Modern body positivity is for people of any size. Very often I read comments like, “Body positivity is only for plus-size women.” Living a body-positive life means embracing principles of acceptance regardless of size.

That goes for your own body, and everyone else’s too. The roots of body positivity can be found in the ‘fat acceptance’ movement, which supports the liberation of fat bodies and fights against stigma surrounding them.

But the definition of body positivity has been broadened to encompass bodies that haven’t traditionally been the target. And it’s for people of every gender. You may have noticed the comment mentioned above said “plus-size women.” One big misconception is that body positivity isn’t for men, which is easy to understand.

People of both sexes should also be able to live in and love their bodies without being treated poorly by healthcare professionals, employers (or potential employers), law enforcement, or anybody else. Accepting and loving your body doesn’t mean your outside is the most important part about you, or that you should stop working to improve your nonphysical qualities.

Adopting body-positivity will free your mind to learn more about what you want out of life, to open yourself up more to others, and to work on gaining knowledge and skills. It’s no mistake that the people we see in most media look the way they do. Even if you’re a light-skinned, non-disabled woman with conventionally “attractive” features and a slim (but of course, not “too slim,” because that’s apparently a problem too) figure, you’ll never be able to achieve what Victoria’s Secret does by retouching, because even those models don’t actually have all the qualities you end up seeing on billboards and in catalogues.

But because those are the images we have seen from a young age, we tend to think they are real, and the only way to be “right”.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting to look “good”; just make sure it’s your own version of “good” and not someone else’s, because that someone else is making a mint off you.

Body-shaming is never acceptable.