Moreover, we think health is too multifarious to equate absolutely to fitness, so how could we possibly prescribe fitness as the cure-all for improving one?s health? Health and fitness are a Venn diagram wherein some people are both fit and healthy, and others are one or the other. Many are neither.
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There have been some vicious debates regarding what constitutes fitspo and what its consequences are. Let?s address its relationship with body positivity by probing our values and clarifying our lexicon, lest we bicker forever about what fitspo and body positivity are. In this two-part series, I?d like to define body positivity and fitspiration so as to decipher who is in each camp and what this ?fitspo? we?re arguing about really is.
Judging by responses I?ve seen to body positive bloggers, some fitspirationists can?t fathom the existence of a fit body positivist. They call opponents of fitspo fat, lazy, and jealous of sculpted bodies.
This thought process is crucial to the examination of the general argument. You see, being body positive does not preclude one from eating healthfully or exercising, nor does it preclude unhealthy behaviors. Some body positivists struggle with self-harming behaviors rooted in depression & anxiety, others are in the depths of an eating disorder, and others still are marathon-running yogis.
I, for one, am fat. Sounds awfully diverse, right? So what?s the unifying position? Body positivity reaches into matrices of sexism, racism, classism, ableism, and sizeism that color our experiences to extract a little nugget of truth:
Regardless of ability, appearance, fitness, or what parts they have ? all bodies are worthy of love, respect, and dignity, especially from their inhabitants.
It holds that our lives will not magically fall together when we maintain a certain weight or when our abs have reached a certain degree of definition or we when fit into a coveted size of jeans.
Body positivity is the radical notion that we should not sacrifice respect for our bodies in pursuit of perfection. While it?s an inclusive grouping, such a thesis is, by definition, incompatible with other vantages ? mainly debarring anything prescribing certain images & behaviors to people as ideals ? like fitspo.
I?m sure folks would rebut ?Fitspo isn?t prescriptive! Fitness is healthy. Some bodies aren?t fit. We?re helping.? But this is exactly where fitspo becomes prescriptive.
Body positivists, like fitspirationists, recognize that many people do not get enough exercise or eat nutritionally-dense enough diets to be anywhere near the pinnacle of health. Some of us, like myself, also work as advocates for healthy behaviors, whether this includes intuitive eating habits, exercising as an end in itself, or trying to help people heal from pervasive problems in their lives, like depression, anxiety, addiction, and abuse.
Many of us are passionate about health, but we think that people who do not choose practice healthy behaviors deserve to be treated with respect & dignity.
Moreover, we think health is too multifarious to equate absolutely to fitness, so how could we possibly prescribe fitness as the cure-all for improving one?s health? Health and fitness are a Venn diagram wherein some people are both fit and healthy, and others are one or the other. Many are neither.
Those of us who have been immersed in diet culture for years ask ourselves how this could possibly be. For the answer, ask yourself the following:
If you are able, do you engage in pleasurable movement as an aspect of your social life and means to elevate your heart rate? Do you treat injuries instead of pushing yourself past your limits? Do you feel nourished by food? Can you indulge on special occasions without guilt? Do you have adequate caloric & micronutrient intake to keep your body functional? Can you eat until you are full, then stop? Do you relax?
Do you feel in control of your emotions, thoughts, and behavior? Are you aware of your emotions and have non-destructive coping mechanisms & outlets for them? Are you able to express these emotions and channel negative moments into outlets that are not self-destructive? Are you able to face your emotions instead of trying to numb yourself?
Do you have a support system of friends and chosen/biological family? Do you have an equitable give and take with the people in your life? Do you feel like you are able to depend on those people? Do you feel safe with them? Are you able to communicate with people and resolve conflicts amicably? Are you able to reach out to other people when you need help?
Do you derive satisfaction from your accomplishments? Do you have a sense of self and self-worth? Do you feel a sense of connection with humanity? Do you feel motivated to use your life constructively?
These questions hardly regard what we think of as fitness, but all deal with aspects of our well-being, and none of them told us why we?re worthy.
Ignoring this obvious divergence would be to feed into the very mentality that makes fitspiration so unhealthy: the conflation of health and fitness, and the association of health and worth.
Health is a continuum with nebulous, interlinking domains. None of us are ?perfectly healthy,? but we?re all worthy. The worthy includes the millions of us who don?t have access to resources that would allow us to engage in the aforementioned healthy behaviors or recognize them as options.
Because of this, we must query: ?Why should people who aren?t healthy deserve less dignity, love, or respect?? and ?Why would we think they don?t in the first place?? The answer? We do this because of internalized messages from people who want us to strive for an ideal our culture has prescribed for us.
You see, thinspiration declares thin bodies as the ideal through objectifying/dehumanizing images of protruding bones & thigh gaps. It encourages restrictive or purging attitudes towards food, exercise, and calories.
Fitspiration equates muscle tone & low body fat percentages with fitness, perceiving bodies with those qualities as the paragon of human attractiveness & success.
It includes objectifying/dehumanizing images of flat stomachs & toned muscles. It encourages excessive exercise and stigmatizing, orthorexic attitudes toward food.
This idea that there is one way ?to be? and that way is ?fit? is delegitimizing to other bodies, as is treating fat bodies as undesirable ?before pictures? and the bodies of disabled individuals as invisible. We don?t think these bodies are worthy of love, respect, and dignity if we?re actively striving to eradicate them.
Next Time: In Part II, we?ll reconcile body positivity and seeking fitness, as well as distinguishing between fitspo?and images/messages that inspire health.
Emma James Burke is a student at Simmons College in Boston, MA, studying physics & philosophy and hopes to start a PhD program in analytic philosophy. Having dealt with EDs, depression, anxiety disorders, and heaps of fat stigma & body image issues, they are thrilled to be writing for Libero Network. Emma James is passionate about the Healthy at Every Size (HAES) model & body positivity as an integral part of nutrition, exercise, & recovery on a global scale. In their spare time they write about social justice, bikes, & comedy pieces in anti-authoritarian/DIY/punk zines in Boston and generally earn a reputation for heading campaigns for social justice. Emma James writes for our Body Positive Column
Source: http://www.liberonetwork.com/defining-body-positivity-fitspo-pt1
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