Let’s Talk about ‘Health at Every Size’
A look at the body positivity movement in modern media.
The body positivity movement has slowly been gaining traction in modern media and lifestyle, where companies are promoting their brands models of all shapes and size, a model with downs syndrome was recently signed to a major brand, and the stigma that you do not need to see your ribs to be classed as healthy are all occurrences that are slowly becoming the norm.
Promoting a healthy body that does have fat on it is incredible inspiring to the next generation of children, who, hopefully, will not grow up as we millennials did with a near constant emphasis on losing weight to be healthy.
Even now, in my twenties, when I see someone of my size (UK20) in the media I find a new sense of beauty about my own body.
This is something that needs to be supported and continued in the future. Soon, it won’t be ‘necessary to have a bigger person in ads for representation’, it will simply just…be that way.
Not only is it a step in the right direction for people of a bigger stature, it is detrimental to People of Colour who have lived for so long without proper representation.
The way social media is moving to incorporate every size, shape, and colour is something we have been advocating for for decades.
But is it inspiring for the right reasons?
As much as seeing normal sized models in media and advertising inspires others to love the body they are in, there is a small percentage of the campaign that might do more harm than good.
It is the phrase:
Health at Every Size.
The phrase, which is extremely popular amongst the body positivity movement, is often used to describe those who are medically classed as obese and choose to post their body to the public.
Tess Holliday is a very good example of this. She is an advocate for Health at Every Size, and is an extremely beautiful plus size model. She is, however, not healthy.
I personally believe that the phrase Health at Every Size is actually quite an unhealthy thing to be saying. Saying this phrase excuses a lot of people’s unhealthy and bad lifestyle choices for the sake of ‘I’m healthy even though I’m fat’.
At 266lbs (after losing almost 50 lbs and counting), I will be the first to hold my hands up and say that I am not as healthy as I should be. Even though I exercise 3–4 days a week, eat as healthily as I can, I am still not at my peek health.
I snack, I get takeaway on Friday’s with my partner, I sit at a desk in an office all day, I drink alcohol, I sometimes smoke cigarettes. Can I say the phrase ‘Health at Every Size’?
No. It took me a long time to realise what bad habits I can change to make myself healthier, and do you know what happened when I changed my lifestyle even the slightest bit to be more healthy? I lost weight.
When I speak my mind about this subject, that I believe Health at Every Size is untrue and detrimental to people’s healthy lifestyle but giving them an excuse, I get a lot of backlash from the body positivity movement.
It is my belief that you should love the skin you are in. So, you may be thinking that I have two very conflicting beliefs, right?
Actually, no. While I do not believe in Health at Every Size, I do, inexplicably, believe in Beauty at Every Size.
This is what a lot of people fail to realise, in my opinion, that there is a very explicit difference between the two phrases. They are often used hand in hand, as synonyms, but that is, again, a very untrue and unhealthy statement to make.
It is my belief that people should love themselves, while also finding it within themselves to recognise their bad and unhealthy habits and making an active effort to better themselves. You can still be beautiful while doing this.
Now, with this context, think back to Tess Holliday. Is she healthy at her size? No. Is she beautiful at her size? Extremely.
Acknowledging that you are not healthy is not a sign of weakness, nor should it be shunned. A plus size influencer actually got a lot of backlash when she needed to lose weight for her health.
Now, am I saying that all those who are skinny are healthy? No, absolutely not. You are not Healthy at Every Size, regardless of the size.
To summarise: the body positivity movement is going in the correct direction, but it needs to be monitored to make sure we are not permitting excuses to stay at an unhealthy size when a lot can be changed to make their lifestyles healthier.
