure, judgment, or the feeling that their bodies needed to fit into a wellness space.
Observation without judgment, trauma
Another way body neutrality has been used to change the narrative around the narrative folks have about their bodies is to remove the idea that a person "should" feel good about their bodies all the time. Neutrality is a way to recognize that there are many ways to observe and respect our experiences within our bodies, especially on days that we don't feel "total self-love" and an ability to embrace parts of ourselves we have complicated feelings around.
OBSERVING NOT HOW OUR BODIES LOOK, BUT HOW THEY ARE FEELING, is a great first step towards a space of body neutrality. Many people have had some type of traumatic experience involving their bodies. This can look many different ways for each individual, and might include the ways in which bodies are referenced in media, mistreatment and discrimination in the medical system, chronic pain, loss, and violence.
A normal, protective, adaptive trauma response can be to distance or disconnect from our bodies. It can feel overwhelming, or possibly painful, to force that connection. Compassionate body neutrality creates a space for folks to take care of their bodies without too much attention or value judgments on days in which that is simply not the right expectation.
What a body does, not how a body looks
Body neutrality is “a movement rooted in acknowledgment and appreciation of what your body does, rather than applying value to how it looks”. 1
Practicing non-judgmental curiosity around how our bodies work and feel can allow folks to be more connected to what is happening inside, acknowledge how our bodies support us on a daily basis, and be more attuned to what is working.
Some days feeling incredible, radical self-love may feel really accessible, but other days this does not. Body neutrality is a wonderful way to respect and honor our bodies without pressure, with a realistic understanding that our bodies do not always work the ways we want them to, and with an acknowledgment of the systemic difficulties related to body acceptance.
To read more
To read more about the ways the body positivity movement lost sight of the importance of body justice, changing systemic racism and discrimination, and centering fat bodies, check out these articles.
The Fragility of Body PositivityHow a Radical Movement Lost Its Way
by Evette Dionne
Body Positivity Has Lost All Meaning in 2020
by Marie Southard Ospina
1. Maya Richardson https://www.mayarichardson.com/
Thinking of all of you!