Griffin Meridith, Bailey K Alysse, Lopez Kimberly J
Department of Health, Aging & Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada.
Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada.
Front Sports Act Living. 2022 Oct 10;4:908580. doi: 10.3389/fspor.2022.908580. eCollection 2022.
Feminist activists and critical sport scholars in the global north have advocated for more inclusive representation of bodies and more accessible physical cultures. Body positivity, a contentious movement and concept, has been taken up in various ways by different groups. Some scholars believe it holds power to liberate individuals from patriarchal, neoliberal, capitalist, and colonial ideologies of what constitutes a "good" body. On the contrary, critics assert this movement has been gentrified by white-centered politics. Intersectionality has a similar genealogy as body positivity, with a rich history in Black feminist thought but now considered by many as coopted and whitened. In this article, we trace the rich and divergent legacies of both movements and explore at the structural level how body positivity is represented within physical cultures on Instagram. We use a social-justice oriented intersectionality framework exploring #BodyPositivity and #BodyPositive across a total of 141 posts using reflexive thematic analysis. We organize our findings into four themes: 1) Disclosure-Privilege of Body-Related Journeys; 2) The Absent-Present; 3) Consuming Positivity; and 4) Disrupting Normative Body Positivity Posts. Overall, we found that only certain bodies (and transformations) were visible within the data: those of (now) lean, white, cis-gendered individuals, many of whom were engaged in bodybuilding, and who were sharing their bodily transformation. We observe a remarkable absence of BIPOC, 2S LGBTQAI+, fat/thick/thicc/curvy, older, gender-nonconforming, and/or disabled representations. We also note the myriad ways that body positivity has been commodified and packaged into a product or service for consumption. Lastly, we outline and celebrate the exceptions to this norm where a minority of posts align more closely with the original intentions of the body positivity movement. We conclude with our position on how to intersectionality research, and call on researchers to honor Black feminist origins and rich social justice history in these movements.
全球北方的女权主义活动家及批判性体育学者主张，身体的呈现应更具包容性，体育文化应更易于接触。身体积极性是一项有争议的运动和概念，不同群体以各种方式接纳了它。一些学者认为，它有力量将个人从构成“好”身体的父权制、新自由主义、资本主义和殖民意识形态中解放出来。相反，批评者断言，这场运动已被以白人为中心的政治所中产阶级化。交叉性与身体积极性有着相似的谱系，在黑人女权主义思想中有丰富的历史，但现在许多人认为它已被挪用并白化。在本文中，我们追溯这两场运动丰富多样的遗产，并在结构层面探讨身体积极性在照片墙（Instagram）的体育文化中是如何呈现的。我们使用一个以社会正义为导向的交叉性框架，通过反思性主题分析，对总共141篇帖子中的#身体积极性（#BodyPositivity）和#身体积极（#BodyPositive）进行探究。我们将研究结果归纳为四个主题：1）身体相关历程的披露——特权；2）缺席——在场；3）消费积极性；4）扰乱规范性身体积极性帖子。总体而言，我们发现数据中仅能看到某些身体（及其转变）：即（现在）身材苗条的白人顺性别个体的身体，他们中的许多人从事健美运动，并分享自己的身体转变。我们注意到明显缺少有色人种、双性恋、跨性别者、同性恋、双性恋、变性者、酷儿、双灵、无性恋者及间性人、肥胖/丰满/厚实/曲线优美的人、年长者、性别不符常规者和/或残障者的身体呈现。我们还注意到身体积极性被商品化并包装成一种可供消费的产品或服务有无数种方式。最后，我们概述并颂扬了这一常态的例外情况，即少数帖子更符合身体积极性运动的初衷。我们以对交叉性研究的立场作为结论，并呼吁研究人员尊重这些运动中黑人女权主义的起源和丰富的社会正义历史。
