Love your body and embrace your imperfections: A thematic analysis of the portrayal of body positivity in online articles from Dutch women’s magazines

The body positivity movement is a feminist movement, originating from the Fat Acceptance movement and other movements that fought for the rights of marginalized bodies. Since the western beauty ideals are mainly skinny and white, the body positivity movement challenges these narrow beauty ideals and fights for the visibility and representation of body types different from those ideals. To get equality and acceptance, the movement calls for the representation and normalization of all kinds of (marginalized) bodies, such as bodies of color, fat bodies and bodies with disabilities. Body positivity also promotes self-love and encourages people to embrace their bodies regardless of their appearances. However, body positivity is criticized for not being radical and inclusive and therefore not helpful enough for the marginalized bodies that need visibility and representation the most. Furthermore, the movement is rather divided as there is no consensus about who should be included, nor is there clarity about the objectives of the movement and whether individual or systemic problems should be tackled. Since body positivity is quite an ambiguous concept with different aspects, which have been researched mainly on social media and blogs, this research has focused on how Dutch women’s magazines portray body positivity in online articles. This was done by conducting a thematic analysis, paying attention to who is represented and which body positivity factions and aspects are highlighted in these articles. The analysis resulted in four identified themes. The first theme relates to focusing on yourself, which is about individualism, agency and having choice over your body. The second theme is about body positivity being for everybody and everybody deserving respect and acceptance, regardless of appearances. The third theme is showing a diversity of bodies with imperfections, body types and skin colors. The final theme is about self-love and body acceptance, with a focus on improving your mental health and loving your body. The results show a focus of the magazines on neoliberal and postfeminist ideas of individualism, choice and empowerment, focusing mainly on tackling personal problems. The body positivity articles were only diverse and inclusive to a certain extent, lacking a radical and political edge, since little attention was given to social, political and cultural inequalities, while marginalized bodies were represented less than non-marginalized bodies. As magazines have an influential role, magazines could learn from these findings and inform audiences better about the importance of body positivity and for whom it is specifically meant, by representing more bodies deviating from beauty ideals and focusing more on systemic problems instead of individual ones.