SecondA woman was lying on the beach, her skin was very tanned, and there was not a gram of fat oozing out of her bikini. I continued to scroll, and next post a mirror selfie after training-I didn’t even dress up so beautifully at the prom. The advertising banners in the city center and the movies on my screen mainly showed me women whose bodies conform to the ideal of beauty. During my adolescence, it was not ignored by me. I also want to look like that.
Therefore, I started to exercise through YouTube videos guided by women with perfect looks and smiling faces. At some point, I tortured myself in front of the screen every day, imitating the action that should give me six pack abs or well-shaped “trophies” according to the title. If I go home late at night, I will stay in the plank position for at least a few minutes before going to bed. One day without exercise is unimaginable, and the guilty conscience will be too great. I don’t like these exercises most of the time. I received training to comply with the regulations. It’s not about my happiness, but about looking better.
Fitness influencers let many people exercise their bodies. As many studies have shown, this is good in itself. Ingo Froböse from the German Sport University in Cologne summarized the results in Deutsches Ärzteblatt: “Regular physical exercise is great for preventing cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, cancer, osteoporosis, obesity, stress and burnout.”
The problem is: many times, the focus is on appearance. Especially compared in social media. Why do Internet celebrities have such a flat stomach and I don’t? “Fitness influencers usually have different genetic equipment, train very hard, and often take illegal drugs,” personal trainer Arlow Pieniak explained to me. The same number is simply out of reach for some people. I didn’t realize this when I was a teenager, and even today, I sometimes find that I exercise just to stay slim. But it is even suitable for being together: do fitness exercises and still accept your own body?
Body Positivity and Body Neutrality
Many sports with different names and similar goals run counter to the ideal of pursuing beauty, such as positive energy flow in the body. It originated in the United States and was originally named Fat Liberation. It was mainly black obese women who struggled to ensure that they were not physically discriminated against. Movement should benefit everyone, but it is still a safe place for founders.
But the industry smells of money. So it didn’t take long for you to buy shower gels, belly pants and vitamin capsules marked with the Body Positivity slogan-most of these ads were advertised by white women of normal shape. This is not the only cause of neutral body motion. But also because some people think that the word physical positivity indicates that you must always love everything about your body. This creates pressure in the other direction. I want to move from compulsive positivity to simple self-acceptance. Appreciate the essence of the body: the body.
You can learn to accept yourself
This movement also made me question the ideal of beauty that I have been emulating for a long time. Do I really have to wear size 34 jeans? Nevertheless, I said: My body is just a shell, I don’t care about my appearance.
