Body Neutrality does not Solve Desirability Politics
Our bodies are juggled between endless cycles of clothing trends and insincere mottoes — stocked and lined up on racks at Target and Victoria's Secret — never our own, forever a corporate ornament. Despite our efforts to escape the relentless clutches of body politics and its onset industrial complex, the algorithm never fails to introduce us to ‘wellness’ trends promoted as the one true solution to body politics and fatphobia. The absolute and unrealistic pressure on people to love themselves transformed the body positivity movement into a toxic, profit-driven business opportunity. Emphasising consumer culture as the solution to the body-image issue warped the body positivity movement into yet another capitalist scheme. Therefore, many people, notably activists and scholars, sought a new direction. Though we have begun criticising the cloying and exclusionary traits attributed to toxic body positivity, the following trend of body neutrality is not necessarily the solution either.
Body neutrality, as explained by its originator, Anne Poirier, is a mindset that rejects the radical and unconditional self-love of the body positivity movement. Instead, it posits a more neutral perception of the body, which values function over features. Poirier introduced this into her practice back in 2015. Actors such as Jameela Jamil, Taylor Swift, and Camila Mendes have been strong proponents of the movement since 2019. And it has risen in popularity on Tik Tok and Instagram in 2022. Several diets and intuitive eating coaches are discussing the trend on social media apps. This mindset, apparently, offers a more reasonable approach to self-love. It is hardly surprising that body neutrality flooded social media following the controversies surrounding the corporatisation of the body positivity movement.
Even though body neutrality is arguably a better alternative, the practice is hardly all-inclusive. Our idealised perception of masculinity and femininity is still moulded by postcolonial thought and proximity to whiteness and cishet identities. These traits that most marginalised groups fail to recreate lead to alienation by the health, fashion, and beauty industries. The very same industries responsible for distorted body images.
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In these instances, self worth issues such as body dysmorphia are a product of symbolic annihilation by the beauty and fashion industries. The erasure of minorities in the overculture — or symbolic annihilation — breeds body image issues that are outside the control of the individual. Even if body neutrality eases the blow of social forces on our body image, it does not encourage people to dismantle systemic prejudices. Body neutrality never demands the thin, abled-bodied, white, cis beauty standards to change. It wants us to stop discussing our bodies altogether. Move on. For marginalised communities, body neutrality erases the fight for liberation. It individualises the struggles and makes the issue apolitical. Meanwhile, the beauty industry launches more products perpetuating unattainable beauty standards. It depoliticises the body standards, thus, reducing our capacity for change and also allowing the eurocentric beauty ideals to thrive. Thus, making marginalised bodies more invisible. Wearing baggy clothes or hiding mirrors cannot circumvent the desirability politics that devalue our race, gender, size, or neurodivergence. When our inherent qualities are inextricably tied to politics and colonialism, it is harder to ignore the implications that it is not only our body, but our reality that is undesirable.
Not to mention, though neutrality for self may ease some internal pressure momentarily, our appearances substantially impact other facets of our lives. Being overweight, for example, affects economic opportunities for people. According to the National Bureau of Economic Research, “The cash wages for obese workers are lower than those for non-obese workers because the cost to employers of providing health insurance for these workers is higher.”
Fat people who experience body image issues do not have a singular, personal cause for their lack of self-confidence. Economic and social systems are constant reminders that their body is anything but a neutral entity in society. For marginalised people, body neutrality, much like body positivity, perpetuates neoliberal attitudes about body politics. Much like neoliberal politics, the body neutrality and body positivity movements emphasise personal responsibility and control. It makes structural inequalities seem like personal problems. In turn, it also drives conversation towards a post-feminist framework of body politics. All bodies are untouched by the systemic issues, so intersectional feminism is not essential to the discussion.
In her article for Cultivate Feminism, "Fat Shaming vs Fat Empowerment," Hannah Knox explains how bodily agency under a neoliberal system admonishes the opportunity for change. “Neoliberalism encourages an individualised form of empowerment via body positivity, which has depoliticised the concept of empowerment, removing its capacity to abolish social injustice.” Knox also comments that neoliberal politics have twisted our understanding of self-improvement by including purchasing commodities as the pinnacle of self-love. There are over five hundred products on sale on Etsy under the tag “body neutrality.”
It is also worth exploring the ableism inherent in body neutrality's “function over feature?” tagline. Chiefly honouring the physical service of our body removes disabled and neurodivergent people from the narrative. Due to this, access to neutral body image is distributed based on the hegemony of privilege and social acceptability of marginalised identities.
In this video essay, Olivia Sun discusses the pervasiveness of "body talk" in the modelling and fashion industries. "Modelling is what you call aesthetic labour because the relationship between work and body is so wound-up together that it even frames how you live and act outside of work hours," she explained.
Continuing this thread, she also explores the importance of physical appearance for non-binary or trans models: "For non-binary and trans people, how their body looks is part of gender expression and can affect whether they feel like they're in the right body." Sun rightfully points out the indispensability of healthy body image in these circumstances.
In the same video, Rose Ramdin underlines the main source of dissatisfaction with body neutrality. “It strikes me as a little bit apathetic. But it feels as though it’s like ‘oh we’ve tried
really hard to be happy about it, now corporations are doing that so maybe we just feel whatever about it.’” She describes, “I think in the long run, even after we’ve moved past body image, I’d like people to feel good about their bodies.” The defeatist and demystified perception of our bodies should not be the endpoint. While Anne Poirer never meant body neutrality as an end- all-be-all concept, social media has pushed this movement as such.
Dissecting the intersections between personal responsibility and hegemonies of desirability are essential to moving beyond debates about the effectiveness of neutrality vs positivity. We need to recognise that most times, body image issues are not self-contained. Body neutrality, though sustainable in the long run, provides a fatalistic solution to our lack of agency. We might cover the mirrors, but just outside our bedrooms, there are billboards with ads about diet pills or pictures of models. We need a middle ground between body positivity and neutrality. In the long run, we want people to feel embodied and proud. And, we want those confident individuals to flourish despite social pressures in spheres not directly related to but influenced by the pervasive presence of body politics.
Words: Bhavika Malik
