{"id":76409,"date":"2023-06-06T22:19:46","date_gmt":"2023-06-06T20:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/?post_type=magazin&p=76409"},"modified":"2026-10-31T18:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-31T16:19:12","slug":"bodypositivity-the-fight-for-respect","status":"publish","type":"magazin","link":"https:\/\/visualjournalism.de\/en\/magazine\/ideals\/bodypositivity-the-fight-for-respect\/","title":{"rendered":"#BodyPositivity \u2013 the fight for respect"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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The self-love trend obscures the idea behind body positivity \u2013 and clouds the real problem in society. By Laura Druselmann<\/a> (text), Larissa B\u00fcrgi<\/a> (photos)<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/div>\r\n \r\n

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Since body positivity reached social networks such as Instagram, it has mainly been associated with slogans like \u2018Love your body\u2019 and \u2018Feel beautiful just as you are\u2019.<\/strong> But behind the movement lies a far more serious idea that is often forgotten or never addressed at all: a fight against discrimination and for greater social justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Body positivity doesn\u2019t demand that you find yourself beautiful or love your body \u2013 that\u2019s a very common misunderstanding. Body positivity demands that you treat all bodies with respect,\u2019 explains Kathrin Tschorn, a body positivity advocate from Berlin and founder of the information and inspiration platform Marshmallow M\u00e4dchen. The movement, which began in the US in the 1970s as the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, has always pursued a political agenda against the exclusion and disadvantaging of, above all, larger-bodied people. The German term \u2018Mehrgewicht\u2019 (\u2018more weight\u2019) was also coined by the body positivity movement as a neutral, non-discriminatory counterpart to \u2018\u00dcbergewicht\u2019 (\u2018overweight\u2019). <\/p>\n\n\n \n\n

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If you type the hashtag BodyPositivity into Instagram\u2019s search bar, countless posts appear from people who match the prevailing ideal \u2013 slim and toned.<\/p>\n <\/blockquote>\r\n\r\n

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\u2018It isn\u2019t only about ideals of beauty, but about the fact that fat people experience tangible structural discrimination \u2013 and that has nothing to do with this feel-good hashtag on Instagram,\u2019 Tschorn stresses. And she is right: if you type the hashtag BodyPositivity into Instagram\u2019s search bar, countless posts appear from people who match the prevailing ideal \u2013 slim and toned. Only after scrolling for a while do posts appear that represent the original movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But should we distinguish between \u2018good\u2019 and \u2018bad\u2019 body positivity? No. The movement can, however, be divided into different levels. On the one hand, body positivity has a very individual side, focused on the individual person. This is about learning to accept yourself and your body \u2013 including the changes it goes through over a lifetime. Tschorn explains: \u2018You don\u2019t have to find yourself beautiful or love yourself to be body positive \u2013 you have to treat your own body kindly and act according to your needs.\u2019 Added to this is the understanding that a person\u2019s worth does not depend on how closely they match society\u2019s ideal of appearance. On the other hand, there is the political level, at which body positivity demands \u2018respect for all bodies\u2019 \u2013 and so symbolises what the movement has stood for for almost 50 years. Kathrin Tschorn explains: \u2018Body positivity wants bodies to stop mattering \u2013 that we get away from this lookism and from the belief that we can read anything about people from their bodies.\u2019  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the individual definition has risen in the media to become a new ideal of beauty, the movement\u2019s overarching goal has faded into the background. Criticism has arisen: body positivity, critics say, glorifies an unhealthy lifestyle, encourages people to become overweight or makes them ill. Tschorn counters: \u2018Body positivity is always fundamentally about respect, and it doesn\u2019t matter at all whether someone is healthy or unhealthy, fat or thin.\u2019 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Body positivity should therefore not be understood only as what is spread under a hashtag on social media or used for marketing. The movement is rather a political concept that for decades has sought to create greater social justice and, above all, mutual respect in society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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