Is the Body Positive Movement Inclusive or Exclusive?

WHAT IS BODY ACCEPTANCE?

Now when we say body positive are we being inclusive or exclusive? Sometimes I see campaigns promoting body confidence, but it only features one body type. Whether it’s a strong athletic build or the beautiful plus size, I always notice promotions geared towards one category.  A demonstration of my point is in the following campaigns:

•Victoria’s Secret Love My Body

•Victoria’s Secret Perfect Body

•Lane Bryant #ImNoAngel

•Lane Bryant #PlusIsEqual

Let me start by saying, I am a shopper of Victoria’s Secret and Lane Bryant. The clothes from both are stylish and great quality, no bashing of the two brands, I’m just making note of marketing strategies.

While these brands are representing women of particular sizes and may have no intentions of putting down another body type, the presentation is somewhat ambiguous and may appear as offensive. Some women may feel a brand’s negligence of identifying other body types is a diss but with my optimistic attitude, maybe the company poorly executed its mission to consumers.

The fashion industry needs to be careful in its presentation of products through ads. Yes, the world is more sensitive and vulnerable but on the contrary, people are becoming self-aware and taking control of ignorant situations by educating people on self-worth and respect.

It’s essential brands utilize their platform because companies have the ability to project their meaning of beauty in a way of making consumers believe they must change themselves for the products they sell in order to achieve an unattainable image.

I understand the backdrop of financial expenses and only using size 5 and under models because less fabric means companies spend less money. But isn’t it ironic? The industry wants to sell clothes, but only includes specific women in their promos, yet majority of the world is size 16 and up but the industry markets to mainly one body type?

Sure companies want to stay in a specific niche and cater to certain body shapes, I just believe the customer is always right and the industry should focus on giving the people what they want and not thrive off what they think the consumers need.

I feel like the body positive movement is about feeling beautiful and confident in the body you have, not comparing or eliminating other types.

With that being said, we should strive to be more inclusive even with our positive efforts to reteach the fashion industry about what is beautiful. I’m an advocate of celebrating all women and showing that everyone is beautiful. To me, the best strategy to promote body positivity is to demonstrate different sizes of various women. Some of my favorite body positive campaigns include:

• All Woman Project
• #everyBODYisbeautiful Movement
• Untouched Aerie Ads
• ASOS marketing strategy to feature different sized models wearing the exact same style clothing
• JAG models which represents women of all sizes

Read about sheICONIC, which is my Insta featuring ALL stylish women.

These campaigns are special because they don’t knock one size to prove it’s valuable compared to a favored size. All the campaigns send messages of showing favoritism to every figure by pairing different body types with other lovely shapes, highlighting everyone is beautiful.

In Need of Inspiration?

Follow my Pinterest Board for a collection of inspiring body positive quotes, imagery and stories.

What are your views about the body positive movement? What are your favorite body acceptance campaigns?

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