The Forgotten Voice of the Body Positivity Movement

By: Payton Woodworth

Have you heard of the body positivity movement? Most likely yes, and it’s widely centered around women. But did you know that men are also trying to move up on the podium that the body positivity movement has yet to mention. The body positivity movement is a wonderful platform for women all over the world and all different sizes, but the creators of this movement forget another very important group, guys. In a perfect world, we’d all be the ideal size, we’d be happy with ourselves, and we’d be full of crap. Because there is no perfect world, everyone has flaws; men and women. Unfortunately, the body positivity movement just focuses on women, rightfully so, but to be even more specific, bigger women. The movement is mostly through social media and is predominantly represented by women. It’s about time that men also had a voice in the body positive empire.

Men have stood on the back burner during the body positive movement for far too long. Did you know there were male plus size models? Because I had no idea. Ryan Dziadul, Kelvin Davis, and Troy Solomon are three male models that have used social media as their platform to promote body positivity in men. Troy Solomon or @BearNamedTroy states, “I think we’re in a society where we learn so much more visually than ever before, something like Instagram, it’s imperative to making any kind of progress in body positivity. We’ve seen how it’s catapulted the women’s movement.” (Solomon) What Mr. Solomon means is that social media has became the new norm and we learn more from social platforms than we ever have before and if we continue to use the social media platforms, the body positivity movement can change the world.

As a woman who isn’t teeny tiny, I think having the body positivity movement is great and the use of social media as the platform is an even better idea given that the majority of people that struggle with body image most likely use a form of social media every day. A study done by the University of West England found that a majority of guys felt that part of their body wasn’t muscular enough and an even more noticeable, more men than women would sacrifice at least a year of their life in exchange for a perfect body.

Dr. Phillippa Diedrichs, from the center of appearance at the University of West England, ran a survey of 394 men and discovered that 80.7% talked about their own appearance or others in ways that draw attention to weight, lack of hair, or a slim frame. 30% have been told they have a “beer belly”, 19% have been called chubby, and 19% have heard the word “man boobs” when referencing to them. (Diedrichs) This is very similar to women and when we are asked what we like or dislike about our bodies, usually we tend to stay away from talking about our weight.

So all in all, the body positivity movement should be a platform for women and men, all sizes, all races. As a woman, I’d like to see that this movement goes very far but I hope in the near future that men get their voice heard as well. Social media is just a small step, but a great start in this empires’ agenda to make sure that everyone loves their body and loves who they are.

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