History of the Body Positive Movement
Everyone thinks the body positive movement started on social media. Well, it actually started waaaaaaaay back in the 60s! Who’da thought? In New York City, a group of fierce men and women founded the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Back then, it was known as the fat liberation movement. The term “body positive” hadn’t even been invented yet!
The second wave of fat activism arrived in the 80s and 90s. By then, the movement had started to go international. A group of phenomenal women founded the London Fat Women’s Group, aka the UK’s first-ever body positive organization. Yay for progress!
That wasn’t the only first from that time period. This amazing trail-blazer named Carole Shaw published Big Beautiful Woman, which was the very first magazine designed specifically for plus-size women. AND the 90s was when people heard the term “body positive” for the very first time! A patient and psychotherapist launched The Body Positive in an effort to raise awareness and educate people about the importance of body positivity. The organization does amazing work to this day, so go check it out, yo!
On to the 21st century! This was when plus-size models really started to break into mainstream media (woot woot!). Nadia Aboulhosn, Ashley Grahame, Tess Holliday—these models and many others emerged as freaking icons. And queen among them all is Emme, the first plus-size model to score a contract with Revlon. Emme had her very own Times Square billboard, and in 2017, she made her debut at New York Fashion Week. You go, Emme!!
The body positive movement has since evolved into what it is today. It’s shifted away from fat liberation and more towards overall acceptance and self-empowerment. Brands and influencers have launched body positive campaigns that led to a bunch of new hashtags (#BodiPosi, #CelebrateMySize, #PlusIsEqual, you get the idea). Thanks to social media, a movement that got its start in NYC is now something people can celebrate around the world!
But we still have a long way to go. While the movement promotes love and acceptance for all, body positive ads mostly portray white women who are “conventionally hot.” There’s a lot of work left to do before people of all shapes, ages and races are equally represented in the movement. And so, we keep fighting the good fight!
