So… What really is the difference?
Now I’ll be honest, like most people, I never actually realised there was a concrete difference. I thought they were the same movement and the labels just varied.
Steven Mckell, is an influencer on TikTok with 3.8m followers and is a huge advocate for body confidence, he was able to shed light on what the difference really is.
“Body positivity is a movement created by fat, black and Jewish people as well as females, to basically shine a specific spotlight on these types of bodies that are underrepresented in an already underrepresented community.
“Body positivity as a movement is about accepting all bodies and sizes. Over time the movement has moved to shine a light on marginalised bodies like black, trans, non-binary and disabled people.
“Body confidence is more of a way of thinking and living! It’s the notion that people as a whole can be confident in who they are! It’s more directed at the body image community.
“Both movements overlap because self-love, worth and acceptance are key factors in both just one’s more activism and marginalised than the other.”
How to be more confident?
The golden question that I feel everyone at some point in their life has asked. I know I always wonder; how do people feel confident enough to post themselves wearing virtually no clothes on the internet?
So, that’s the question I asked Kasstheblast, who is an adult content model and does exactly that. Kass is in the top 2% of most subscribed to OnlyF*ns pages and also is a huge advocate for women being able to feel confident in their bodies.
“I’ve always been a big girl first of all. I didn’t post a lot of my Only Fans stuff on my Instagram right away because I still had a lot of people from high school and family members.
“I said to myself, this is what I do, and I am truly proud of my body, I should be able to show it.
“You know that negative voice in your head? The one that’s always constantly putting you down and you become your own worst bully? Work on that. Because it makes a big ass difference.
“If you’re constantly telling yourself that you suck or you look disgusting, you’re essentially picking yourself apart. I know most of us have done it and it’s a bad habit but if you can work on that it’ll change the way you look at yourself.
“What I started doing to change that habit, is every time I caught myself in a reflection, I would force myself to give three compliments that I actually believed. You do this until it becomes a habit of its own, and the next thing you know, you’re doing it without trying. You become positive and stop putting yourself down.”
Dealing with the hate
One thing that can stop people from feeling truly confident is the judgement of the internet. In today’s society, the pressures of social media is more prominent than ever. At Single-ish we wanted to see if the use of social media was a factor in why people feel less confident. Of our respondents, Over 50% of people spent five or more hours on social media every single day.
Putting yourself out there can lead to negative comments from complete strangers and this is generally seen as the main deterrent from people feeling they can be themselves online. Kass explained her experience in dealing with hate not just online, but through school too.
“When people try and put you down, they’re just wasting their time. It doesn’t affect me personally anymore, but If I see somebody else that can’t handle it, then I will get a little bit more serious.
“They need to remember, they’re not funny and really, they need to go and get help. There must be something wrong in their lives to put others down.
“High school was tough for me because I got picked on. At that age not many people are confident, so when it happened, my dad said ‘Let’s get you some boxing lessons’.
“I don’t condone violence, but boxing made me feel strong. It made me feel like ‘Ain’t nobody going to mess with me’. That was the kickstart of loving myself and being okay with who I am.
“Now I make it my mission, especially for women and women of size, I always tell people, living with this kind of confidence gives you a special kind of freedom that most people won’t ever get to experience.”
Representation
Representation is the absolute key factor in trying to get the body positivity movement growing. From our survey, we found that only 14% of people felt their body type or background was well represented in today’s media. Recently, Disney announced that The Little Mermaid would be played by a woman of colour, which has been a key driver in making people feel more represented.
“It warms my heart because it’s something we’ve been needing,” Kass said.
“People don’t realise what power there is in representation.
“So many people were so angry [about Disney casting a woman of colour], and I was like how you can be angry at Disney for wanting to promote representation and positivity for a group of people who don’t get it as often?
“Seeing the videos of little girls reacting to the trailer, for them to say, that looks like me, that can be life changing. I think the media needs to work on showing different kinds of bodies and shapes but different people in general.
“Whether you’re disabled, or you’re big, short, small you’re tall, whatever you’re colour, age, nationality, everybody deserves the same amount of respect. We all take up the same amount of room in this world so we’re all equal. It comes down to equality.
“I also think body positivity depends on what kind of your journey you’re in. People losing weight, of course, I’m not against people changing their bodies, but if they’re doing it for the right reason.
“I believe self-confidence starts in your head. It’s how you view yourself because I’ve met so many girls that believed all they had to do was to lose weight for their life to be fixed. Then they lose the weight and nothing changes. It’s because it’s all mental.”
The Future of the Movement
To come full circle on this piece, right at the start of my research, I had no idea of the difference between the two terms: body positivity and body confidence. The future of this movement must be education. It’s the only way people will learn and then allow others to thrive. From our survey, 89% of people said they think body image needs to be put into the teaching curriculum to be able to educate people about how this can impact their lives.
“Being different is good and it should never be a barrier for someone to do something they want to do.
“No one has to look like the other person, adversity is good,” Kass told us.
“I remember being a kid and being concerned about fitting in and following the norm, that mentality sticks into us as adults. Don’t be a follower your entire life, you want to stand out. I feel people would grow up being more confident because yes you might be different, BUT THAT IS OKAY.”