Body positivity is losing popularity, or who and why tried to convince humanity that bbw is good

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Beauty standards are constantly changing. Fashion forced women to exhaust themselves with diets for a slender figure, to take risky plastic surgeries and other unhealthy steps in order to meet a certain standard. As a counterbalance, a whole social movement "Bodypositive" emerged. Respected fashion magazines began to publish photos of plus-size models on their covers. Such publications cause a lot of ridicule and an extremely negative reaction from many people. Many spears have been broken on both sides of the barricades. So where is the truth? Is obesity as good as we are portrayed to be?

Scandalous article

Not so long ago, the British magazine Cosmopolitan published an issue that featured photographs and interviews of eleven different women. They were of different builds, and the inscription read: “This is great! 11 Women on Why Healthy Weight Doesn't Have to Be Universal. The cover featured a plus-size model.

The material greatly outraged the public. Especially in light of the coronavirus pandemic. After all, doctors around the world say that there is a direct connection between being overweight and the risk of a severe course, or even lethal. The network reacted extremely negatively to the promotion of obesity and such a negligent attitude towards their health.

Weight matters

The indignation of users is not unfounded. The World Health Organization's definition of obesity is that people are overweight if their BMI is over 25 and obese if it is over 30. Therapist, medical researcher and founder of PrimeHealth Clinical Research, Iris Gorfinkel, MD, said that this measure has its own nuances.

“BMI does not take into account muscle mass, it only takes into account height and weight. So this figure is not very accurate. Better research shows that waist circumference can actually tell more about a person's health. Thus, people with large hips or plump legs do not have the same health effects as people with large waist circumferences."

“That which covers the area where the waist should theoretically be is called visceral fat. It looks like a spare tire on your belt. And that's exactly what predicts the worst health outcomes. And this is what surrounds our liver, pancreas, stomach and intestines. It turns out that the more visceral fat a person has, the more fat surrounds the heart … This, in turn, is associated with an increased risk of heart attack and stroke."

Plus-size model stories

According to the Cosmopolitan publication, yoga teacher Jessamine Stanley has become "a superstar in the American wellness industry for her inclusive approach."

Stanley noted that she took on her body measurements and learned how to turn off negative comments on Instagram, where she has 450,000 followers. She often had to deal with a very aggressive attitude towards herself. “I had to admit that this is how the mainstream sees me. I'm not trying to change. It was a real discovery for me that many people approve of me."

Popular plus-size model Callie Thorpe, for example, said: “Plus-sized people often feel like they can't be part of a healthy space. We are first branded for being fat, and then they laugh at us in the gym. " Callie's journey to loving herself began with her diet blog in 2012. “I thought that if I took responsibility to strangers, I would definitely lose weight. As a result, I felt much worse than ever,”she explained. Thorpe now sticks to body positivity. She tries to think more about what her body can "do" rather than how her body looks.

Obesity is not good at all

Doctors say obesity is a pitchfork that sticks into COVID-19 with all three prongs. First, obesity causes inflammation and increases cytokine levels. And this actually creates the basis for a cytokine storm, in which the own immune system attacks not only the virus, but also its own cells. Thus, the cytokine storm not only aggravates pneumonia caused by COVID-19, but also directly damages lung tissue, in addition to causing acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS.

The second problem is that the fat in the abdominal cavity is pushed away from the diaphragm, which makes it difficult for a person to breathe and prevents the lungs from filling up with air. And when the lungs are not completely filled, the risk of pneumonia increases. Intensive care professionals have learned to use this to their advantage. They put the sick on their stomachs because this helps oxygen to penetrate the lungs more easily. When people are lying on their backs, body weight makes it difficult to inflate portions of the lung.

The final concern is that obesity causes a host of chronic diseases that increase the risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19. Since the pandemic swept the world, numerous scientific studies have shown that many of those who have suffered from the coronavirus or died were overweight. Scientists found that obese people infected with SARS-CoV-2 were 113% more likely than people with a healthy weight to be hospitalized. They are also 74% more likely to be guaranteed to go to the intensive care unit and 48% more likely to die.

Where are the solutions to the problem?

A Cosmopolitan article says there is nothing unhealthy about being overweight. The statement is very controversial. But besides this, a sharp negative reaction of doctors to overweight is extremely harmful to health. When people come to the doctor with a problem, they often hear the categorical: "You urgently need to lose weight!" The problem is not solved, the person leaves. Health is steadily deteriorating. Another appointment with the doctor and right there: “What did you want? I told you that you need to lose weight. " In other words, the doctor is asking the person what is wrong with him. This formula doesn't work. Guilt, shame, humiliation - it all works in the opposite direction.

A more correct approach implies real help. The doctor should ask the patient what problems he faced in the fight against excess weight. What prevented him? This is not just a question of what is medically happening. To a large extent, this is a question of what is happening at the moment in society, what is happening, including in psychological terms. This is called the biopsychosocial method. And that makes much more sense. A storm of negativity in the form of "you are lazy", "you are addicted to food" and other things, will not change anything for the better in a person's life. Unless it will make you completely lose faith in yourself and give up completely. It is time for medicine to make the patient an accomplice, not an accused.

It's not the first time for Cosmopolitan to get into scandals, showing off women of large sizes. Plus-size model Tess Holliday appeared on the cover of the magazine in 2018. The publication was simply bombarded with accusations of promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. Holliday herself then said that she was not obliged to apologize for her appearance. She also burst into a loud tirade that if many people are so annoyed by her photo on the cover of a glossy magazine, then this is their personal problem.

If you are interested in the topic of body positive, read our article on how Plus-size model mimics fashionable images of slender stars to show that size doesn't matter.