Blinded by body positivity: Stop promoting social vibes and start promoting scientific validity
As our culture settled comfortably into its GLP-1 Era, a troubling theme emerged—that the body positivity movement was all just a scam. Politically minded media personalities have proclaimed this boldly and sneeringly, insinuating that the movement was simply another arm of a greedy-for-power, woke ideology. Voices like these have described body positivity as either self-soothing or sour grapes--implying that it existed solely to make people who can’t or won’t improve themselves settle for feeling better about themselves.
Other popular outlets that treated the movement more favorably have framed their updated takes on body positivity as thoughtful reconsideration of the issue. For example, these articles shared with us the confessions of a now-reformed influencer who called for a redefinition of body positivity; or highlighted the sneaky ways unrealistic body ideals are still hiding out in the sheep’s clothing of body inclusivity. One popular outlet even protested the body positivity movement still lives, and it isn’t as dead as it seems: “Body positivity isn’t dead. It just needs to be recognized as more than a hashtag.” Their statement raises a good point.
Although our culture is aware (and perhaps even tired) of the body positivity social movement (i.e., the hashtag), people continue to overlook the decades-old science on positive body image (i.e., valid facts about human nature).
To many people, “positive body image” and “body positivity” may appear to be one and the same. In reality, the terms are very different and ignoring the difference between them is hindering progress on issues that are only growing. Body dissatisfaction is still very real, and although it may be changing (for example, the new forms of dissatisfaction created by major weight loss, or the expansion of appearance-fixing to men) the underlying problem remains the same: excessive appearance focus is still causing psychological distress and is still detrimental to physical health, even in the Age of Ozempic. If we truly want to intervene in the persistent and widespread issue of body dissatisfaction, we must invite into the conversation the wealth of actual science on positive body image. Why? Because science is factual, precise, and cumulative; it is not opinion, trend, or activism.
Science defines positive body image as more than a simple unconditional positive regard for one’s body, which is how popular culture persists in thinking about it. For example, building appreciation for the body involves practicing respect for the body and prioritizing the pursuit of respect over mere liking of the body. This difference matters for effective intervention in physical health and mental health. For example:
Read carefully, and you’ll find that respectful treatment of the body involves health behaviors such as attunement with exercise (Calogero et al., 2019). We know it isn’t exciting news, but one thing we can do to build a positive body image is getting regular, healthy movement. But this is no blanket statement. Compulsive exercising is related to negative body image, so science provides precise guidance that turns out to matter greatly for outcome. Similarly, we know that resistance and interval training exercise is associated with positive body image, but aerobic exercise is associated with negative body image (Braun-Trocchio, 2026).
Plenty of us know that culture pushes an unrealistic thin ideal for women, but many also think that awareness of that fact alone protects us from these ideals' harm. Science tells us that this is simply not true. Warnings of the unrealistic nature of thin ideal imagery do not help mitigate their damage to women’s body image, and in some cases, they actually increase the damage of these ideals (McComb & Mills, 2020)!
Finally, many in our culture know that objectifying the female body is harmful but continue to consume or post media that celebrate objectification of the female body. Worse still, many internalize these cultural expectations and self-objectify, trying to anticipate and accommodate with their appearance what they think will be well-received by others. Science shows that objectifying the body is harmful, whether it comes from others or ourselves, and that this is true for women and men (Gattino et al., 2023).
When it comes to healthy body views, it is time to put up or shut up. If we truly want to improve mental and physical health, we must start centering the conversation around science. There is no more urgent shift in our approach to treating body dissatisfaction than that we will stop promoting social vibes and start promoting scientific validity.
References
Braun-Trocchio, R., Brandner, C. F., Swafford, S. H., Compton, A. T., & Graybeal, A. J. (2026). Evaluating the relationship between body image and exercise in young adults: A multimethod analysis of activity level, frequency, and types of exercise. Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1123/jcsp.2025-0078
Calogero, R. M., Tylka, T. L., Mcgilley, B. H., & Pedrotty-Stump, K. N. (2019). Attunement with exercise (AWE). In T. L. Tylka & N. Piran (Eds.), Handbook of positive body image and embodiment: Constructs, protective factors, and interventions (pp. 95–108). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/med-psych/9780190841874.003.0009
Gattino, S., Czepczor-Bernat, K., Fedi, A., Frasier, K., Horgan, A., & ... (2023). Self-objectification and its biological, psychological and social predictors: A cross-cultural study in four European countries and Iran. European Journal of Psychology, 19(1), 27-47. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.6075
McComb, S. E., & Mills, J. S. (2020). A systematic review on the effects of media disclaimers on young women's body image and mood. Body image, 32, 34–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bodyim.2019.10.010