Essay Sample on Body Positive Movement

Introduction

According to Cwynar-Horta, women with 'non-normative bodies' have been using the social media platform in particular Instagram to post their selfies as a way to challenge the dominant ideals of feminine beauty that have existed in the western society, and portrayed mainly in the fashion industry (Cwynar-Horta 37). Different women have taken advantage of this trend, to post 'selfies' with stories detailing their experiences with eating disorders, body or fat-shaming, post-pregnancy bodies, and to challenge the 'bikini body' myths. However, it is important to have an understanding of what the term- body positivity means, or entails (Cwynar-Horta 37).

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Body positivity is defined as any message, visual or written that challenges dominant ways of viewing the physical body in accordance with beauty ideals and encourages the reclaiming of embodiment and control over one's self-image (Cwynar-Horta 38). Cwynar-Horta goes on to state that body positivity includes any individual or movement act that seeks to discredit, or denounce the social influences and construction of body norms, and in its place promote simple acts such as self-love, and individuals accepting their bodies regardless of its shape, size, and appearance.

The Body Positive Movement was created by Tess Holiday in 2012, when she founded the @effyourbeautystandards Instagram account. It was a response to the messages that were being promoted at that time in the traditional and social media pointing out that women who were above size 10 were not beautiful (Cwynar-Horta 39). The purpose of this campaign by Holiday was to encourage women to not only love their bodies, but to be bold enough to post their pictures on social media indicating how 'plus-size' women can also be fashionable and sexy. It is important to point out that, Tess Holiday is considered to be one of the most, if not the most influential body positive advocate with over 1.3 million followers on Instagram alone (Cwynar-Horta 39). Her social media influence led her to be signed by Milk Management, one of the leading model agencies in Europe as its first model who is over size 20 (Cwynar-Horta 39). It also led her to be featured on the cover of the People Magazine in 2015 (Cwynar-Horta 39).

The Body Positive Movement has for years expanded in the different social media platforms, and in particular, Instagram. The reason for this is the use of multiple hashtags that are posted with captions highlighting the multiple issues that the images, or photos sent on this platform are trying to address (Cwynar-Horta 39). For instance, other than showing images of plus size women accompanied by hashtags such as #fashionable and #sexy, women are posting their before and after pictures when they had eating disorder issues, and encouraging them to eat well through hashtags such as: #riotsnotdiets, and #losehatenotweight (Cwynar-Horta 39).

Posting of pictures and sharing stories is not only helping people to appreciate their bodies whether they are plus-size or have any deformity, or scar that could have made them be classified as 'not beautiful,' it is helping members of the public to educate each other. Through the stories, young girls or other people subjecting themselves to cruel activities such as self-starvation, and other forms of eating disorders are learning first-hand the effects of these practices. They are also seeing that it is not worth it subjecting themselves to certain standards that have been set to rate their beauty, as regardless of their size, body scars, or birth defects, they are still beautiful, and the most important thing is for them to appreciate themselves for who they really are.

Changes in the Fashion Industry in Relation to Body Positivity and Impact on the Society

Karen Grigsby Bates in her article, On Fashion Runways, Inclusion Is About More Than Color, published on March, 21st, 2017, she highlights the historical progress that the fashion industry has made on body positivity. While the article mainly focuses on the inclusion of African Americans on the run-way events in the United States, it delves a little on this industry use of older models, trans-genders, and plus-sized models. Bates points out that in the 1950s-60s, there was hardly any model who was not white that graced the fashion runways. However, the situation changed in 1973 at The Battle of Versailles, whereby African-American models were involved (Bates). Their success led them (African-American models) to be constantly featured in the fashion runways during the mid-1970s to 1980s when a majority of designers defaulted back to using models that satisfied a distinct look, 'size-zero, Caucasian' models (Bates).

Things took a turn for the better when in 2013, former model and modeling agency owner, Bethann Hardison, along with supermodels Iman and Naomi Campbell established the Diversity Coalition organization. The purpose of this organization was to advocate for the inclusion of women of color on the fashion runways (Bates). They even managed to write a manifesto that was addressed to the international fashion industry insisting that women of color should actively participate in the runways. In 2017, James Scully, a model, casting director, and an activity used his Instagram page to inform the public about the discrimination, and cruelty that was being meted out by Balenciaga and Lavin against models of color (Bates). In the post, he claims that the House of Lanvin had requested that there should be no inclusion of women of color in its latest show. The post received 9,890 likes and 1,329 comments. Lanvin responded by denying these allegations and even included 6 women of color in its lineup.

Bates points out that in 2017, The Fashion Spot, released the Runway Diversity Report. The data from the report noted that it had surveyed 241 shows, and found out that 28% of the models in those shows were people of color (Bates). The report noted that fashion shows conducted in New York, London, Milan, and Paris had the highest racial diversity with New York having 31.5% models who were people of color (Bates). Jennifer Davidson, who is the editor in chief of the Fashion Spot was quoted by the New York Times stating; "I personally don't think 31.5% is enough, but it's definitely an improvement (Bates)." It is an illustration of the fashion industry embracing the aspect of body positivity, in this case along racial lines.

Online forums such as The Fashion Spot, are highlighting the changes that are taking place in the fashion industry such as designers who are using old models, accepting models that are transgender, and most importantly, the inclusion of plus-sized models in the runways (Bates). It is important to point out that of the diverse groups that have been mentioned, the plus-size women are receiving a higher representation. Organizations such as Dolce &Gabbana have for the past few seasons used Italian grandmothers to showcase their new design clothes. On the other hand, the J Crew replaced models with entire families to showcase their retailer's wares (Bates).

Amanda Czerniawski notes that there has a change in the fashion industry. She notes that in 2015, plus-size models made headlines in the fashion industry, and it signified a shift towards size diversity in this sector. Plus-size models enjoyed great success as Robyn Lawley became the first plus-size model to be featured in the swimsuit issue of the Sports Illustrated (Czerniawski 70). Ashley Graham was also included in an advertisement in the same issue, and she also gave a talk on TEDx on body acceptance. In the same year, Graham debuted her lingerie collection at the New York Fashion Week. Another important achievement was that in the same year (2015) Project Runway crowned a plus-size designer, Ashley Nell Tipton, as its season 14 winner. It is important to point out that plus-size models such as Lawley and Graham have taken advantage of their success to start a movement encouraging the fashion industry to eliminate the categorical system that for years has segregated plus-size models and consumers on the basis of their size, and become more diverse (Czerniawski 70).

The movements and campaigns that have been ignited by plus-size models have resulted in significant institutional changes as modeling agencies are including larger models ( in terms of size) in their fashion projects. However, Czerniawski notes that even in plus-size modeling inclusion, there are elements of the 'thin privilege (Czerniawski 70).' There is still a commercial preference for plus-size models who are between the ranges of 8 to 16, meaning that models who are larger than the stated range are still being discriminated against. The reason for this is that modeling work is divided into different categories such as: runway, commercial print, fit, and showroom (Czerniawski 71). In particular, the commercial print mainly selects models who portray a specific image and portrayed sense of beauty, and therefore the selection of plus-size models from an 8 to 16 (Czerniawski 71).

Czerniawski highlights a plus-size woman defying the commercial plus-size definition that has been described in the previous paragraph. Unlike most of the commercial plus-size models who have a minimum height of 5'8, and are size 10 to 16 (which denotes a relatively conservative appearance) Tess Holiday is a plus-size model that can be described as 'short, large, and tattooed (Czerniawski 71).' The reason for this is that she is 5'5, size 22, and her arms are covered with tattoos. Despite her size, she has managed to become the face of a number of campaigns such as the model for the Monif C swimwear campaign, Torrid's Photoshop-free spring 2015 campaign, and #SimplyBekini summer body confidence campaign for the UK brand Simply Be. She has also become a highly influential figure in the fashion industry, particularly in the social media Platform-Instagram (Czerniawski 71). New retailers in the fashion are using plus-size models size 16-24, as they do not want to alienate some of their customers who fall in this size range. They also feel that it is providing them with a competitive edge against national retailers that are using 10-16 plus-size models (Czerniawski 72). These companies point out by using all types of models they will be able to identify with a wider range of consumers than for establishments that use specific sizes of models.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and PVH Corp., point out that although the United States of America is a diverse country in terms of being comprised of people from different ethnic groups, cultures and lifestyles, the fashion industry, which captures all facets of life has failed to reflect the nation's diversity in terms of its workforce structures (CFDA and PVH 1). The CFDA and PVH Corp. through its insider/outsider program strives to address the existing issues in relation to inclusion and diversity to include people of different abilities, age, gender, race or ethnicity and sexual orientation (CFDA and PVH 1). On the issue of inclusion, it was noted that fashion organizations that are more inclusive are able to generate more success and profits as it leads to the creation of better careers and higher earnings.

In terms of diversity, studies by McKinsey & Company from 2015 to 2018 found out that highly diverse organizations in terms of race and ethnicity are high-performing in comparison to the less successful establishments. The reason for this is that diverse organizations are more innovative because of international and inter-cultural exposure, which had a positive impact on the fashion business. For instance, the uniqueness of the staff cultural experience may lead to positive effects on their creativity processes. According to the 2017 CFDA study on 160 fashion industries, it indicat...