How Female Olympians Are Inadvertently Promoting Body Positivity
The Olympics are all wrapped up, a week later and the memorable moments, memes, and impact of the event are still all over social media.
Throughout the Paris Olympics, it felt like I couldn’t escape seeing body positivity edits centered around the female athletes. It was refreshing to see such positivity and acceptance of all body types. However, there are always those that want to spread their negativity.
We absorb the things we see and hear. In the case of body representation, if we can’t identify with the bodies we see online or on the TV it can become an internalized issue of ‘Why don’t or why can’t I look that way’.
The online responses from the Paris Olympics highlight how important it is for people to feel represented.
Let’s look into these responses.
What Healthy Looks Like
For societal reasons, that I won’t get into as the whole article will be about it, healthy has been promoted to be slender. At least in the case of women.
To this day, people online will say women lifting heavy weights will result in them looking masculine and undesirable.
Some fitness influencers and online programs promise to help you burn fat in 2 weeks if you do these five exercises.
The one I have seen the most is promising to get you defined abs in just 2 weeks.
”The promotion of the fat burner workouts online are a negative influence on the younger generation. We saw this instance during lockdown with the Chloe Ting workouts which caused an uprise in eating disorders and body dysmorphia. Claiming that people will be able to achieve those results as unhealthy and unrealistic, especially when the influencer is already on the slimmer build side. Whereas with the Olympics, it displayed that you can be in sports and work out consistently and still have curves.”
Answers from questionnaire for this article
Unrealistic body standards thrive because of social media. As a result, if you do not fit the criteria for a ‘perfect body’ then it can negatively impact your self-esteem.
People hold weight differently as such they will look different physically.
”Health takes different shapes with certain people. It’s important to not discourage people from staying healthy but not through the use of unrealistic body standards.”
Answers from questionnaire for this article
What these athletes are doing by simply showing up is showcasing there is not one mold for health.
The Positive Impact
There has been a lot more social media content highlighting the female Olympians this year.
Big and small creators alike are creating content to show their support and pride in these women and young girls competing.
One such video by thesaiyankiwi has garnered 34.3 million views on Instagram with an accompanying 3.4 million likes.
Likewise, a lot of creators are making edits of a lot of the female athletes from different sports.
Highlighting the different physiques they all have. With a variety of toned, stocky, short, tall, slender, and muscular bodies.
There are even some Olympic athletes who actively promote body positivity and acceptance.
One such Olympian is the USA 7s Rugby player Ilona Maher.
The Olympic medalist has now garnered over 3 million Instagram followers and it’s pretty clear why.
Her platform is a mix of hilarious and relatable videos as well as spreading body positivity. She encapsulates feminity and strength.
From powerful weightlifters and lean runners to youthful skateboarders and nimble tennis players. The representation that has been highlighted at the Paris Olympics is one for the books.
”To show diversity is to show acceptance. Society often puts out a saying that certain body types are considered ‘ugly’ or ‘unhealthy’ but that’s not the case. And showcasing different body types can help different people with their confidence and put out a more positive vibe for everyone in general.”
Answers from questionnaire for this article
However, much like anything that goes around on social media, there are those that aim to sully it with negativity.
The Negativity
A lot of topics on social media make room for opposite or negative views. Much like the recent ‘demure’ trend, some people love it while others find it annoying.
With that said, the negativity shown in the comment sections of these social media posts can be a head-scratcher.
A common theme is trying to undermine the excitement of these videos by stating ‘women have been in the Olympics for a while’. Some take it a step further saying that women in the Olympics is nothing special. While also taking a jab at feminists for simply wanting to take pride in the female Olympians.
There was of course those body shaming the athletes as well.
Trill Mag conducted a questionnaire as part of a study on the impact female athletes in the Olympics had on body positivity. The participants revealed that they believed the negativity online was coming from a place of insecurity and projection.
”Body positivity is a new theme, for so long it’s been pushed that ‘slim is the in’ and anything else that doesn’t fit into that is demonised. [Gen Z] is changing these outdated beliefs, change will always be met with resistance, however with time, it’s possible.
Answers from questionnaire for this article
My Observations
In an era of Photoshop and editing photos to appear a certain way, it is refreshing to see real bodies.
With various articles written about how damaging social media is for peoples self-esteem. It is even more so for those growing up alongside it.
Children are impressionable, we can see this with the Sephora kid epidemic a couple of months ago. They were influenced by what they saw on social media.
Being able to see and identify with people who look like you from a young age helps create a sense of belonging. If people edit themselves to not look a certain way and you don’t look like them it then makes you wonder why don’t you?
Negativity will always exist, it is the way of the world. However, the more we focus on the positive the harder it becomes to hear the negative.
Which is why highlighting these real bodies is important and why these athletes are the current poster child for body representation. Even if they didn’t mean for it to happen.
