By james art 
By Javacia Harris Bowser | For Birmingham Times
In the last few years, the body’s positivity movement has stepped back against the idea that the only way to be healthy or to be beautiful is to be thin. Thanks to the work of activists, artists, scientists and influencing social media, American culture observes a more diversity of the body in advertising and the media, larger sizes for clothing and overall insistence on the acceptance of the body.
Then a new class of weight loss medicines called GLP-1, they went into the chat and the conversation shifted. As celebrities and everyday people began to lose weight easier, the positiveness of the body seemed to have fallen from the spotlight.
But for some, based on Birmingham fashion and beauty -influencing positivity has never been an up -to -date topic. It’s a way of life.
What is the positivity of the body?
Today’s body’s positivity movement has grown from the movement of fat activism since the 1960s, which is advocated for people who are considered overweight, to obtain the same rights and treatment-particular medical treatment-as thin people. Fat movement Activism also urged women to stop endless diet cycles.
Decades later, when thick activism moves online, #Bodypositivity was born, focusing not only on fat intake, but also the idea that all bodies deserve acceptance and that it is possible to be healthy in any size.
Asked how she determines the positivity of the body, the fashion blogger based on Birmingham plus size, Jenny Hosi said, “For me, it’s almost like a body neutrality.”
Hosy, who can be found online @jenesaisquoithe, added: “Body positiveness means there are no good and bad bodies. This means that everyone, regardless of their size, skin color, height, weight – something – deserves all equal treatment. Everyone deserves the same privileges, no matter any of that. It is also to know that you have the right to feel good in your skin, no matter what this looks to you. “
Body neutrality has also built a buzz in recent years. According to the Cleveland clinic, the term “neutrality of the body” began to appear online around 2015 and began to attract more attention around 2019 after celebrities began to mention the concept.
Here is an example of how body neutrality works: a person looks at his stomach and she does not check for a bulge of the abdomen or for six packs of ABS. She simply acknowledges and appreciates her stomach’s ability to absorb food and give her energy for the day.
“I see it as a path to body positivity,” said local influential flagships Ford. People who have problems with love or are positive for their bodies can just be grateful that their bodies are a function, explained Ford, who can be found online @funmiford.
Birmingham -based fashion blogger Christina Williams said she was neutral for her body until she started posting fashion photos of herself on social media that could be found on Instagram and Tiktok @chRestenamelea.
“I think it made me realize how other people see my body,” she said. The recent wave of weight loss drugs has begun this awareness in the Williams over -pipe, and she believes that these drugs are forcing the creators of a positive content of the body to ask themselves difficult questions.
“This has made our space this confusing sphere,” she said. “There is this thing we can take and we can actually be small. But then it made you face the question “Does it mean I don’t like my body?”
Body positivity and weight loss
What does it mean when the body positively affects the body loses weight? Is it still positive on the body?
According to Hosi, it depends.
“For me, part of the body’s neutrality is that you have to do what you want with your body,” she said. In other words, it has no problem with the positive influence of the body to choose to lose weight. “Where I think some of the problems have arisen, there are people who have weakened and then started talking about the plus size industry and the plus women.”
She has also seen companies and brands throw away their plus -size lines.
“This adds to the feeling that we are just like a market for the inclusion of a variety that is abandoned again,” she added.
Hosi believes that the influenants who have become critical of the same plus communities that once raised, have not been honest why they are weakening or how they really feel about themselves and they are throwing themselves to other people, she said.
“You have never been happy,” she told those creators who have ever encouraged body’s positivity, but now – after using weight loss medicines – they are involved in shame on fat. – You were arguing. You were just lying to make money. “
In the last few years, Hosey has dropped several sizes of clothing, passing from size 22/24 to 14/16. Hossi, which has type II diabetes, attributes weight loss to changes in her diet, which she made due to complications she had with diabetes.
Still, it still proudly identifies itself as a plus size and as a positive body.
“I lost weight, but I also didn’t do a big deal for my weight,” she said. “I will never do before and after the publication because I was fine in both cases. There is never a reason to talk about my size 22/24. It serves me a great goal. She was good with me. I loved the way she dressed and she was happy. “
Social media and self -confidence
Although some studies have found that social media can have a negative impact on the image of the body-especially for young people-other research shows that some content on social media can increase self-esteem.
“She definitely has his ups and falls, but for the most part, he definitely improved my image and feelings with my body,” Hosi said as he asked him about the impact of social media on her self-esteem.
Yes, she is often complimented when he posts pictures of herself, serving a cruel and fashionable appearance, but this is not how social media helped her. Her confidence is grown by the community of other fashion bloggers plus size she has found online.
“The community with a plus size certainly made me a better person,” she said. “I learned so many other women. I learned how to take care of myself, how to put it first, how to understand that I deserve all the good things – love and positivity and good fashion and comfortable trips – no matter what my body looks like. “
The community is also key to Ford. When she encounters negative comments online, she addresses friends who are also creators of content to encourage and support.
“When you get on social media and do not enter this package that people expect -you are a little more severe, you are much more severe, you are shorter -you need to have a good maintenance system and you should get to A place where you are mentally strong, “Ford said.
Aliscia Gilmore, which can be found online @aliscia.marie, says social media forces it to be stronger.
“To be in this industry has built a level of confidence that I have not always had,” she said. “I had to find new ways to love myself. I had to find new ways to hug who I was, this body I have, and I know it’s good to show up and I still want to show outfits, even after I have gained 20 pounds. “
Make it fat
For some, taking the body may seem like a superficial question. But the makeup artist based in Birmingham and the influence of beauty Precious Sanders believes that weight concerns can stifle creativity and even the impact of the community.
She shared that her uncertainty to her body once prevents her from doing many things from trying to make a new hairstyle to showing online to promote her business with makeup artistry.
“Everything I would see was a round face,” she said. “I’ve been a plus size all my life. So you are growing to be ashamed of public speeches and even be called in class because the children are cruel and will find the smallest ways to make you feel bad for yourself. “
But in the end, Sanders, which could be found online @iam.pracioussanders, had enough to hide in the shadows.
“I came to the point that I was tired of suppressing my creativity,” she said. “I also realized that when my spotlight was placed, I shone and I liked it a little! And I felt like I had something to say. “
That is why it launches Do it Fat – a podcast and product line designed to encourage people to follow the old saying “Feeling fear and do it anyway.”
“We all have what I consider to be fat,” she said. “It’s not just about doing fat, but he does it. Make it single. We all have this thing that holds us. At the end of the day you owe yourself because we don’t get more time. “
To learn to love yourself
For Gilmore, the new wave of weight loss drugs did not affect her sense of self.
“I couldn’t get out of bed every day if I wake up, wondering what everyone else is doing, if they lose weight, if they gain weight, if they make more money,” she said. “I couldn’t go through the day if I was focused on the world this way.”
Practicing self-conversion is one of Gilmore’s best recommendations for anyone who acquires the positivity of the body.
“If you wake up, saying that you love yourself every day, you will eventually feel it,” she said.
Williams and Ford also recommend therapy for work through a past trauma that can affect the body image.
For Williams and many other fashion influences, good clothing is like a coat of armor, protecting them from arrows from negative comments from other and negative self -conversations.
But Ford believes that the strongest shield comes from within.
“You can’t take anything that you haven’t built,” this is her message to anyone trying to break his armor from self -love.
“Sit with yourself and learn to accept you from how you look,” she said. “Take the time to build up secretly and then when you go out to the audience, you are a united front with you and no one can knock you down.”