Body Positivity vs Body Neutrality

Reviewed by Clinical Director, Jillian Walsh, RD, RP

What is the Difference Between Body Positivity and Body Neutrality?

Developing a healthy relationship with our bodies can be challenging. In today’s society, the promotion of unattainable ideals is ever-present. For some of us, these ideals can take a toll on our relationships with our bodies and result in poor body image.

To help combat the distress of poor body image, we may want to consider adopting some of the values that drive the body positivity and body neutrality movements. Body positivity and body neutrality can play an important role in eating disorder recovery. These movements can help us shift our mindset into a more attainable (and less distressing) pattern.

How we choose to view our bodies is an individual choice. Our relationship with our body may not be the same as someone else’s, and that’s okay.  For some individuals recovering from an eating disorder, this relationship can grow into an unconditional, loving relationship; for others, it is unrealistic to strive for unconditional love. It might, instead, be more realistic to move towards acceptance.

The body positivity and body neutrality movements are both great; they provide important perspectives that can improve one’s relationship with their body. As individuals, we get to decide which one resonates more with us. Let’s look at what both movements promote and how they can be helpful in eating disorder recovery.

Body Positivity

The body positivity movement is focused on unconditional love for our bodies. Advocates of body positivity believe that our bodies can be, and should be, loved regardless of:

  • Size
  • Shape
  • Skin Tone
  • Gender
  • Physical Ability

The body positivity movement maintains:

We can appreciate our bodies despite their flaws, and even learn to love these flaws unconditionally.

Our size and shape do not need to define whether we love our bodies.

We can, and deserve to, feel confident and worthy in our own skin.

The body positivity movement has helped so many individuals form strong, loving relationships with their bodies, and that is fantastic; however, for others, it may be unrealistic to achieve such a loving relationship with their bodies.  

There are more options available to us than simply loving or hating our bodies. Our relationships with our bodies fall on a spectrum:

We can fall anywhere on this spectrum, and this may change depending on the situation, the season, the week, or even the hour of the day.

For those of us who may feel that loving every bump and curve of our bodies is unrealistic, we can turn to the body neutrality movement. Typically, it is described as the neutral ground between body hatred and body positivity:

Body Neutrality

It is okay not to love everything about our bodies. For some of us in recovery, it can be helpful to take the mental spotlight off our body and shine it on other aspects of our lives, like our

  • Values
  • Friends
  • Family
  • Hobbies

The body neutrality movement advocates for placing our worth and value on features other than appearance.  The body neutrality maintains that:

We can feel neutral or indifferent about our bodies; This may be more realistic than loving it.

We can accept our bodies for what they are and appreciate what they do for us.

Our worth is not defined by our size, shape, or appearance.

Body neutrality offers a positive, but in some cases, more realistic alternative for those of us who feel that loving our bodies right now is challenging. By taking the focus off of our appearance, our minds have more space to dedicate to things that matter.

There is no expectation to be perfect. Some days, practicing body positivity or body neutrality may be challenging, which is okay. We may even practice both. Body positivity and neutrality are a choice we can make every day. It may take time and practice to get to a less distressing place with our body image, but it is possible.

The next time we are feeling down about our bodies, it may be helpful to try and remember some of the mantras behind body neutrality and body positivity. It may even be beneficial to write them down and come back to them on challenging days. Remember,

We get to pick which mantras work for us. 

Just as there are different spectrums on the body positivity scale, different values that align with each movement may resonate more or less with us. These may change as we move throughout recovery. Choosing something that aligns with our values will feel more authentic and will have a greater impact on repairing our relationship with our bodies.

How Change Creates Change Can Help

We are here to help. Book a free consultation call with us to learn more about how we can support you during your eating disorder recovery.

References

Harveston, K. (2018). What Is the Body Neutrality Movement All About?. Newstex.

Leboeuf, C. (2019). What is body positivity? Philosophical Topics, 47(2), 113–127. https://doi.org/10.5840/philtopics201947218

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