What does “body positivity” actually mean?

Dear Anonymous,

Fat activists created body positivity to recognize the oppression that fat people experience.Now, I feel like it's something seen as having a positive body image, and that’s great.But it’s also not really what the movement started as. For me as a provider, it’s not how I use the term. 

For someone who’s really struggling with not feeling great about their body, a great first step or goal could be to consider “body neutrality” vs. “positive body image.” There’s a huge difference. 

Here’s how I like to frame it: think of having a roommate that you might not love all the time, but trying to coexist with this roommate. So it’s about having this body that you might have some strong negative feelings toward, and knowing that you only have one body. It might not always do what you want it to do. It might not look how you want it to look. But can you coexist with it? Can neutrality be your first goal? So it can be a great place to start when working on body image.