Over the past years, society has been more assertive into promoting body positivity. Gone are the days when a woman’s body is considered beautiful by the stereotypical standard measurement of a 36-24-36 figure. Women’s magazines, fashion brands and beauty companies now focuses their marketing campaigns into accepting that our body does not define our worth.

Nowadays, we see models of all shapes and sizes realistically representing women. The concept of beauty does not perpetuate self-doubt anymore rather now it is a celebration of every person’s differences and unique features. Body positivity also promotes self-care and that all, men and women should appreciate their own bodies as well as others; stretch marks, scars, cellulites, love handles and all.

Body Shaming

We have always been under the notion that only women who are fat could be victims of body shaming. But in reality, women who are skinny are also being body shamed. The insults that women of all sizes and shapes receive are detrimental to their mental health. Women who suffer from body shaming tend to be depressed, anorexic and bulimic and obsessed with a flaw that needs to be corrected. Known as body dysmorphia, this mental health disorder is rarely discussed since having worries about one’s appearance is considered normal and not a big deal to be concerned about.

Feminism Movements

Since the 1850s women have been coping with the societal pressure to look good. They were forced to wear uncomfortable, not to mention harmful corsets to achieve a tiny waist and are often ridiculed if they are not able to. Fat women are considered unhealthy since the definition of fat and obese weren’t clearly defined then. Fortunately, during the 1960s, an initiative that one’s health is better measured by blood pressure and heart rate than measuring it by weight was started.

Plus Size

The term plus size has been used since the 1940s and its definition for women’s clothing is “larger than normal”. The term is not considered offensive as compared to other terms and models are proud and out calling themselves plus size to understandably represent the average woman. Retail and online shops now carry plus size clothing and women are not embarrassed anymore to buy plus size underwear. Fashion brands now cater to the specific needs of plus size women who look for stylish, comfortable and versatile intimates.

Self-love and Acceptance

The struggle to being body positive all the time is real especially at this time and age when people could just easily and nonchalantly post a demeaning comment to someone’s social media account for everyone to see. Actresses and fashion models are not spared from these people’s malice but at least were brave enough to speak up and lend a voice to other bullied women because of their size.

In spite of society being more lenient and open minded when it comes to beauty, it is still sad that society became more accepting because we are teaching these plus size women to be more resilient and just ignore the negative comments thrown their way, sometimes on a daily basis instead of teaching others not to be callous and judgmental.

We still have a long way to go into truly accepting sexy comes in all sizes but hey, at least now we don’t require women to wear corsets, a giant leap for womankind.