Opinion: It’s pop culture’s fault; it’s time to love our bodies!

A Google search asking "how to feel comfortable in your own body?" Graphic by Ellie Starr.

In addition to establishing new relationships, college is a time where most students express negative feelings about their bodies. From entering college to exiting into the real world, students face challenges from establishing eating habits to finding their worth and love for their bodies because they have yet to learn body positivity. Every day our society is constantly and drastically evolving, including the slow progression of body acceptance within pop culture. From Amy Slaton finding her confidence in a burlesque class in “1000-Lb Sisters” to Lizzo embracing her curves and stretch marks, social media has become a platform where creators share stories about body positivity and inspire their young fans to be more loving of themselves. However, not everyone is comfortable with seeing people showing themselves off to the world, but it’s time to love bodies of all shapes and sizes instead of giving a damn about what is deemed beautiful and acceptable in our society. 

Programs such as “Supersize vs Superskinny,” “1000-Lb Sisters,” “My 600-Lb Life,” and others depict the lifestyle of individuals in bigger bodies that society once used to abhor. These shows are now viewed by millions of people who find it entertaining, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that hatred isn’t being expressed against the Slaton sisters who choose to expose their lives or the people who indulge food primarily due to issues stemming from childhood trauma. Furthermore, these shows perpetuate stereotypes about body size: if you’re big, stop eating and lose weight or get bariatric surgery. If you’re skinny, eat some more meat. But if they're healthy, why should they have to lose weight? It’s about self-love and self-worth, not about conforming to society's ludicrous standards and pressure on body weight. 

Of course, the issue with these shows is also more complex than that. People are only fascinated with them because curiosity sets in when encountering someone that is bigger than themselves. Viewers desire to see the diets of larger people and what they do in their lives. This is a problem that pop culture has not gotten better at — people might view these shows due to morbid curiosity and come to accept what they are exposed to, but this is not the same as being personally supportive of all body types. This issue needs to be addressed because it contributes to the many reasons students and the general public struggle to fall in love with their bodies. The underrepresentation of body acceptance is at an all-time low and needs to be addressed because the constant negative outpour of big people not fitting the “beauty” standards has lowered people’s views and morals of them, including themselves.

Looking to pop culture, so few celebrities are public with their thoughts on body positivity. However, one who stands out is Lizzo, an American rapper and singer who is known for her outward exposure and embracing of her rolls and stretch marks. When Lizzo started making serious changes to her health, most of her fans turned on her and accused her of taking Ozempic, an anti-diabetic drug that is used to control and manage weight gain. The public had accepted her as a body-positivity advocate, which was problematic in its own right due to Lizzo being the only representation for larger women despite her own controversies. However, those who witnessed her weight gain had zero faith that bigger girls and women can lose that much weight on their own, so many assumed that she utilized the drug to help lose the weight, the implication being that she and other bigger people don’t have the capability or the stamina to lose weight — an immensely inaccurate belief.

For Amy Slaton, who used to weigh a little over 400 pounds, it was four episodes before the season finale of “1000-Lb Sisters” and a divorce along the way that initiated her journey into self-love and body acceptance. Prior to taking a burlesque class in Episode 5 of Season 6, she acknowledged that her self-esteem was always “eww,” but after doing the class, she stated, “Damn. Maybe I am beautiful.” Bigger people shouldn’t be coerced or pressured into losing weight because that’s what is expected of them; they are already as beautiful and lovable as slender people and it shouldn’t take five seasons, a divorce and a burlesque class to prove it. 

Fat is not repulsive. Fat is a connective tissue that everybody has. Having more or less of it does not make anyone less beautiful. If, by their own desire, a larger person chooses to have laparoscopic surgery to lessen their food consumption or lose weight, that’s fine. But “Supersize vs Superskinny,” a British docuseries that focuses on two people, one “supersized” and the other “superskinny,” who swap diets for five days and proceed a healthy diet for three months, illustrates a more conservative approach: dieting. For most people, dieting isn’t effective for maintaining long-term weight loss. However, that doesn’t mean one should give up on loving themselves or their bodies. It’s about not caring about what society says about weight loss and the display of body images, and it’s about making the time to love one’s body and oneself. 

The reason so many students and people in general struggle with body images is that pop culture hasn’t put a meaningful effort into creating a more accepting space for all body types, specifically in movies and TV shows. The underrepresentation of bigger people shown on TV — and some of the ways they are depicted when they are included, being for entertainment purposes only — is abominable because it illustrates that as a society, portraying issues of self-love and body positivity within film is not significant. Furthermore, larger people are not seen as full people with the ability to love themselves without dieting and weight loss. Ultimately, the world failing to catch up to a more liberal and accepting mindset shouldn’t force people to have intense negative emotions when it comes to loving their bodies.