By Wanique Block
Originating in the 1960’s, the Body positivity movement was created to dismantle the link between weight and personal worth, thus placing emphasis on the notion that dignity and respect should be offered to everyone regardless of their body shape and size.
Today in 2022, this movement exceeds past notions and stives to bring about acceptance of all body types regardless of one’s race, size, body shape or physical ability and accentuates the idea that all bodies should be celebrated.
Rooted in social justice, this movement reiterates the importance of acceptance of people in marginalized bodies, particularly people of colour who are plus sized, queer and disabled.
In doing so, this movement protests and highlights all anti-fat biases that are imposed by society.
Despite the continuous push and fight for body positivity and acceptance, these messages often get easily lost in translation.
We live in an era where mainstream culture coupled with social media has not only distorted our perception of what is deemed as acceptable and what not, but a lot of co-operations use the body positivity movement as a buzz word thus diluting its intention and meaning.
We’ve seen this with the fading body modification procedures trends like lip fillers, Brazilian butt lifts not to mention the ongoing debate of colorism.
Apart from ongoing efforts to dismantle societies notion of what is beautiful and acceptable, this movement is meant to incite long lasting meaningful change.
At the forefront of this movement, South African Digital content creator, model and Body Positivity activist Thickleeyonce uses her voice to protest against fatphobia, body dysmorphia and anti-fat biases; and in turn advocating for self-love and confidence.
“[Body Positivity to me] means having a positive outlook on how you look and loving the body you have. It means being able to express myself and show my body love in a way that is not limited by societal standards and opinion. It is about positive expression of beauty”, Thickleeyonce tells Kaya 959.
In conversation with Kaya 959, Thickleeyonce reveals her motivation to becoming a body positivity activist stemmed from her lack of self-love.
“I realized that if I didn’t love myself and show myself the love that I deserve, I would constantly be living in deficit based off what other people want me to be, which is unrealistic and unsustainable”, Thickleeyonce shares.
Thickleeyonce continues: “Women, particularly South Africa women are shaped differently. Smaller figured women are celebrated because society only accepted them as “beautiful”, and I wanted to change that narrative and make beauty inclusive for every woman who looks or feels like me (that feels marginalised)”.
Thickleeyonce uses her platform and social media presence by partnering with brands that are intentional about diversity and inclusivity. She has also created her own clothing brand called LEE-BEX, dedicated to plus sized women.
“I felt that there wasn’t enough representation in the fashion industry for women like me. The options that are out there, I felt they didn’t allow fuller women to look and feel sexy. Lee-Bex is dedicated to making women feel beautiful and have the cute options that other women get to have”, Thickleeyonce notes.
In her quest to challenging the status quo, Thickleyonce unapologetically reminds us that it’s okay be vulnerable, but more importantly it’s okay to exist, because that is what makes us beautiful.
“Just by existing, you are beautiful”, Thickleeyonce expresses.
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