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Body Positivity on Social Media, or: The Mass Production of Insecurities

By Nadine Koch 

Imagine a stranger would approach you on the street unwarrantedly telling you that the way your thighs should be normalized. How would you feel? Have you ever thought about how your thighs look before? Would you feel flattered or insecure about your thighs now? I believe it would be the latter, as it is how I reacted too. I have been in situations like this multiple times just not on the streets, but online. Creators all over social media have been preaching about normalizing certain body features for the past few years. This trend of “normalizing” is an attempt of the body positivity movement to oppose unrealistic and idealized beauty standards on social media. Its goal is for all people to appreciate natural bodies, but somewhere along the way it has taken a wrong turn.

The body positivity movement has political roots, as it originated in the 1960s as a defense against the eradication of large bodies, black bodies and queer bodies in mainstream media. It strives for the appreciation and inclusion of all bodies, whether they conform with beauty standards or not. Its goal is for every person to feel comfortable in their body and society to accept and cherish all bodies. Especially in today’s age of social media, the focus has shifted from structural political discrimination to the individual’s physical insecurities produced by mainstream beauty standards. This new approach of practicing body positivity has taken on many different forms from refusing the use of filters to purposefully posting unflattering pictures. Though not all practices bring the desired positivity. 

One example of this failed attempt at body positivity is the previously mentioned trend of “normalizing”. This trend consists of videos highlighting someone’s flaws or insecurities captioned “Let’s normalize…”, demanding universal acceptance of said flaws. The first time I stumbled upon this trend on TikTok was in a video about normalizing “cankles”. As I had never heard about cankles up until that moment and could not find anything conspicuous about the creator’s appearance, I looked it up. The word “cankles” is made up of the words “calf” and “ankle”, referring to ankles that are as thick as the calf. Afterwards I immediately looked at my ankles, trying to figure out whether I have cankles or not. Only then was I made aware of the fact that people can have different types of ankles. An incredible number of users commented about similar experiences under this video, discontentedly claiming they have just now learned of the existence of cankles and having been made aware of this body feature. It was only in this context of someone else’s insecurities that cankles suddenly became a flaw. Though most insecurities, including cankles, are not rooted in physical deformities, but simply in personal aesthetic preferences. People have preferences and are allowed to. Just because you do not like the look of a body feature, does not mean that it is a flaw. Just this one video already encapsulates the problem of this trend. It may be intended to be uplifting, but its actual effect is a lot more harmful than positive. The notion of "normalizing" body features implies that they are in fact not normal to begin with. This causes viewers who have the same or similar body features to be made aware of it, implying that there is something wrong with their appearance.

After this video, I went down a rabbit hole of the “Let’s normalize” trend and found at least one video for almost every single body part. I discovered that I have hooded eyes, a double lip line, hip dips, an anterior pelvic tilt and so many other “flaws”. By the questionable logic of the “Let’s normalize” trend, I, and a lot of other people, would possibly make first place on a list of the ugliest people in the world. While I am able to take things like this rather lightly, this constant confrontation with beauty standards and insecurities was proven to have serious negative influences on many people’s body images and mental health. Several studies over the past few years have shown a significant increase in body dysmorphic disorder, especially amongst adolescents. Body dysmorphia is characterized by extreme worrying about your own appearance, particularly specific, often unnoticeable body features. It can manifest itself through extensive body checking, social anxiety and comparing your appearance to others. It is not just low self-esteem but a serious mental illness that can result in depression and self-harming behavior. As comparing yourself to other people is considered natural human behavior by psychologists, social media platforms take this behavior to an unhealthy extreme.

The main problem of the digital body positivity movement is that it invites people to compare themselves to each other by “normalizing” insecurities. Body positivity can and needs to be practiced. It is absolutely mandatory in a (digital) world where unrealistic beauty standards have taken over. But it should not rely on pointing out “flaws” and insecurities. People are allowed to feel insecure and not love every aspect of their appearance. An alternative and more realistic approach is “body neutrality”, which does not force a positive attitude to your body but a more neutral, nonjudgemental one. The focus of physical aesthetics is shifted towards the appreciation of what your body enables you to do. For example, instead of focusing on my thighs being thicker and touching, I appreciate the fact that they enable me to throw powerful kicks in my Muay Thai training. Research shows that women who expose themselves to neutral body content have a much more positive stance towards their bodies. Nothing in life is black or white or good or bad; everything has facets and layers, and that is something people have to learn and accept.

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