I totally encourage body positivity, and that's because it's gladens my heart to see people embrace and love their true selves, regardless of their physical flaws, in a society where people verbally bully others for not meeting up to their beauty standards.
It's beautiful to see people not getting depressed due to other people standards of beauty or societal abuses.
Recently, I came across an amazing video on YouTube made by a Tanzanian Lawyer, Naomi Pilula who went really viral because of a selfie she posted on her Instagram page and the abuse and bully she got from over 530,000 commenters was really bad, just because she had a wide shaped nose, but then Naomi never brought down the picture, but instead changed the narrative, made a video about self love, acceptance, and real life struggles that made me realize the beauty of body positivity.
Her self confidence , brilliant mind and acceptance, was what I admired the most and after watching that video, I really saw her as a beautiful person, the ability and strength to not allow societal judgement make her look less on herself was what I admired the most about Naomi.
I admire it when people admire themselves, regardless of the societal standards of beauty, in as much as the physical appearance is what we see first, they are many other things to admire about a person.
If you can't change what you hate about people's appearance then you don't have the right to talk about it or judge them for what they can't even change.
We ought to be confidence and comfortable with every part of our body, confidence with the shape and color.
Accept your flaws with pride, love and respect and not get depressed .
Where body positivity becomes really toxic to me is when a person is suffering from a consequences of unhealthy lifestyle, like obesity, weigh loss and many more, but they still find a way to justify why they choose to look that way ignoring the health effects of obesity and losing excessive weight, especially when it's through unnatural processes.
Or when a person who's naturally dark in complexion bleaches with chemical products, just because they feel the society see those with lighter skin color as the beautiful ones.
Bleaching has dangerous side effects and should be avoided.
Health is a very important factor and concern to everyone, the moment you start being positive, when you are destroying yourself, then it's considered toxic.
I use to have a course mate during my undergraduate days who decided to go on a weight loss journey, she wasn't so fat, she was moderate and beautiful, but wanted a slimmer body, which is not bad , but then she went as far as starving, looked so ill and malnourished , some weeks later, when I saw her she was really a shadow of herself and she felt really confident about her look , began to look so sick, even after several persons reached out to her about their concerns, the next week, we were told she was rushed to the hospital.
I know we have the right to change ourselves, but then if she had followed a proper meal plan and exercise she would have achieved a slimmer body without falling sick .
Body positivity, gets really toxic when you don't consider the effect of your actions or body size.
I don't encourage body shaming people that look obese, but then we all know the effects of excessive fat on the body, brain and heart.
At this point acting all positive would do more bad than good, so it's important you exercise and stay fit.
Body positivity really becomes toxic, when you get comfortable, especially with body effects that can be changed and corrected.
I encourage body positivity, especially among teenagers and children, because these stages of life shapes their adult life and mindset.
Body positivity is accepting and loving yourself regardless of what the society thinks or say about your appearance.
Thanks for reading 鈾ワ笍
